Privacy in plain English
Your family's stories stay in the family.
This notice explains what Culinary Lineage collects, why we need it, and the choices available to your family.
Effective September 6, 2026
What we collect
We collect contact details for the purchaser and invited family members, gift messages, voice recordings, transcripts and answers, uploaded photographs, changes to the book, payment references and records needed to keep the service secure. Stripe receives payment details; Culinary Lineage does not store full card numbers.
How we use it
We use this information to send invitations, transcribe and check recipes, clarify anything missing, prepare images and PDFs, provide support, prevent misuse and run the service. Your family's content is never published in a profile or recipe marketplace.
Helpful reminders and service activity
We record steps such as opening an invitation, saving a recipe and creating a book, plus fixed issue categories such as a blocked microphone or failed upload. These activity records help us improve the service and offer help. They do not contain recipe text, recordings or form answers. Anonymous visits use a random browser identifier. You can turn optional email reminders off through the link in a reminder or in Settings; sign-in and purchase messages continue.
Cookie choices
Optional visit and campaign measurement starts only after you choose Allow measurement. Cookie choices at the bottom of every page let you change this at any time. Essential cookies support sign-in, checkout, language and your requested draft. The free starter kit stays in your browser; only its recipe title moves to checkout when you choose to continue. We do not send kit notes to analytics or add kit users to an email list.
Product usage measurement
With your permission, we collect page categories, controls used, form attempts, approximate active time, scroll depth, screen-size category and fixed technical error categories. Signed-in activity is linked to your account and beta cohort so we can improve the product. We never collect form answers, recipe content, recordings, private page addresses or raw error messages in these events. A browser-tab queue retries interrupted delivery for up to 24 hours, with a limit of 200 events. Raw usage events are deleted after 90 days. Cookie choices and this policy remain available on every page, including beta accounts.
Unfinished purchases and optional emails
We may send one reminder about an unfinished order within seven days. Where permitted, we rely on legitimate interests and show an opt-out when collecting your email. This currently requires a UK or US checkout location and matching billing country from Stripe. Otherwise, we ask for your permission and email confirmation. We estimate country locally from your IP address; we do not send it to a location service. We record the notice, choice, time, country and permission basis. Payment or withdrawal stops reminders. Every email includes an unsubscribe link; you can also contact [email protected]. This does not subscribe you to other marketing. Purchase receipts and sign-in messages are separate.
Support chat and email fallback
Support chat stores the messages you send, the page and language you used, your email address, and service-security records. Messages are relayed to our support owner through Telegram. Before you can send a message, we ask for an email address and send a verification link. We use the verified address only to deliver chat replies you miss in the browser, through our email provider. We do not add that address to a marketing list.
Preparing with AI
We use AI to transcribe voice recordings, organise recipes and identify anything unclear. It is instructed to preserve uncertainty and ask rather than invent. Family photographs and recipe details are not sent to an outside image provider unless the option names that provider and you explicitly choose it.
Who can see the book
The purchaser can see the family book. Everyone invited receives their own private link. Recordings and other private files are only available after account or invitation checks; direct links to stored files are never shown.
Optional print check by our team
The Culinary Lineage team does not routinely read family recipe books. We only receive the current PDF if the purchaser asks for a print check, and only to check the layout, page breaks, margins and image quality. Requesting this check is always optional.
Retention and deletion
We keep content while the book is active and afterwards only for limited backup, security and recovery periods. The purchaser can request deletion in Settings. Before permanent deletion, we confirm exactly what will be removed: the book, recordings, images, exports and invited family access. We only retain records that the law requires us to keep.
Your choices
You may ask to access, correct, export or delete your data, and may withdraw a family member's invitation. Contact [email protected]. We do not sell family recipe content.