Privacy policy.
What Count the Crumbs stores, who processes it, cookies, how long data is kept and how to delete it.
Draft, not yet reviewed by a lawyer. Until this notice is gone, this page isn’t final.
THE SHORT VERSION
We store what you and your team enter to run your restaurant: ingredients, counts, orders, recipes, sales and costs, schedules and team details.
We don’t sell your data, and there are no advertising or analytics trackers on our pages or in our apps.
Ask Crumb, our AI assistant, is optional. When it’s on and you use it, your question and the relevant restaurant records are sent to an outside AI service to write the answer. The app says so wherever you can type a question.
You can export your records from Settings › Your data at any time. There isn’t a delete button in the app yet: to delete your account and your restaurant’s data, email us (see Your choices).
On this page
Samir Patel, doing business as Count the Crumbs (“Count the Crumbs”, “we”) runs countcrumbs.com and the Count the Crumbs apps for Mac, Windows, iPhone and iPad. This page explains what we store when you use them, why, who else handles it, and what you can do about it.
Questions about privacy: email samir@countcrumbs.com.
What we store
Your account
Your name, email address and password. Passwords are stored only as a one-way hash (scrypt), never as the password itself. If you sign in with Google or Microsoft where that option is offered, we store the account ID that service gives us and its sign-in tokens, encrypted.
Each time you sign in we keep a session record with your IP address and your browser or device type, so you can see where you’re signed in (Settings › Your account) and sign other devices out. To slow down password guessing, sign-in attempts are counted per IP address.
Your restaurant’s records
Everything you enter or import to run your restaurant: its name, addresses, phone and opening hours; ingredients, prices, counts and waste; suppliers and their email addresses; orders and deliveries; recipes and menu prices; sales, costs and wages totals; tasks, reminders, requests to the owner (such as a Manager asking to delete an ingredient) and the activity log; and what the Agents suggested and did.
Your team
Restaurant owners (and managers, where allowed) can add team profiles: names, email addresses, roles, phone numbers, availability, weekly hour limits, hourly pay rates and notes, plus schedules, team messages and invitations. When someone accepts an invitation, their account’s name and email are linked to their profile.
Photos
Invoice, delivery and storage-area photos you upload, with who uploaded each one, when, and its size. Before uploading, the app redraws each photo as a smaller JPEG, which normally removes embedded details such as the camera’s location.
Ask Crumb
If you use Ask Crumb, we keep your questions and its answers, what each one used of your allowance, and any email Ask Crumb sent for you (recipient, subject and text). Photos you ask it to read are sent to the AI service but not kept; we keep what was read from them (for example an invoice’s supplier, lines and totals) and each photo’s type and size.
Point-of-sale data
If you connect Square or Clover, we read your business name, your locations and the completed orders for the locations and days you choose: each item’s name, quantity, refunds and net sales. That is all we keep: anything else in the orders, such as customer or payment details, is dropped when your sales are brought in. The keys that let us read your orders are stored encrypted, and Square access is read-only.
Demo requests
If you request a demo: your name, email, phone (optional), restaurant, role, number of locations, what you’re interested in and any note. We also store a one-way hash of your IP address with the date, only to limit repeated submissions; the IP address itself isn’t stored.
If you then schedule the demo on our site, we also keep the times you suggest or book, your time zone, whether it’s online or in person, your restaurant’s address for an in-person visit, the email addresses of any guests you add, and your answers to two optional questions (which point-of-sale system you use and how you track inventory today). The booking itself is made with Cal.com (see below). After a demo, we may email you an invitation to open your restaurant’s account; it holds your name, email and restaurant name.
How we use it
- To run Count the Crumbs for you and your team: saving your records, showing each person what their role allows, working out costs, reports and suggestions.
- To answer Ask Crumb questions and read photos, when you use those features.
- To send the emails you ask for: account emails (verifying your address, resetting your password), team invitations, and orders or messages you send to suppliers.
- To keep accounts secure and stop abuse, and to help you when you contact us.
