Summary

We store the minimum data needed to run the site. If you never sign in, we collect nothing that identifies you. If you sign in, the only personal data we store is your email address. We do not sell, rent, or share your data with anyone for marketing purposes.

What We Collect

Analytics: We use Google Analytics and Cloudflare Web Analytics to understand how visitors use the site. This collects anonymized data including pages visited, approximate location (country/region), device type, and referral source. We do not collect personally identifiable information through analytics.

Newsletter: If you subscribe to The Flavor Lab newsletter, we collect your email address. This is processed by Buttondown, a privacy-respecting email service. We do not sell or share your email with third parties. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Search queries: Ingredient searches and tool usage are processed server-side to return results. We do not log individual search queries or associate them with user identities by default. Signed-in users may opt into personal search history from the Account page — when enabled, we store the last 50 pair queries (ingredients + scoring mode, never results) for your own reference. You can turn it off and erase history in one click.

Accounts & Sign-in

Compound Kitchen uses passwordless magic-link sign-in. When you sign in, we store:

Your email address
Account creation and last login timestamps
Any pantries you explicitly choose to save (Pro feature)

We do not store passwords (there are none), security questions, names, phone numbers, or addresses. Magic-link tokens expire after 15 minutes and are single-use. Session cookies use HttpOnly, Secure, and SameSite=Lax flags and expire after 30 days.

Payments

Pro subscriptions are processed by Stripe. We never see or store your card number, CVV, expiration, or billing address — all payment details are entered directly on Stripe's hosted checkout page and held by Stripe under their PCI-DSS compliance. The only billing data on our server is a Stripe customer ID (an opaque identifier) so we can link your subscription status back to your email.

Transactional sign-in emails are delivered via Resend.

Cookies

We use:

A session cookie (ck_session) to keep you signed in after a magic-link click
Cookies set by Cloudflare (for security and performance)
Cookies set by Google Analytics (for anonymous usage statistics)

No advertising or tracking cookies are used.

Data Sharing

We do not sell, rent, or share your personal data with any third party for marketing purposes. Data is shared only with our service providers as necessary to operate the site:

Cloudflare — hosting, CDN, DDoS protection
Stripe — payment processing for Pro subscriptions
Resend — transactional email delivery for sign-in links
Buttondown — newsletter delivery (only if you subscribe)
Google Analytics — anonymized usage statistics

Your Rights

You may request deletion of any personal data we hold — your account, email address, Stripe customer record, saved pantries, and API key — by emailing [email protected]. You may also delete your account yourself from the Account page. If you cancel a Pro subscription, you can do so at any time from the Billing Portal; Stripe retains a record of past invoices as required by law.

If you are in the EU, you have additional rights under GDPR including access, rectification, and data portability.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Email [email protected].

Privacy Policy