Privacy Policy

1.Who we are

Grocery Tracker is an online grocery list service for families. It is operated by the Grocery Tracker team, based in Quebec, Canada. In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to the operator of Grocery Tracker.

Questions about how your personal information is protected can be sent to our privacy officer, through our contact form.

This policy applies to the Grocery Tracker website and app. It does not cover other websites we link to.

2.Information we collect

We collect only the information we need to provide the service:

• Account details: your email address and password. Your password is stored as a secure hash, so nobody, including us, can read it.
• Profile details you choose to add: first and last name, phone number, profile photo, time zone, and your language and display preferences.
• Your grocery content: lists, items, quantities, prices, stores (with their chain and postal code, if you add them), flyer deals and the links you add to them, notes and when items are marked as purchased.
• People you invite: the email address and name of the family members or friends you invite to share your lists, and the status of each invitation.
• Sign-in and security records: the date and time of each sign-in attempt, your IP address, your browser’s user agent and the last time your account was active.
• Messages you send us: your name, email address and message when you use our contact form.

We do not collect payment card details, your precise location or sensitive information such as health data.

3.How we use it

We use your information to:

• create your account, sign you in and keep your account secure;
• save your lists, items, stores and prices, and share them with the people in your family;
• send the emails the service needs, such as sign-in links, password resets and the invitations you ask us to send;
• answer your messages and help you with your account;
• detect and prevent abuse, and fix problems with the service.

We do not use your information for advertising, we do not sell it and we do not use it to make automated decisions about you. If we ever want to use it for a new purpose, we will ask for your consent first.

4.Cookies and local storage

Grocery Tracker uses the cookies it needs to work and, only if you allow them, two optional features. We do not use advertising, analytics or tracking cookies. You choose, and can change your mind at any time, on the Cookie preferences page, linked at the bottom of our pages and in your account menu.

Necessary (always on):

• ci_session: keeps you signed in, remembers your language and protects our forms against forgery. It expires after two hours without activity.
• remember: set only if you tick “Remember me” when signing in. It keeps you signed in on that device for up to 30 days.
• gt_consent: remembers your cookie choices for 12 months.

Your browser’s local storage and cache also keep a few things on your device. They stay there and are never sent to us, except changes waiting to be saved, which go to your account once you are back online:

• gt-lang: the language of the page shown when there is no connection;
• gt-outbox: the items you marked as purchased or put back while you had no connection, until they are saved (at most 7 days);
• saved pages: the Live view of the last lists you opened (up to 10), so they work without reception. They are deleted when you log out, and when someone else signs in with the same browser.

Optional, only if you allow them (nothing optional is used until you choose):

• Display preferences: your choice of light or dark theme (gt-theme) and the store you last chose in a list’s Live view (gl-live-store:). They stay on your device.
• Google Fonts: our typeface is downloaded from Google’s servers, which then receive your IP address (see Sharing and service providers below). If you say no, your device’s own font is used.

You can delete cookies at any time in your browser settings. If you block them, you will not be able to sign in.

5.Sharing and service providers

We never sell or rent your personal information. Your lists are only visible to you and the people in your family, who join it by accepting an invitation.

If you choose to share a flyer deal with Grocery Tracker members, its item, price, dates, conditions and link are shown to members who shop at the same chain in the same area (the first 3 characters of the store’s postal code). They are told that a member typed it in, but not who: your name, your family and your lists are not shown to them. Our administrators can see who shared a deal, so they can remove one that is wrong or abusive. Editing a deal to stop sharing it, or deleting it, takes it away from other members.

We rely on a few service providers to run Grocery Tracker. They only receive the information they need, and only to provide their service to us:

• Hosting: our web servers and database, where the information described in this policy is stored.
• Email delivery: a transactional email service that sends account emails, invitations and the messages you send us through the contact form.
• Google Fonts: if you allow it in your cookie preferences, our pages load the Plus Jakarta Sans typeface from Google’s servers, which receive your IP address when your browser downloads it. Otherwise, your device’s own font is used and nothing is sent to Google. See Google’s privacy policy.
• jsDelivr: some pages load open-source code from the jsDelivr content delivery network, which also receives your IP address.
• Flyer data: when flyer lookups are turned on, our server asks a flyer service for the current flyers at the postal codes of the stores that look them up. Only those postal codes are sent, never anything about you.

Some of these providers may store or process information outside Quebec, including in the United States. Before information leaves Quebec, we assess whether it will be adequately protected, as Quebec law requires.

We may also disclose information when the law requires it, for example to comply with a court order.

6.How long we keep it

We keep your account information and grocery content for as long as your account is open.

When you ask us to delete your account, we delete your profile, lists, items, stores and prices within 30 days, unless the law requires us to keep something longer.

Sign-in and security records are kept only as long as they are useful to protect accounts and investigate incidents.

Messages sent through the contact form are kept as long as needed to answer you and follow up, then deleted.

A shared deal stops being shown to other members when its flyer week ends or when it is withdrawn. Families who got it before then keep it in their own history, with nothing that says who shared it.

7.How we protect it

We use reasonable safeguards to protect your information, including encrypted connections (HTTPS), passwords stored as secure hashes and access to personal information limited to the people who need it to run the service.

No system is perfectly secure. If a confidentiality incident involving your information presents a risk of serious injury, we will promptly notify you and the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec, as the law requires.

8.Your rights

You have the right to:

• access the personal information we hold about you;
• correct information that is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date. You can update most details yourself from your profile;
• withdraw your consent to a use of your information, subject to legal or contractual restrictions;
• delete your account and the information linked to it;
• get a copy of the information you gave us, in a structured and commonly used format.

To exercise these rights, contact us through our contact form. We may need to confirm your identity first. We will reply in writing within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can file a complaint with the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec or the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

9.Children

Grocery Tracker is meant for people managing a household. You must be at least 14 years old to create an account, and we do not knowingly collect information about children under 14. If you believe a child under 14 has created an account, contact us and we will delete it.

10.Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as Grocery Tracker evolves. The date at the top of this page shows when it last changed. If we make a significant change, we will let you know by email or with a notice in the app before it takes effect.