Privacy policy

Last updated: 25 October 2026. This policy applies to the website cookobel.de and to the Cookobel app (Android).

1. Controller

Marco Desiderio (BEng.), Cookobel · Dienstleistungen rund um das Internet und Werbung, Niethammerstr. 13, 74189 Weinsberg, Germany · Email: madex@madex.biz

2. In short

3. This website

The website is hosted by ALL-INKL.COM – Neue Medien Münnich, Hauptstraße 68, 02742 Friedersdorf, Germany, which acts as our processor. When you visit, the server processes technically necessary information (IP address, time, page requested, browser) so that the page can be delivered and to keep the service secure (legitimate interests, Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). The IP address is only stored in shortened form in the log files. Fonts and images are on the same server; no third-party content is embedded.

4. Contact

If you write to us by email or through the contact form, we process your email address, your name if you give it and your message in order to reply (Art. 6(1)(b) or (f) GDPR). The form sends the details to us by email and stores nothing on the website. We delete messages once the matter is settled, unless a statutory retention obligation applies.

5. The Cookobel app

5.1 What stays on your devices

The app stores recipes, pictures, meal plans, the shopping list, pantry items, your household's name and the names of your devices only on your devices. When it first starts, it creates a random household ID, a household key and a random device ID. They reveal nothing about you.

Syncing within the household, “Show cookbook”, “Edit on a computer”. Devices exchange recipes directly with each other – on the same Wi-Fi or, for the cookbook without shared Wi-Fi, directly from device to device via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (Nearby Connections from Google Play services). The content is encrypted with the household key or a one-time key from the QR code. So that your devices can find each other on the Wi-Fi, the app announces itself on the local network with a short form of the household ID, the device ID and the device name; other devices on the same Wi-Fi can see this information. For the connection without Wi-Fi, Android asks for the “Nearby devices” permission, and on older devices (up to Android 12) and occasionally on newer ones for location, because Android links the search for nearby devices to it. Cookobel does not read or store any location. We receive none of this.

Recipe cards only reach the people you send the file to (for example via WhatsApp or email – the terms of that service apply).

Backup. “Create backup” saves a file in the “Download” folder of your device; where you send it is up to you. It also contains the household key. The automatic Android backup to your Google account is switched off for Cookobel; Android also does not copy the app's data when you move to a new device. Your recipes get onto a new device from another device in your household or from the backup file.

Recipes from the web. If you paste a link, your device loads the page and the recipe photo itself. As with any visit, the operator of that page sees your IP address and your browser. The app only keeps the recipe photo where you are allowed to copy it for private use (see 5.2, “Country”).

5.2 AI capture

If you have a recipe captured with AI, the app sends the photos you chose (at most 4) or the content of the linked page, the link and your optional note to our service ki.madex.biz in encrypted form (server at ALL-INKL.COM in Germany). If you chose English for new recipes, the app sends this language setting (for example “en-GB”) with every request to our service, so that recipes and messages come back in English. For the capture, we pass this content on to Anthropic Ireland, Limited, 6th Floor, South Bank House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland, which carries out the recognition on our behalf (data processing on our behalf). Processing by the Anthropic group in the USA may take place; this transfer is safeguarded by the European Commission's standard contractual clauses, which form part of the data processing agreement (Art. 46 GDPR). Anthropic does not use the content to train AI models and, according to its own information, deletes it within 30 days; content that violates Anthropic's usage policies may be kept for longer. The legal basis is the user agreement (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).

On our side, the photos and the page are deleted immediately after capture, and the finished recipe as soon as the app has collected it, at the latest after 7 days. After that, the recipe exists only on your devices.

Country. Whether the app may keep the photo from a web page depends on the copyright law of the country you are in at the time. For this, our service works out the country from the IP address of the request – using the freely available list IP Geolocation by DB-IP (licence CC BY 4.0), which is stored on our server; the address is not passed on to anyone for this. In addition, the app states the country of your Google Play account, which Google Play tells it. Neither the address nor your household's country is stored; the service only counts how many captures there were per country and month, with no link to any household. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in respecting copyright (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

5.3 Looking up nutrition and ingredients per step

If the app doesn't know an ingredient yet, it asks our service: it sends the name of the ingredient, the unit used, up to three ingredient lines from your recipes as examples; the service has Anthropic (see 5.2) match the ingredient to a food. We add the result – the ingredient name and the match, with no link to your household – to a shared directory so that the ingredient is known to everyone next time. The legal basis is the user agreement (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).

So that “Make it now” shows the right ingredients at every step, the app sends the ingredients and method steps of a recipe to our service; the service has Anthropic (see 5.2) match them to each other and returns the result to the app, which saves it in the recipe on your devices. This happens once per recipe, also in the background when the app opens, and again when you change the ingredients or steps. We store neither the ingredients and steps nor the result. The legal basis is the user agreement (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).

