Privacy Policy
Effective: February 11, 2026
The short version: Sift collects almost nothing. Your photos stay on your phone. Your preferences stay on your device. No account, no tracking, no profile.
What stays on your device
All of the following is stored locally and never transmitted:
- Dietary preferences, goals, and calorie targets
- Allergy and restriction settings
- Scan history, saved dishes, and favorites
- Personalization settings
Uninstall the app or clear its storage and it's all gone.
What gets processed remotely
Menu scanning (OCR)
Happens entirely on-device via Apple's Vision framework. Menu photos never leave your phone.
Menu analysis and ranking
Processed on-device using Apple Intelligence (iOS 18.2+) or local heuristic models. If on-device analysis is unavailable, the extracted text only — never the image — may be sent to a third-party AI service for nutrition parsing. No personally identifiable information is attached.
Restaurant search
Search queries hit our menu database. They're anonymous and not linked to your identity.
What is never transmitted
- Menu photographs
- Your dietary preferences or restrictions
- Your scan history
- Any personally identifiable information
What may be transmitted
- Menu text (only if fallback parsing is triggered)
- Anonymous restaurant search queries
- Anonymous crash reports
- Anonymous feature usage counts
Third-party services
Sift may use third-party services for text analysis or analytics. These providers process data on our behalf and are contractually prohibited from retaining or repurposing your data.
No account required
No sign-up, no login, no personal information needed. Ever.
Children's privacy
Sift is not directed at children under 13. We don't knowingly collect information from children. If you believe otherwise, contact us and we'll delete it.
Your rights
Your data lives on your device. You control it entirely. Delete it anytime by uninstalling or clearing app storage. For questions about any data that may have been processed server-side, contact us below.
Changes
We may update this policy. Changes will be posted here with a new effective date. Continued use means acceptance.