MenuLens Privacy Policy

Effective date: 29 October 2026

This policy explains what information MenuLens collects, why, who it goes to, how long we keep it, and the choices and rights you have. It covers the MenuLens apps for iPhone and Android and the website at menulens-inventum.web.app.

1. Who we are

MenuLens is made by Inventum Technologies Pty Ltd (ABN 54 689 311 288), Melbourne, Victoria, Australia ("we", "us"). We are responsible for your personal information under this policy, and are the "controller" for the purposes of the EU and UK GDPR.

You can reach us about anything in this policy at support@inventum.com.au.

2. The short version

• You can scan menus without an account. We still create an anonymous ID so we can apply daily limits and keep the service working.
• Your menu photos are stored in Australia and deleted 7 days after upload unless you save the menu to an account.
• Menus are read by Anthropic's Claude AI under commercial terms that don't allow Anthropic to train its models on your photos or questions.
• Your diet and allergy preferences are sensitive. As a guest they're kept on your phone. If you sign in, they're stored in your account so they sync. Either way, they're sent along with each scan or question only to tailor the result.
• We use Google's Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics to understand how the app is used and to fix crashes. We don't use advertising IDs, and we don't sell your information or show ads.
• You can delete your account and data in the app at any time, or by emailing us.

3. What we collect and why

Menu photos

When you scan, the photos you take or choose are uploaded to our storage in Australia. Our server shrinks each photo (to 1,600 pixels on the longest side) and sends it to Anthropic, which reads the menu and returns the dishes, translations and other details you see.

We use photos only to read your menu, to show your own photo with the dishes pinned on it, and, if you save the menu, to keep it in your account. We don't use them for anything else. Photos can carry embedded details from your camera, such as the time and, if your camera records it, location. We don't use that metadata, and the app removes it before upload.

Please don't photograph people or personal documents. If someone else is in the shot, the photo is still deleted on the same schedule.

What we create from a photo

The menu we read from your photos (dish names, translations, descriptions, likely ingredients, prices and warnings) is stored in two places:

• On your phone, as your recent menus.
• On our servers, in a shared cache keyed to a fingerprint of the photos and the language. If anyone scans the same photos in the same language again, the menu comes back instantly. The cache holds only what the restaurant printed, as we read it. It isn't linked to your account.

If you sign in and save a menu, a copy goes into your account with the photos and anything you add: notes, a favourite mark, and the restaurant's location if you chose to tag it.

Diet, allergy and taste preferences

You can tell MenuLens your diets (for example vegetarian, vegan, halal, kosher, Jain, gluten-free, no pork), your allergies and intolerances and how severe they are, ingredients you'd rather avoid, and how much spice you like. MenuLens uses these to flag dishes red, amber or green. Section 4 explains how we handle them.

Questions you ask about a menu

When you use Ask or Pick for me, your question, the earlier messages in that conversation, the menu, your preferences, and any budget, party size or mood you give are sent to Anthropic to write the answer. We don't store your questions or the conversation on our servers.

Account information

• Guests: Firebase Authentication gives your copy of the app an anonymous ID. It isn't linked to your name, email or phone number.
• If you sign in with Google or Apple: we receive your name and email address from that provider, along with an account ID. With Apple you can choose to hide your email, and we then receive a private relay address. We store your preferences, your settings (menu language, home currency and appearance), the date you joined and how you signed in.

When you sign in, everything you did as a guest moves into your account.

Location (only if you turn it on)

If you turn on "Tag the restaurant's location", the app reads your phone's location when you scan. It sends it to our server, which passes an approximate position (to about 1 km) to Anthropic to help it recognise the cuisine and currency. The location is also stored with that menu if you save it. With the switch off, we never read your location.

With every scan, the app also sends your phone's language and region settings (for example "en-AU"), for the same reason.

Usage records

For each scan we keep a record against your account or guest ID. It holds the date and time, whether you were a guest, the number of pages and their file size, how many dishes were found, the menu's language and the language you asked for, which AI model was used, how much processing it took and what it cost us, and how long it took. We also count your scans each day to apply the daily limit (5 a day for guests and 30 for members, at the time of writing).

We use these records to run the service, to prevent abuse, to plan capacity and costs, and to fix problems. Our servers also keep short technical logs (account ID, menu ID and timings) for troubleshooting.

App analytics

We use Google Analytics for Firebase to see how the app is used. That tells us which features help, and where scans fail. It records events such as a scan starting, finishing or failing (with the number of pages and dishes, the languages, and how long it took), opening a dish (with the colour of its flag), signing in, saving a menu, asking a question, translating a menu, and which screens you visit.

Google also collects standard device information: an app-instance ID, the device model, operating system and app version, and your approximate region. Analytics never receives your diets, allergies, questions, photos or the menu's text. We've configured it not to collect advertising IDs, and we don't use it for advertising.

