Cookie Policy: How We Use Cookies & Tracking Technologies on Our AI Nutrition Platform

What Are Cookies & Why Do We Use Them?

Cookies are small text files that websites store on your device (computer, smartphone, or tablet) when you visit them. Think of them as tiny memory aids that help websites remember information about your visit — like your language preference, login status, or items in a shopping cart. Without cookies, the web would be much less convenient: you'd have to re-enter your preferences every time you loaded a new page.

On our AI nutrition platform, cookies serve several important purposes that directly enhance your experience:

• Personalization: Remembering your dietary preferences (keto, vegan, etc.), macro targets, and meal planning settings so you don't have to reconfigure them on every visit
• Session Management: Keeping you logged in securely as you navigate between pages, log meals, or view your progress reports
• Performance Optimization: Loading pages faster by caching static resources and reducing server requests
• Analytics & Improvement: Understanding which features you use most, where you encounter difficulties, and how we can make our AI recommendations more helpful
• Security: Protecting your account from unauthorized access and detecting suspicious activity
• AI Model Training (Anonymized): Aggregated, de-identified usage patterns help our machine learning systems improve recommendation accuracy for all users — without ever accessing your personal identity

Important clarification: We do NOT use cookies to: sell your personal data to advertisers, track your activity across unrelated websites, build detailed profiles for third-party marketing, or share your health information with external parties without your explicit consent.

First-Party vs. Third-Party Cookies

Understanding this distinction helps you make informed choices about your privacy:

• First-party cookies: Set by nutrition.web2ai.eu directly. These handle core functionality like login sessions, preference storage, and site performance. They cannot be read by other websites.
• Third-party cookies: Set by external services we integrate (like Google Analytics for traffic analysis). These help us understand usage patterns but are governed by the third party's own privacy policies.

We minimize third-party cookies and only use them when they provide clear value to your experience. All third-party integrations undergo privacy and security review before implementation.

Types of Cookies We Use

We categorize cookies by purpose and duration to give you transparent control over your data. Here's a complete breakdown:

Specific Cookies on Our Platform: Complete Inventory

Transparency means naming names. Below is a detailed table of every cookie our platform may set, its purpose, duration, and whether it's first or third-party.

Note: This table is updated quarterly. For the most current list, contact privacy@nutrition.web2ai.eu. Cookie names starting with _ are typically third-party; others are first-party.

AI & Analytics: How Cookies Improve Your Experience Without Compromising Privacy

As an AI-powered nutrition platform, we use data to make our recommendations smarter. But we do this responsibly. Here's exactly how cookies support our AI systems while protecting your privacy:

🤖 Anonymized Learning, Not Personal Profiling

When you interact with our AI meal planner — accepting a suggestion, modifying a recipe, or rating a recommendation — we may store a pseudonymized signal (via the ai_feedback_hash cookie) that helps our machine learning models learn which approaches work best. Crucially:

• ✅ This signal is not linked to your identity — it's a random hash that cannot be reversed to identify you
• ✅ Data is aggregated across thousands of users before model training; no individual's data is used in isolation
• ✅ Health information (weight, macros, meals) is never used to train AI models without explicit, opt-in consent
• ✅ You can opt out anytime via your account settings or by disabling analytics cookies

📊 Analytics That Respect Boundaries

Our Google Analytics implementation follows strict privacy-by-design principles:

• IP Anonymization: Your IP address is truncated before storage, preventing geographic identification
• No Cross-Site Tracking: We disable Google's advertising features and data sharing with other Google services
• Retention Limits: Analytics data is automatically deleted after 14 months
• Health Data Exclusion: Pages containing personal health information are excluded from analytics tracking entirely

Bottom line: Cookies help us build a better AI nutrition tool for everyone, but your personal health journey remains private and under your control.

Third-Party Cookies & Partners: Who Else Might Set Cookies?

While we minimize external dependencies, some features require integration with trusted third-party services. Here's a transparent overview:

How to Manage or Disable Cookies: Full Control in Your Hands

You have multiple ways to control cookies on our platform. Choose the method that fits your comfort level:

🎛️ Method 1: Our Consent Panel (Easiest)

When you first visit our site, a banner appears at the bottom of your screen. Click "Customize" to:

• ✅ Accept all cookies (recommended for full functionality)
• ✅ Accept only essential cookies (basic site works, personalization disabled)
• ✅ Reject all non-essential cookies (minimal functionality, maximum privacy)
• ✅ Review and adjust choices anytime via the "Cookie Settings" link in our footer

🌐 Method 2: Browser Settings (Most Comprehensive)

All major browsers let you view, delete, or block cookies. Here's how:

• Chrome: Settings → Privacy and security → Cookies and other site data
• Firefox: Options → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data
• Safari: Preferences → Privacy → Manage Website Data
• Edge: Settings → Cookies and site permissions → Manage and delete cookies
• Mobile browsers: Look for "Privacy" or "Site settings" in your browser's menu

Note: Blocking all cookies may break login, meal logging, and other core features on our platform.

🔐 Method 3: Private/Incognito Mode (Temporary Privacy)

Browsing in private mode prevents cookies from persisting after you close the window. Useful for one-time visits, but you'll need to reconfigure preferences each session.

🤖 Method 4: AI Crawler Controls (For Developers)

If you're testing our site with AI agents or crawlers, respect our robots.txt directives. We welcome responsible crawling for research and indexing, but ask that you: honor rate limits, identify your bot clearly in the User-Agent string, and avoid scraping personal user data.

Legal Compliance: GDPR, CCPA, ePrivacy & Global Standards

We design our cookie practices to meet or exceed major privacy regulations worldwide. Here's how we align with key frameworks:

Data Processing & Retention Periods: How Long Do We Keep Cookie Data?

Transparency includes telling you not just what we collect, but how long we keep it. Here's our retention schedule for cookie-related data:

Your Rights: You can request early deletion of any cookie-derived data by contacting privacy@nutrition.web2ai.eu. We respond to valid requests within 30 days, as required by GDPR and CCPA.

Updates to This Cookie Policy: Staying Current

Privacy regulations and technology evolve. We commit to keeping this policy accurate and up-to-date:

• Review Cycle: This policy is formally reviewed every 6 months by our privacy team
• Change Notifications: Material changes (new cookie types, expanded data use) trigger: (1) a banner notice on our site, (2) an email to registered users, and (3) an updated "Last updated" date at the top of this page
• Version History: Previous versions are archived and available upon request at privacy@nutrition.web2ai.eu
• Continued Use: Using our platform after policy updates constitutes acceptance of the revised terms. If you disagree, you may discontinue use and request data deletion

Next scheduled review: October 2026

Frequently Asked Questions About Our Cookie Practices

Contact Us: Questions About Cookies?

We're committed to transparency and happy to clarify any aspect of our cookie practices:

Data Protection Officer: For formal GDPR requests (access, deletion, portability), contact our DPO at dpo@nutrition.web2ai.eu. All communications are encrypted and handled confidentially.

Your Privacy, Our Priority

We believe powerful AI nutrition tools and strong privacy protections can — and must — coexist. Thank you for trusting us with your health journey.