1. Who we are

Ecobite is provided by Quanteco VZW, a Belgian nonprofit ("Ecobite", "we"), Geldenaaksebaan 227 / 3.01, 3001 Leuven, Belgium, VAT number BE 0792.389.436, RPR Leuven. We decide how your personal data is used and are responsible for it under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

This policy covers the Ecobite app and this website. Questions about it, or about your data: contact@ecobite.io.

2. What we collect

When you create an account

Your name and email address. You need both to have an account.
Your password, which we only store in scrambled (hashed) form, so we can't read it. If you sign in with Google instead, Google gives us your name and email address.

What you add in the app

Your profile, if you fill it in: a photo and a short bio.
Your food preferences, if you set them: your diet, allergens you want to avoid, your interests and your daily climate goal (see section 4).
Your About you details, if you fill them in: your year of birth, sex, height, weight and activity level, your goal, your own energy and protein targets if you set them, the supplements you take, whether you're pregnant or breastfeeding, and whether you have a health condition or take medication that affects what you eat (see section 4).
The meals you track, the recipes, photos and comments you add, the recipes you favourite and the people you follow.
Your choices in Privacy settings and Email preferences.

When you connect an AI assistant, such as Claude or ChatGPT

Which assistant you connected, when, and when it last used your account, so that it keeps working until you disconnect it. We don't receive your conversations with it: only the requests it makes to Ecobite for you, such as looking up a recipe or adding a meal to Track.
A photo you give the assistant as a link, for your profile or a recipe: we fetch it from that link once and keep it as we keep photos you upload in the app.

When you use Dr Brocc, the AI assistant in the app

What each of your questions cost us in a month, and when you agreed to use Dr Brocc and said you are 18 or over. We don't keep your conversations with Dr Brocc, unless you report an answer: then we receive that answer.

How the app is used

The pages you open in the app, including what you search for, your screen size, your approximate city and, if you're logged in, which account it was. We work the city out from your internet address (IP address) and don't keep the address itself. Nothing is kept in your browser for this.
Your location, only if you tap the button to find yourself on the restaurant map. It is used on your device to centre the map: we don't receive it or keep it.

On this website

We count how many times each page is visited, and how many visits come from each country and city and from phones, tablets or computers. We work the city out from your internet address (IP address) and the kind of device from your browser's name, and keep neither. These are separate totals: no cookies, and nothing that identifies you or your device.
What you send us through the forms: your name, email address and message.

When you write to us or report something

Your email address and what you tell us. A bug report sent from the app also includes your browser type and screen size.

We don't collect payment details.

3. Why we use it

The law asks us to have a reason for each use of your data. These are ours:

To run Ecobite for you: your account, your recipes, tracking, favourites and following, and emails about your own account, such as a password reset. It includes choosing the recipes on your Home page from your food preferences and the recipes you've added, favourited and tracked. We need this to provide the service you signed up for (our agreement with you).
To work out your daily targets and suggest recipes from your About you details: only if you enter them, as the page tells you above its fields that entering them means you agree (your explicit consent, which the law requires for health information). You can take it back at any time by removing them (section 4).
To suggest recipes from the nutrition in what you track: only if you tick that you agree in Food preferences (your explicit consent, as it can say something about your health). You can take it back at any time (section 4).
To hide recipes with the allergens you avoid: only if you tick that you agree when you save them (your explicit consent, as they can say something about your health). You can take it back at any time (section 4).
To let an AI assistant you connect use Ecobite for you: if you connect one, such as Claude or ChatGPT, it can look things up and make changes in your account when you ask it to, as you can in the app. This is part of the service you asked for (our agreement with you).
To answer you with Dr Brocc: only if you tick that you agree the first time you use it (your explicit consent, as what you eat, your targets and what you're short of can say something about your health). You can stop at any time by no longer using it, or hide it in Privacy settings.
To see how the app is used and improve it: the usage records in section 2. We do this because we have a legitimate interest in knowing what works and what doesn't. You can object (section 10).
To keep Ecobite safe and fair: handling reports, removing content that breaks our terms, and preventing abuse. This is our legitimate interest and, in part, a legal duty.
To send you our newsletter and news about new features: only if you asked for them (your consent). You can stop them at any time (section 5).
To answer you: when you write to us or use a form on this website. On the forms, you agree to this before you send them; when you email us, it is our legitimate interest to reply.
To follow the law: when a law or an authority requires us to keep or hand over information.

