Privacy Policy for Open Cookbook

Last updated: 2026-02-22

No Data Collection by Us

Open Cookbook does not collect, store, transmit, or share any personal information or usage data with us, the app developers. We respect your privacy and have designed our app to operate entirely on your device.

What This Means:

• No analytics or tracking
• No advertising networks
• No crash reporting that sends data to us
• No user accounts or authentication
• No data stored on external servers controlled by us
• All processing happens locally on your device, except for the optional Import features (see below)

Your Recipe Data

Open Cookbook allows you to create and store recipes within the app. This recipe data is yours and stays with you. We, the developers and maintainers of Open Cookbook, have no access to it.

You can choose where your recipe data is stored:

• On your device: Your recipes are stored locally and remain entirely on your device.
• On iCloud Drive: If you choose to store your recipes on iCloud Drive, your recipes are stored in your personal Apple account for backup and syncing across your devices. This data is subject to Apple's privacy policy, and we have no access to it.

Import from Website (Optional)

Open Cookbook includes an optional feature that lets you import recipes from websites using the Anthropic Claude API. This feature is entirely opt-in and requires you to provide your own Anthropic API key.

When you use this feature:

• The URL you enter is sent to Anthropic's API servers, where Claude visits the web page and extracts the recipe content.
• Your API key is sent to Anthropic to authenticate the request.
• No other personal data is sent — only the URL and your API key.

Import from Photo (Optional)

Open Cookbook includes an optional feature that lets you import recipes from photos (such as cookbook pages, handwritten recipes, or screenshots) using the Anthropic Claude API. This feature is entirely opt-in and requires you to provide your own Anthropic API key.

When you use this feature:

• The photo you select or capture is sent to Anthropic's API servers, where Claude analyzes the image and extracts the recipe content.
• Your API key is sent to Anthropic to authenticate the request.
• No other personal data is sent — only the image and your API key.
• The photo is not stored by Open Cookbook after the import is complete.

Anthropic API Key and Data Processing

The Import from Website and Import from Photo features both use the Anthropic Claude API. The following applies to both features:

How your API key is stored:

• Your API key is stored locally in the iOS Keychain, Apple's secure on-device credential storage. It is never stored in plain text or transmitted to us.
• We have no access to your API key.

Third-party data processing:

• Recipe extraction is performed by Anthropic's Claude API. When you use these features, the data you provide (URLs or photos) and the content Claude processes are subject to Anthropic's privacy policy and usage policy.
• We do not receive, log, or have access to any data exchanged between your device and Anthropic's servers.

If you do not use these features, no data is ever sent to Anthropic or any other third-party AI service.

Images in Recipes

You may choose to include images in your recipes by providing URLs to external image sources. When the app renders these images, it retrieves them directly from those external servers. Those servers may see standard web request information (such as your IP address), but this is not collected or controlled by us.

Children's Privacy

Since we do not collect any data from users, our app is safe for users of all ages, including children under 13.

Changes to This Policy

If we ever change our data practices, we will update this privacy policy and notify users through an app update.

Contact

If you have questions about this privacy policy, please contact us at: opencookbook@davidbettis.com