The short version: Bites has no accounts. Your food log, weight, water, plans, recipes and Apple Health data stay on your iPhone and in your own iCloud. Photos and descriptions you ask us to analyse are sent to our server, processed in memory and not stored there. Progress photos stay on your device unless you turn on an optional photo feature. We never show ads, never sell data and never track you across other apps or websites.
1. Who we are
Bites is made by APPFUSION LABS, LLC ("we", "us"). We are the data controller for the limited data described below. Contact: info@appfusion.us.
2. Data that stays on your device and in your iCloud
Bites does not have user accounts or a cloud database of your log. Everything you enter is stored in the app's database on your device and, when iCloud is enabled on your device, synced through your own private iCloud database (Apple CloudKit), which we cannot read. This includes:
- Food log entries, meals, custom foods, saved meals, recipes, meal plans, grocery lists and ratings.
- Your profile: goal, sex, birth year, height, weight entries, activity level, diet style, allergies and preferences, daily targets.
- Water, workouts, streaks, progress photos and thumbnails of scanned meals (progress photos are stored with full file protection and never leave your device unless you turn on an optional photo feature, see section 4).
- Apple Health data (see section 7).
Deleting the app, or using Settings › Delete all my data inside Bites, removes this data from your device; iCloud data is removed by Bites when you delete all data, and can also be managed from iOS Settings › Apple Account › iCloud.
3. Data sent to our server
Some features need our server (hosted on Cloudflare). When you use them, the app sends only what that feature needs:
| Feature | What is sent | What happens to it |
|---|---|---|
| AI photo scan | A downsized copy of the photo (max 1024 px, location and camera metadata removed), your locale and unit system | Analysed by AI models that Cloudflare runs for us (Cloudflare Workers AI: a main model, and a backup model if the main one is busy or fails) to estimate the dish, ingredients and nutrition. The image is processed in memory and not stored by us. A log line without the image is kept (see below). |
| Describe a meal | The text you typed or dictated, an optional correction hint | Same as above. Dictation uses Apple's speech recognition, which may process audio on Apple's servers under Apple's privacy policy. |
| Nutrition label scan | A downsized photo of the label | Same as photo scan. |
| Import a recipe (My kitchen) | The link you share, or a downsized photo of a recipe (max 1024 px, metadata removed), and your locale | For a link, our server opens the page itself (the site sees our server, not you) and reads the recipe from the page's structured recipe data. If the page has none, its text is sent to the same AI models on Cloudflare Workers AI to read the recipe; a photo always is. Ingredients are matched against our food index. The page, the photo and the recipe are processed in memory and not stored by us; the link is not logged. A log line without them is kept (see below). |
| Food search | Your search text and locale | Looked up in our food index (USDA FoodData Central, Open Food Facts and curated foods). Not stored. |
| Barcode lookup | The barcode number | Looked up in our index, and if unknown, at Open Food Facts. The product record (not you) is cached. |
| Corrections ("Something's off", ratings) | The AI's output, the items after your edits, your rating and locale | Stored to improve recognition accuracy. Contains only food names and amounts, never the photo. |
| Bites Pro purchase | The purchase receipt signed by Apple (transaction and product identifiers, dates, status) | Verified and stored so we can honour your subscription and answer billing questions. Apple also sends us subscription status updates. |
Every request carries a random device identifier that the app generates on first launch. It is not your Apple ID, name, email, phone number or advertising identifier; it lets us apply fair-use limits and link your corrections and purchase to the same installation. It resets if you reinstall the app or delete all data.
App Attest. The app uses Apple's App Attest to show our server that requests come from a genuine copy of Bites on a real Apple device, so our AI budget goes to people using the app and not to bots. Your iPhone creates a key that never leaves its secure hardware, and Apple confirms it. Our server stores the key's identifier and public key with the random device identifier, plus a counter and two dates; nothing that identifies you. Requests to the AI features are signed with this key. When a new key is registered, we count it against the network it came from (the IP address, or the first half of an IPv6 address) for that day, so one network cannot register endless keys; that count is deleted within 2 days.
4. Optional photo features
Progress photos never leave your device unless you turn on one of these features in You › Photos & AI. Both are off by default, are for adults (18 and over) only, and ask for your permission before the first use, naming what is sent and to whom.
| Feature | What is sent | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Body insights | The photo you choose and, if you want a comparison, an earlier one: downsized (max 1024 px), metadata removed, and cropped at the shoulders so your face is not included unless you turn off "Hide my face". Also your goal, optionally your sex, height and the weeks between the photos, and your locale. | Our server, then Microsoft Azure or Anthropic, which run the AI model that returns an estimated body-fat range, visible changes, posture notes and photo tips. |
| Future look | The photo you choose, prepared the same way, and the change the app calculated (4, 8 or 12 weeks ahead, weight and body-fat change, goal), which our server limits to realistic values. | Our server, then the Google Gemini API, which returns an illustration of the same photo a few weeks ahead. |
- Photos are processed in memory and not stored by us: not in our database, caches, file storage or logs. The results are not kept on our server either.
- Our AI providers may retain inputs for a limited period to monitor for abuse, under their own terms, and do not use them to train their models (we use their paid, business tiers).
- Results are stored only on your device, in a separate store that is never synced to iCloud and is left out of device backups; future look images are kept with full file protection. Future look images carry Google's invisible SynthID watermark and are labelled in the app as an AI illustration, not a prediction.
