Privacy Notice

1. Who we are

Whetstone is operated by ATE/8/EIGHT (ABN 18 582 825 864), a sole trader registered in Australia. For personal information you provide to us through the Service, we act as the data controller — we decide what data is collected and why. You can reach us at admin@whetstone.kitchen.

2. What we collect

• Account data: name, email address, password (hashed), and any profile details you choose to add.
• Kitchen & content data: ingredients, recipes, menus, invoices (including any photos of invoices you upload), prep lists, and notes.
• Team data: if you invite sous chefs or cooks, the names, emails, and role assignments you create.
• Support messages: anything you send us by email or through in-app support.
• Usage & device data: pages visited, features used, approximate location (from IP), browser, device type, and error logs.
• Payment metadata: subscription status, plan, and customer identifier from our reseller Paddle. Card numbers are handled by Paddle — we never see or store them.

3. Why we collect it

• To create your account and provide the Service (contract).
• To process AI features you request — invoice scanning, mentor suggestions, recipe scaling, etc. (contract).
• To provide customer support (contract / legitimate interests).
• To keep the Service secure, prevent fraud, and debug problems (legitimate interests).
• To improve the Service — understanding which features are used and where people get stuck (legitimate interests).
• To send you transactional emails (receipts, password resets, security alerts) and, only if you opt in, product updates (consent).
• To meet our legal, accounting, and tax obligations (legal obligation).

4. Who we share it with

We share limited personal data with:

• Paddle — our Merchant of Record for the sale of subscriptions and credits, including subscription management, payment processing, tax compliance, and invoicing. See Paddle’s privacy notice.
• Hosting & infrastructure providers — cloud database, storage, and serverless compute providers used to run the Service.
• AI providers — the AI models we use to power invoice scanning, mentor suggestions, recipe scaling, allergen extraction, and related features. Content you submit to these features (for example, invoice images or recipe text) is sent to those providers so they can generate a response.
• Email delivery provider — for transactional and account emails.
• Analytics & error monitoring — to understand usage patterns and diagnose issues.
• Professional advisers — legal and accounting advisers where reasonably needed.
• Authorities — where required by law, court order, or to protect our rights or the safety of others.

We do not sell your personal information.

5. International transfers

Some of our providers process data outside Australia. Where they do, we rely on the safeguards their providers offer (standard contractual clauses, adequacy decisions, or equivalent) to keep your information protected.

6. How long we keep it

We keep your account data for as long as your account is active, and for a reasonable period after closure so we can meet legal, accounting, and tax obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce agreements. Content you delete from inside the app is removed from our active systems; backups follow a shorter rolling retention. Support messages are retained for up to 3 years.

7. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• access the personal information we hold about you;
• correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete;
• request deletion of your personal information;
• restrict or object to certain processing;
• receive a portable copy of information you provided;
• withdraw consent where processing is based on consent;
• lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority — in Australia, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

To exercise any of these, email admin@whetstone.kitchen. We’ll respond within a reasonable time and typically within 30 days.

8. Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including encryption in transit, access controls, and secure authentication. No system is perfectly secure, so we can’t guarantee absolute protection — but we take it seriously and act quickly if something goes wrong.

9. Cookies

We use a small number of essential cookies and similar technologies to keep you signed in and to keep the Service working correctly. If we add analytics or marketing cookies in future, we’ll ask for consent where required by local law and provide a way to manage your preferences.

10. Children

Whetstone is built for working professionals in commercial kitchens and is not intended for children under 16. We don’t knowingly collect data from children.

11. Changes to this notice

If we make material changes to this Privacy Notice we’ll let you know (by email or in-app). The “Last updated” date at the top always reflects the current version.

12. Contact

Privacy questions or requests: admin@whetstone.kitchen. See also our Terms & Conditions and Refund Policy.