Privacy policy

Who we are

HomeSomm operates HomeSomm, a household wine cellar app with an AI sommelier. This policy explains what personal data we collect through the HomeSomm website and app, why we collect it, and what rights you have over it.

For anything in this policy, including a request for a copy of your data or its deletion, write to privacy@homesomm.app.

Data we collect

We do collect personal data. Specifically:

• Early access sign-ups: the email address you enter in the request an invite form, and the time you submitted it.
• Account data: your email address, an encrypted password or the identifier from the sign-in provider you chose, your display name, your chosen language, and which household you belong to.
• Cellar content: every bottle you add and everything you record about it, including producer, wine name, vintage, type, country, region, grape, purchase price, drinking window, serving temperature, taste profile, pairings, decant time, your scores and your tasting notes.
• Label photos and imported files: images you capture or upload of wine labels, and any CSV, Excel or PDF file you import from another app or spreadsheet.
• Usage data: which AI actions you used and how many, so we can apply the free plan caps and keep the service stable.
• Technical data: IP address, browser or device type, and timestamps, recorded by our hosting provider in standard server logs.
• Subscription data: your plan and billing status. Card details are handled by the payment provider and never reach our systems.

Why we use it and on what legal basis

• To provide the service you asked for: storing your cellar, syncing it between household members, and producing recommendations. Legal basis: performance of a contract.
• To send you early access news and launch notices if you signed up for them. Legal basis: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time by unsubscribing or writing to us.
• To apply plan limits, prevent abuse and keep the service secure. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in running a working, non-abused service.
• To meet tax and accounting obligations for paid subscriptions. Legal basis: legal obligation.

Our use of AI

HomeSomm uses artificial intelligence in three places, and each one sends data to a third-party AI model provider on our behalf:

• Label scanning: the photo of the bottle label you capture is sent to an AI model that reads the producer, wine name and vintage from it.
• Field completion: the wine name, vintage and region you entered are sent to an AI model that suggests the grape, drinking window, serving temperature, decant time, taste profile and food pairings.
• The AI sommelier: when you ask what to open, the relevant bottles from your own cellar, plus the meal or occasion you describe, are sent to an AI model that returns a recommendation.

AI output can be wrong. Drinking windows, serving temperatures and pairings produced by AI are suggestions, not expert advice, and you should treat them as a starting point rather than a fact about the bottle.

We do not use your cellar data, your notes or your label photos to train AI models, and our AI provider is contractually bound not to train its models on data we send through the service.

AI processing is automated, but it does not produce decisions with a legal or similarly significant effect on you.

Who we share data with

We do not sell your data and we do not share it with advertisers. We use the following categories of processors, each bound by a data processing agreement and each acting only on our instructions:

• Hosting, database, authentication and file storage provider: stores your account, your cellar and your label photos, and serves the website and app.
• AI model provider: receives the label photos, wine details and sommelier questions described above, for as long as it takes to return a result.
• Email delivery provider: sends account emails, such as sign-in links, household invitations and early access announcements.
• Payment provider: processes Premium subscription payments and holds the card details we never see.
• Google Fonts: our website loads fonts from Google's servers, which means Google receives your IP address when a page loads.

Some of these providers process data outside the European Economic Area. Where they do, transfers rely on the European Commission's standard contractual clauses or an adequacy decision.

We will also disclose data where the law requires it, for example in response to a valid order from a court or authority.

Household sharing

A HomeSomm household is a shared cellar. Everyone you invite into your household can see every bottle in it, along with the notes, scores and prices recorded against those bottles, and can add or remove bottles. Only invite people you are happy to share that with. Removing a member stops their access to the shared cellar going forward.

How long we keep it

• Your account and cellar data: for as long as your account exists, and for 30 days after you delete it, after which it is permanently erased from our live systems and purged from backups within a further 90 days.
• Label photos: for as long as the bottle record exists, unless you delete the photo sooner.
• Early access sign-ups: until launch and up to 12 months afterwards, or until you ask us to remove your address, whichever is sooner.
• Server logs: up to 90 days.
• Billing records: as long as tax law requires, typically seven years.

Your rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) you have the right to access your data, correct it, have it erased, restrict or object to how we use it, receive it in a portable format, and withdraw any consent you gave. HomeSomm, based in the Netherlands, is the data controller responsible for your personal data.

To exercise any of these rights, write to privacy@homesomm.app. We respond within one month. If you are not satisfied with our response you can complain to your national data protection authority. In the Netherlands that is the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens.

Cookies and similar technology

HomeSomm uses only what it needs to work. We store a session token so you stay signed in, and a small preference record for your chosen language. We do not run advertising trackers or third-party analytics profiling on this website.

Children

HomeSomm is not intended for anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has given us data, write to us and we will delete it.

Security

Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, access to production systems is limited to the people who need it, and household cellars are isolated from one another at the database level. No system is perfectly secure, but if a breach affects your data and poses a risk to you, we will tell you and the relevant authority without undue delay.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy in a way that affects you, we will update the date at the top of the page and, for significant changes, email you before the change takes effect.