Privacy Policy

1. Scope

This Privacy Policy explains how HowManyCookies.com collects, uses, stores, and discloses information when you use the website and its beta features. The service is currently US-first and is operated from Nevada.

2. Information we collect

Depending on how you use the service, we may collect:

• Account and authentication information, including username, email address, password hash, account roles, security settings, recovery information, and remember-me tokens.


• Profile information you choose to provide, including display names, profile answers, images, and field-level visibility choices.


• Recipes and Recipe Git activity, including ingredients, directions, notes, media, visibility, commits, fork lineage, comparisons, ratings, testing labels, saved recipes, collections, and planning activity.


• Kitchen information, including Kitchen Houses, collaborators, Bench status, menus, calendar assignments, and shopping lists.


• Community content and relationships, including blog posts, forum posts, feed or Wall posts, comments, galleries, Buddy relationships, reports, and announcements.


• Communications, including private messages and Customer Service tickets, replies, status history, and attachments.


• Uploaded media and associated details, such as filenames, captions, alt text, credits, and technical metadata retained by the upload workflow.


• Security and technical records, including IP address, browser or device user-agent, login and security events, timestamps, session information, error logs, and records used to investigate abuse or keep the service working.


• First-party usage records created by enabled features, such as native-ad renders or clicks and feature preferences stored in the browser.

Please do not place sensitive personal information in public recipes, profiles, posts, images, or comments.

3. How we use information

We use information to:

• create and secure accounts;


• display content according to its visibility settings;


• preserve recipe versions, forks, attribution, and collaboration history;


• provide community, messaging, planning, media, and support features;


• remember preferences and maintain sessions;


• prevent abuse, investigate reports, troubleshoot errors, and audit security-sensitive actions;


• measure and operate first-party features, including native ad placements when enabled;


• communicate service, support, moderation, and security notices; and


• comply with legal obligations and protect the rights and safety of users, HowManyCookies, and others.

4. Public, restricted, and private information

Public content can be viewed and may be shared by others. Restricted or private content is shown only to the audiences allowed by the applicable feature and settings. Recipe Git forks must respect the source recipe's access boundaries. Administrators and authorized support or moderation personnel may access information when needed to operate the service, respond to a request, investigate abuse, or meet legal obligations.

5. When information is disclosed

We may disclose information:

• to hosting, email, backup, security, and other service providers that process information for us;


• to collaborators or audiences selected through the service's visibility and sharing controls;


• when you direct us to publish or share content;


• when reasonably necessary to comply with law, protect safety or rights, investigate abuse, or secure the service; or


• as part of a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or transfer of the service, subject to appropriate notice and protections.

6. Retention

We keep information for as long as reasonably needed to provide the service, preserve Recipe Git lineage, maintain security and audit records, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, and meet legal obligations. Deleted material may remain temporarily in backups or logs. Some records may be retained in de-identified or aggregated form.

7. Your choices

You can edit many profile and account fields, choose available visibility settings, manage content through its feature controls, log out of sessions, and control browser storage through your browser. Requests to access, correct, or delete information that cannot be managed directly may be submitted through Customer Service. We may need to verify the request and may retain information where permitted or required for security, legal, backup, or lineage purposes.

8. Children

HowManyCookies is not directed to children under 13, and users must be at least 13 to create an account. If you believe a child under 13 has submitted personal information, contact Customer Service so we can investigate and take appropriate action.

9. Security

We use administrative and technical safeguards intended to protect information, including secured session cookies and security-event logging. No website or storage system can guarantee absolute security. Use a unique password and report suspected account misuse promptly.

10. Changes and contact

We may revise this policy as the beta changes. The published version will show its effective date. Privacy questions and requests may be submitted through Customer Service.