Where the law requires consent for analytics (for example in the EEA and the UK), the app asks first. You can turn analytics off at any time under You in the app.

Crash reports

We use Firebase Crashlytics to find and fix crashes. A crash report includes the technical details of what went wrong, the device model, operating system, app version and an installation ID. Crash reports don't include your photos, preferences or questions.

App integrity checks

To make sure requests come from the genuine MenuLens app, we use Firebase App Check with Google Play Integrity on Android and Apple App Attest on iPhone. These services check your device and app, under Google's and Apple's own terms.

Dish photos

To show what a dish usually looks like, our server looks up reference photos by the dish's name on Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and, when those have nothing, on photo libraries such as Pexels, Unsplash and Google image search. Only the dish name is sent in that lookup. When your phone then shows a photo, it loads it directly from that site. That site receives your device's IP address and basic browser details, as it would for any image on the web.

Exchange rates

Our server fetches daily exchange rates from a public rates service to convert prices. No information about you is sent.

When you contact us

If you email us, or tap Report a mistake (which opens an email), we receive your email address and whatever you send, such as the menu, a photo or details about a dish. We use it to answer you and to improve how menus are read.

Our website

The website doesn't use cookies, analytics or tracking. Our hosting provider (Google Firebase Hosting) keeps standard server logs, including IP addresses, to run and secure the site. Pages load fonts from Google Fonts, which receives your IP address.

4. Your diet and allergy information

Allergies and intolerances are health information. Some diets can reveal a religious or philosophical belief (for example halal, kosher or Jain) or a health condition (for example gluten-free for coeliac disease). The law treats this as sensitive, and so do we.

• We collect it only because you choose to enter it, and only to flag dishes, to tailor summaries and answers to you, and to keep your preferences in sync if you sign in. The app asks for your explicit consent before you save any preferences, and you can withdraw that consent at any time by clearing them.
• As a guest, your preferences are stored only on your phone.
• If you sign in, they're stored in your account in our Australian database, so they follow you to other devices.
• Each time you scan or ask a question, your preferences are sent with the request to our server and to Anthropic, so the result can be phrased for you. They're used for that request only. They aren't kept with your usage records or sent to analytics.
• The red, amber and green flags are worked out on your phone, from your preferences and the menu.
• We never sell this information, never use it for advertising, and never share it except with the service providers in section 6, who process it on our behalf.

If you're in Washington, Nevada or another US state with a consumer health data law, our Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy (appendix A, also at menulens-inventum.web.app/health-data) gives the details those laws require.

5. How the AI reads your menu

MenuLens uses Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, PBC in the United States, through Anthropic's commercial API. What goes to Anthropic: your menu photos, your language and region settings, your approximate location if you turned it on, your preferences, and, when you use Ask, your questions and the menu.

Under Anthropic's commercial terms:

• Anthropic may not use this content to train its models.
• Anthropic deletes it from its systems within 30 days. The exception is content its safety systems flag as breaking its usage policy, which it may keep for up to 2 years.
• Anthropic processes it in the United States.

Claude's output is checked and organised by our own software before you see it. The flags are applied by rules on your phone, not by the AI.

6. Who we share information with

We don't sell personal information, and we don't share it for advertising. We share it only with:

We may publish aggregate statistics that can't identify anyone, such as how often menus in a country list a particular allergen.

7. Where your data is stored, and transfers abroad

Your photos, saved menus, account and usage records are stored in Australia. Some processing happens in the United States (Anthropic, and Google's analytics, crash reporting and sign-in services) and in other countries where Google operates.

When information leaves Australia, we take reasonable steps to make sure the recipient protects it as well as Australian Privacy Principles do. For information from the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, transfers rely on the European Commission's standard contractual clauses (and the UK and Swiss equivalents), or on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the recipient is certified. You can ask us for details.

8. How long we keep it

We may keep something longer if the law requires it, or while we resolve a dispute or a safety report.

9. Your choices and rights

In the app, at any time:

• Change or clear your diet and allergy preferences: You > What you eat.
• Turn location tagging on or off: You > Tag the restaurant's location.
• Turn analytics off: You.
• Delete a saved menu, with its photos and notes.
• Delete your account: You > Account > Delete account. This permanently deletes your account, saved menus, photos, preferences and daily counters, and strips your ID from usage records. It can't be undone.

Without the app: email support@inventum.com.au from the address you signed in with and ask us to delete your account. We'll confirm it's you, then delete it within 30 days, usually much sooner. Step-by-step instructions are at menulens-inventum.web.app/support.

If you've only used MenuLens as a guest: uninstalling the app removes everything stored on your phone. Your photos are deleted from our servers on the usual 7-day schedule. What's left (usage records under an anonymous ID) isn't linked to your name or email, and is deleted on the schedule in section 8. To remove it straight away, sign in and then delete the account.