We don't use your data for advertising, we don't build advertising profiles, and no decisions about you are made by a computer alone.

4. About you, your diet and allergens

About you is optional and for people aged 18 and over. It asks for your year of birth, sex, height, weight and activity level, your goal, your own energy and protein targets if you set them, the supplements you take, whether you're pregnant or breastfeeding, and whether you have a health condition or take medication that affects what you eat. These are health information, which the law protects more strictly. So the page says above its fields that entering them means you agree, we record when you did, and we use them for nothing else than working out your daily targets and suggesting recipes that fit them.

If you tell us you have a health condition, we don't ask which one: the app reminds you to follow your doctor's advice. The targets are general estimates for adults, not medical advice. If you're pregnant, breastfeeding or have a health condition, follow the advice of your doctor or midwife.

No other user can see these details or the targets worked out from them, whatever you choose in Privacy settings, and our team doesn't look at them. We don't share them with anyone and never use them for advertising. The one exception is Dr Brocc, if you agree to use it: the targets worked out from them can go to Anthropic to answer you (section 6), but the details themselves don't. You can change or remove them in the app at any time: removing them deletes them, and that is also how you take back your consent.

Telling us your diet or the allergens you avoid is optional. We use it only to choose the recipes we show you. We don't share it with anyone, and you can change or remove it in the app at any time.

The allergens you avoid can say something about your health, so we only save them after you tick that you agree. Removing them deletes them, and that is also how you take back your consent. Allergen information in Ecobite is an aid, not a guarantee: always check ingredients and labels yourself.

If you use Ecobite through an AI assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT, it asks you to agree to the same sentence before it saves your allergens, your About you details or Suggestions from Track for you, and we record your agreement just as we do in the app.

Suggestions from Track, in Food preferences, is optional and starts switched off. If you tick it, we look at the nutrition in the meals you've tracked recently and suggest recipes with more of the nutrients you've been getting less of. What you've been getting less of can say something about your health, so we only do this after you tick that you agree, and we use it for nothing else, apart from Dr Brocc if you ask it about this (section 6). No other user can see it, and our team doesn't look at it. The suggestions are general, not medical advice. Unticking it stops it, and that is also how you take back your consent.

5. Emails from us

About your account: we email you whatever you choose, for example to reset your password or when we remove something you added.
Newsletter and news about new features: only if you asked for them. You choose which you get in My Account, Email preferences, and every one of these emails has a link to unsubscribe.

We only contact you by email. We don't call you, text you or send you post.

6. Who else sees your data

Other people. Recipes you make public, your comments, your name, your profile and how many people follow you can be seen by anyone, including people without an account, but never your About you details or your targets. In My Account, Privacy settings, you choose whether others can see your recipes, your tracked foods, your followers and who you follow, and whether they can find you in search. On a new account all of these start switched on, and the tour in the app takes you to that page so you can switch off what you'd rather keep private. Accounts that existed before this change kept their settings. While your tracked foods are switched on, anyone signed in to Ecobite can see them on your profile, but people without an account can't, and the people who follow you can compare food footprints with you. A new account also starts out following Tom Tomato, Dr Brocc and Mrs Corn, Ecobite's own accounts, which aren't real people. You can unfollow them. A recipe you make private is hidden from lists and search, but anyone with its link can still open it.

The companies that help us run Ecobite. They only get what they need to do their job, and may only use it for us:

Fly.io, which runs our servers and database in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Cloudflare, which stores the photos you upload.
Backblaze, which stores a backup of our database in the European Union. The backup is encrypted before it gets there and only we have the key, so Backblaze can't read it.
Netlify, which delivers the app and this website to your browser.
Stadia Maps, which draws the map when you open the restaurant map in the app.
Google, whose mail service sends our emails, and which signs you in if you choose "Sign in with Google".
Anthropic, the maker of Claude, in the United States, which provides the AI behind Dr Brocc. It receives what you type to Dr Brocc, what you have open as you ask (such as the recipe you're writing, or what you're adding to Track), and the foods, recipes, tracked meals, shopping list, favourites, achievements and Trends that Dr Brocc looks up to answer you, including your daily targets and the nutrients you're short of, which can be worked out from your About you details. It isn't told your allergies, the foods you don't eat, the supplements you take or your About you details themselves, though Ecobite chooses the recipes and foods Dr Brocc shows you to fit them, so the results can hint at them. It deletes this within 30 days, or keeps it for up to 2 years if its safety systems flag it, and doesn't use it to train its AI.

