Effective date: November 1, 2026
HOTDISH is an app for your household's recipes, the week's dinners and the grocery list, with a small feed of what your friends cook. It's made by Chairlift Studio LLC ("HOTDISH", "we", "us"). This policy covers the HOTDISH app, heyhotdish.com, and HOTDISH when you connect it to ChatGPT or Claude.
The short version. We collect what HOTDISH needs to work. We don't sell your data, we don't share it for advertising, we don't show ads, and we don't track you across other apps or websites. AI reads recipes for us, and we ask before your photos or pasted text go to it. You can delete your account in the app at any time.
What we collect
Your account. Your name and email address, and a profile photo if you add one. You sign in with Apple, with Google, or with a one-time code we email you. If you use Sign in with Apple and choose Hide My Email, we get Apple's relay address, not your own. Google shares your name, email and profile picture. While you're signed in, we keep a session record with your IP address and device or browser type, so we can keep you signed in and spot misuse.
Your household. Everyone in a household shares one recipe book, one week and one list. We store the household's name and settings (time zone, dinner time, planning day, dinners a week, busy nights, servings, units, which proteins you usually keep frozen, dessert days and away dates) and who the members are. You can add members who don't have an account, like kids, with a name, an age range and the foods they like or don't. A first name or nickname is plenty. Every member of a household can see and change everything in it.
What you put in HOTDISH. The recipes you save, type or import (titles, ingredients, steps, notes, your edits, ratings, and the link to where a recipe came from), the meals you plan, what you mark as made or skipped, your reviews, your shopping list and stores, and the photos you add. HOTDISH also keeps a record of the swaps and choices you make in the plan, so it learns what your household likes.
Imports. When you import, we receive the files, photos, screenshots or text you choose to send. When you add a photo to a recipe or your profile, we remove its location and camera details (EXIF data) before we store it.
Notifications. If you allow notifications, we store your device's push token, your notification settings and a log of the reminders we've sent you (like "move the chicken to the fridge tonight").
ChatGPT and Claude. If you connect HOTDISH to ChatGPT or Claude, we keep the sign-in records that let that assistant work with your household when you ask it to.
Payments. If you subscribe to HOTDISH Plus, Apple (in the app) or Stripe (on the web) takes the payment. We receive whether you're subscribed, which plan, and when it renews. We never see your full card number.
The waitlist. If you join the waitlist on heyhotdish.com, we store your email address, the date, and which part of the site you signed up from. We use it to email you when HOTDISH launches, with the founding-family price for people on the waitlist, and for nothing else. We won't send you other marketing unless you say yes to it, and we never share the list with anyone to market to you.
Messages to us. If you email us, we keep the email and our reply.
Technical data. Our servers log IP addresses, device or browser type and the pages or features requested, for security and to fix problems. When the app or server hits an error, we may send an error report to Sentry. Before it leaves, we strip email addresses, link details, long codes and recipe text from it, and it doesn't include your user ID.
heyhotdish.com uses Vercel Web Analytics to count visits. It doesn't use cookies, it doesn't follow you to other sites, and it can't tell who you are; it recognizes a visit for one day at most. The site has no advertising cookies or third-party trackers.
What we don't collect. Calories, nutrition or health information, your precise location, advertising identifiers, or your contacts (see "Coming with friends" below for the one exception, which will always be your choice).
How we use it
- To run HOTDISH: keep your recipes, plan the week, keep the list, sync your household, and show what your friends share with you.
- To send what you asked for: sign-in codes, reminders, and messages about your account or subscription. If you joined the waitlist, the launch email and the founding-family offer. We don't send marketing email to your account address unless you opt in.
- To read recipes for you: turn a page, a post, a screenshot or a file into a clean recipe (see "AI" below).
- To keep HOTDISH safe: prevent abuse, enforce limits, review reports, and fix bugs.
- To make HOTDISH better: understand which features get used and where it breaks, mostly from counts.
We don't sell your personal information, we don't share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we don't use it to show you ads. We don't use your data to train AI models, and neither do the AI providers we use.
AI
HOTDISH uses Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, to read messy recipes. That includes turning a recipe photo, a screenshot, a social post's caption or a file into ingredients and steps, linking the amounts to each step, and telling a main from a side or a dessert.
- We ask first. Before your photos, screenshots, files or pasted text go to Anthropic, the app asks you. If you say no, nothing is sent.
- Recipe text. To link amounts to steps and sort dishes, we send Anthropic only the recipe's title, ingredients and steps. Never your name, email or household.
- No training. Anthropic processes this under its commercial terms, which don't allow it to train its models on what we send. Anthropic deletes it from its systems within 30 days, except where it must keep it longer for safety or the law.
Shared recipe reading. When HOTDISH reads a recipe from a public web page, we keep that structured recipe so the next person who saves the same link gets it instantly. We share only the recipe itself, never who saved it, their notes, edits, photos or household.