- Our server records only that a feature ran (device identifier, feature, model, latency, token counts, locale and any error code) and counts uses per device per week to apply fair-use limits.
- You can turn either feature off at any time. Deleting a result, or Settings › Delete all my data, removes results from your device.
5. What we keep on the server, and for how long
- Scan log: device identifier, type of scan, model used, token counts, latency, locale and any error text. No image and no description text. Body insights and Future look runs are logged the same way, without the photo or the result, and so are recipe imports, without the link, the page, the photo or the recipe. Kept up to 24 months for reliability and cost monitoring.
- Usage counters: how many times each photo feature was used per device identifier this week, deleted automatically after about 8 days; how many AI scans, recipe imports and recipe pages fetched per device identifier today, and how many new App Attest keys each network registered today, deleted automatically after 2 days.
- App Attest key: the key identifier, public key, a counter, whether the key came from the App Store build or a development build, and when it was registered and last used, linked to the random device identifier. Kept while the app uses it and deleted automatically 12 months after its last use.
- Corrections: as described above. Kept up to 24 months.
- Subscription records: kept for as long as you have a subscription and afterwards as long as tax and accounting law requires.
- Short-lived caches: a scan result is cached for 15 minutes so a retry after a network error does not cost a second analysis; product records from Open Food Facts are cached for 7 days. Photo features and recipe imports are never cached; only a marker that a request is in progress exists, for at most 90 seconds.
- Aggregate analytics: counts of scans, latency and errors, indexed by the device identifier, to keep the service healthy. No food or health data.
- Operational logs at our hosting provider, kept for a short period for debugging.
6. Who processes data on our behalf
- Cloudflare, Inc. hosts our server, database and caches, and runs the AI models (Cloudflare Workers AI) that analyse photos, descriptions and nutrition labels and read recipes you import: both the main model and the backup model used when the main one is busy or fails. Cloudflare processes these inputs to answer the request and does not use them to train AI models.
- Microsoft Azure (Azure AI / OpenAI Service) runs the AI model for Body insights, only if you turn that feature on. It does not receive meal photos, descriptions, labels or recipes. Microsoft may retain inputs for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring under its Azure OpenAI data policies and does not use them to train models.
- Anthropic provides the Claude models we may use through Microsoft Azure for Body insights. Anthropic may retain inputs for a limited period for trust and safety and does not use them to train models.
- Google (Gemini API, paid tier) creates Future look illustrations if you turn that feature on. Google may retain inputs and outputs for a limited period to detect abuse and does not use them to improve its products.
- Open Food Facts receives barcode numbers we cannot resolve locally.
- Apple provides iCloud sync, in-app purchases, speech recognition, App Attest and Apple Health under Apple's own privacy policy.
We do not use advertising or analytics SDKs from any other company, and we do not sell or share personal data for advertising.
7. Apple Health
With your permission, Bites reads steps, active energy, workouts and weight from Apple Health to adjust your daily budget and show your trend, and writes meals, water and weight back so your other apps stay in sync. Health data is used only to provide these features. It is never sent to our server, never used for advertising or marketing, never sold, and never disclosed to third parties. You can revoke access at any time in iOS Settings › Health › Data Access & Devices.
8. Permissions
Camera and photo library are used only when you scan a meal, a label or a barcode, import a recipe from a photo, or add a progress photo. Microphone and speech recognition are used only while you dictate a meal. Notifications are used only for meal reminders and a heads-up before a free trial ends. Each permission is optional.
9. Legal bases (EEA, UK, Türkiye)
We process the data in section 3 to perform the service you request (contract) and to keep the service secure and within fair-use limits (legitimate interest). Corrections you choose to send are processed on the basis of your consent. The optional photo features in section 4 are processed only with your explicit consent, given in the app before first use and withdrawn by turning the feature off. Under the Turkish Personal Data Protection Law (KVKK) this notice serves as the disclosure required by Article 10.
10. Your rights and how to delete data
- On your device and iCloud: Settings › Delete all my data in Bites erases everything the app stores, including iCloud records, thumbnails, progress photos and photo-feature results, and cancels scheduled reminders.
- On our server: email info@appfusion.us from the app's Settings › Email support and include the device identifier shown at the bottom of Settings. We will delete the scan log, corrections, App Attest key and subscription records for that identifier within 30 days, unless we must keep purchase records by law.
- You may also ask for a copy of the server-side data linked to your device identifier, and you can export your own log at any time with Settings › Prepare CSV export.
- If you are in the EEA or UK you can complain to your data protection authority; in Türkiye to the KVKK Board.
11. Children
Bites is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect data from them. The app is designed for people aged 16 and over; younger teens should use it with a parent or clinician. The optional photo features in section 4 are for adults (18 and over) only.
12. Security
All traffic uses HTTPS. Requests to the AI features are checked with Apple's App Attest. Photos are downsized and stripped of metadata on your device before upload. Progress photos are stored with iOS file protection. Our server keeps no images and no accounts, which is the best protection we know of.
13. This website
The Bites website describes the app and publishes its recipes, guides and these documents. It sets no cookies, runs no analytics or advertising scripts, loads no third-party fonts or trackers, and has no forms. It is served by Cloudflare, whose servers process your IP address and browser details to deliver the pages and protect against abuse; we do not receive or keep those logs.
14. Changes
We will post changes here with a new effective date, and in the app if a change affects what we collect.
15. Contact
APPFUSION LABS, LLC · info@appfusion.us