Privacy
Star Chef is built to need as little of your data as possible. Most people skim privacy policies and miss the point, so here's the headline first:
We don't collect personal data. No accounts, no email, no location, no contacts. We do collect anonymous usage events to understand how the app is being used — never tied to your identity. Details below.
What stays on your device
Saved recipes, your daily generation count, your premium-unlock flag, and your selected language live in local app storage. They never leave your phone.
What our recipe proxy sees
When you tap Generate, the app sends our proxy:
- The list of ingredients you typed
- The chef archetype ID you picked
- The language code (en, ko, or zh)
- Your app's bundle identifier (to deter unauthorized callers)
The proxy forwards that to a language-model provider (Groq, with automatic fallback to Cerebras, Gemini, or OpenRouter if Groq is throttled). The proxy does not store your requests. Your IP is visible to Cloudflare and used only for rate limiting (we count requests-per-minute and per-day per IP to prevent abuse — and we delete those counters daily).
Analytics
We use PostHog to collect anonymous product analytics. Specifically:
- Events for key actions like generating a recipe, saving a recipe, starting Cook Mode, hitting the daily quota, opening the paywall, and (anonymously) which chef was selected. We use these to know which features people actually use.
- A random device-scoped identifier (a UUID generated on first launch) so we can de-duplicate events from the same install. This identifier is not tied to any account, email, phone number, or device fingerprint — it never leaves the device alongside personally identifying data.
- Standard technical context: app version, build number, operating system version, device model, and locale. This helps us understand where issues happen.
We do not collect: your IP address (PostHog is configured with IP collection disabled), your contacts, your photos, your location, your saved recipes, or the actual ingredients you type. Events are sent to PostHog Cloud (US region) and processed under PostHog's privacy policy.
Third parties
The recipe generator is hosted by Cloudflare (proxy) and Groq (primary language model, with Cerebras, Google Gemini, and OpenRouter as fallbacks). Analytics is hosted by PostHog. All have their own privacy policies. We selected providers that do not train on customer requests.
Payments
If you subscribe to Star Chef Pro (monthly or annual), the transaction is handled by the App Store or Google Play. Star Chef receives a receipt token used only to verify the active subscription — no payment details touch our servers. Subscriptions auto-renew and can be cancelled in your App Store / Play Store subscription settings.
Children
Star Chef is rated for all ages. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone, including children.
Changes
If we change this policy materially, we'll update the date above and surface a note in the app the next time you open it.
Contact
Questions: hello@starchef.app