Privacy policy

Who we are

Cork & Note is a wine tasting journal operated by Nicholas Horton, an individual based in the State of Maryland, United States ("we", "us"). This policy explains what information the app collects, how it is used, and the choices you have.

Questions or requests about your data? Email cork_and_note@yahoo.com. You can also use Profile → Feedback in the app.

Information you provide

Account: your name, email address and a password, used to create and sign in to your account.

Journal content: the tastings, ratings, flavor notes, written notes, cellar bottles, wishlist entries, places, and photos you add. This content is yours; we store it so the app can show it back to you.

Messages to the AI sommelier: the questions you type and any photos you scan (wine labels, tasting cards).

Feedback: anything you send through the in-app contact and feedback forms.

Early access and launch notifications

If you request early access or launch news on our website, we save your email address, phone platform, selected interest, eligibility and consent confirmations, and campaign labels identifying how you found the page. We use this information to arrange testing, send the updates you requested, and understand recruitment results. It does not create an app account or enroll you in a store test.

Signup requests are stored in Supabase and processed through our website host, Vercel. We also use short-lived hashed network and email identifiers to limit abuse. We do not publish the signup list. To withdraw your request or ask us to delete it, contact the support address below. We retain your request while arranging the access or notification you asked for, unless you withdraw sooner.

Information collected with your permission

Location: only if you grant location permission, and only while you are using the app — to show your position on the map, find nearby wineries, and attach a location to visits you log. The app never collects location in the background. You can revoke this at any time in your device settings.

Camera and photo library: only if you grant permission, and only to take or choose the photos you attach to wines, visits, and scans.

AI sharing: before the app sends your messages, scanned or attached photos, or journal context to Google Gemini or Anthropic, it asks for your permission. Your choice is saved for your account on that device. You can decline and continue ordinary journaling, or turn off new AI requests in Profile → Account settings → AI sharing. Turning it off does not recall information already sent; contact us for data requests.

How we use your information

To provide the app: storing and syncing your journal, showing your map and stats, and generating sommelier responses.

To keep the service healthy: per-account usage counters limit how often the AI features can be called (including how often the Pro sommelier searches the web), which prevents abuse.

We do not sell your data, show ads, or track you across other apps or websites.

Future optional winery insights

We do not currently provide journal data to wineries or sell winery insight reports. We may offer an optional program in the future that uses feedback from participating users to produce aggregate reports about wines and winery visits. Wineries may pay for those reports.

Before using any of your content for that program, we will explain what information is included, who receives the reports, and how to withdraw, and ask you to opt in separately. Creating an account, buying Pro, or continuing to use the app does not enroll you. Existing journal entries will not be included without your explicit permission.

The program would exclude names, contact details, account identifiers, photos, and individual journal text from winery reports, and suppress small groups or identifying detail that could expose an individual. You would be able to stop future participation without losing access to your journal. Any retention and withdrawal limits for reports already provided would be explained before you join.

Services we share data with

Supabase hosts our database, authentication, and photo storage. Your journal content, account details, and photos are stored there, scoped to your account.

RevenueCat validates subscriptions and helps us enable Pro. It receives your app account identifier and store purchase/subscription history, including product, transaction, renewal and expiration information. We use this for access control, purchase restoration and subscription analytics. Apple or Google (whichever store you purchased through) handles payment details; Cork & Note does not receive your payment-card information.

Anthropic provides the AI sommelier. When you chat with the sommelier or request recommendations, the text of your conversation, relevant context from your journal — wines you have rated and your notes on them, the bottles in your cellar, and the wineries you have visited — and any photos you attach to that conversation are sent to Anthropic’s API to generate the response. Under Anthropic’s commercial terms, this data is not used to train their models.

Google Gemini reads wine-label, tasting-card, and restaurant wine-list scans. The photos you choose and the instructions needed to extract their printed wine details are sent to Google’s Gemini API. These scan requests do not include your tasting history or cellar context. Extracted entries may subsequently be sent to Anthropic when you ask for personalized wine recommendations.

Web search (Pro only). When you ask the Pro sommelier about a specific wine, producer, or winery it may search the web to answer accurately. Anthropic runs that search on our behalf: a short search query derived from your question is sent to its search provider, and public web pages are read to build the answer. Your journal, your photos, and your account details are not part of the search query, and the search provider does not receive your identity. Replies that used a search show the pages they relied on, so you can check them.

Map services (Apple Maps on iOS, Google Maps on Android) display the map. Your map interactions are subject to the platform’s own privacy terms.

On Android, the Google Maps SDK collects technical request and device metadata, IP addresses, a Maps-specific identifier, and SDK crash information. An IP address can indicate your general area even when device location permission is off. The SDK may also collect map interactions such as panning and zooming. Google uses this information to operate and improve its services.

Winery discovery and directory websites are available on Free and Pro using our own directory. Pro can request additional live details from Google Places through our server. Those requests can include a winery name or place identifier and winery coordinates used to match the place, and return ratings, hours, photos and other place information. Your private journal and photos are not included in Places requests.

When you use Plan a wine day to calculate driving times, the trip origin and selected stop coordinates are sent through our server to Google Routes. We store the trip plan and driving times so you can reopen your plan. Google may retain and use Maps Platform request data, including coordinates, to provide and improve its services under its privacy terms.

Expo provides app update delivery. Update checks send technical information needed to select a compatible app update, and may provide update usage and error information used to monitor reliability. These update requests do not include your journal entries, photos, or sommelier messages.

Cellar reminders are scheduled on your device; they do not send your data anywhere.

Retention and deletion

We keep your data for as long as your account exists.

You can delete your app account, photos, journal entries, cellar and chat history in Profile → Account settings → Delete account. The app removes these from its active storage during the deletion process. Information already processed by service providers, backup copies, and transaction records may be retained according to their retention policies or legal obligations. Contact us about deletion of information held by our processors.

Deleting an app account does not cancel a store subscription. Manage or cancel it separately in your Apple Account or Google Play subscription settings.

No longer have the app installed? You can request account deletion by email instead.

Age

Cork & Note is about wine and is intended for people of legal drinking age. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes materially, we will update the date above and notify you in the app before the change takes effect. A policy update or continued use does not grant permission to enroll you in winery insights or apply new sharing purposes to previously collected journal content; we will ask for your separate opt-in before doing so.