PortionNest privacy policy

Last updated 23 October 2026 · Version 1.1 · Applies from the app's public release

PortionNest helps you plan meals, cook, shop and keep a food diary. PortionNest is run by Lachlan Pinyon, a sole trader in Queensland, Australia ("PortionNest", "we", "us"). This policy explains what we collect, why, who sees it and the choices you have.

We handle your personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). We never sell your data, never use it for advertising and never share it with data brokers.

What we collect

We collect only what you give us or switch on, plus the minimum technical data needed to run the service.

Account: your name, username, email address (or the Apple / Google sign-in identifier, which may be a private relay address), date of birth, avatar and household colour. We ask for your date of birth to confirm you're 18 or older and to work out suggested targets.
Profile and targets: energy unit, height, weight, activity level, goal, goal weight, preferred pace, whether you're pregnant or breastfeeding (only so we never suggest eating less than you need), nutrition targets, your "why" and any acknowledgement you give about targets.
Food preferences: allergies, intolerances, foods you don't like and foods you like.
Your food diary: what you log as eaten, its nutrition and food groups, whether you marked a day complete, and your weight if you log it.
Content you add: recipes, photos, notes and ratings. Photos are resized and their location and camera details are removed before they're stored.
Household data: your household's meal plans, cooked batches and leftovers, shopping lists, pantry, products you added and prices you paid.
Activity (only if you switch it on): active energy burned, steps, exercise sessions and weight from Apple Health or Health Connect.
Notifications (only if you switch them on): a push token for your phone and your time zone.
Things the app works out for you: guidance tips and your weekly round-up, generated from your diary and targets.
Technical data: when your phone talks to our server we record your IP address, app version, device type and the time, in server logs used for security and fixing faults.
On your phone only: a copy of today's screens and any changes waiting to sync while you're offline.

Some of this is health information, which the law treats as sensitive: your weight, height, pregnancy or breastfeeding status, allergies, intolerances, diary and activity. We only collect it with your consent, which you give by entering it or switching the feature on. You can withdraw that consent at any time by removing the information or switching the feature off.

How we use it

We use your information only to run PortionNest for you and your household:

to create and secure your account and confirm you're 18 or older
to suggest and adjust your energy and nutrition targets, tips and weekly round-up
to check recipes and products against your household's allergies and intolerances, and flag foods people don't like
to sync your plans, shopping, pantry and diary between your devices and your household
to adjust your day's target and suggest a snack after exercise, if you've switched activity on
to send the reminders you've switched on
to answer your questions, keep the service secure and fix faults
where the law requires us to

We don't use your information for advertising, profiling for marketing, or anything unrelated to these purposes.

Who can see it

Only you, by default: your diary, targets, weight, activity, date of birth, email, food preferences, guidance tips and weekly round-up.
Your household: your name, avatar and colour, household recipes, plans (including who's planned to eat which portion), shopping, pantry and prices. Your diary only if you switch on "Share my diary with the household" — even then, never your targets, weight, activity, tips or round-up. Household members see a gentle note if a meal includes something you don't like, and the cooking restrictions needed for your allergies, but not the full list of your preferences. If you leave a household, members can no longer see your diary or profile.
One person you send a link to: a recipe, or the diary days you choose (from just today up to 3 months), with your first name and avatar. Diary links include kJ and nutrients only if you leave that on, and never your targets, weight, activity, tips or round-up. A link can only be opened by the first person who opens it, expires after 30 days, and stops working straight away if you stop sharing. Anything you log on the shared days shows up for them while the link lasts.
Everyone signed in to PortionNest: only recipes you choose to share, with their photos and your username, and the details of products you add from their labels (name, nutrition, ingredients and allergens, so the next person who scans one finds it; never who added it). "Stop sharing" removes them from the public library straight away. Shared recipes can be reported, and we may remove any that break the rules or aren't yours to share.
Us: we access your information only when we need to — to answer a request from you, fix a fault or keep the service secure.
Authorities: only when the law requires it, such as a valid court order or warrant.

Services we use

A few features rely on outside services. Each receives only what that feature needs, and some are based overseas.

