Privacy Policy.
Effective 1 September 2026 · groundhog.coffee and the Groundhog iOS app
Groundhog is an espresso-coaching app. This policy describes what we collect, why we collect it, who processes it for us, and how to delete it. The short version: we store what you log, we never sell it, we never show ads, and you can erase everything from inside the app.
1. Information we collect
Account. When you sign up we collect your email address and, if you use Sign in with Apple, the name and email Apple shares. Authentication is handled by our sign-in provider, Clerk.
Coffee data you log. Shots (dose, grind, yield, time, temperature, ratings, taste notes, free-text notes), bean bags (name, roaster, roast date, origin, process, purchase date) and any photos you attach. If you photograph a bag to scan it, the text is read on your device; the recognised text is sent to our server to fill in the bag’s details.
Environment (optional). If you allow location access, we look up your suburb and current weather (humidity, temperature, pressure) when you log a shot. Your coordinates are used only for that lookup and are never stored — we keep the suburb name and the weather values. Weather data comes from Open-Meteo. If you don’t allow location, none of this is collected.
Social (optional). If you join the Phil Pheed, we store your handle, display name, city and country, and the posts, comments, likes, reports and blocks you create. Posts you share are visible to other Groundhog users.
Purchases. Groundhog Pro is billed by Apple. We receive a signed transaction record to verify your subscription; we never see your payment details.
Invites. We store the invite codes you create and redeem, and which account redeemed each code.
2. How we use it
To provide the product: generating Phil’s coaching advice from your shots, beans, equipment and local weather; syncing your history across launches; running the Pheed; verifying your subscription; and operating the invite system. To generate advice, the relevant shot and bean data is processed by our AI provider (OpenAI) via our server; it is not used to train their models under our agreement. We also use your email to respond when you contact us.
We do not sell personal information, share it for advertising, or run third-party ads.
3. On-device data
Optional integrations stay on your device: caffeine logging writes to Apple Health (we never read or receive your Health data), Siri and widgets read a local snapshot of your recent shots, and the offline coach runs entirely on-device with Apple’s Foundation Models.
4. Who processes data for us
Clerk (authentication), Cloudflare (hosting, database and photo storage), OpenAI (coaching generation), Apple (sign-in, subscriptions) and Open-Meteo (weather, queried without your identity). Each receives only what it needs to do its job.
5. Retention and deletion
We keep your data while your account exists. Delete your account in Settings → Delete account and everything — shots, beans, posts, comments and photos — is permanently removed from our servers. Deleting a single shot or post removes it and its photos. You can also email us to request deletion or a copy of your data.
6. Security
Data travels over HTTPS and is stored with access controls on Cloudflare’s infrastructure. Photos are stripped of EXIF metadata (including GPS) before upload. No system is perfectly secure, but we keep the surface small: we collect little and store less.
7. Children
Groundhog is not directed at children under 13 (or the equivalent minimum age in your country), and we don’t knowingly collect their data.
8. Changes
If this policy changes materially we’ll note it in the app and update the date above. Continued use after a change means you accept the updated policy.
9. Contact
Privacy questions, deletion or export requests: hello@groundhog.coffee.