Cook Thru Privacy Policy

Effective September 14, 2026

The short version: Cook Thru doesn't collect your data. There's no account, no ads, no analytics, and no tracking.

This policy covers the Cook Thru app on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV, including its Share and Safari extensions and widgets.

Your recipes and data

Your recipes, collections, meal plans, shopping lists, timers, and cooking history are stored on your device. If iCloud is turned on, they sync between your devices through your private iCloud database. That data belongs to your Apple Account, and I can't see or access it. Apple's handling of iCloud data is covered by Apple's Privacy Policy.

Scanning recipes

When you scan a recipe, Cook Thru reads the text on your device using Apple's Vision framework. On devices with Apple Intelligence, the recipe is organized by Apple's on-device model. Cook Thru doesn't send your scans anywhere. If you keep a scanned photo as the recipe's picture, it's saved with that recipe like any other recipe data.

Importing from websites and files

When you import a recipe from a web page, Cook Thru downloads that page and its images directly from the website, the same way a browser does. That website receives a normal web request, which includes your IP address. Recipe files you import, such as Paprika, Mela, or Cook Thru files, are read on your device.

Siri and Shortcuts

Siri requests are handled by Apple under Apple's privacy policy. Cook Thru answers them using recipe data already on your device.

Emails you send me

Settings has Report an Issue and Report a Scan Problem. Both open an email draft that you can review, edit, or discard. Nothing is sent unless you send it yourself.

• Report an Issue includes the app version, your operating system version, and your device model.
• Report a Scan Problem adds the text read from your most recent scan, so I can reproduce the problem.

I use these emails only to answer you and fix problems. I don't share them with anyone.

Crash reports

Cook Thru has no crash-reporting or analytics tools built in. If you've chosen to share analytics with app developers in your device's settings, Apple may give me anonymous crash reports and usage statistics under Apple's policies.

Children

Cook Thru doesn't collect personal information from anyone, including children.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, I'll post the update here and change the effective date above.

• September 14, 2026: First version.

Contact

Questions? Email philstech@icloud.com.