Privacy at Fingertip Kitchen
Last updated October 5, 2026
Fingertip Kitchen (winklers-llc.com, formerly called Recipe Keeper) is run by Joshua Winkler. This page explains, in plain language, what the app keeps, who can see it, and how to remove it.
The short version
- We only ask for a username and password. No email, phone number, or real name is required.
- Your recipes are private unless you choose to put them in a Family Cookbook or share them with the Community.
- Photos you scan are sent to Google's AI so it can read them (more on that below).
- No ads, no tracking, and we never sell your information.
- You can delete your account and everything in it at any time.
What we keep, and why
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Your username | To sign you in. It's shown next to recipes you share in the Community or a Family Cookbook. |
| Your password, security-question answers, and recovery codes | To keep your account safe and let you back in if you forget your password. These are stored only in a scrambled (“hashed”) form, so nobody, including us, can read them. |
| Your recipes, recipe-card photos, photos of dishes, and voice notes | That's your recipe book. It's kept so you can see it on any phone or computer. |
| Your shopping list | So it follows you from your computer to your phone at the store. |
| Family Cookbooks you belong to, and recipes you add to them | So your family can see them. |
| Recipes you share in the Community, comments you write there, plus hearts, saves, and reports | To run the Community board and keep it friendly. |
| Your profile (an optional name, photo, and “about you”), who you follow, your star ratings, and your collections | To show your profile to other cooks, show you recipes from people you follow, and keep your collections on every device. |
| If you turn on phone notifications: a delivery address for your device from its maker (Apple, Google, Mozilla, or Microsoft) | So we can send you notifications. Turning them off, or signing out, removes it. |
| If you order a printed book: the shipping name, address, and phone number you enter, the email you give the payment page, what you ordered, and the price | To print and mail your book and send you receipts. We keep order records even if you later delete your account, because businesses must keep sales records for taxes. Card numbers go only to Stripe; we never see them. |
| Simple daily totals, like how many cards were scanned or accounts made each day | So we can see how the app is doing and spot problems. These are just numbers, with nothing about who did what. |
| Private messages and family chats you send (including recipes you send in them), people you've blocked, and when you last read each conversation | To deliver your messages and show what's new. |
| Messages you send through Contact Us | So we can read and answer them. Include a way to reach you only if you want a reply. |
| Your internet (IP) address, briefly | To stop abuse, such as someone creating hundreds of accounts. These records are deleted within about two days. |
How the AI reading works
When you scan a recipe, the photo is sent to Google's Gemini AI, which reads the handwriting and sends back the text. If Google's AI is busy, the photo goes to a backup AI instead: Groq or Cloudflare Workers AI. The recipe text is also sent to Gemini when it suggests tags or checks a card for likely mistakes. We don't send your username or password with it.
Right now Fingertip Kitchen uses Google's free AI service. Under Google's terms for its free service, Google may use what's sent to improve its products, and trained reviewers at Google may look at it. Please don't scan anything private, such as account numbers, medical notes, or addresses. If we move to Google's paid service, we'll update this page.
When you use Import from a Website, our server visits that web page to read the recipe (the website sees a visit from our server, not from you). We keep only the recipe and the site's address as its source.
Who can see your recipes
- Only you: everything in your recipe book, voice notes, and your shopping list.
- Your family: recipes you add to a Family Cookbook (with their photos and voice notes), and your username. Only people with your cookbook's invite code can join.
- Everyone signed in to Fingertip Kitchen: recipes you share with the Community, your username, and any story or photos you choose to include. Photos of your recipe card are only shared if you tick them. Voice notes are never shared in the Community. Comments you write on shared recipes (and any “I made this!” photo with them) can be seen by everyone signed in, along with your username.
- Anyone with a share link: if you tap “Share a Link” on a recipe, anyone who has that link can see that one recipe, its main photo, and your name, without signing in. Not your handwritten card, voice notes, or anything else. You can turn a link off at any time, and it stops working right away. We count how many times it was opened.
- Finding people: anyone signed in can look you up by your username or your profile name, then follow you or send a message (which arrives as a request unless you share a family cookbook). People you block can't find you.
- Everyone signed in, about your profile: your username, the name, photo, and “about you” you choose to add, when you joined, the recipes you've shared, and how many people follow you and you follow. Who you follow, your collections, and which stars you gave are not shown to anyone; people only see each recipe's average rating.
- The people in a conversation: private messages are seen only by you and the person you're writing to. A Family Cookbook's group chat is seen by everyone in that cookbook, including people who join later. Messages from someone you don't share a family cookbook with arrive as a request you can accept, decline, or block.
- Fingertip Kitchen's admin can remove Community posts and reads Contact Us messages. We don't read private messages, except a message someone reports to us, which is sent to us so we can look at it. We don't look through people's private recipe books.
Where it's stored
Your account and recipes are stored on Cloudflare's servers in the United States. Everything travels over a secure, encrypted connection (https).
Your phone or computer also keeps a copy of your recipes and photos, plus a sign-in key so you stay signed in. That copy is cleared when you sign out.
Other services the app uses
- Cloudflare: hosts the website and database, and runs the “I'm human” check on sign-up and Contact Us (Cloudflare Turnstile).
- Google: the Gemini AI that reads recipes, and Google Fonts for the lettering.
- Groq and Cloudflare Workers AI: backup AIs that read recipes when Google's AI is busy.
- cdnjs (run by Cloudflare): small free code libraries used to make flash-drive copies and cookbook PDFs. The PDF is made on your own device.
- Stripe (only if you buy something): handles the payment. Stripe's own privacy policy covers your card details.
- Lulu (only if you order a printed book): prints the book and mails it, so it receives the book file, the shipping name, address, phone number, and email.
- Apple, Google, Mozilla, or Microsoft (only if you turn on phone notifications): your device's maker delivers the notification. What it says is encrypted so only your device can read it.
These companies receive your internet address when your device loads their part of the app, as any website does.
What we don't do
- No advertising, and no ad or tracking cookies.
- No analytics that follow you around the web.
- We never sell or rent your information.
Your choices
- Change or delete any recipe, photo, or voice note from its recipe page.
- Take a recipe back from the Community or a Family Cookbook at any time. If someone already added a copy to their own book, that copy is theirs.
- Get a copy of everything with Account → Save to Flash Drive.
- Delete your account with Account → Delete my account. This immediately erases your account, recipes, photos, voice notes, shopping list, Community posts, comments, the messages you sent, your profile, ratings, follows, collections, and notification settings. Family cookbooks you run are handed to the next member. Deleted information may remain in Cloudflare's automatic database backups for up to 30 days before it's gone for good.
- Can't sign in? Use Contact us on the welcome screen and we'll help.
Children
Fingertip Kitchen isn't meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child has made an account, please contact us and we'll delete it.
Changes to this page
If we change how we handle your information, we'll update this page and the date at the top.
Contact
Questions or requests about your information? Use Contact Us in the app. It's under Account, or on the welcome screen if you're not signed in. Joshua Winkler reads every message.