Hamstash Privacy Policy
Effective date: 27 September 2026
Hamstash ("the app") is a kitchen inventory app made by Robert-Paul van den Born ("we", "us"). This policy explains what happens to your information when you use the app.
The short version
Hamstash does not collect, send or share any of your data. Everything you enter stays on your phone. The app has no user accounts, and it contains no advertising, analytics or tracking.
The one exception is optional: if you choose to share your kitchen with your household, your kitchen is synced between your phones end-to-end encrypted. Our sync server only passes along and stores scrambled data that we cannot read. See Household sharing.
What the app stores, and where
To work, the app saves the following only on your device:
- The products you add: names, quantities, expiry dates, storage places (such as fridge or cupboard) and any notes you write
- Your shopping list
- A short history of products you’ve added, so it can suggest them again
- A record of products you’ve marked as used up, so it can show how many you used in time
- Your settings, such as reminder time and how many days before expiry you want to be reminded
This information is stored in the app’s private storage on your phone. We cannot see it or access it, and it is never uploaded by the app unless you turn on household sharing (below).
Notifications
If you allow notifications, the app schedules reminders about products that are close to their expiry date. These reminders are created and delivered entirely on your phone. No information is sent to us or to any notification service to make them work. You can turn reminders off in the app’s Settings or in your phone’s system settings at any time.
Permissions
The app only asks for permission to send notifications, which is optional. It does not access your location, camera, microphone, contacts or photos.
Backup files
In Settings you can save a backup of your kitchen as a file, and restore it later. This only happens when you choose to:
- Back up creates a file on your phone and opens your phone’s share screen, so you decide where it goes (for example your own cloud drive or Files app). It is not sent to us.
- Restore opens your phone’s file picker. The app reads only the one file you pick.
Keep backup files somewhere safe: anyone with the file can see the kitchen information in it.
Household sharing (optional)
Household sharing is off until you tap Share my kitchen or Join a kitchen in Settings. When it’s on:
- What is synced: your products, shopping list, places and the “used in time” record. Your settings and personal add history stay on your phone.
- How it’s protected: your phone creates a random kitchen key. Everything is encrypted on your phone with that key before it’s sent. The key itself is never sent to us. Only phones that have the key can read the kitchen. We cannot read it, and neither can our hosting provider.
- What our server stores: encrypted records, the time they were stored, and a one-way fingerprint of the key that proves a phone is allowed to make changes. There are no names, email addresses, accounts or readable kitchen contents.
- Who hosts it: the sync server runs on Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc.). As with any internet connection, Cloudflare’s network processes your phone’s IP address to deliver the data. We don’t log or store IP addresses.
- Who can see your kitchen: anyone you give the key to (by QR code, link or text). Only share it with people you live with.
- How long it’s kept: until you delete it, or automatically 12 months after the kitchen was last used. Deleted items leave a small encrypted marker for up to 90 days, so other phones learn about the deletion.
To stop sharing, use Leave kitchen (your things stay on your phone), Make a new key (removes everyone else) or Delete kitchen from server (removes the encrypted data from our server for everyone).
Data we collect
Without household sharing: none. We do not collect personal data, usage statistics, device identifiers, crash reports or advertising identifiers.
With household sharing: only the encrypted kitchen data described above, which we cannot read.
Sharing with third parties
We do not share, sell or rent any data. Encrypted household-sharing data is stored with our hosting provider Cloudflare, which cannot read it. The app contains no third-party advertising or analytics tools.
Device backups
Your phone’s operating system may include app data in its own backups (for example Google’s Android backup or Apple’s iCloud backup) if you have turned those on. Those backups are handled by Google or Apple under your account and their privacy policies, not by us.
Deleting your data
Your data lives on your phone, so you are in full control of it:
- Delete individual products or list items inside the app, or
- Clear the app’s storage in your phone’s settings, or
- Uninstall the app, which removes all of its data from your phone.
If you share your kitchen, use Delete kitchen from server in Settings → Household to remove its encrypted copy from our server. Otherwise it’s deleted automatically 12 months after last use.
Children
The app is not directed at children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country) and does not knowingly collect information from anyone, including children.
Your rights
Under data protection laws such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have rights over personal data that organisations hold about you. We hold no readable data about you. Household-sharing data is encrypted with a key only you have, so we cannot link it to you or read it. You can delete it yourself at any time as described above. If you have questions, you can contact us using the details below.
Future changes
If a future version adds features that work differently, we will update this policy before that feature is released and explain clearly what data is involved and why. The effective date at the top will show when the policy last changed.
Contact
Questions about this policy? Contact Robert-Paul van den Born at privacy@hamstash.app.