Your rights. Depending on where you live, you can ask us to:

• tell you what personal information we hold about you and give you a copy, including in a portable format,
• correct it,
• delete it,
• stop or limit using it, or object to how we use it,
• withdraw consent you've given, without affecting what we did before.

Email support@inventum.com.au. We'll reply within 30 days (45 days where US state law allows, and we'll tell you if we need longer). We may need to check your identity first, and we won't treat you differently for using your rights.

Complaints. Please talk to us first. If you're not happy with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au, 1300 363 992), or to the data protection authority where you live, work or think the problem happened. In the UK that's the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

10. Legal bases (EEA, UK and Switzerland)

We rely on:

• performing our contract with you to read menus, keep your account and saved menus, and answer your questions,
• your explicit consent for your diet and allergy preferences (GDPR Article 9(2)(a)), for location tagging, and for analytics where the law requires consent,
• our legitimate interests in keeping the service secure and working, preventing abuse, applying daily limits, fixing crashes and improving how menus are read. We've weighed these against your rights, and you can object,
• legal obligations, where a law requires us to keep or disclose something.

Before MenuLens is offered in the EEA or the UK, we'll appoint representatives there under Article 27 of the GDPR and the UK GDPR, and list their contact details here.

11. United States privacy rights

If you live in California or another US state with a consumer privacy law, you have the rights in section 9. We collect these categories of personal information, for the purposes and from the sources described in section 3:

• identifiers (account and installation IDs, and your email if you sign in),
• internet and device activity (app usage events and crash reports),
• approximate geolocation (and precise location, only if you turn on location tagging),
• sensitive personal information: health information, and religious beliefs that diets can reveal, given by you to tailor the service.

We don't sell personal information, and we don't share it for cross-context behavioural advertising. We use sensitive personal information only to provide the service you asked for, so there's nothing to limit. We don't knowingly sell or share information about anyone under 16. Your authorised agent can make a request for you, with your signed permission.

Consumer health data is covered in more detail in appendix A.

12. Children

MenuLens isn't directed at children, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13 (or the higher minimum age where you live, up to 16). If you believe a child has given us personal information, email us and we'll delete it.

13. Security

Information travels encrypted (HTTPS) and is encrypted at rest by Google. Our database and storage rules let only you read and write your own account data. Usage records and caches can be reached only by our servers. App integrity checks help block requests that don't come from the genuine app. No system is perfectly secure. If a data breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we'll tell you and the regulators, as the law requires.

14. Automated processing

The menu you see is produced automatically, by the AI and then our rules. The flags are guidance to help you decide what to ask the restaurant. They aren't decisions about you, and they have no legal or similarly significant effect on you. Always confirm allergens with the restaurant (see our Terms of Use).

15. Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we'll update the effective date at the top. If a change is significant, we'll tell you in the app before it takes effect. Where the law requires it, we'll ask for your consent again.

16. Contact

Inventum Technologies Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Email: support@inventum.com.au

Appendix A: Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy

Effective date: 29 October 2026. This appendix is also published on its own at menulens-inventum.web.app/health-data. It applies to "consumer health data" as defined by Washington's My Health My Data Act, Nevada's SB 370 and similar US state laws. It forms part of the MenuLens Privacy Policy above.

What consumer health data we collect. Only what you choose to enter in MenuLens:

• your food allergies and intolerances, and how severe they are,
• diets that can relate to health, such as gluten-free or dairy-free,
• ingredients you'd rather avoid, and your spice tolerance,
• what MenuLens works out from these, such as whether a dish is flagged for you.

We don't collect diagnoses, medications, or any other health information.

Where it comes from. From you, in the app.

Why we collect and use it. To flag dishes on menus you scan, to tailor dish summaries and answers to you, and, if you sign in, to keep your preferences in sync across your devices. We collect it only with your consent, and use it only to provide the features you ask for.

Who we share it with. We share it only with the processors who help us provide those features, under contract and only on our instructions:

• Anthropic, PBC, which reads the menu and answers your questions,
• Google (Firebase), which hosts our servers and database.

We don't sell consumer health data, and we don't use it for advertising. We don't use geofencing around health-care locations.

Your rights. You can:

• see the consumer health data we hold about you, and the third parties and processors we've shared it with,
• withdraw your consent, by clearing your preferences in the app (You > What you eat),
• delete it, by clearing your preferences or deleting your account (You > Account > Delete account), or by emailing support@inventum.com.au.

We'll respond within 45 days. If we refuse your request, you can appeal by replying to our answer with "Appeal" in the subject line within 30 days. We'll decide the appeal within 45 days and explain our reasons. If you're still not satisfied, you can contact your state attorney general. In Washington that's at atg.wa.gov.

Contact. support@inventum.com.au