The short version
- No sign-up needed. When you save your first Rec, we create an anonymous account tied to your browser with one cookie. No name, email, phone or password.
- Creating an account is optional. If you do, we ask your name. Your phone number, area and food preferences are optional, and you can change or remove them any time.
- Signing in is optional. If you sign in with Google or an email and password, we keep your email address so you can reach your list from any device. Passwords are stored only as secure hashes.
- If you use WhatsApp, your WhatsApp number is your account, and we keep it so we can reply. We only read messages you send to TruSauce.
- Your list and your verdicts are private. Others only ever see combined totals (TruScore), never who said what.
- Recs are public. Anyone with a Rec’s link can see the post’s public details, the place, and its TruScore — not who saved it.
- We never keep copies of videos. A post’s audio or video is fetched only long enough to read it, then discarded.
- No advertising, no analytics trackers, and we don’t sell data.
- Delete everything at any time from Your list → Delete my data. It’s immediate.
Who we are
TruSauce (“TruSauce”, “we”, “us”) helps people save food recommendations they see in Instagram and YouTube posts, find the actual place, and say whether the recommendation lived up to the hype. It is operated by the TruSauce team, which is responsible for the personal data described here. You can reach us at hello@trusauce.com.
This policy covers the TruSauce website at https://trusauce.ae, the installable TruSauce app, the “Save to TruSauce” iPhone Shortcut, the TruSauce WhatsApp chat, and the @trusauced Instagram account’s automated replies.
What we collect
When you save a Rec
| Data | Where it comes from | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The link you share or paste | You | To know which post to read. |
| Public details of that post: caption or title, hashtags, the creator’s public handle and name, accounts tagged in it, its location tag, when it was posted, its length, thumbnail link, and any transcript the platform provides | The public post on Instagram or YouTube, retrieved through our scraping provider | These are the clues that identify the place. Other people’s comments on the post are discarded and never stored. |
| A transcript of what’s said in the video | Generated from the post’s audio when the platform provides none | Places and dishes are often named out loud. Used to read the post; not shown on the site. |
| What we work out: the place, dishes, prices, offers, cuisine, area, a short summary, and a confidence score | Our AI reading of the post | This is the Rec. |
| The Google Maps place ID of the matched place | Google Places | To link the Rec to the real place. The place’s name, address and reviews are fetched live when you view a Rec and aren’t stored. |
Your account (created silently when you first save)
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| A random account ID, and a session cookie that ties it to your browser (we store only a scrambled hash of the cookie) | So your list is yours. It isn’t linked to your name, email, phone, or social accounts. |
| The Recs you saved, when you saved them, and your verdict on each — Worth It, Overhyped, Hidden Gem, or Not for me — with when you gave it | To show your list, and to calculate each Rec’s TruScore from everyone’s combined verdicts. |
| When to next ask “did it deliver?”, and how many reminders we’ve sent | To remind you a few days after saving, and to stop after a few reminders. |
| A push subscription from your browser — only if you turn on reminders | To send the reminder notification. It’s an address at your browser’s push service, not your phone number. |
| A Shortcut key — only if you set up the iPhone Shortcut (we store only a hash of it) | So the Shortcut can add Recs to your list. |
| A log of what happened: account created, Rec saved or removed, verdict given, reminder sent, reminders turned on | To measure whether TruSauce works — for example, how many saved Recs get a verdict. |
| Your IP address | Held in memory only, to limit how many requests one connection can make in a few minutes. Never written to our database. |
| A network key: a one-way, keyed code made from your IP address (for IPv6, from the part that identifies your connection), stored with each verdict and new account | To stop fake verdicts: we compare keys to spot many verdicts or accounts coming from one network. The address itself isn’t stored, and the key can’t be turned back into it without a secret only our server holds. Our legitimate interest in keeping TruScore honest. |
If you choose to sign in
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| Your email address, and whether you’ve confirmed it | So you can sign in on any device, and so we can send the confirmation and password-reset emails you ask for. If you’ve signed in with an email address and have no other way of being reached, we also email the “did it deliver?” reminder for places you saved — every one carries a one-click unsubscribe, and stopping them changes nothing else about your account. No marketing email. |
| Your password, as a salted scrypt hash — never the password itself | To check it when you sign in with email. |
| With Google: the account ID Google gives us, your email and whether Google has verified it, your name, and the address of your Google profile photo | To recognise you next time and show who’s signed in on your account page. They’re refreshed each time you sign in with Google. We don’t get your contacts, Gmail, Drive or anything else. |
| With Apple (in the iOS app): the account ID Apple gives us, the email Apple shares (which may be a private relay address), the name you choose to share the first time, and a token from Apple kept only so we can revoke Apple sign-in when you delete your account | To recognise you next time, and to disconnect TruSauce from your Apple ID if you delete your account. |
| Your name — typed when you create an account with email, or taken from Google or Apple the first time you use them (you can change it) | To know who our users are, and to greet you on your account page. |
| Only if you give them, in “About you” or on your account page: your phone number, the part of Dubai you live in or spend most time in, how you eat (for example vegetarian or halal only) and food you love | To understand who uses TruSauce and to tailor suggestions to you. We don’t call or text your number, and we won’t use it for anything else without asking you first. How you eat can say something about your religion or health, so it’s entirely optional, used only for your suggestions, never shown to anyone else, and removed as soon as you untick it. |
| Single-use links for confirming your email or resetting your password (hashed; they expire in 1–48 hours) | To prove the email address is yours. |
| When you last signed in, and for each browser or iOS app signed in to your account: how it signed in, a device label such as “Safari on iPhone”, and when it was last active | So your account page can show where you’re signed in and let you sign a device out. We keep the label, not your browser’s full details or your IP address. |
When you sign in on a browser that already has an anonymous list, that list is added to your account.