We don’t use your data for advertising, and we don’t sell or rent it to anyone.
Who can see your restaurant’s data
You and your team. The restaurant owner sees everything in their workspace except private messages between other people. Team members see what their role allows: for example, Staff and Viewers don’t see ingredient prices; only the owner and Bookkeepers see sales and business financials; and only Managers see other people’s pay rates, phone numbers and notes. Everyone on the team can see each other’s names and roles, the shared schedule and to-do list, and the activity log of changes.
- Email addresses: the owner, Managers, Chefs and Bookkeepers see team members’ email addresses. Staff and Viewers see only their own.
- Where things were sent: email addresses in the activity log (such as where an invitation or an order went) and the supplier email address on a sent order are shown only to the owner and Managers. Everyone else sees the entry without them.
- Requests to the owner: when a Manager asks to delete an ingredient, the request shows in the owner’s Overview and in the activity log, and the ingredient is marked “Delete requested” while the request is open.
- Messages and to-dos: messages sent to particular people are seen only by them and the sender. A to-do sent to particular people is seen only by them, the sender and the owner.
People you send things to. Team invitations go to the email you enter. While an invitation can still be used, anyone with its link can see the restaurant’s name, the owner’s name, the invited email address and the role they’re invited as. Once it’s used or has expired, the link shows nothing about the restaurant. Orders and emails you send through Count the Crumbs go to the supplier or person you choose, with your email as the reply address.
Us. The people who run Count the Crumbs can see Ask Crumb usage records (account email and name, restaurant name and how much was used) to manage plans, and can access stored data when needed to run the service, fix a problem you report, or meet a legal obligation.
Services that process data for us
| Service | What for | What it receives |
|---|---|---|
| Our hosting service | The hosting service that publishes and runs countcrumbs.com | Everything described above |
| Cloudflare | The servers, database and file storage the site runs on | Everything described above, including photos |
| An outside AI service | Ask Crumb answers, reading photos, staffing forecasts | Only when Ask Crumb is on and you use it: your question, your recent Ask Crumb conversation and the relevant records (for example ingredients and prices, recipes, orders, sales and cost figures, team names, roles, availability and shifts, and the email addresses of pending invitations; not team members’ own email addresses, phone numbers, pay rates or notes); photos you ask it to read. Requests are sent with that service’s storage option turned off. |
| Microsoft Azure AI Document Intelligence | A backup reader for invoice photos | An invoice photo, only if this backup is switched on and Ask Crumb can’t read the photo |
| Resend | Delivering email | Each email’s recipient, subject and text |
| Cal.com | Booking, rescheduling and cancelling demo meetings | Only if you book a demo time on our site: your name, email, time zone, the time you choose, a reference to your demo request, your restaurant’s address for an in-person visit, and the email addresses of any guests you add. Cal.com sends us back the booking’s status. Your answers to the two questions and your suggested times stay with us. |
| Square, Clover | Your point-of-sale connection | Only if you connect one; you sign in on their page and choose what to share |
| “Continue with Google” sign-in, where offered | Sign-in goes through Google’s own page | |
| Microsoft | “Continue with Microsoft” sign-in, where offered | Sign-in goes through Microsoft’s own page |
Each of these services handles data under its own terms and privacy policy.
We don’t use a map service. The addresses you enter aren’t sent to one, and no map images are loaded.
Our pages load their fonts from our own site, not from Google or another font service.
Cookies and storage on your device
We use one cookie to keep you signed in. It lasts 7 days, is sent only to our site and can’t be read by page scripts. While you sign in with Google or Microsoft, or connect Clover, a short-lived security cookie (5 to 10 minutes) checks that the request came from you.
We don’t use advertising or analytics cookies, and we don’t use tracking pixels.
The app also keeps a few things in your browser’s own storage, on your device only: display and layout preferences, notification settings, which location you last opened, and the Ask Crumb conversation in the tab that’s open (cleared when you close it). The Mac, Windows, iPhone and iPad apps keep your sign-in and these preferences on the device.
How long we keep it
We keep your account and your restaurant’s records while your account is open. A few lists only keep their newest entries: the activity log (200), team messages (300) and the Agents history (500 entries; older than 180 days are dropped).
About once a day, on days the app is used, a cleanup deletes the records below once they’re past these times. It works in small batches, so a record can stay a little longer than shown. Settings › Your data shows the same times.
| What | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Sign-in sessions, with their IP address and device type | 30 days after the session ends. A session ends after 7 days without use. |
| Sign-in attempts counted per IP address | 7 days |
| The text of emails sent for you | 90 days. After that, a short record that the email was sent stays. The Ask Crumb chat that drafted the email keeps its draft (recipient, subject and text) until your account is deleted. |
| Team invitations | 90 days after they’re used or expire. For an accepted invitation, what the team member’s access needs stays. |
| Invitations to open a restaurant account, sent after a demo | 90 days after they’re used or expire |
| Details of a deleted photo (who uploaded it, when, and its size) | 30 days after it’s deleted. The image itself is removed as soon as the photo is deleted. |
| Demo requests | 12 months, with their scheduling and emails. A request with a booked demo still to come is kept until the demo has taken place. |
| Ask Crumb questions, answers and usage records | Until your account is deleted |
The “Keep everything” add-on. For a restaurant that needs its records kept longer, we can switch on the “Keep everything” add-on. It keeps that restaurant’s sent emails, invitations and deleted photos’ details instead of deleting them on the schedule above. Sign-in sessions, sign-in attempts and demo requests always follow the schedule. Need records kept longer? Email samir@countcrumbs.com.
- Email verification and password reset links work for 1 hour; invitation links for 7 days.
- When a location is removed, its records are kept so the owner can restore it.
- When an owner removes someone’s access, that person’s profile and history stay in the restaurant’s records; their own account stays open.
When you ask us to delete your account, we delete it and your restaurant’s records within 30 days of your request.
Your choices
- See and export your data: Settings › Your data has a full export (JSON) and spreadsheets (CSV) of ingredients, recipes, counts, orders, sales and waste.
- Correct it: change your name in Settings › Your account, and edit your restaurant’s records where they appear.
- Delete it: email samir@countcrumbs.com from the address on your account. We’ll confirm, then delete your account and your restaurant’s records, photos and Ask Crumb history within 30 days of your request. Team members: ask the restaurant’s owner to correct or remove your profile, or email us to close your own account.
- Sign out everywhere: Settings › Your account lists where you’re signed in.
- Ask Crumb and point-of-sale connections are optional, and the owner can turn off what Ask Crumb may suggest in Settings. You can disconnect Square or Clover at any time.
Depending on where you live, you may have further rights over your personal information. Email us and we’ll help.
Security
Accounts only work on the site’s secure (HTTPS) address. Passwords are stored as one-way hashes, point-of-sale and sign-in tokens are encrypted, and each person sees only what their role allows. Sign-in attempts are rate-limited. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your data, we’ll tell you as the law requires.
For restaurant owners: your team’s information
When you add your team to Count the Crumbs, you decide what to record about them, such as pay rates, phone numbers and notes. Please only record what you need to run your restaurant, and let your team know you use Count the Crumbs. We handle that information on your behalf, to provide the service to you.
Children
Count the Crumbs is for running a business.
- An account owner, who accepts our Terms for a business, must be 18 or older.
- A team member a restaurant invites to sign in must be 16 or older.
- A restaurant may list younger staff on its roster without a sign-in. That information is the restaurant’s own records, which we handle on its behalf (see For restaurant owners).
We don’t knowingly collect information from children under 13.
Changes to this policy
When we change this policy we’ll update the date at the top. If a change matters, we’ll tell account holders by email or in the app before it takes effect.
Contact
Samir Patel, doing business as Count the Crumbs
samir@countcrumbs.com
Email us and Samir will answer.
See it with your menu.
On a call we go through one delivery, one count and one of your dishes. No payment, nothing to set up.
