Effective date: June 1, 2026

The short version

Ingredient Inspector is built to stay out of your business. There are no accounts. There is no sign-up. We don't run analytics, we don't track you, and we don't show ads. The app keeps your scan history and saved items on your own phone, where only you can see them, and you can delete all of it at any time.

The app reaches the internet for exactly one reason: to look up a product when you scan a barcode or search a product name. Those lookups go to a public food database called Open Food Facts, and photos you take of ingredient labels never leave your phone. We never sell your information, and the only personal information we collect is what you choose to send through our website contact form.

That's the whole story. The rest of this page just says it more precisely.

Who runs this app

Ingredient Inspector is operated by Balloon Apparatus LLC. If you have any question about privacy, you can reach us at:

Email: hello@ingredientinspector.app

What the app collects about you

Nothing that identifies you. The app has no accounts, no login, and no user profiles. We do not collect your name, email, contacts, location, or device identifiers, and we have no server or database that stores information about you.

What stays on your phone

The app saves three things locally on your device so it can work the way you'd expect:

• Your scan history

• Items you've saved

• Your settings and preferences

This information lives in the app's local storage on your phone. It is not sent to us and we cannot see it. It may be included in your own device backups (for example iCloud or Google backup) if you have those turned on, but those backups are controlled by you and your phone's operating system, not by us.

You're in control of all of it. In Settings you can turn off history and delete individual entries or saved products. Deleting the app removes it all.

What leaves your phone, and when

The app contacts the internet only when you ask it to look something up. Here is every case:

When you scan a barcode the app sends the barcode number to Open Food Facts to find the matching product and its ingredient list.

When you search for a product by name the app sends the text you typed to Open Food Facts to find matching products.

In both cases, as with any normal internet request, Open Food Facts' servers can see your device's IP address. We do not collect your IP address or connect it to you in any way; it is simply part of how any app or website communicates over the internet. Open Food Facts handles those requests under its own privacy policy, which you can read here: https://world.openfoodfacts.org/privacy

That's the only information the app sends out, and only when you trigger a lookup.

Photos of ingredient labels

When you take a photo of an ingredient list, the text is read on your phone, by software running on the device itself. The photo is not uploaded anywhere and we never receive it. Once the text is read, it's checked against the ingredient information built into the app. The photo is not saved into the app's own storage.

Checking ingredients

The ingredient information the app uses to flag or explain ingredients is built directly into the app. When the app evaluates an ingredient, that happens on your phone against this built-in information. Evaluating ingredients does not require sending anything over the internet.

Research links

Some ingredient detail pages include a link to look up scientific research. If you tap one, your phone's web browser opens to a search on PubMed (a public database run by the U.S. National Library of Medicine). That's a normal browser visit you choose to make; it's mentioned here only so nothing is a surprise.

No analytics, no tracking, no ads

The app contains no analytics tools, no tracking software, and no advertising. Ingredient Inspector does not use any third-party analytics or crash-reporting tools. If you opt in to sharing diagnostics with app developers through your device's system settings, Apple or Google may share crash logs with us; that sharing is controlled by you and governed by their policies. We do not measure how you use the app, and there are no third-party trackers embedded in it.

Children's privacy

Ingredient Inspector is a general-audience app intended for adults making decisions for themselves and their families. It is not directed to children. Because the app collects no personal information from anyone, it collects none from children either.

When you contact us through our website

Our website has a contact form for requesting beta access, getting support, or sharing a testimonial. When you submit it, we collect the information you choose to give us — your name, your email address, and your message. We use it only to respond to you, manage beta access, or share a testimonial.

If you submit a testimonial, we'll ask your permission before publishing it anywhere, and we'll only ever show your first name. We don't use your information for advertising, and we never sell it.

Form submissions are handled by Framer (our website platform), routed through ImprovMX (our email-forwarding provider), and delivered to our inbox, hosted by Google. These transfers happen over encrypted (TLS) connections. We keep submissions only as long as we need them — to respond to you, follow up on anything that takes more time, or manage the beta — and we delete them once they've served that purpose. You can ask us to delete yours at any time at hello@ingredientinspector.app.

Changes to this policy

If the app changes in a way that affects this policy, for example if accounts or cloud features are added in the future, we'll update this page and change the effective date above before those features go live. Material changes will be reflected here.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email hello@ingredientinspector.app and we'll help.