An AI assistant you connect. If you connect one (such as Claude by Anthropic, ChatGPT by OpenAI or Grok by xAI), it receives what it asks Ecobite for when you ask it to, which can include your tracked meals, your food preferences, your About you details and your shopping list. What the assistant does with it, and with your conversations, is covered by its own privacy policy, for example Claude's, ChatGPT's or Grok's. You can disconnect it at any time in the assistant's settings, or in Ecobite under Settings, Connected apps.

Authorities, when the law requires it.

Statistics. We may share statistics about how Ecobite is used, for example with research partners. These are always totals that can't be traced back to you: they never include names, email addresses or anything else that identifies a person.

We never sell your data.

7. Where your data is kept

Your account and what's in it are stored in the European Union, in Amsterdam. The encrypted backup is kept in the European Union too. The photos you upload are stored with Cloudflare. What you send through Dr Brocc is handled in the United States by Anthropic (section 6).

Some of the companies in section 6 are based in the United States. Where they handle data outside the EU, they do so under safeguards approved by the European Commission, such as the EU–US Data Privacy Framework or standard contractual clauses. An AI assistant you connect may be outside the EU too: the makers of Claude, ChatGPT and Grok are in the United States.

8. How long we keep it

Your account and what's in it: until you delete your account, or until it hasn't been used for three years: we then delete it, after emailing you 30 days before. You can delete it yourself in My Account, Delete your account, or by emailing us. People who personalised or tracked one of your recipes keep their copy. Copies personalised before October 2026 may include the recipe's photos.
Your About you details: until you remove them in the app, or delete your account.
A connected AI assistant: until you disconnect it, or until it hasn't used your account for 90 days. Deleting your account disconnects it too.
Dr Brocc: what your questions cost and your agreement, until you delete your account. Anthropic's own copies as in section 6.
Usage records: 12 months. Those of visits you made while logged in are deleted sooner if you delete your account.
Content or accounts we removed: 6 months, so we can put them back if we got it wrong. After that, or sooner if the law requires it, they're deleted for good. We keep a short record of what was removed and why, without the content.
Messages you send us: for as long as we need to answer you, and at most 2 years.
Backups: 7 days. Something you delete, or your whole account, is gone from our backups a week later.

9. Cookies and your device

This website doesn't use cookies. It only remembers small things in your browser so that it works, such as your level in the quiz. The app doesn't use advertising or tracking cookies either. It keeps a few things in your browser's storage so that it works: that you're logged in, your settings and your shopping list.

10. Your rights

You can ask us to:

See your data: get a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Correct it: fix anything that's wrong or incomplete.
Delete it.
Limit it: pause our use of your data while a question about it is sorted out.
Move it: get your data in a form you can take to another service.
Stop: object to a use that rests on our legitimate interest (section 3), or take back a consent you gave. Taking it back doesn't affect what happened before.

Email contact@ecobite.io and we'll answer within one month. For many or complicated requests we may need up to two more months, and we'll tell you if so. It's free.

If you think we're handling your data unlawfully, you can complain to the Belgian Data Protection Authority: dataprotectionauthority.be/citizen. If you live in another EU country, you can also complain to the authority there.

Belgian Data Protection Authority
Rue de la Presse 35 / Drukpersstraat 35
1000 Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 2 274 48 00
Email: contact@apd-gba.be

11. Children

Ecobite is for people aged 13 and over, or the minimum age in your country if that is higher. If you're younger, ask a parent or guardian to create the account for you. About you is for people aged 18 and over only. If we learn that a child under 13 has an account without a parent's permission, we delete it.

12. Keeping your data safe

Your data travels to and from Ecobite over an encrypted connection, passwords are stored in hashed form, and only the people who need it to run Ecobite can reach it. No system is perfectly secure: if something goes wrong with your data, we'll tell you and the authority as the law requires.

13. Changes to this policy

We may change this policy, for example when the app changes or the law does. We'll tell you about important changes in the app or by email before they apply. For small changes, such as your account following Ecobite's own accounts, which aren't real people, we update the date at the top of this page.

Privacy policy