Freshly: Food Expiry Tracker — Privacy Policy
Effective date: 3 November 2026
The short version
Freshly keeps your kitchen on your phone. There is no account, no sign-in and no Freshly server holding your data. We do not collect, store, sell or share any personal information about you. There are no ads and no analytics.
What stays on your phone
Everything you put into Freshly — items, dates, quantities, prices, storage places, your shopping list, your waste history and your settings — is stored only in the app's private storage on your device. Home-screen widgets read the same local data. Backups and CSV exports are files you create and choose where to send; Freshly never uploads them anywhere.
Uninstalling the app deletes all of this data. If you want to keep it, export a backup first (Settings → Backup and migration).
The camera
Freshly uses the camera to read barcodes and printed expiry dates. The images are processed on your device by Google ML Kit's on-device text and barcode recognition. No photo or video is saved, and none leaves your phone.
When Freshly connects to the internet
Freshly works fully offline. It goes online only for the two things below, and if you are offline both are simply skipped.
1. Barcode lookup
When you scan a barcode, Freshly asks Open Food Facts, the open food database, for that product's name, brand, category, pack size and picture. The request contains only the barcode number and an app identifier that Open Food Facts requires from apps. It contains nothing about you.
Like any website, Open Food Facts receives your device's IP address when the request is made. Their handling of it is covered by the Open Food Facts privacy policy. Results are kept on your phone, so scanning the same product again makes no request.
2. Checking for a new version
When Freshly opens, and at most every few hours while it is in use, it reads one public settings file that says which version of the app is current, so it can tell you when an update is available. The file is hosted on Google Firebase (Cloud Firestore). The request asks for that file and nothing else: it contains nothing about you or your kitchen, and Freshly writes nothing back.
Like any web request, Google receives your device's IP address and basic technical details of the connection. Their handling is covered by the Firebase privacy information. If you choose to update, the update itself is handled by Google Play.
Notifications
Expiry reminders (per item, or one daily summary) are scheduled locally on your phone. No push service is involved, and you can turn them off in Settings at any time.
Permissions
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Camera | Reading barcodes and printed expiry dates, on the device |
| Internet | The barcode lookup and the update check described above |
| Notifications | Expiry reminders, only if you allow them |
| Run at start-up | Keeping your reminders scheduled after the phone restarts |
Freshly does not ask for your location, contacts, photos, files or microphone.
Your rights and your data
Because Freshly does not collect personal data, we hold nothing about you that we could show, correct, export or delete. You stay in full control on your phone: you can edit or delete any item in the app, export everything to a file, or delete all data by clearing the app's storage or uninstalling it.
Children
Freshly is a general-audience household app. It does not knowingly collect information from anyone, including children.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the new version will be published at this address with a new effective date.
Contact
Questions about this policy or the app: c.mind3311@gmail.com