Privacy Policy

Backbar Privacy Policy

Effective date: September 9, 2026 Last updated: September 9, 2026

Backbar ("Backbar," "we," "us," or "our") is a home-bar inventory, cocktail recipe, and AI-assisted "Mixologist" chat application operated by Smudge Ventures LLC ("Company," "we"). This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect through the Backbar app and website, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. It's written to describe the Service in general terms so it stays accurate as we add features, rather than being tied to one specific implementation — where we mention a specific technology or provider, it's as an example of current practice, not a permanent commitment to keep using it.

By creating an account or using Backbar, you agree to the collection and use of information as described here. If you do not agree, do not use the app.

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Information you provide directly

  • Account information: the email address and password you use to sign

up, or, if we add a social/third-party sign-in method, the identifier and basic profile information that provider shares with us. If we add an age-confirmation step in the future, this may also include a date of birth you provide to confirm eligibility. Passwords are handled by our authentication provider, Supabase (see Section 3), and are never stored by us in plain text or visible to us.

  • Bar & recipe content: the bottles you log in your inventory, recipes

you save or create, cocktails you mark as made, ratings and tasting notes, and taste preferences you set.

  • Media you submit: photos (and, if we add support for them in the

future, other media such as video or audio) that you capture or upload so the app can identify a bottle, recipe, or other item, or that you attach to a Mixologist chat message. Some submitted media is stored (for example, a bottle photo that becomes that item's picture in your inventory); other media is used only to extract information and is not stored (for example, a photo covering several bottles, a recipe card or menu photo, or an image attached to a chat message). "Not stored" means not stored by us — in every case, the media is still sent to one or more third-party AI providers for processing, and those providers may briefly retain it under their own trust-and-safety practices regardless of our own retention choices; see Section 3. This category covers whatever media types the app supports from time to time, not only what it supports today.

  • Public profile information: the handle you choose when you set up

your account, plus any display name, bio, and avatar you set, and whichever of your bar shelf, ratings, or activity you share. Your profile, bar shelf, and ratings are public by default. We tell you this while you are setting up your account and you can switch any of them off there, or at any time afterwards from your Profile page. Your activity feed is off by default. Turning your profile off hides every one of these surfaces at once.

  • Mixologist chat messages: the text (and any attached media) you send

to the in-app AI assistant, and its replies.

  • Communications: if you contact us for support, the content of that

message and your contact details.

1.2 Information collected automatically

  • Usage and diagnostic data: standard technical data our hosting and

database providers log automatically to operate and secure the service — IP address, device/browser type, timestamps, and request logs.

  • Browsing without an account: you can browse Backbar's classic

cocktail recipes without creating an account. We do not ask for any personal information to do so. We store one cookie on your device that records only that you confirmed you are of legal drinking age, and our hosting provider logs requests as described above.

  • AI usage metering: to enforce fair-use limits, we record how many

Mixologist conversations and photo/recipe imports your account has used in a given period, along with associated cost/latency metadata. This is used for rate-limiting and is visible only to us for account administration.

  • Push notification tokens (if applicable): if you enable push

notifications, a device token used to deliver them. You can disable notifications at any time in iOS Settings.

1.3 Information we do not collect (and how that could change)

We do not collect your contacts or an advertising identifier, and we never see or store your full payment card details — subscription payments are handled entirely by the operator of the app store you subscribed through (see Section 13).

We do not currently collect your precise or coarse location. If we add a feature that uses it (for example, suggesting nearby bars or stores), we'll only collect it when that feature is enabled and only with your permission, consistent with how we already handle camera/photo access.

We do not currently use any third-party advertising SDKs, we do not build an advertising profile of you, and we do not serve targeted ads. We may use privacy-focused analytics tools that don't rely on advertising identifiers and aren't shared with ad networks, to understand aggregate app usage and improve the Service; if we add or change an analytics tool, we'll reflect it in the subprocessor table in Section 3.

We do not use photos or other media you submit for facial recognition or to identify people, and we do not knowingly collect biometric identifiers; media processing is limited to identifying bottles, recipes, and similar non-personal subject matter, such as labels, packaging, and glassware. Our Terms of Service (Section 4.2) already asks you not to submit photos of other identifiable people without their permission — please avoid including other people's faces in bottle or shelf photos where you can, since we don't screen media for this before it's sent to our AI providers.

1.4 Cocktail and tasting activity — how we treat it

The bar inventory, recipes made, ratings, and tasting notes described in Section 1.1 reflect what's in your bar and what you've tried, not your health. We use this data only to power the app's own features — matching your bar to recipes, showing your history, and personalizing recommendations — and we do not use it, or share it, to draw or infer any conclusion about your physical or mental health, medical conditions, or substance-use status, and we do not sell it or use it for advertising. Some states (for example, Washington) define "consumer health data" broadly enough that activity logs like this could arguably qualify depending on how a feature is built and used; we've scoped our collection and use narrowly for that reason, and if that ever changes for a specific feature, we'll update this section and seek any consent that law requires before that feature processes your data differently.

