Privacy policy.

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Who we are

BrewSense is built and operated by Ben Barrows, an independent developer based in Texas, USA. This policy covers the BrewSense mobile app for iOS and Android and this website.

BrewSense is an informational app: it identifies craft beers and tells you about them. It does not sell alcohol, and nothing in the app is a transaction — when we point you toward a brewery or a store, the visit and any purchase happen entirely between you and them.

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Scanning happens on your phone

This is the part most scanner apps can't say, so we'll say it plainly: when you point BrewSense at a beer can, the image is processed and matched entirely on your device. The scan photo is not uploaded to our servers, to Google, or to anyone else — during the scan or after it. Scanning works in airplane mode for exactly this reason.

The only photos that ever leave your phone are ones you deliberately choose to send us — see "Beer suggestions" below.

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What we collect, and why

Account information

If you create an account (email/password or Google Sign-In), we store your email address, display name, profile photo URL (if your Google account has one), which sign-in method you used, and when the account was created and last signed in. We use this to run your account and keep your saved content attached to you. That's the whole list — no phone number, no contacts, no birthday.

Content you save

When you save a beer to My Fridge, we store that entry — the beer's name, style, and brewery, plus any notes and rating you add. When you bookmark a brewery, we store that bookmark. This content is private to your account: it's what makes your tasting journal follow you across devices.

Beer suggestions

If you suggest a beer we don't recognize, you can attach a photo of the can. That photo is uploaded to our storage, is capped at 10 MB, must be an image, and is readable only by you (and by us, for adding the beer to the catalog). This is the only user photo upload in the app, and it only happens when you press the button.

Location

"Breweries near me" and "Find nearby stores" use your device location, only with your permission. Your coordinates are sent to Google's Places service to run the search, and the results come straight back to your phone. We do not store your location on our servers — not your current position, not a history, nothing. Deny the permission and the rest of the app works fine.

Usage analytics

We use Firebase Analytics to understand which features earn their keep — events like "scan attempted," "scan succeeded," "beer saved," "store search tapped," and how fast things ran. These events include things like beer and brewery names and result counts; they do not include your name, email, or precise location, and we don't use advertising identifiers.

Crash reports

If the app crashes, Firebase Crashlytics sends us a crash report — device model, OS version, and what the code was doing when it fell over — so we can fix it. Crash reports aren't tied to your name or email.

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What we don't do

• We don't sell or rent your personal information. To anyone. Ever.
• We don't show ads, and there are no advertising or tracking SDKs in the app.
• We don't upload your scan photos, camera frames, or camera roll.
• We don't store your location, build a location history, or track you across other apps and websites.
• We don't read your contacts, calendar, or anything else the app doesn't need.

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Who processes data for us

BrewSense runs on Google infrastructure. Two Google services act as our data processors:

• Firebase (Google LLC) — sign-in (Authentication), your saved content (Cloud Firestore), suggestion photos (Cloud Storage), usage events (Analytics), and crash reports (Crashlytics).
• Google Maps Platform — the Places service that powers nearby-brewery and nearby-store search, which receives your coordinates and search query when you use those features.

Google's handling of this data is governed by its own terms and the Google Privacy Policy. Data is stored on Google's servers in the United States. We don't share your personal information with any other third parties, except if the law genuinely requires it.

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How long we keep things

• Account, saved content, and suggestion photos — kept while your account exists, deleted when your account is deleted.
• Crash reports — retained by Firebase for roughly 90 days.
• Analytics events — retained by Firebase for a limited period (at most 14 months for user-associated data), then aggregated.
• Location — never stored, so there's nothing to retain.

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Your choices and your data

In the app

You can remove any beer from My Fridge, un-save any brewery, and delete a suggestion photo before it's submitted. Camera and location permissions can be revoked any time in your device settings — the app degrades gracefully.

Deleting your account

Open Profile → Delete account in the app. After you confirm (and re-enter your password or sign in with Google again, if asked), your account, profile, My Fridge, saved breweries, and any photos you've uploaded are deleted immediately.

Prefer not to use the app, or no longer have it installed? Email us at the address below from the address on your account and we'll do it for you — normally within 30 days — and confirm when it's done. You can also ask for a copy of the data we hold about you, or ask us to correct it.

These rights apply to everyone, not just where a law (like the GDPR in Europe or the CCPA in California) makes them mandatory.

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Children

BrewSense is about alcoholic beverages. It is intended only for people of legal drinking age — 21+ in the United States — and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13 (or the applicable minimum age where you live). If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we'll delete it.

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Security

Data in transit is encrypted (TLS), and access to your saved content and photos is locked to your account by server-side security rules — other users can't read your fridge, your bookmarks, or your uploads. No system is perfect, but the less we collect, the less there is to protect — which is why we collect so little.

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Changes to this policy

If we change what we collect or how we use it, we'll update this page and the date at the top. Meaningful changes will also be called out in the app's release notes. We won't quietly start collecting more than this page says.

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Contact

Questions, deletion requests, or anything else about your privacy: