🌐 Website (smilingpages.com)

Who we are

Smiling Pages Recipes is a free recipe website available at www.smilingpages.com. We publish over 100,000 recipes for home cooks everywhere. The site is operated by an individual based in the United States.

What data we collect

Server logs. Like every website, our server automatically records standard access-log information each time you visit: your IP address, browser type (user-agent), the page you requested, the referring URL, and a timestamp. These logs are kept for security and debugging purposes and are not linked to any personal identity. They are retained for up to 90 days, after which they are automatically overwritten.

Votes (recipe upvotes). When you upvote a recipe we record a one-way hash of your IP address (SHA-256 with a server-side salt). This is a one-way operation — we cannot reverse the hash to find your original IP address. We use this solely to prevent the same person from voting on the same recipe multiple times.

Comments. If you leave a comment on a recipe, we store:

• The name you enter (displayed publicly next to your comment)
• Your comment text (displayed publicly)
• A one-way hash of your IP address (not displayed, used only for spam/abuse prevention)

We do not require an email address or any other contact information to comment.

Session cookie. We use a single PHP session cookie to enforce rate limits on comment submissions. This cookie does not contain any personal information and expires automatically when you close your browser. We do not use this cookie for tracking or advertising.

YouTube video embeds. Some recipe pages include YouTube videos embedded directly on the page. When those videos load, YouTube (operated by Google LLC) may set its own cookies on your device and collect usage data according to its own policies. Please see Google’s Privacy Policy for details.

Google Fonts. We load typography (Nunito and Lato fonts) from Google’s font servers at fonts.googleapis.com. When your browser requests these fonts, Google receives your IP address and browser information. See Google’s Privacy Policy for more information.

What we do NOT do (website)

• We do not sell, rent, or share your data with third parties for marketing purposes.
• We do not run advertising networks or display tracking pixels.
• We do not require you to create an account or provide a password.
• We do not accept payments, and we store no payment information whatsoever.
• We do not use analytics services (such as Google Analytics) at this time.

Cookies

Here is a summary of the cookies that may be present when you use this site:

• PHPSESSID (first-party, session) — Set by our server to enforce comment rate limits. Contains no personal data. Deleted when you close your browser.
• YouTube / Google cookies (third-party) — May be set when a recipe page contains an embedded YouTube video. Governed by Google’s cookie policy.
• Google Fonts (third-party) — Loading fonts from Google’s servers may result in Google logging your request.

We do not set any persistent tracking or advertising cookies ourselves. You can manage or block cookies through your browser settings. Note that blocking our session cookie may prevent comment submission.

Third-party services (website)

Smiling Pages Recipes uses the following third-party services. When you interact with them, their own privacy policies apply:

• YouTube (Google LLC) — Video embeds on select recipe pages. Google Privacy Policy
• Google Fonts — Typography served from Google servers. Google Privacy Policy
• Social sharing buttons (Pinterest, Facebook, X/Twitter, WhatsApp) — These are simple links that open the respective platform in a new tab. We do not load any scripts from these platforms on our pages; no data is sent to them unless you actually click a share button.
  • Pinterest Privacy Policy
  • Facebook Privacy Policy
  • X (Twitter) Privacy Policy
  • WhatsApp Privacy Policy

📱 iOS App (Smiling Pages for iPhone and iPad)

TL;DR. The app is free, has no accounts, no in-app purchases, no ads, no analytics, no crash-reporting SDKs, and no tracking. Your cookbook, shopping list, meal plan and pantry stay on your device. Camera images, photos and voice commands are processed on your device. What leaves your device: the searches and ingredient lookups you make (to our recipe server), barcode numbers you scan (to Open Food Facts), anonymous recipe ratings you submit (to our recipe server), and ordinary image requests to the websites that host recipe photos.

What we do NOT do (app)

• We do not offer or require an account, and we do not ask for your name, email address or phone number.
• We do not sell anything in the app. There are no in-app purchases or subscriptions.
• We do not include any advertising, analytics, attribution or crash-reporting SDKs, or tracking pixels.
• We do not track you across other companies’ apps or websites, and the app does not access the advertising identifier (IDFA). That is why you never see an App Tracking Transparency prompt.
• We do not upload your camera images, photos, voice audio, cookbook, shopping list, meal plan or pantry to our servers.
• We do not send push notifications. Cooking-timer and pantry-expiry reminders are local notifications scheduled on your device.

Data stored on your device

Your saved recipes (cookbook), shopping list, meal plan, pantry items, dietary and allergen preferences, app settings, and simple cooking counters shown in Settings → Stats are stored locally on your device. The app also keeps a cache of recipes and recipe images so the cookbook works offline. This data is not sent to us. It is included in your device backups only if you back up your device (for example with iCloud Backup or your computer), which Apple or your computer handles, not us. The home-screen widgets read the same on-device data.

Data the app processes on your device

These are processed entirely on your device using Apple frameworks. They are never sent to us.

What	Why	Apple framework
Camera frames while scanning a barcode	Read the UPC/EAN number on a product	VisionKit / Vision
Photos you take or pick	Identify pantry items, or read the text of a recipe page	Vision
Microphone audio during Cooking Mode voice commands	Recognise “next step”, “start the timer” and similar commands	Speech (on-device recognition only)

Photos never leave your device. The only result of a photo that can be sent is a search phrase you confirm (for example, a pantry item you choose to search recipes for), which is sent like any other search (see below).