2. How We Use Information

We use the information above to:

  • Create and maintain your account, and let you sign in;
  • Provide the app's core functionality: tracking your bar, matching what

you own against recipes, and identifying bottles/recipes/other content from media you submit;

  • Operate the Mixologist AI chat feature, including sending your messages

and media to the AI provider(s) described below so they can generate a response;

  • Show your public profile, shared shelf, or shared ratings to other users

only to the extent your sharing settings allow, which you are shown at account setup and can change at any time;

  • Enforce fair-use limits on AI features and prevent abuse;
  • Maintain the security of the service and respond to violations of our

Terms of Service;

  • Process and manage your subscription through your app store's in-app

purchase system;

  • Send you service-related push notifications, if you enable them;
  • Respond to support requests;
  • Comply with legal obligations.

We do not use your data to build an advertising profile, and we do not sell your personal information.

3. How Information Is Shared

We do not sell your personal information. We share information only with the service providers ("subprocessors") that are necessary to operate Backbar, and only for the purposes described in this policy. The categories of subprocessor we use, and current examples, are:

| Category | Purpose | What it receives | Current example(s) | |---|---|---|---| | Database, authentication & storage | Account data, bar/recipe content, and media storage | Account data, bar/recipe content, photos | Supabase | | Application hosting | Runs the app and website | Standard request/technical logs | Vercel | | AI providers | Power the Mixologist chat and photo/recipe recognition features | The text and media you submit to these features | Anthropic (Claude), Google (Gemini) | | Transactional email | Sending account-related emails (e.g., password resets, receipts, service notifications) | Your email address and the content of the email | Resend | | Payment & subscription processing | Billing your subscription and recognizing your entitlement to paid features | Payment is handled entirely by the operator of the app store you purchased through — we never receive your card details; we receive limited entitlement data (tier, status, renewal date) | Your app store's in-app purchase system, reconciled via RevenueCat |

We may add, remove, or change subprocessors — including switching or adding AI providers — as the Service evolves; the categories above and the protections in this section apply regardless of which specific provider we use at a given time.

AI providers and your data. When your content is sent to a third-party AI provider for processing, that provider handles it under its own privacy policy and terms of service, which we encourage you to review. We select providers that represent they will not use API-submitted data to train their models absent a separate agreement, and we do not deliberately submit your content for that purpose. However, we cannot independently verify a provider's internal practices, and a provider's terms may change without notice to us. This policy describes our intent and instructions to our providers, not a guarantee of how any given provider handles data on its end — your use of AI-powered features is also subject to that provider's own terms, to the extent they apply to you. If you'd prefer not to have your content processed by a third-party AI provider, don't use the AI-powered features (bottle/recipe recognition, Mixologist chat); the rest of the app works without them.

We may also disclose information where required by valid legal process (such as a subpoena, warrant, or court order), to protect the rights, property, or safety of Backbar, our users, or the public, or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets (in which case you would be notified). We don't disclose your information in response to an informal or voluntary request that isn't backed by valid legal process or a good-faith safety concern.

4. AI Features Disclosure

Backbar's Mixologist chat and media-based recognition features (for example, identifying a bottle or recipe from a photo) are powered by one or more third-party large language models or similar AI services. When you use these features:

  • Your message text and any attached media are transmitted to the

applicable AI provider for processing.

  • Responses are AI-generated and may be inaccurate or incomplete — see the

disclaimer in our Terms of Service.

  • We do not attach your email address or account identity to what we send

the AI provider beyond what's needed to process the request.

  • The specific provider(s) we use may change over time; see Section 3 for

how that data is handled.

5. Data Retention & Deletion

You can delete your account at any time from Profile → Delete Account inside the app. When you do:

  • Your private data — inventory, private recipes, ratings, taste

preferences, public profile, and chat history — is deleted.

  • Recipes and other content you published for other users are not

deleted outright: your name is removed from them (attribution becomes anonymous), but the content itself remains available, because other users may have already saved, relied on, or built on it. See the Terms of Service, Section 4, for the related license grant. This is described here so the policy stays accurate rather than promising a "full wipe" the product doesn't do.

  • Standard technical/security logs held by our infrastructure providers

are retained per their own log-retention schedules, typically a matter of weeks, and are not linked back to you once your account is deleted.

Retention while your account is active. We keep your account, inventory, recipe, and chat data for as long as your account remains active, and for a limited additional period afterward in encrypted backups on our normal backup rotation schedule before those backups are purged.

We aim to complete account-deletion requests within the timeframe required by applicable law — currently 45 days for most U.S. state privacy laws, extendable by an additional 45 days when reasonably necessary (we'll tell you if that happens).

You can also withdraw consent for specific features at any time: turn off camera/photo permissions or push notifications in iOS Settings (extraction and notification features will stop working but the rest of the app functions normally), or turn off any public-profile sharing toggle from your Profile page, which immediately stops sharing that data with other users.

Requesting deletion on the web. You can also request account and data deletion without opening the app, at backbar.smudgerton.com/delete-account.