Your phone (on-device), for recipe scanning and label photos: photos are read on your phone and never uploaded. For a recipe scan, only the text you confirm is sent to our server. When you add a product that isn't in our database yet, the text read from its label and pack is sent to our server (and to Anthropic, below) to fill in the details for you to check.
Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org, France), when you scan a barcode: the barcode number only, nothing about you.
Anthropic (Claude AI, United States), when you tap "Suggest something new": names and rough amounts of food on hand, the servings and time you chose, and your household's allergies, intolerances, likes and dislikes. Never your name, email, diary, weight or targets. When you add a product that isn't in our database yet: the text read from its label and pack only, never the photos or anything about you.
Recipe websites, when you import a recipe from a link: our server fetches the page; nothing about you is sent.
Purelymail (United States), our email provider: your email address and the message, when we send you a sign-in code or reply to an email you sent us.
Expo, Apple and Google push services (United States), for reminders you've switched on: your push token and the message text.
Expo app updates (United States), when the app checks for an update: your app version, device type and IP address. Nothing about your account.
Apple and Google sign-in (United States), if you sign in with Apple or Google: handled by Apple or Google; we receive your sign-in identifier, name and email.

Under Anthropic's commercial terms, what we send isn't used to train its models. Because allergies and intolerances are health information, AI recipe ideas only send them when you tap "Suggest something new". We take reasonable steps to make sure these services protect your information, but they are not bound by the Australian Privacy Principles, so overseas laws may apply to what they hold.

Health data (Apple Health and Health Connect)

If you connect Apple Health or Health Connect (which Samsung Health and others use), PortionNest can:

write the nutrition of meals you log, from one phone you authorise
read, only if you switch it on, your active energy, steps, workouts and weight

We use this data only to provide those features. We never read nutrition back from your health app, never store health data in iCloud, never share it with your household or anyone else, never sell it and never use it for advertising. Data read from Health Connect is handled in line with the Health Connect permissions policy.

You can turn off reading or writing at any time in PortionNest's Settings, or remove PortionNest's access in Apple Health or Health Connect. Turning it off stops new data flowing; to remove activity already copied to PortionNest, delete it in the app or delete your account.

Where it's kept and how it's protected

Your information is stored on PortionNest's own server in Australia. Nightly backups are kept on a separate drive, also in Australia. We don't store your account data with any cloud provider.

We take reasonable steps to protect it:

data sent between the app and the server is encrypted (HTTPS)
the database can't be reached from the internet; only PortionNest's own server can talk to it
administrator access is limited and protected by hardware security keys

No system is perfectly secure. If a data breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we'll tell you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) as soon as we can.

How long we keep it

We keep your information while your account is open. When you delete something, or your account, it's removed from the live server straight away and from backups within 30 days as they're replaced.

Server logs: kept for up to 90 days, then deleted.
Inactive accounts: if you don't sign in for 2 years, we'll email you, and delete the account 30 days later unless you sign in.
Shared links: expire after 30 days, or straight away if you stop sharing.
Household recipes you wrote: stay with the household without your name after you delete your account.

Your choices and rights

See and correct your information: change or remove your preferences, targets, weights and diary entries at any time in the app.
Switch features off: activity reading, health export, tips, the round-up and notifications, in Settings.
Get a copy: export your data (JSON, and your diary as CSV) in Settings → Your data. You can also ask us for any information we hold about you that isn't in the export.
Delete your account: in Settings → Account. This removes your account, diary, weights, activity, preferences and personal recipes, and takes any recipes you shared with everyone out of the public library. Recipes you wrote for a household stay with that household without your name.
Delete without the app: if you no longer have the app, visit portionnest.au/delete-account or email hello@portionnest.au from the address on your account, and we'll delete it within 30 days.

We'll respond to access or correction requests within 30 days, free of charge. We'll check it's really you before acting on a request.

Age requirement

PortionNest is for people 18 and older. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If we learn an account belongs to someone under 18, we'll close it and delete its data.

Questions and complaints

Email hello@portionnest.au with any question, request or complaint about your privacy. We'll acknowledge it within 7 days and aim to resolve it within 30 days.

If you're not happy with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.

Changes to this policy

We'll update the version and date at the top whenever this policy changes. For any change to what we collect, who sees it or the services we use, we'll show you the new version in the app before it applies. The current version is always available in Settings and at portionnest.au/privacy.