01 Who we are
This Privacy Policy explains how Abhishaan Labs ("Tikel," "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, stores, shares, protects, and deletes personal data when you use the Tikel mobile application, website, support channels, waitlists, pilots, beta programs, and related services (collectively, the "Services").
- Data fiduciary / controllerAbhishaan Labs
- Registered address339, Hussainpur Madurdaha, Kolkata - 700107
- Privacy contacttikel-tech@outlook.com
- Support contacttikel-tech@outlook.com
- Grievance / legal contactAbhinandan Subuddhi / tikel-tech@outlook.com
- Account deletion URLtikel.app/account-deletion
02 What Tikel does and what this policy covers
Tikel is a food logging, food scanning, nutrition guidance, recipe, pantry, meal planning, chat, voice logging, and wellness-support service. Some features use AI, OCR, speech-to-text, analytics, and cloud infrastructure. Certain information you choose to provide may be sensitive, including dietary restrictions, allergies, health conditions, surgery/recovery context, athlete context, eating preferences, and future cycle or menstruation-related details.
Tikel is not a medical service. We do not provide diagnosis, treatment, emergency care, medication dosing, or clinical advice. Tikel is intended for general informational and wellness support only.
03 Information we collect
3.1 Information you provide directly
Account information: name, email address, phone number, sign-in credentials, authentication identifiers, and profile photo if you choose to upload one.
Goal and profile information: age, sex or gender information you choose to provide, height, weight, activity level, fitness goal, calorie goal, body measurements, diet type, cuisine preference, region, allergies, dislikes, athlete context, medical/health context, surgery or recovery details, and future cycle-related details if used.
Food, diary, pantry, recipe, and meal-plan data: foods logged, meal timing, scan results, recipe inputs, household ingredients, generated plans, custom recipes, substitutions, notes, corrections, and saved items.
Images and scans you choose to provide: food photos, label photos, menu photos, barcode/product images, or other scan inputs.
Voice and chat inputs: audio recordings, voice notes, transcripts, prompts, corrections, clarifications, follow-up questions, and AI conversation context.
Support and feedback: emails, chat/support messages, bug reports, complaints, ratings/feedback, and feature requests.
Payment and transaction details: purchase status, plan type, subscription entitlement, transaction identifiers, invoices/receipts, refund/cancellation status. Full card or app-store credentials are generally handled by Apple, Google, or payment processors.
3.2 Information collected automatically or from your device
Device and technical information: device model, operating system, app version, language, country/region, crash logs, diagnostic events, performance data, network status, timestamps, and security/fraud signals.
Usage information: screens visited, features used, scan counts, session activity, subscription status, onboarding completion, and interaction events used to operate and improve the Services.
Internal identifiers: internal user ID, app instance ID, device/session identifiers, and account/subscription identifiers needed to operate the app.
Permission-based information: camera, selected photos/media, microphone, notifications, location, or future health-platform data only when you use a feature that requires it and after platform permission/consent where required.
3.3 Information generated or inferred by Tikel
Food recognition results, OCR text, ingredient flags, nutrition estimates, macro estimates, safer-swap suggestions, pantry matches, recipe analysis, and scan classifications.
Personalized recommendations, such as calorie targets, meal structure, recipe suggestions, diet-plan guidance, craving/snack suggestions, and AI-generated explanations.
Product usage insights, such as adherence patterns, progress summaries, feature engagement, plan interactions, and quality-improvement signals.
3.4 Sensitive and health-related information
Some information you provide may be personal, sensitive, or health-related. We use such data only to provide or improve the features you choose to use, such as allergy-aware warnings, recipe safety checks, goal-based meal planning, athlete nutrition context, medical-context safeguards, or future cycle-aware nutrition support. We do not sell personal or sensitive data.
04 Permissions, prominent disclosures, and user choices
We request protected permissions only when needed for a user-facing feature. Permission prompts should be shown in context and must match the purpose described in the app, store listing, and this policy. You can deny permissions. Where possible, we provide alternatives such as manual entry.
