Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 25, 2026

ChU is operated by McLane Ventures LLC, a Florida limited liability company. This policy explains what we collect, why, and what you can do about it. We've tried to write it in plain language rather than legal boilerplate.

What we collect

Account information

When you create an account we collect your email address and a display name. Authentication is handled by Clerk, a third-party identity provider. If you sign in with Apple, we receive whatever Apple chooses to share, which may be a private relay address rather than your real one.

Your profile and goals

During setup you give us your school, your dining hall, your goals, and figures such as height, weight, age, and activity level, which we use to calculate your daily calorie and macro targets. You can change or clear these at any time in the app.

Allergens and dietary restrictions

Any allergens or dietary restrictions you set. This can reveal health-related information about you, so we treat it as sensitive. We use it only to filter and label what you see in the app, and to build recommendations that avoid it.

Meal logs

Items you log, when you logged them, and the nutrition figures attached to them.

Photos you submit

If you use the food photo feature, the image is sent to Anthropic, our AI provider, to produce an estimate of what the food is and roughly what's in it. The photo is used to generate that estimate and is not kept afterward. What we retain is the resulting log entry, not the image. These estimates are approximations, not measurements, and should not be relied on for medical or clinical purposes.

Technical information

Basic device and app information needed to operate and debug the service, such as app version and error reports.

What we don't collect

• We don't collect your payment card details. Subscriptions are processed by Apple, and we never see your card number.
• We don't collect your precise location.
• We don't collect your contacts, photo library, or microphone beyond photos you explicitly submit.

How we use it

• To show you the right dining hall menus for your school.
• To hide items flagged with allergens you avoid, and to mark items that carry no allergen information at all.
• To calculate your targets and recommend meals from what your dining halls are serving.
• To keep your meal history and show your daily totals.
• To respond when you contact support.
• To fix bugs and keep the service running.

What we don't do with it

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share it with advertisers, data brokers, or your university. We do not use your meal logs, your goals, or your dietary information to target advertising.

Who we share it with

We use a small number of service providers to operate ChU. They process data on our behalf and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes:

• Clerk, account authentication.
• Railway, application hosting.
• TiDB Cloud, database storage.
• Apple, subscription billing and, if you choose it, sign-in.
• Anthropic, processing photos you submit and generating meal recommendations.

We may also disclose information if required by law, or to protect the rights and safety of our users or ourselves.

Where menu data comes from

Dining hall menus, nutrition figures, and allergen flags in ChU come from the dining information your university or its dining provider publishes. We don't create or estimate that data. Coverage is uneven, not every item carries complete nutrition or allergen information, and the absence of an allergen flag does not mean the allergen is absent. If you have a serious allergy, confirm with dining staff.

Your choices

Access and correction

You can view and change your profile, goals, and allergen settings in the app at any time.

Deletion

Email us from the address on your account and ask us to delete it. We'll remove your profile, preferences, and meal history from our systems and confirm when it's done. Backups may retain copies for a limited period before being overwritten in the normal course of operations.

Depending on where you live

Residents of certain states and countries have additional rights over their personal information, including rights to access, correct, delete, or obtain a copy of it, and to be free from discrimination for exercising those rights. Email us and we'll honor requests we're able to verify.

How long we keep it

We keep your account information and meal history for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we delete that data. Support emails are kept for a reasonable period so we can follow up on ongoing issues.

Children

ChU is intended for college students and other adults. It is not directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child under 13 has given us information, email us and we'll delete it.

Security

We use encryption in transit, managed database hosting, and access controls appropriate to a service of this size. No system is perfectly secure, and we won't claim otherwise.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy materially, we'll update the date at the top and, where appropriate, notify you in the app.

Contact us

Questions about privacy, or a request about your data: