Privacy
Last updated 20 August 2026
SousChef is a family meal-planning app built by Molehill, based in Wellington, New Zealand. This policy explains what data we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, and the choices you have — including how to delete your account and all of your data.
We keep this simple: we collect only what we need to run the app for you and your family, we do not sell your data, and we do not use it for advertising.
When you create an account we collect your name and email address. If you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive a unique identifier from them and your email address instead of a password. If you sign up with email, we store a securely hashed password — never the plain text. You may optionally add a profile avatar.
To personalise the app we store your dietary preferences, measurement system (metric/imperial), locale, region, timezone, and your email notification preferences.
SousChef stores the content you and your family add to the app, including:
Content created within a family is shared with the other members of that family so everyone sees the same recipes, meal plan, and shopping list in real time.
When you use the in-app assistant or AI features (such as importing a recipe, scanning a cookbook page, or asking a question), the relevant content — for example your message, recipe text, or photo — is sent to our AI provider, Anthropic, to generate a response. We log basic usage of these features (such as token counts and timestamps) to operate and improve the service. Anthropic does not use your data to train its models on our behalf.
Hands-free Cook Mode listens for voice commands using your device's built-in, on-device speech recognition. The audio is transcribed on your phone and is not sent to us or to anyone else, and we don't record or store it. You'll be asked for microphone and speech-recognition permission the first time, and you can turn it off at any time in your device settings.
Sous Pass subscriptions bought inside the apps are processed by Apple or Google, and subscriptions bought on our website are processed by Stripe. We never see or store your card details. What we do store is the subscription's status — which store it came from, the product, whether it's active, and when it renews or expires — so we know your family has access. The terms that apply to a subscription are in our Terms of Use.
If you enable notifications, we store a push notification token for your device so we can deliver alerts. On Android these are delivered through Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging, and on iOS through Apple's Push Notification service. We also collect standard technical information needed to run a service, such as your IP address and basic request logs, for security and reliability.
We measure how our website is used with Umami, an open-source analytics tool we run ourselves on our own server. No visitor data is sent to Google Analytics or any other third-party analytics service, and none of it leaves the infrastructure we control.
For pages on our website we record the page visited, the referring site, and a coarse picture of your device — browser, operating system, device type, screen size, language, and country. Your IP address is used to work out the country and is not stored alongside the visit. There are no advertising cookies and no cross-site tracking: visits are not linked together across other websites, and we cannot use this data to identify you.
On the signed-in part of the website we deliberately do not run the analytics script in your browser. Instead the server records the type of page you opened — for example “a recipe page” rather than which recipe — along with a small number of events such as signing in or starting a subscription. Recipe titles, meal plans, names and email addresses are never included.
The SousChef iOS and Android apps do not include this analytics tracking.
We do not sell your personal data and we do not share it for advertising. We share data only with service providers that help us operate SousChef, and only as needed:
Website analytics are the exception to this list: they are handled entirely by software we run on our own server, so no third party is involved at all.
We may also disclose information if required by law.
We keep your data for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account, we delete your personal data as described below.
You can delete your SousChef account at any time, directly in the app:
Deleting your account permanently removes your profile, your authentication tokens, and your personal data from our systems. This action is immediate and cannot be undone. Content you created in a shared family may remain available to that family; contact us if you need it removed.
Deleting your account does not cancel a Sous Pass subscription bought through the App Store or Google Play — cancel that in your Apple Account settings or your Google Play subscription settings.
If you can't access the app, you can request deletion by emailing souschef@div.nz from the address associated with your account, and we will delete your account and personal data.
SousChef is intended for adults managing a household and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.
We protect your data using industry-standard measures, including encryption in transit, hashed passwords, and access controls. No system is perfectly secure, but we work hard to keep your information safe.
You can access, correct, or delete your data at any time through the app, or by contacting us. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights over your personal information under applicable privacy law.
We may update this policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we'll update the date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, notify you in the app.
If you have any questions about this policy or your data, email us at souschef@div.nz or use our contact page. Our Terms of Use cover the rest of your relationship with SousChef.