Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

Palate Palace (“we,” “us,” or “our”) operates an AI-powered culinary platform where people discover, create, and organize recipes; plan meals; manage a pantry; connect with a cooking community; and explore general pet-nutrition information. This policy applies to our website and related services (the “Service”).

2. Information We Collect

Information you provide

• Account information: such as your name, email address, and password when you register.
• Profile and preferences: dietary preferences, allergen profiles, favorite cuisines, and cooking settings you choose.
• Content you create: recipes, notes, ratings, reviews, community posts and comments, meal plans, pantry items, grocery lists, and pet profiles.
• Communications: messages you send through our contact form or to our support addresses.

Information collected automatically

• Usage data: pages viewed, recipes opened, features used, and general interaction data.
• Device and log data: browser type, device information, operating system, and timestamps.
• First-party analytics (consent-gated): when you allow the “Analytics” cookie category, we record privacy-respecting page-view events using our own systems — no third-party analytics scripts. Each event stores the page path (without any query string), the page title, coarse device/browser/operating-system type, a traffic-source category and the referring website’s hostname (never the full link), and a country derived only from our hosting provider’s network signal. We do not store your IP address (raw or hashed), name, email, or the contents of anything you type. See Section 6 and our Cookie Policy.
• Cookies and similar technologies: used to keep you signed in, remember preferences, and — with your consent — measure usage. See Section 6 and our Cookie Policy.

Information from AI-assisted features

When you use AI-assisted features (for example, generating a recipe or meal plan, importing/parsing a recipe, or chatting with our cooking assistant), the prompts and related inputs you submit are processed to produce a response. Please avoid including sensitive personal information in these inputs. See our AI Transparency statement for details on how AI is used.

3. How We Use Information

• Provide, maintain, and improve the Service and its features.
• Personalize recipe recommendations, meal planning, and content based on your preferences.
• Operate community features and enforce our community standards.
• Respond to your inquiries and provide support.
• Protect the Service against fraud, abuse, spam, and security threats.
• Comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms of Use.

4. How We Share Information

We do not sell your personal information. We share information only as follows:

• Public content: recipes, community posts, ratings, and reviews you choose to make public are visible to others.
• Service providers: vendors who help us operate the platform (such as hosting, infrastructure, AI processing, email delivery, and analytics), under appropriate confidentiality obligations.
• Legal and safety: when required by law or to protect the rights, safety, and security of our users and the Service.
• Business transfers: in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, subject to this policy.

5. Advertising

We may display advertising on the Service, including advertising served by third-party vendors such as Google. These vendors may use cookies and similar technologies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites.

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to our Service or other websites.
• Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to our Service and/or other sites on the Internet.
• You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings. You can also opt out of some third-party vendors’ use of cookies for personalized advertising through the Digital Advertising Alliance opt-out tool at aboutads.info/choices.

6. Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies to keep you signed in, remember your theme and preferences, measure usage, and (where applicable) support advertising. Non-essential cookies — including our first-party analytics cookies — are only set after you grant the relevant consent category, and you can change or withdraw your choices at any time through the “Privacy choices” link in the footer.

Our first-party analytics uses two consent-gated cookies to measure visits without identifying you: pp_aid, a random anonymous device identifier, and pp_sid, a short-lived session identifier. Both are non-identifying and are not shared with third parties. For a full, itemised list of the cookies we use — what each one does and how long it lasts — see our Cookie Policy. You can also control cookies through your browser settings; disabling some cookies may affect how the Service functions.

7. Your Choices and Rights

• Access, update, or correct your account information from your profile settings.
• Delete content you have created, or request deletion of your account.
• Adjust email and notification preferences.
• Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or port your data, and to object to or restrict certain processing. To exercise these rights, contact us at [email protected].

8. Data Retention

We retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the Service, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. When information is no longer needed, we take reasonable steps to delete or anonymize it.

First-party analytics events are retained for a limited period — currently up to 14 months — after which raw events are automatically and permanently deleted. We may keep aggregated, non-identifying summaries (such as overall daily traffic trends) for longer to understand how the Service grows over time. If you delete your account, we remove the link between you and any analytics events by clearing the associated user identifier, so those events remain only as anonymous, aggregate statistics.

9. Security

We use administrative, technical, and organizational measures designed to protect your information. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

10. Children’s Privacy

The Service is not directed to children under 13 (or the minimum age required in your jurisdiction), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has provided us information, please contact us and we will take appropriate steps.

11. International Users

We may process and store information in countries other than where you live. Where we transfer information, we take steps to ensure it receives appropriate protection.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the “Last updated” date above and, where appropriate, provide additional notice.

13. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or your information, contact us at [email protected] or through our Contact page. For general inquiries, you can also reach us at [email protected].