Permission and data-use summary
| Permission / data | When used | Purpose | Alternative if denied |
|---|---|---|---|
| Camera | When the user scans food, meals, labels, menus, barcodes, or packaged products. | To capture the user-selected image for food recognition, OCR, ingredient analysis, nutrition estimation, and scan history if saved. | Manual text entry, barcode/manual product search, or chat entry where available. |
| Photos / media picker | When the user chooses an existing image from gallery/files. | To process only the selected image for scan, meal recognition, recipe import, or support purposes. | Use camera scan or manual entry. Avoid broad gallery access where system picker is enough. |
| Microphone / audio | When the user taps voice logging, voice chat, or future assistant/avatar interaction. | To transcribe speech, create food logs, answer questions, or personalize guidance. Audio may be converted into text and processed by service providers. | Type the meal or question manually. |
| Notifications | Only if the user opts in. | Meal reminders, diary nudges, plan alerts, subscription/service notices, or other user-requested reminders. Marketing notifications require opt-in where required. | Use the app without notifications; reminders may not work. |
| Location | Not required for V1 unless a future location-based feature is launched. | Only for a clearly disclosed location-based feature such as local food availability or physical meal delivery, if launched. | Manual city/region entry. |
| Health platform / wearable data | Only if future Apple Health / Health Connect integration is enabled and separately consented to. | To import limited health/fitness data needed for visible user-facing features such as activity-aware recommendations. | Manual entry. |
| Cycle / menstruation data | Only if the user uses future cycle-aware nutrition features. | To provide optional cycle-aware food, hydration, symptom, cravings, and meal-plan support. | Use Tikel without cycle tracking. |
05 How we use your information
- Create, authenticate, secure, and manage your account.
- Provide food scans, diary, pantry, recipes, meal plans, chat, voice logging, subscriptions, and future assistant features you choose to use.
- Generate nutrition estimates, ingredient summaries, recipe checks, meal recommendations, safer swaps, and AI responses.
- Personalize the Services based on your goals, preferences, allergies, dislikes, health context, athlete context, region, pantry, scans, diary history, and usage patterns.
- Improve scan quality, speech recognition, OCR handling, recipe quality, diet-plan quality, AI output quality, app reliability, and user experience.
- Detect fraud, abuse, technical issues, security incidents, or misuse of the Services.
- Provide customer support, respond to complaints, communicate service updates, and send transactional notices.
- Send marketing or promotional communications only where permitted and subject to opt-out/consent rules.
- Comply with legal obligations, enforce our Terms, respond to valid legal requests, and protect the rights, safety, and security of users and Tikel.
06 AI, OCR, speech-to-text, and automated outputs
Tikel may use internal systems and third-party providers to process images, voice, text, recipes, food logs, and other inputs. AI, OCR, and speech outputs may be inaccurate, incomplete, estimated, or influenced by the quality of your input. Where relevant, we may ask you to confirm or correct results before they are saved or reused.
If personal or sensitive information is shared with third-party AI, OCR, transcription, analytics, or infrastructure providers, we disclose this in this policy and, where required, in the app before or at the point of use. We require service providers to process data only for permitted purposes and with appropriate protection.
Unless separately disclosed and consented to, Tikel should not use sensitive health-related inputs for advertising or sell them to data brokers. If model-improvement use is enabled, it should be disclosed clearly and should allow opt-out where required by law or platform policy.
07 How we share information
We do not sell personal or sensitive data. We may share data only as reasonably necessary and subject to appropriate safeguards with:
- Cloud hosting, database, storage, authentication, security, analytics, crash reporting, and customer support providers.
- AI, OCR, speech-to-text, transcription, translation, and nutrition-processing providers that help deliver the features you use.
- Apple, Google, payment processors, billing providers, or subscription platforms for purchase, entitlement, cancellation, refund, tax, and fraud-prevention purposes.
- Communications providers for transactional emails, SMS/OTP, support, or notifications.
- Professional advisers, insurers, auditors, investors, acquirers, or corporate transaction parties subject to confidentiality or legal safeguards.
- Government authorities, courts, regulators, or law-enforcement bodies where required by law, valid legal process, or to protect rights, safety, and the Services.
Current or expected vendor categories before launch: Supabase, Google Vision/OCR, OpenAI/AI provider, speech-to-text provider, analytics/crash reporting provider, Apple, Google
08 Advertising, analytics, and marketing
Tikel may use analytics and crash-reporting tools to understand app performance and improve the Services. If Tikel later uses advertising SDKs or personalized advertising, we will update this policy, app-store disclosures, and consent flows as required. We should not use sensitive health, diet, menstruation, allergy, medical, or Health Connect/Apple Health data for targeted advertising or data-broker purposes.