Who helps us run HOTDISH
We use a few service providers. They handle data only to provide their service to us, under contracts that require them to protect it.
| Provider | What they do | What they handle |
|---|---|---|
| Vercel | Hosts the app's server and this website, stores photos, counts site visits | App data in transit, photos you upload, anonymous visit counts |
| Neon | Our database | Account, household and recipe data |
| Anthropic | Reads recipes (see "AI") | Recipe text, and the photos and text you OK |
| Resend | Sends our email | Your email address and the message |
| Apple and Google | Sign-in, push notifications, App Store purchases | What you authorize them to share, push tokens |
| Expo | Delivers push notifications to Apple and Google | Push tokens and the notification text |
| Stripe | Web payments for Plus | The payment details you give Stripe |
| Sentry | Error reports | Scrubbed error details only |
ChatGPT and Claude. If you connect HOTDISH to ChatGPT or Claude, that assistant receives the household data each request needs, such as your week or a recipe. What it does with your conversation is governed by OpenAI's or Anthropic's own privacy policy and your settings there.
When the law requires it. We may disclose information to comply with the law or a valid legal process, to protect someone's safety, or to protect our rights. If HOTDISH is ever sold or merged, your information would go with it, under this policy, and we'd tell you first.
What other people see
- Your household sees everything in the household.
- People you send a link to see only what that link shows. A shared recipe page (heyhotdish.com/r/…) shows the recipe, your first name, your note and your own photo if the recipe has one, with credit and a link to where the recipe came from. It never shows your household, your plan, your list or your other recipes, and it's kept out of search engines. You can stop sharing a recipe at any time, which takes its page down. A preview already sent in a message thread can't be pulled back. We count how many times a shared page is opened and saved, but not who opened it.
- An invite link shows your first name.
Coming with friends
Friends and the feed are still being built. Here's how they'll work, and we'll update this policy and show you in the app before they launch:
- Your friends will see your name, username, profile photo and what you share to the feed. When you mark a dinner as made, it shows to your friends unless you keep it to yourself, and you can keep any one private. You'll be able to mute, remove, block and report.
- Finding friends from your contacts will be optional and will ask first. If you use it, your phone turns phone numbers and email addresses into scrambled codes (keyed hashes) before anything leaves it. We'll use those codes only to show you who's already on HOTDISH and to tell you when someone you know joins. We'll never receive the names or readable numbers of people who aren't on HOTDISH, never message your contacts, and you'll be able to delete the codes in Settings at any time.
- Adding your phone number so friends can find you will be optional.
How long we keep it
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Your account, household and recipes | While your account is open |
| Sign-in sessions | Up to 90 days after you last use the app on that device |
| Sign-in codes | They stop working after 5 minutes |
| Import photos and text | Until the recipes are added or you discard the import |
| The log of reminders we've sent | 12 months |
| Error reports | 90 days |
| Server logs | Up to 30 days |
| Waitlist email | Until 12 months after the app launches, or until you unsubscribe or ask us to remove it |
| Emails you send us and reports you make | Up to 2 years after we've resolved them |
| Subscription records | As long as tax and accounting law requires |
| Backups | They roll over and are gone within 30 days |
When you delete your account we delete, right away: your account, your sign-in records and sessions, your push tokens and notification settings, your ChatGPT and Claude connections, your profile photo and photos you posted. If you're the last person in your household, we also delete the household's recipes, plans, list, history and photos.
A few things stay, and here's why:
- Your household lives on if other people are still in it. The recipes, plan and list you made together stay with them.
- Public recipes we've read stay in the shared recipe cache described in "AI", with no link to you.
- A recipe cover photo you added stays if another household that saved the same recipe still shows it.
- Backups roll over within 30 days.
- We keep what the law requires, such as subscription records.
If you've moved to another household and want your old one deleted, email us.
Your choices and rights
- Delete your account in the app: Settings, then Delete account. It's immediate and can't be undone.
- See and fix your data: almost all of it is in the app, where you can change it.
- Get a copy: email us from your account's email address and we'll send you your data.
- Notifications: turn them off in HOTDISH's Settings or your phone's settings.
- AI reading: say no when the app asks, and nothing is sent.
- Disconnect ChatGPT or Claude in that assistant's settings.
- The waitlist: every email has an unsubscribe link, or just email us.
Wherever you live, you can ask us to access, correct, delete or send you a copy of your personal information. Email us from the address on your account so we can confirm it's you. We'll answer within 45 days. If we can't do what you ask, we'll tell you why, and you can reply to ask us to look again. We won't treat you differently for asking. Some US states, including California, give these rights by law. California residents can also ask what we share for direct marketing; the answer is nothing.
Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control. We don't track you across other sites or sell or share your data, so there's nothing for these signals to turn off. If your browser sends them, we treat you as opted out anyway.
Children
HOTDISH is for people 13 and older running a household. It isn't directed to children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from them. A parent can add a child to their household as a member without an account (a name, an age range and their food likes). If you think a child under 13 has signed up, email us and we'll delete the account.
Security
Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS). Photos are stored privately and only served to people allowed to see them. Your sign-in stays in your phone's secure storage. We limit who can reach production data and rate-limit sign-in. No system is perfect, so if you find a problem, please tell us at support@heyhotdish.com.
Where HOTDISH works
HOTDISH is run from the United States and is offered to people in the United States. Our providers store data in the United States. If you use HOTDISH from somewhere else, your information is processed in the United States.
Changes
When we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If a change matters, we'll tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.
Contact
Questions, requests or concerns: support@heyhotdish.com
Chairlift Studio LLC
100 N Howard St, Ste R, Spokane, WA 99201