Privacy Policy
Effective November 10, 2026
This policy covers the PocketSom iPhone app (“the app”) and the website pocketsom.app (“the website”). “We” and “us” mean the team that makes PocketSom. We wrote it in plain language. If anything is unclear, email hello@pocketsom.app.
The short version
- Labels are read on your phone. Only the label you choose to log is kept, and it never leaves your phone unless you sign in.
- You can use the app without an account. Your taste profile and journal then stay on your phone.
- We never collect your location.
- We don’t sell your information, show ads, or track you across other apps and websites.
- If you join the waitlist, we keep your email only to tell you about PocketSom. You can unsubscribe at any time.
- You can delete your account, and everything linked to it, from inside the app.
1. The website and the waitlist
To join the waitlist on pocketsom.app you must confirm you are 21 or older. We store:
- your email address;
- how you found us, if the link you used said so (for example
utm_source=instagram) and the page that sent you, if your browser shares it; - when you signed up.
We use this only to email you about PocketSom: when the beta opens, when the app launches, and occasional updates. Every email has an unsubscribe link. We may ask you to confirm your address before we send anything else.
Like any website, our hosting provider receives your IP address and browser details when you load a page, and uses them to deliver and protect the site. The website loads its fonts from Google Fonts, so Google also receives your IP address when the page loads. The website sets no cookies and uses no analytics or advertising tools. It saves one small note in your browser (local storage) so it remembers you already joined.
2. The app
Camera and label photos
The app uses your camera to read wine labels. All reading happens on your phone. Nothing from the shelf is kept except the one label you choose to log: when you save a wine to your journal, the app keeps one cropped photo of that label, so you can see it later. Other camera frames are never saved or uploaded.
Looking up a bottle
When you are online, the app may send the producer and wine name it read from a label, plus the vintage, to our server to find that bottle’s profile. This lookup does not include who you are if you are signed out. If you are signed in, it is sent over your signed-in connection, but we do not store it against your account.
Without an account
Your quiz answers, taste profile and journal are stored only on your phone. Nothing about you is sent to us, apart from the bottle lookups above. A label photo you keep stays on your phone only.
With an account (optional)
You can sign in with Apple to back up and sync your data across devices. Then we store:
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Your account ID (the app doesn’t ask Apple for your name or email address) | To run your account |
| Your quiz answers and taste profile | Backup and sync |
| Your journal (the wines you logged, your verdicts, notes and the flavors you noticed) | Backup and sync |
| A photo of the label, if you kept one: a cropped JPEG of the one label you saved, kept in a private storage folder only your account can read | So you can see it in your journal on every device |
| Your ratings of specific bottles, if “Share my ratings to improve bottle scores” is on | To improve bottle scores for everyone |
Sharing your ratings to improve bottle scores
When you are signed in, this setting is on by default, and we explain it when you sign in. Your individual ratings stay private. Only combined results from at least five people are used, and they never show who rated what. You can turn the setting off at any time in Settings.
Location
The app never asks for or collects your location.
Purchases
Subscriptions are sold and billed by Apple through the App Store. We never see your payment details. Apple tells the app whether your subscription is active.
Usage statistics
The app sends anonymous usage statistics to PostHog, our analytics provider, so we can see which features work. These are events such as “the app was opened”, “a scan happened”, “a wine was matched”, “a tasting was logged”, “the subscription screen was shown” or “a subscription was started” (with only the plan, never payment details), each with only broad categories (for example “matched in 1 to 2 seconds”), plus basic device details: phone model, iOS version, app version, language and time zone.
They never include your photos, the labels or wines you scanned, your notes or verdicts, your account, your email or your location. They are tied to a random ID created on your phone, not to you or your account, and “Erase this device” starts a new one. We have set PostHog not to keep IP addresses or work out locations. We never use these statistics for advertising.
You can turn them off at any time in Settings → Share anonymous usage statistics.
Crash and freeze reports
When the app crashes or freezes, it sends a technical report to PostHog so we can fix it. A crash report contains the technical details of the failure: the kind of error and the list of code functions the app was running when it stopped, plus the app and iOS version. A freeze report says only how long the app was unresponsive and which app build it was. Neither contains your photos, labels, notes, account or location, and neither says anything about what you were looking at. They carry the same random ID as the usage statistics. The same Settings switch, “Share anonymous usage statistics”, turns them off; with it off the app writes no crash report at all.
Screen recordings in test builds
Test builds of the app that we hand out through Apple’s TestFlight also record the screen while you use them, through PostHog, so we can see where the app goes wrong. Photos, images and anything you type are blacked out on your phone before a recording is sent, and recordings include no network requests or app logs. They still show what the app displays, such as wine names and scores, and where you tapped. They carry the same random ID as the usage statistics and nothing that identifies you. The Settings switch above stops the recordings too. The version on the App Store never records your screen.
Your age
PocketSom is for adults of legal drinking age (21 or older in the US). The app checks your age range, from your iPhone or by asking you, and never asks for your date of birth.
3. Who else handles your information
We use a few service providers to run PocketSom. They process information only on our behalf and under their own security and privacy commitments:
- Supabase: our database and sign-in service (servers in the US). It stores the waitlist and, if you have an account, your account data.
- Cloudflare: hosts the website.
- PostHog: the app’s anonymous usage statistics and crash reports (servers in the US).
- Resend: sends our emails, once we start sending them.
- Apple: Sign in with Apple, and App Store purchases.
- Google Fonts: supplies the website’s fonts.
We do not sell or rent your personal information, and we do not share it for advertising. We would disclose information only if the law requires it, or to protect the safety of our users. If PocketSom is ever sold or merged, this policy would continue to apply to the information we already have.
4. How long we keep it, and deleting it
- Waitlist: until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete it. Email hello@pocketsom.app and we will remove it.
- Your account: until you delete it. Use Settings → Delete account in the app. It removes your account and everything linked to it. Copies in our backups are gone within 7 days.
- Journal entries you delete are removed from our servers within 30 days.
- Label photos: deleted when you delete the journal entry or your account. A weekly clean-up also removes any left-over files.
- Data only on your phone is deleted when you delete the app, or when you choose “Sign out and erase this device”.
5. Your choices and rights
- Use the app without an account.
- Turn off sharing your ratings in Settings.
- Export your profile and journal from Settings (Export my data).
- Delete your account in the app.
- Unsubscribe from any email with one click.
Depending on where you live, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, Texas, Virginia and other US states, you may have the right to know what personal information we hold about you, and to correct it, delete it or get a copy. Email hello@pocketsom.app. We will answer within 45 days and will not treat you differently for asking. Because we don’t sell or share personal information for advertising, there is nothing to opt out of. We treat a browser’s Global Privacy Control signal as a request not to sell or share, too.
6. Children
PocketSom is not for anyone under 21 and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 21. If you believe someone under 21 has given us their information, email us and we will delete it.
7. Security
Information sent to and from us is encrypted in transit. Account data is protected so that each person can reach only their own records, and we keep the information we hold to a minimum. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect yours.
8. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top. If a change affects how we use information you already gave us, we will tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.
9. Contact
Questions or requests: hello@pocketsom.app.