Permissions

iOS asks for your permission the first time a feature needs it. Tapping Don’t Allow only turns off that feature; the rest of the app keeps working. You can change these at any time in the iOS Settings app.

• Camera — barcode scanning and photo features described above.
• Photo picker — existing photos are chosen with the system photo picker; no photo-library permission is requested.
• Microphone and Speech Recognition — optional hands-free voice commands in Cooking Mode.
• Calendars (add events only) — adds a planned meal to your calendar only when you tap to add it. The app cannot read your calendar.
• Notifications — local cooking-timer and pantry-expiry reminders.

Data the app sends off your device

Searches and lookups (smilingpages.com). To show recipes, the app makes requests to our read-only recipe API at https://www.smilingpages.com/api/. Depending on what you do, a request can contain the search text you type, ingredient or pantry item names you look up (for example “cook from my pantry” or ingredient substitutions), and the dietary filter you choose (for example vegetarian, vegan, keto, kosher or halal). Requests carry no account, name, or device identifier. Like every web request, our server sees your IP address and the app’s User-Agent, which contains only the app name, version and build and the iOS version. These details are kept in our server access logs for up to 90 days for security and troubleshooting, and are not linked to your identity or used for advertising.

Recipe ratings (smilingpages.com). If you rate a recipe, the app sends the recipe’s ID and your three scores (taste, ease, accuracy, each 1–5) to our server. No text, name or identifier is included. We store the scores to show each recipe’s average rating and number of ratings. Because a rating is not tied to you, we cannot look up or delete an individual rating later.

Barcode lookups (Open Food Facts). When you scan a barcode, the barcode number is sent to Open Food Facts (world.openfoodfacts.org), an independent, non-profit food database published under the Open Database Licence, to look up the product name. The request contains the barcode number and a User-Agent with only the app name and version; Open Food Facts also sees your IP address. See the Open Food Facts privacy policy.

Recipe images (third-party image hosts). Some recipe photos are loaded directly from the websites that host them (for example the recipe’s original publisher or Wikimedia). When your device loads such an image, that website receives a standard web request, including your IP address, and its own privacy policy applies. We do not send those websites any other information about you.

Apple. The app is distributed by Apple through the App Store. If you choose to share analytics with app developers in iOS Settings, Apple may give us aggregated, anonymous crash and usage statistics. Apple’s handling of that data is described in Apple’s Privacy Policy.

Apple App Privacy report (App Store privacy label)

The App Privacy details we file in App Store Connect declare:

Data type	Linked to you?	Purpose	Used for tracking?
Search History (searches, ingredient and pantry lookups, dietary filters, scanned barcode numbers)	Not linked to you	App Functionality	No
Other User Content (anonymous recipe ratings)	Not linked to you	App Functionality	No

Data used to track you: none. Data linked to you: none. If the App Store record ever shows something different from this list, please tell us.

The Apple Developer Program member of record is the team identified by Apple Team ID Z92WJTP2S4.

Future features

If we add a feature that changes what data the app stores or sends, we will update this policy before that feature ships.

§ Shared sections (apply to website and app)

Data retention

• Server logs (website visits and app requests, including search and lookup text): retained for up to 90 days, then overwritten.
• Comments (website): Retained indefinitely unless you request removal (see Your Rights below).
• Votes (website): Retained indefinitely as anonymous hashed records. Because we cannot reverse the hash, there is no way to link a stored vote back to any individual.
• Recipe ratings (app): Retained as anonymous scores for as long as the recipe is listed, to calculate its average rating.
• On-device app data (cookbook, shopping list, meal plan, pantry, preferences, cached recipes and images): stays on your device until you delete it in the app or delete the app. Deleting the app removes all of it.

Your rights

Even without user accounts, we respect your ability to manage the data you have knowingly submitted:

• Comment removal: If you posted a comment on the website and would like it deleted, email us — include the URL of the recipe page and the text of your comment and we will remove it promptly.
• App data: Everything the app stores about you is on your device, so you can delete it at any time by deleting the app.
• Right to know: You can ask what data we hold about you. Because we store only hashed IP addresses for votes and comments, anonymous ratings, and short-lived access logs that are not linked to any identity, we generally cannot identify you from that data — so in practice the only data we can associate with you is a comment you tell us you wrote.

EU/UK/EEA residents have the rights described in the GDPR (access, rectify, erase, restrict, portability, object). California residents have the rights described in the CCPA / CPRA. Because we hold no per-user account data and do not sell or share personal information, most data-subject requests resolve to “no data on file” — but if you have submitted a comment, the comment-removal path above applies. Email support@smilingpages.com to make a request.

Children’s privacy

Smiling Pages is a general-audience recipe service and is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has submitted personal information to us, please email support@smilingpages.com and we will delete it promptly.

The iOS app is rated 13+ on the App Store because the recipe catalogue includes cocktail and other alcoholic-drink recipes.

International users

The app is available worldwide through the App Store. The website is available worldwide. The app is localised in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese and Simplified Chinese (additional locales on the website).

Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we revise the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. If we materially change how the app handles data, we will update this policy before the app update that makes the change is released. Continued use of the website or app after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact us

Have a question about this policy or want to make a data request? We’re happy to help.