Biscoo Privacy Policy
This privacy policy explains how Biscoo collects, uses, stores, and shares information when you use the Biscoo mobile application and related services.
Controller
The controller responsible for processing personal data under this privacy policy operates the Biscoo app under the trading name Biscoo. The formal legal notice is available on the dedicated Impressum page.
Privacy contact email: support@biscoo.de
Legal notice: /impressum
Where Biscoo Is Offered
Biscoo is currently distributed through Google Play. Apple App Store distribution may follow later. This privacy policy is written for a global audience and includes GDPR-style information for users in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland.
Information We Collect
- Account and sign-in information such as your Firebase Authentication account identifiers, Google Sign-In details where used, and subscription access status.
- Profile and training data such as onboarding answers, body metrics, weight entries, goals, workout plans, workout logs, running plans, running logs, fatigue or recovery-related entries, and nutrition records you create in the app.
- Health-related import data when you choose to connect Health Connect or Apple Health so the app can read your latest body-weight measurement. A separate Android Health Connect activity connection can read exercise sessions, their times and sources, and active or total calorie records. Imported activities are kept on your device, scoped to your signed-in account, and are not uploaded to our backend or included in account cloud snapshots.
- Nutrition scan data such as barcodes, food images, nutrition-label images, OCR results, and nutrition values you review or save.
- Location data when you use live running features that require GPS-based route, pace, and distance tracking, including background location where you grant that permission.
- Bluetooth or nearby-device data when you connect compatible heart-rate sensors or similar peripherals.
- Device, app, and diagnostic information such as app version, device characteristics, technical logs, and crash reports.
- Purchase and subscription information needed to verify Google Play subscriptions and manage access to paid features.
How We Use Information
- To create, authenticate, and synchronize your account and your saved app data.
- To provide core app features such as workout planning, training history, running guidance, nutrition logging, food search, barcode scanning, nutrition-label extraction, and connected-sensor support.
- To verify subscriptions, enforce feature access, restore purchases, and manage billing-related events.
- To provide reminders and other notifications that you enable.
- To improve reliability, performance, fraud prevention, and security, including diagnostics and crash investigation.
- To comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our terms or other applicable rules.
Permissions
Biscoo may request the following permissions, depending on which features you use:
- Camera to scan barcodes, capture food images, and scan nutrition labels.
- Microphone and speech recognition to turn a spoken meal description into editable text only when you explicitly start voice input.
- Photos to import food images from your device library where available.
- Location to support route, pace, and distance tracking during live runs, including background tracking if you enable it.
- Bluetooth to connect supported heart-rate sensors and similar peripherals.
- Notifications to deliver reminders and other alerts that you choose to enable.
- Health data access to read your latest body-weight measurement from supported health platforms when you connect that feature. Optional Android exercise and calorie read permissions support activity-burn estimates and, after you confirm a non-exercise baseline, an adjusted food budget. Calories remain estimates. Disconnecting stops activity imports but retains saved records; account data resets remove the local activity cache. You may revoke access in Health Connect.
How Data Is Stored
Data may be stored locally on your device and may also be synchronized to cloud services used by Biscoo so your account data can be restored, kept in sync, and used across supported features. Some nutrition and search-related data may also be processed by backend services operated for the app.
Optional Voice Input for Nutrition
Voice input starts only when you choose it while the app is in the foreground. A capture lasts up to about one minute and may end sooner when the device detects silence or an interruption. Biscoo does not listen in the background or automatically restart listening. You can stop or cancel and use the keyboard instead. Recognition can make mistakes; review and edit the text before continuing. Neither speech recognition nor AI nutrition estimates are a clinical measurement or a guarantee of accuracy.
Audio is processed by your device's operating-system speech recognition service, which may send it to its platform provider (such as Google or Apple) over the network under that provider's privacy terms. Offline processing is not guaranteed. Biscoo does not save raw voice audio or upload it to the Biscoo backend. This does not control how the operating-system speech provider processes or retains audio.