09 Health platform, wearable, and cycle-data notice
If Tikel later integrates with Apple Health, Google Health Connect, wearables, smart scales, or similar health platforms, we will request only the minimum data needed for the visible feature, provide clear in-app disclosure, and request user permission. Such data will not be used for advertising, creditworthiness, or unrelated profiling. If Tikel later offers cycle-aware nutrition features, cycle data will be optional and subject to separate user controls and deletion options where practicable.
10 Legal bases and consent
Where applicable law requires a legal basis, we rely on one or more of: consent; performance of a contract; compliance with legal obligations; and legitimate interests in operating, securing, improving, and preventing misuse of the Services. If we rely on consent, you may withdraw it for future processing, subject to feature limitations and lawful retention obligations.
11 Data retention
We retain data only as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this policy, unless a longer period is required or permitted by law.
Account and profile data: generally retained while your account is active and for a reasonable period after deletion request where needed for legal, fraud-prevention, billing, dispute, security, backup, or compliance reasons.
Food logs, scans, recipes, pantry, and meal-plan data: retained while your account is active unless you delete specific data or request account deletion, subject to lawful retention needs.
Audio recordings and transcripts: retained only as needed for voice features, quality, support, security, or as configured in product settings. Where possible, transcripts may be retained instead of raw audio.
Images / scans: retained only as needed to provide scans, history, support, product improvement, or saved user records, depending on your settings and plan.
Support, invoices, tax, security, and abuse-prevention records: may be retained for legally required or commercially reasonable periods.
Backups: deletion from backup systems may take additional time, but data will not be restored to active systems except for lawful/security reasons.
12 Account deletion and data controls
If you create an account, you must be able to request account deletion both inside the app and through a public web resource. Temporary deactivation, freezing, or disabling is not account deletion.
- In-app deletion pathProfile > Settings > Account > Delete Account
- External deletion URLtikel.app/account-deletion
After a valid deletion request, we delete or de-identify account data within a reasonable period unless retention is required for legal, billing, tax, security, fraud-prevention, or dispute purposes.
You may request access, correction, export, restriction, or deletion of certain data where available under applicable law. You may manage permissions through your device settings and may opt out of marketing communications where offered.
13 Security
We use reasonable technical and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal data, including encryption in transit, access controls, role-based restrictions where appropriate, logging/monitoring, and security practices intended to reduce unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or loss. No service can guarantee absolute security.
14 International transfers
Your data may be processed in India or other countries where we or our service providers operate. Where required, we use appropriate safeguards such as contractual protections or other lawful transfer mechanisms.
15 Children and age restrictions
Tikel is not directed to young children and is not intended for users below the age allowed under applicable law without valid parental or guardian involvement where required. If you believe a child has provided personal data in violation of applicable law, contact us. If we later offer child-directed or family features, additional controls and notices will apply.
16 Third-party links, marketplaces, and imported content
The Services may link to or integrate with third-party websites, platforms, recipe sources, marketplaces, payment channels, or app stores. Their privacy practices are governed by their own policies. If you import recipes or content from external websites or social platforms, you are responsible for ensuring that your use complies with their terms and applicable law.
17 Platform-specific notices
Apple App Store / Google Play: subscriptions, refunds, cancellations, and purchase entitlements may be governed by platform terms where purchases occur through those platforms.
Social or third-party sign-in: the relevant provider may receive authentication-related information. If social sign-in is used for the primary account on iOS, offer Sign in with Apple or another compliant alternative where required.
Android Data safety and Apple privacy labels must be accurate and consistent with this policy and actual app behavior.
If future features require additional sensitive permissions or regulated data categories, we will provide additional notices and obtain consent where required before use.
18 Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, object to, port, or withdraw consent regarding your personal data. You may also have the right to lodge a complaint with a regulator. We may need to verify your identity before completing certain requests.
19 Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will provide notice through the app, website, email, or other reasonable means where required. If applicable law requires consent for a new use, we will request it before that use begins.
20 Launch implementation checklist
Replace all placeholders before publishing.
- Publish this Privacy Policy at a live, public, non-geofenced, non-PDF URL and surface it inside the app.
- Make Data safety labels, App Store privacy labels, permission prompts, and in-app disclosures match actual behavior.
- Add a real in-app account deletion flow and public account deletion webpage.
- Use system pickers for photos/files where possible instead of broad gallery/file permissions.
- Do not request SMS, Call Log, Contacts, broad file access, Accessibility, VPN, Query All Packages, body sensors, Health Connect, or precise/background location unless a documented core feature truly requires it.
- Review with qualified counsel before production, especially for sensitive health/cycle data, AI outputs, subscriptions, and future physical meal delivery.