TalktomegutTalktomegut Privacy Policy
The short version
Talktomegut keeps your log on your iPhone. There's no account, no server, no ads, no analytics and no tracking. The developer never receives your meals, symptoms, medications, vaccines, photos or location.
A few things can leave the app, and each happens only when you choose to do it:
- Searching for a place sends your search, and your location if you allowed it, to Apple Maps.
- If you turn on "Save symptoms to Health", some symptoms are copied to Apple's Health app.
- A backup or a dietitian report leaves the app only when you save or share it yourself.
- Photos you take in the app are saved to your photo library.
What the app stores, and where
Everything you enter is stored in the app's private storage on your device:
- Meals: descriptions, ingredients, calories and nutrients, FODMAP notes, the time, the place you ate, and photos of the meal, the place or a nutrition label.
- Symptoms and wellness: how your stomach feels, severity, stool type (Bristol scale) and notes.
- Medications and doses: names, strengths, directions, when you took them, and label photos.
- Vaccines: names, dates and notes.
- Places: names, addresses and coordinates of places you've eaten.
- FODMAP reintroduction: your diet phase, challenges and results.
- Preferences: settings such as appearance, calorie target and reminders.
This data isn't sent to the developer or anyone else. Your device's own backups (iCloud Backup or a computer backup) may include it, and those are handled by Apple under its privacy policy and your device settings.
Processing on your device
These features run on your device. Nothing is sent to the developer to do them.
- Food and label recognition: reading a meal photo, a nutrition label or a medication label uses Apple's on-device text recognition and Apple Intelligence models.
- Questions and spoken entries: answers about your log and sorting a spoken sentence into an entry also use on-device Apple Intelligence.
- Dictation: speech is converted to text on the device. iOS may download the speech model it needs from Apple.
Estimates the app produces, such as calories, nutrients and FODMAP ratings, can be wrong and can always be edited. Talktomegut isn't a medical device and doesn't give medical advice.
Permissions the app asks for
You can allow or refuse each of these, and change your mind later in the Settings app. Refusing one only turns off the feature that needs it.
| Permission | What it's used for |
|---|---|
| Camera | Taking photos of meals, places and medication or nutrition labels |
| Photos (add only) | Saving photos you take in the app to your photo library. The app can't see your library |
| Photo picker | Choosing an existing photo to attach. Only the photo you pick is shared with the app |
| Location (while using the app) | Suggesting where you're eating and remembering where a meal happened |
| Microphone and speech recognition | Speaking entries instead of typing them |
| Notifications | Reminders you set up, such as a meal follow-up or a reintroduction challenge. These are scheduled on your device |
| Health (write only) | Saving symptoms to the Health app, only if you turn it on. See below |
Apple Health
Talktomegut can copy symptoms to Apple's Health app. This is off by default. You turn it on in the app's Settings, under "Your data", with "Save symptoms to Health", and iOS then asks for your permission.
When it's on:
- What's written: Bloating, Abdominal Cramps, Nausea and Heartburn, with a severity (mild, moderate or severe) and the time, for symptoms you picked yourself. Other feelings, stool type and notes are never written.
- What's read: nothing. Talktomegut never reads any data from Health.
- Editing and deleting: editing an entry replaces its copy in Health. Deleting an entry removes its copy from Health.
- Turning it off: stops new copies. Symptoms already in Health stay there until you delete them in the Health app.
Health data written by Talktomegut is held by the Health app on your device and is managed by Apple, including whether it syncs through iCloud. Talktomegut doesn't use Health data for advertising, doesn't share it with anyone and doesn't sell it.
When data leaves your device
Place search (Apple Maps)
Two actions send information to Apple's Maps service to get place names back:
- "Find places near me" sends your current location.
- Typing a place name sends what you typed and, if location is allowed, your approximate location so nearby results come first.
This goes to Apple, not to the developer, and is covered by Apple's privacy policy. Place search isn't used otherwise.
Backups
In the app's Settings you can export a backup of your log as a file and save it wherever you choose, such as Files or iCloud Drive. Once saved, that file is under your control and is protected by wherever you put it. The backup file isn't encrypted by the app, so keep it somewhere private. You can also restore a backup you choose.
Dietitian report
You can create a PDF report of your FODMAP reintroduction and share it using the iOS share sheet. It goes only to the person or app you pick.
Photos
Photos you take in the app are saved to your photo library, where they're managed by the Photos app and your iCloud Photos settings. If you've allowed location, they include where they were taken, the same as photos from the Camera app.
Siri and Shortcuts
You can log a symptom with Siri or the Shortcuts app. If you speak to Siri, Apple processes that request under its own privacy policy. The entry is saved on your device.
What the developer doesn't do
- No account or sign-in
- No servers that receive your data
- No analytics, crash reporting or usage tracking
- No advertising, and no advertising identifiers
- No selling or sharing of your data
- No third-party code (SDKs) in the app
Keeping and deleting your data
Your data stays until you delete it.
- Delete an entry: delete it in the app. Its Health copy, if any, is removed too.
- Delete everything: delete the app. That removes everything it stored on the device and can't be undone, so export a backup first if you want to keep anything.
- Things you saved elsewhere: backups you exported, photos saved to your library, reports you shared and symptoms already in Health stay where you put them. Delete them there.
The developer holds none of your data, so there's nothing to request, correct or delete from the developer. If you have a question, use the contact details below.
Children
Talktomegut isn't directed at children under 13. The app doesn't knowingly collect data from anyone, because it doesn't collect data at all.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted at this address with a new effective date. If a change means data would leave your device in a new way, the app will say so before it happens.
Contact
Questions about this policy: Simphoukham LLC, starbuck@simphoukham.com