Privacy Policy
Last updated: July 17, 2026 · By using Hearth you agree to this policy.
The short version
Your lists are private. Sharing them with your hearth shows them to that hearth. Publishing one shows it to anyone, and lets anyone copy it — and that is always a separate, deliberate choice you make per list.
Social is off until you pick a handle. Until then, nobody outside your hearths can see you at all.
Information we collect
• Account info: your email and display name (or the name/relay email you share via Sign in with Apple).
• Profile info: an optional profile photo. Within a hearth, your name and photo are visible to its members.
• Your lists and content: lists, items, quantities, notes, links, and item photos you create, and which hearth they belong to.
• Hearth membership: the hearths you create or join, their invite codes, and your role.
• Social — only if you pick a handle: your handle, bio, and social photo; the lists you publish; your likes, comments, follows and blocks; direct messages you send and receive; and reports you file.
• Search queries: when you search or scan a barcode, the term/barcode is sent to third-party product databases to return results.
• Social search history — only if you use Social: when you search and tap a result, we store what you typed and which person or list you opened. Typing alone is never stored — only the tap. It ranks your Discover feed, is kept for 90 days, then deleted. Only you can read it, and you can clear it any time.
We do NOT collect precise location, show ads, or sell your personal information — and we don't use your content to train machine-learning models.
We also do not record which lists you look at, how long you look, what you scroll past, or when you use the app. Discover is ranked from things you chose to do — not from watching you browse.
How Discover is ordered
Discover is ranked, not chronological. The order comes from: how many people saved, commented on or liked a list; how recently it was published; whether you follow or are friends with the author; whether you've saved one of their lists before; whether your friends saved it; what you searched for and tapped in the last 30 days; and whether the list overlaps lists you already keep.
That last one means the contents of your own lists — including private ones — help decide what Discover shows you. This happens on our server. Nothing about your private lists is shown to anyone, sent anywhere, or revealed by what appears in your feed.
No tracking, no profiling of your browsing, and no data from outside Hearth goes into your feed.
Who sees what
• Your email — only you and us. Never shown to other users.
• Your Social search history — only you. Deleted after 90 days.
• Display name, photo — members of your hearths.
• Private lists — only you.
• Hearth lists — members of that hearth.
• Handle, social photo, bio — anyone, once you pick a handle.
• Published lists — anyone. And anyone can copy them.
• Likes, comments — anyone who can see that list.
• Followers and following — anyone.
• Direct messages — you and the person you sent them to.
• Blocks — only you. The person you blocked is not told.
• Reports you file — only you and us. Never the person reported.
Publishing, and copies
When you publish a list we remove who added each item, who it was assigned to, any private notes, and everyone's completed state. What we publish is a snapshot taken at that moment — so a hearth member's name doesn't become public because you published a list they contributed to.
Copies are permanent. If someone saves a copy of your published list, that copy is theirs. Unpublishing stops new copies; it does not delete existing ones. We can't recall them, and neither can you.
Direct messages
Messages are only possible between people who follow each other. They're private between the participants and are not shown to anyone else.
They are not end-to-end encrypted. We store them so they can be delivered and re-read, which means we are technically able to access them. We only do so where we reasonably need to: to investigate a report, to comply with the law, or to protect someone's safety. Please don't send anything through Hearth you wouldn't want stored on a server.
How we use it
To create and secure your account, store and sync your lists across devices, enable hearth sharing, operate the Social features you've opted into, deliver notifications, return food/product search results, investigate reports and enforce our Terms, and operate and improve the app.
Storage
Account, list, and social data are stored with Supabase (our backend/database provider) with database-level access rules, so only you and the people you've shared with can read your content. Public lists and public profiles are readable by signed-in Hearth users by design.
Photos live in a public storage bucket — anyone with the exact URL can view the file, so treat a photo you upload as shareable. Some data is cached locally on your device.
Third-party services
• Spoonacular, Open Food Facts, USDA FoodData Central — receive your search terms/barcodes to return product info and images.
• TMDB, iTunes Search, RAWG — receive titles you search for, to return posters and cover art.
• Apple (Sign in with Apple) — optional authentication.
• Supabase — hosting, authentication, database, file storage.
• Anthropic — if you use the support assistant on this site, your question is sent to Anthropic's API to generate a reply. Please don't put personal details in it.
We share only what a feature needs (e.g. a search term), never your list contents.
Sharing
We do not sell or rent your personal information. Your content is shared only with the people you choose — your hearths, or the public if you publish. We may disclose information if required by law or to protect users or the service.
Affiliate links
"Find on Amazon" buttons pass only the item's name as a search term — never your identity, account, or list data. As an Amazon Associate we may earn from qualifying purchases; anything you do on Amazon is governed by Amazon's own privacy policy.
Children
Hearth is for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13; we do not knowingly collect info from children under 13. A household may share a hearth with younger members using an adult's account, and Hearth includes parental controls (daily add limits, and approval before items are added).
Social is a different matter. Published lists, comments, and messages from other people are not intended for children. If you're setting Hearth up for a child, don't give that account a handle — without one, they cannot be found, followed, or messaged by anyone outside your own hearths.
Security
We use reasonable measures to protect your information, but no method of storage or transmission is 100% secure. We keep what we collect to the minimum the app needs to work.
Your rights & choices
You can edit your profile, leave hearths, unpublish any list, leave Social entirely (which releases your handle, hides your profile, and unpublishes your lists), block anyone, delete lists and items, and delete your account and all associated data anytime (You tab → Danger zone → Delete account) — or by emailing us.
Copies other people have already made of your published lists are their content and remain with them. We may keep limited info where the law requires it. We may update this policy; the date above reflects the latest version.