5.4 Credit, full version and devices in the household

For AI capture and the full version, our service keeps one entry per household under an ID that the app derives from the household key. It contains: a checksum of the access key, the balance of AI digitisations, the number of captures and look-ups per day and month, the number of matches per day and month, redeemed vouchers, the household's full version and the IDs of devices removed from the household. When it starts, the app asks our service whether the full version applies; the household's ID, the household ID and the device ID are transmitted for this. As with every request to our service, the app also states its version (e.g. “cookobel/0.8.69”) so that the service can respond appropriately. The legal basis is the user agreement (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). To prevent anyone obtaining the starting credit over and over by creating new households, we process a checksum of the IP address combined with a random value that changes daily; it is only valid for the current day (legitimate interests, Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

So that only the genuine Cookobel app from Google Play uses our service, it can ask each device for a confirmation through Google's Play Integrity service – on first contact and roughly once a week after that: Google confirms that the app comes unmodified from Google Play and runs on an unmodified device. For this the app creates a key whose secret part never leaves the device. Our service has Google decrypt the confirmation, checks it and does not store it; it only stores the public part of the key with an expiry date under the device's ID in your household's entry. The device signs every further request with this key. So that nobody uses up Google's quota for these confirmations, the service counts the attempts per connection and day using the same checksum of the IP address. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in protecting the service against misuse by modified apps (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). What Google checks on the device for this is governed by Google's terms.

5.5 Purchases through Google Play

You buy the full version and packs of AI digitisations through Google Play; Google handles payment, invoicing and refunds under its own privacy policy. We do not receive any payment details. So that we can assign a purchase to your household and credit it, the app sends us the purchase data signed by Google: product, order number, purchase token and time. We check the signature and store the order number, the date, a checksum of the purchase token, the assignment to the household and, for the full version, the ID of the device used to buy it. Once a day our service asks Google which purchases were refunded and then withdraws the full version or the credit; refunded purchases remain recorded so that the same purchase cannot be credited a second time. The legal basis is the contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).

5.6 Report a problem

If you report a capture that went wrong, the app sends your description, the job (link, note, error message), the AI's result, the recipe in its current version including your notes, the photos or the page, and the app version. We use this only to fix the error and delete it no later than 30 days after receipt. Reporting is voluntary (consent, Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR).

5.7 Logs of our service

The ki.madex.biz server logs requests in the same way as the website (see 3., IP address shortened). To keep track of the AI costs, our service stores, for every capture, every look-up, every match and every AI picture, the time, the scope (number of photos, whether a link was included, number of ingredients and steps), computing effort and cost with the first eight characters of the household ID – no content; the last 5,000 entries are kept. It logs technical errors without content and with a shortened ID; the log is trimmed continuously (legitimate interests, Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

5.8 Google Play services

For scanning QR codes, the connection without Wi-Fi and purchasing, the app uses components of Google Play services (code scanner, Nearby Connections, Play Billing, Play Integrity – see 5.4). The QR code is read on the device. Google's privacy policy applies to these components. The app contains no advertising or analytics services.

5.9 AI pictures

If a recipe has no picture, you can have the AI generate one – only if you explicitly choose to. The app then sends the recipe's title, category, servings, ingredients and method steps to our service; for the second try (“Picture not right?”) also the first picture, its description and your feedback. The service has Anthropic (see 5.2) describe how the served dish looks and sends only this description text to fal (Features & Labels, Inc., USA), which generates the picture from it – without any ID, photo or information about you. The picture comes straight back in the response and is not stored in our account's history at fal. We store neither the recipe nor the picture; in your household's entry we only note which picture vouchers (one free picture after your own digitisation, one free second try) have already been used. AI pictures are only available to the genuine app from Google Play (confirmation as in 5.4). The legal basis is the user agreement (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).

The “prompt for your own image AI” is created by the app itself from the recipe, without our service. If you copy or share it into an image AI such as Gemini, its terms apply.

6. Recipients

7. How long we keep data

8. Your rights

You have the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection, as well as the right to withdraw consent at any time with effect for the future. Just send us an email. As we don't store names or email addresses, we can only link data to your household if you tell us something that identifies it – for example the 6-character ID shown in the app's menu ⋮ after “Household”, the order number of a purchase from your Google Play receipt or a voucher you redeemed (Art. 11 GDPR). How to request deletion is explained under Delete your data. We don't store your recipes; they are on your devices, and that is where you delete them yourself, just like the whole app.

You can also lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, in particular in the country where you live. The authority responsible for us is the Landesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit Baden-Württemberg, Lautenschlagerstraße 20, 70173 Stuttgart, Germany.

9. Children

Cookobel is intended for adults. Purchases through Google Play require a Google account, for which Google has its own age rules.

10. Changes

If the way Cookobel handles data changes, we will update this policy. The version with the latest date at the top of this page applies. This is a translation of the German version, which we keep identical in content.