Privacy Policy

Last updated: March 19, 2026

        Summary: Kaeru is a privacy-first app. Your food data stays on your device. We don't sell your data or track your behavior. We use limited, privacy-preserving ad measurement to understand how people find Kaeru.
    

Introduction

Kaeru ("the App") is a calorie tracking application developed by Benjamin Lobmueller ("we", "us", "our"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information when you use Kaeru.

Data We Collect

Health & Fitness Data (HealthKit)

With your permission, Kaeru integrates with Apple HealthKit to:

Read: Active energy burned, basal energy burned and dietary energy consumed (to calculate your daily calorie budget)
Write: Dietary energy consumed (your food entries)

This data is used solely to provide calorie tracking functionality and is never sent to external servers. HealthKit data remains on your device and in your iCloud Health data (managed by Apple).

Location Data

With your permission, Kaeru may access your approximate (city-level) location to:

Improve calorie estimation accuracy for regional foods
Provide contextual meal suggestions

Location data is:

Coarse (city-level only, not precise GPS)
Cached locally for up to 30 minutes
Never transmitted to external servers
Never stored permanently

Food Entry Data

When you enter food descriptions, this text is:

Stored locally on your device using Core Data (encrypted by iOS)
Sent to AI service providers for calorie estimation when using Premium features

Important: Only the food description text is sent for AI processing. We do not send any personal information, health data, or location data to AI services. Your IP or any other PII is not shared with the third-party API providers.

Data Storage

All your data is stored locally on your device using Apple's Core Data framework. iOS automatically encrypts this data when your device is locked. We do not maintain any servers that store your personal data.

Third-Party Services

AI Calorie Estimation (Premium Feature)

Premium subscribers' food descriptions are processed through AI services to estimate calories. Only the text you type (e.g., "chicken salad with ranch") is sent. No personal information, health data, or identifiers are included.

Meta (Facebook) SDK

Kaeru includes Meta's SDK for ad measurement purposes only. It records whether an ad led to an app install or subscription using Apple's privacy-preserving SKAdNetwork. No personal data, food entries, or health data are shared with Meta. We do not use Facebook Login, Facebook Sharing, or any other Meta service.

Apple Services

The App uses standard Apple services:

HealthKit for health data synchronization
App Store for subscription management
iCloud for data backup (if enabled by the user)

These are governed by Apple's Privacy Policy.

Ad Measurement

Kaeru uses Meta's (Facebook) SDK solely for privacy-preserving ad measurement. This helps us understand how people discover Kaeru through ads. Specifically:

What is measured: Whether an ad led to an app install and subscription, using Apple's SKAdNetwork framework
What is NOT collected: Your name, food entries, health data, or any app usage details
No tracking prompt: We do not request access to your advertising identifier (IDFA) or use Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework
No behavioral tracking: We do not track which screens you visit, what you tap, or how you use the app

This data is aggregated and anonymized by Apple's SKAdNetwork before reaching Meta. We cannot identify individual users from this data.

What We Don't Do

        We do NOT sell your data to third parties
We do NOT collect personal information
We do NOT store data on our servers
We do NOT track your behavior or usage patterns
We do NOT request access to your advertising identifier (IDFA)
We do NOT show ads in the app

    

Data Deletion

To delete all your data:

Delete the app: Uninstalling Kaeru removes all locally stored data
HealthKit data: Manage through Settings > Health > Data Access & Devices

Since we don't store your data on external servers, deleting the app permanently removes all your Kaeru data.

Children's Privacy

Kaeru is not intended for children under 18. We do not knowingly collect data from children under 18 years of age.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date.

Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

Email: privacy@kaeruapp.net

Kaeru - AI Calorie Tracker
Benjamin Lobmueller