To request deletion outside the app, or to ask what data we hold about you, contact us at backbarsupport@smudgerton.com. An authorized agent may submit a request on your behalf if you give us enough information to verify both your identity and the agent's authorization. We aim to respond to privacy requests within the timeframe required by applicable law — currently 45 days, extendable by an additional 45 days when reasonably necessary.

Data breaches. If we become aware of a security incident that compromises your personal information in a way that requires notice under applicable law, we will notify affected users and any required regulators within the timeframes that law requires.

6. Your Choices

  • Access & correction: your bar, recipes, ratings, and profile are

editable directly in the app at any time.

  • Public sharing: your profile, bar shelf, and ratings are public by

default, and your activity feed is off by default. You are told this during account setup and can opt out there, or change any of it per surface from your Profile page at any time. Making your profile private hides all of them at once.

  • Camera/Photos: iOS asks permission the first time a media feature is

used; you can revoke it any time in iOS Settings.

  • Push notifications: if enabled, you can disable them any time in iOS

Settings.

  • Deletion: described in Section 5.
  • Marketing: we do not currently send marketing email. If that

changes, marketing messages will include an opt-out, and this policy will be updated first.

  • Do Not Track: our website does not currently respond to browser

"Do Not Track" signals, because there's no common industry standard yet for how to interpret them.

7. Children's Privacy

COPPA. Backbar is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If we learn that we have collected information from a child under 13, we will delete it.

Our adult-content age policy. Separately, because Backbar's actual subject matter is alcohol, the Service is not available to anyone under 21 (the U.S. legal drinking age — see Terms of Service Section 1 for why we use a single national threshold rather than a jurisdiction-by- jurisdiction test), regardless of COPPA's under-13 line. We rely on the age representation you make when creating an account — described in our Terms of Service — to help keep the service limited to adult users; we do not independently verify age, and app stores do not do this for us.

8. Alcohol-Related Content

Backbar contains information about alcoholic beverages and is intended solely for adults of legal drinking age. See our Terms of Service for the full responsible-use disclaimer.

9. Security

We use industry-standard technical measures (encryption in transit, row-level access controls on our database, and scoped service credentials) to protect your information. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

10. International Users

Backbar is currently offered only in the United States and Canada, and the app's availability in the app stores should be limited accordingly. Information we collect is stored and processed in the United States. If you access Backbar from outside the United States despite this, you understand your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States, and that this policy is written around U.S. law (including the CCPA provisions in Section 11) rather than the law of your home jurisdiction.

This assumption depends on our actual app store distribution settings staying limited to the United States and Canada. If those settings ever change — including inadvertently — before this Section is updated for the relevant jurisdiction, that mismatch is a gap to fix operationally, not something this policy cures by itself; review this Section (and Terms of Service Sections 1 and 17) before ever changing territory availability.

11. U.S. State Privacy Rights

We do not sell or share (as those terms are defined under state privacy laws) your personal information, and we do not use it for cross-context behavioral advertising or targeted advertising.

If you are a resident of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Utah, Texas, or another state with a comprehensive consumer privacy law, you generally have the right to:

  • know and access the personal information we hold about you;
  • correct inaccurate personal information;
  • delete your personal information;
  • appeal a denial of any of these requests, by contacting us at

backbarsupport@smudgerton.com — we will review and respond to your appeal within the timeframe applicable law requires; and

  • not be discriminated against — we won't deny you service, charge

different prices, or provide a different level of service because you exercised any of these rights.

Some of these laws also give you the right to opt out of profiling used to make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you; we do not currently engage in that kind of profiling.

Sensitive personal information. Your account login credentials (email address and password) are treated as sensitive personal information under California's CPRA. We use them solely to authenticate you and secure your account — a purpose CPRA's security exemption covers without triggering the right to limit use of sensitive personal information — and for no other purpose.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at backbarsupport@smudgerton.com; see Section 5 for our response-time commitment and how an authorized agent can submit a request on your behalf.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by posting the updated policy in the app with a new "Last updated" date, and, for significant changes, by additional notice (such as an in-app message). If a change would let us use data we already collected from you in a materially new way, we'll seek your renewed consent or otherwise clearly highlight the change before it takes effect, rather than relying on this policy update alone.

13. In-App Purchases & Subscriptions

Backbar offers paid subscriptions, purchased through the in-app purchase system of the app store you downloaded Backbar from. When you subscribe:

  • Your app store processes your payment; we never see or store your

full payment card details.

  • We receive from your app store only the information needed to

recognize your entitlement — for example, your subscription tier, status (active, expired, or in a billing-retry state), and purchase/renewal/expiration dates. RevenueCat, the subscription- management service we use to administer this, also receives and stores the same entitlement data on our behalf.

  • This entitlement information is linked to your Backbar account so we

can unlock the features you've paid for.

See Section 14 of our Terms of Service for the full subscription terms, including auto-renewal, cancellation, and refunds — which are managed by your app store, not by us.

14. Contact Us

Questions about this policy or your data can be sent to:

Smudge Ventures LLC 1 Hanson Pl #23F, Brooklyn, NY 11243 backbarsupport@smudgerton.com