Privacy policy
1. Who we are
Minthe is an iOS app provided by Vitaloom LTD. For any privacy question, or to ask us to delete something, email support@vitaloom.xyz.
2. What stays on your device
Everything you log. Meals, symptoms, stool entries, notes, photos, lab results, trial and program history. It is stored locally, and if you turn on sync it goes to your own private iCloud container, which is governed by your Apple account and which we have no access to.
There is no Minthe account. We do not ask for your name, email address or a login, so we hold no profile to attach your diary to.
3. AI scans, and what we keep
This is the one part of the app where data leaves your device, so it is worth being precise.
When you scan a meal photo, a packaged label, or a lab report, the image is sent over an encrypted connection to our processing service on Cloudflare, and on to Google's Gemini model, which returns a structured list of foods, ingredients or analytes. This only happens when you tap scan. If you type your entries instead, nothing leaves your device.
What we do not keep: the image itself. It is passed through for processing and is not written to storage by us.
What we do keep, in a request log:
- the list of food or ingredient names the model returned, with any quantity and nutrition values, and which of them were missing from our on-device catalogue
- a random identifier generated by the app on first launch, which is not linked to your name, email or Apple ID
- technical metadata: a request ID, timestamp, request size, processing time, model token usage and estimated cost
We keep this to find foods missing from our catalogue, to spot cases where the scan misreads something, to enforce fair-use limits, and to monitor what the service costs to run. We do not use it to advertise to you and we do not sell it.
These logs are deleted within 12 months. Because the identifier is random and app-generated, we can only find and delete your entries if you send it to us, so please include it if you ask.
4. Anonymous usage analytics
Minthe collects anonymous data about how the app is used, through a service called PostHog. This is entirely separate from your diary, and it never contains it.
What is sent: which screens you open and which actions you take, drawn from a fixed list of event names. An onboarding step being finished, a meal being logged, a scan succeeding or failing, a paywall being shown. Alongside each event goes a short set of coarse properties: which focus you picked (gut health, or food and macros), whether you subscribe, your sex, and your age as a decade band such as 35 to 44.
What is never sent: the content of anything you log. No food or ingredient names, no symptoms, no severity or stool ratings, no weights, no lab values, no notes, no photos, no custom tags, and never your birth year. That a meal was logged is recorded. What was in it is not. The app is built so this cannot happen by mistake: the event names are a closed list compiled into the app rather than something typed at each point, and any unexpected free text is discarded before it leaves your device.
These events are not linked to you. We create no user profile, we send no name, email address, Apple ID or advertising identifier, and we do not join these events to the scan log in section 3. All PostHog holds is a random identifier the app generates per installation, so we can tell that one person moved through five screens without knowing who that person is. None of it is used to follow you across other apps or websites, which is why Minthe shows no tracking permission prompt.
We use it for one purpose: seeing where people get stuck, so we know what to fix. It is processed by PostHog on servers in the United States, and it is never sold or shared with data brokers.
This website. minthe.app counts page views using Vercel Web Analytics. It sets no cookie, stores nothing on your device, and creates no identifier that follows you between visits or between sites, which is why you are not being asked to accept anything. What it records is the page, the referring site, a country and a device type, in aggregate.
One extra thing is recorded: when an App Store link is clicked, we log which page it was clicked from and whether it was the nav button or one in the text. That tells us which of these guides are worth writing and which are not. It records the page, never the person.
App Store links from this site may also carry a campaign parameter that Apple reads on its own storefront. It names the page you came from so that installs can be counted against it. It is a piece of text about the page, it says nothing about you, and no script or third party is involved in it.
Google Analytics. This website also uses Google Analytics 4 to count the same kind of thing: which pages are read, which site sent you here, and when an App Store link is clicked. It never receives an advertising signal, because advertising storage is switched off everywhere and no advertising runs on this site, and your IP address is truncated before it is stored.
Whether it sets a cookie depends on where you are. In the UK, the EEA and Switzerland it does not: analytics storage is denied there, so the measurement is sent without anything being written to your device, which is why you are not being asked to accept a cookie. Elsewhere it sets a first-party analytics cookie that lets us tell a returning reader from a new one. Either way it is used to work out which of these guides are worth writing, and for nothing else.
5. Apple Health
If you grant permission, Minthe reads sleep, resting heart rate, steps and menstrual cycle from Apple Health so those can be weighed alongside food. This is read on your device for context only and is not sent to us. You choose which categories to grant and can revoke any of them in the Health app at any time.
6. Subscriptions
Purchases are handled entirely by Apple. We never see your card details, billing address or Apple ID. We receive only the confirmation that an entitlement is active.
7. What we do not do
- We do not sell your data or share it with data brokers.
- We do not show ads, and the app carries no advertising SDKs and no third-party ad or social trackers.
- We do not build advertising or health profiles about you.
- We do not require an account to use the app.
8. Your rights and deleting your data
Your logs are yours. Export them as CSV or PDF at any time, delete them in the app, and remove the local copy by deleting the app. If you used iCloud sync, remove the Minthe data from your iCloud settings as well.
Depending on where you live you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or restrict processing of personal data we hold. Since the only thing we hold is the scan log described in section 3, those requests are about that log. Email support@vitaloom.xyz and we will respond as required by applicable law.
9. Children
Minthe is not directed at children and is not intended for anyone under 16. We do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has used the app, contact us and we will help remove anything associated with it.
10. Security
Data in transit is encrypted. Data on your device is protected by iOS, and iCloud data by your Apple account. No system is perfectly secure, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise.
11. Changes
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of this page, and for anything significant we will say so in the app.
12. Contact
support@vitaloom.xyz, Vitaloom LTD.
Frequently asked
Do you have a copy of my food and symptom diary?
No. Your diary is stored on your device and syncs only through your own private iCloud, which we cannot read. There is no Minthe account and no server-side copy.
Do you store my meal photos?
No. The image is passed through for processing and is not written to storage by us. What is kept is the list of food names the model returned from it.
What is the random identifier you keep?
A UUID the app generates on first launch and stores on your device. It is not derived from and not linked to your name, email, Apple ID or device serial. It exists so we can apply fair-use limits and group request logs.
Can I use Minthe without anything leaving my device?
Yes. Type your entries rather than scanning them and nothing is sent to us at all. Every feature except the AI scans works entirely on device.
How do I delete everything?
Delete your data in the app and delete the app to remove the local copy. If you used iCloud sync, also remove Minthe data in your iCloud settings. To have your scan logs removed, email us with the identifier from the app's settings screen.