The transcript is kept temporarily for your review. Choosing Speak and prepare authorizes sending the description to the Biscoo backend and Google Vertex AI when you stop recording or recognition completes successfully. Preparing a typed description sends it when you select Prepare meal. Preparation may propose estimates for unmatched composed dishes; you can also explicitly request estimates for other unfinished foods. Cancelling dictation, leaving the tab, or interrupting capture does not submit partial text. You can inspect and correct foods, ingredients, portions, and estimate assumptions on the plate. Only the final Log meal action saves entries and accepts the estimates indicated on that action. Voice transcripts are not included in normal application logs. The backend caches interpretation and estimation results for 15 minutes to support retries, rather than storing a permanent voice transcript. Confirmed food and serving preferences may be remembered locally to improve future matching. Estimated dishes become reusable private foods only if you explicitly save them, and retain their estimated status. Saved nutrition entries follow the account-data retention described below; operating-system speech processing and Google Vertex AI processing are also subject to the respective provider's retention policies.
Food Data Sources
Some packaged-food product data and product images shown in Biscoo may include data from Open Food Facts. Open Food Facts is a collaborative food database maintained by its contributors. Biscoo may also combine that data with its own app-specific search, moderation, and caching systems.
User-created custom foods and recipes in Biscoo are intended to remain user-scoped unless a separate barcode-backed food submission flow is explicitly used and later approved through Biscoo's moderation process.
Legal Bases
Where GDPR or similar laws apply, Biscoo generally processes personal data because it is necessary to perform the service you request, because you have given consent for specific features or permissions, because processing is required to comply with legal obligations, or because there is a legitimate interest in operating, securing, and improving the service.
Service Providers and Recipients
Biscoo uses service providers and infrastructure partners to operate the app. Depending on the feature you use, this may include Firebase services such as Authentication, Hosting, Functions, Storage, Remote Config, and Crashlytics; Google Sign-In; Google Play billing and subscription verification services; Health Connect or Apple Health integrations you choose to enable; Meilisearch-backed backend search; and Gemini-based nutrition label extraction or related cloud processing where enabled by the app backend.
We may also disclose data when required by law, to protect rights and security, or in connection with a business transfer if the service is reorganized, sold, or merged.
Data Sharing
We do not sell your personal information. We share data only with service providers, platform operators, and infrastructure partners where needed to operate, secure, maintain, support, and improve Biscoo, or when disclosure is required by law.
Data Retention
We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide the app, maintain your account, keep your synced history available, verify subscriptions, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. Diagnostic logs and similar technical records may be retained for shorter operational periods, while account and training data may remain until deleted or no longer needed for the service.
Your Rights and Choices
- You can choose whether to grant permissions such as microphone, speech recognition, camera, photos, location, Bluetooth, notifications, and health-data access.
- You can stop using specific features that rely on those permissions at any time and may also revoke permissions in your device settings.
- You can request access to your personal data, correction of inaccurate data, erasure, restriction of processing, objection to certain processing, and data portability where applicable.
- If processing is based on consent, you can withdraw that consent for the relevant feature at any time going forward.
- You may have the right to complain to a competent data protection authority, especially in the country where you live, work, or where you believe a violation occurred.
You can delete your account and all synced data at any time in the app (Profile → Account → Delete account) or on the web at biscoo.de/delete-account. Payment records are kept only as long as tax law requires. Other privacy requests can be sent by email to support@biscoo.de.
Sharing Products with Open Food Facts
When you create a food from a barcode that is not yet known, Biscoo shares the product data (name, brand, barcode, nutrition values), the product photo and the photo of the nutrition label with Open Food Facts, a free, collaborative food database. The data is published under the Open Database License and the photos under CC BY-SA. Your account, email address and food diary are never shared; contributions are attributed to Biscoo with a random identifier that cannot be traced back to you. Foods without a barcode and your recipes stay private.
International Transfers
Because Biscoo uses cloud and platform providers, personal data may be processed outside your home country. Where applicable, transfers are made using appropriate safeguards offered by the relevant provider or required by law.
Children
Biscoo is not directed to children under 13 and is not intended for users who are not old enough under applicable law to use the service independently.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this privacy policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the date at the top of this page. Material changes may also be communicated through the app or other appropriate channels.
Contact
If you have questions about this privacy policy or want to exercise privacy rights, contact Biscoo at support@biscoo.de.