🔒 Privacy Policy

1. Overview

Welcome to Begum Gees ("we," "our," or "us"), developed by ITcians. We are committed to protecting your personal information and your right to privacy.

This Privacy Policy applies to:

• The Begum Gees mobile app (iOS and Android)
• Our website at begum-gees.web.app and related domains

2. What Data We Collect

2.1 Data You Provide to the App

The following data is entered by you during app setup and stored locally on your device only:

• Your name / family name
• Family size (number of members)
• Family member names (e.g., Sahib's name, children's names)
• Food preferences and favorite ingredients
• Disliked ingredients (Nakhray Filter)
• Cooking mood preferences (Quick, Dawat, Light)
• Meal type preferences (Chatpata, Desi, Light, Fusion)

This data never leaves your device unless you explicitly share it (e.g., via WhatsApp's Sahib Approval feature).

2.2 Data We Collect for Waitlist

If you sign up for our waitlist on our website, we collect:

• Your email address
• Timestamp of signup
• Source (landing page)

This data is stored in our secure Firebase Firestore database.

2.3 Data Sent to AI Service

When you request recipe suggestions, the following is sent to Google Gemini AI:

• The ingredients you entered for that session
• Your selected cooking mood and meal type
• General family preferences (taste profile)
• Disliked ingredient categories

We do not send your name, family member names, phone number, or any personally identifying information to the AI service.

2.4 Authentication Data

If you sign in with phone number, Google, or Apple, we receive:

• A unique user ID (for account management only)
• Phone number (for phone OTP auth) or email (for Google/Apple auth)

This is handled securely through Firebase Authentication.

2.5 Automatically Collected Data

Like most apps, we may automatically collect limited technical data including:

• Device type and operating system version (for crash reporting)
• App version
• General usage statistics (feature usage counts — no personal data)

3. How We Use Your Data

We use the data we collect to:

• ✅ Generate personalized AI recipe suggestions
• ✅ Remember your family preferences across app sessions
• ✅ Send you app launch notifications (waitlist emails only)
• ✅ Improve app features and fix bugs
• ✅ Respond to your support requests

We never use your data to:

• ❌ Sell to third parties or advertisers
• ❌ Show you targeted advertisements
• ❌ Share with other companies without your explicit consent
• ❌ Build profiles for advertising purposes

4. Third-Party Services

Begum Gees uses the following trusted third-party services:

4.1 Google Gemini AI (Google LLC)

Powers our recipe generation feature. Anonymized cooking preferences are sent to generate recipe suggestions. Google's AI usage policy applies to this data processing. See Google Privacy Policy.

4.2 Firebase (Google LLC)

We use Firebase for:

• Authentication — Secure phone/Google/Apple login
• Firestore — Storing waitlist emails
• Hosting — Serving our website
• Crashlytics — Crash reporting (no personal data)

See Firebase Privacy Policy.

4.3 WhatsApp (Meta Platforms)

The "Sahib's Approval" feature opens WhatsApp to share recipe text. We do not access or store your WhatsApp messages. This is a standard URL launch handled entirely by WhatsApp. See WhatsApp Privacy Policy.

5. Data Storage & Security

5.1 On-Device Storage

All family preferences, taste profiles, and cooking history are stored locally on your device using SharedPreferences (secure local storage). This data cannot be accessed by us or any third party.

5.2 Cloud Storage

Only waitlist emails and authentication data are stored in Firebase's secure cloud infrastructure, hosted on Google Cloud servers. All data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest.

5.3 Data Retention

• App data: Stored on your device until you delete the app or clear app data
• Waitlist emails: Retained until you request deletion or 24 months after app launch
• Auth data: Retained while your account is active; deleted within 30 days of account deletion

5.4 Security Measures

• All API communications use HTTPS/TLS encryption
• Firebase Security Rules restrict access to your personal data
• No API keys are stored on client devices in plaintext
• Regular security reviews and updates

6. Your Rights

You have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• 📋 Access: Request a copy of your personal data we hold
• ✏️ Correction: Request correction of inaccurate data
• 🗑️ Deletion: Request deletion of your account and associated data
• 📤 Portability: Request your data in a portable format
• 🚫 Opt-out: Unsubscribe from our emails at any time
• 🙅 Withdraw consent: Stop using the AI features without closing your account

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at privacy@begumgees.app. We will respond within 30 days.

If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA), UAE, or Pakistan, you may have additional rights under local data protection laws (PDPO Pakistan, GDPR, etc.).

7. Children's Privacy

Begum Gees is designed for adults (18+). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 years of age.

If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us immediately at privacy@begumgees.app and we will delete such information promptly.

Note: Children's food preferences may be entered by parents as part of the Family Profile feature — this data is stored locally on the parent's device only.

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do:

• We will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page
• For significant changes, we will notify waitlist subscribers via email
• Continued use of the app after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy

We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Previous versions are available on request.