If you tell us a place is wrong
If you use “Wrong place?” on a Rec, we keep what you chose (for example “wrong branch”), anything you type about the right place, and which Rec and account it came from. A member of the TruSauce team reads it to correct the Rec, and corrected Recs help us measure and improve how accurately places are matched. It’s deleted with your account.
When you use TruSauce on WhatsApp
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| Your WhatsApp phone number | It identifies your account on WhatsApp and is the only way to reply to you. It isn’t shown to anyone or used for anything else. |
| When you last messaged us, and whether you’ve turned reminders off | WhatsApp only allows free replies within 24 hours of your last message; after that we use an approved reminder message. STOP turns reminders off. |
| The links and button taps you send | To save Recs and record verdicts. We don’t store the text of your messages — only the Rec you shared and the verdict you tapped — and our logs don’t record message content. |
| A short-lived code, if you connect WhatsApp to a browser (hashed, single use) | So a list started in one place shows up in the other. |
WhatsApp also shows us your profile name with each message; we don’t store it.
When you message or tag @trusauced on Instagram (once available)
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| Your Instagram-scoped user ID | To reply to you. Instagram issues this ID specifically for our app; it can’t be used to identify you on other services. |
| The ID and public link of the post you shared or tagged us in, and its caption | To identify the place, and to link back to the original post. |
| The text of your comment, when you tag us in a comment | Sometimes the only clue available when the post belongs to a personal account. |
We receive messages you send to @trusauced only — never your inbox, other conversations, followers, or contacts. Our server logs record that a message arrived, not what it said.
When you email us
Your email address and whatever you choose to write, used only to answer you.
What we don’t collect
- Videos and photos. We store a link to the original post. Its audio or video is fetched only for the moment it takes to transcribe or read it, and never written to disk or kept.
- Identity details from people who don’t sign up. No name, email, phone number or password unless you create an account (your phone number is optional even then) or use TruSauce on WhatsApp. No payment information from anyone.
- Your location. We never ask your device where you are.
- Browsing behaviour. No analytics, advertising pixels, or session recording.
- Anything else on your phone. The Shortcut and Android app only send the link you chose to share.
How we use it
Only to run TruSauce: to read a post and identify the place, keep your list, ask whether a Rec delivered, calculate TruScores from combined verdicts, show related videos and reviews, prevent abuse, fix problems, and improve accuracy (for example, by checking places we matched wrongly). We don’t use your data for advertising, and we don’t sell or rent it.
“Tonight”. We pick one place from your own list to suggest, using only what’s already there: what you saved, how long ago, whether you’ve been, what kind of food it is and roughly where it is. We record which suggestion we showed you and what you did with it (opened it, said “not tonight”, or later gave it a verdict), so we can tell whether suggesting is any use. It never uses other people’s lists, and it doesn’t use your location — choosing an area is something you do, not something we measure.
About you. If you create an account, we use your name and any details you add to know who uses TruSauce — our team can see them in our admin tools — and, as we build personalised suggestions, to suggest places that suit you. We rely on your consent for the optional details: you choose whether to give each one, and removing it from your account page withdraws it.
Taste matching. In future we plan to use verdicts to show how people with similar taste rated a Rec. We will update this policy, and tell you in the app, before that starts.
Where laws such as the EU or UK GDPR apply, we rely on performing the service you ask for when you save a Rec or give a verdict, and on our legitimate interests in securing and improving it. Automated reading of posts produces the Rec you asked for; it doesn’t make decisions about you.
What other people can see
- A Rec is public. Anyone with its link can see the post’s public details, the place, dishes, summary, and its TruScore with the number of Worth It / Overhyped / Hidden Gem / Not for me verdicts.
- TruScore only appears once verdicts add up to 5 full verdicts, and only ever as totals — never which account said what. Anonymous verdicts count less than signed-in ones, and verdicts that look fake can be held back for a person to check.
- Your list, your verdicts, and your reminders are private to your account — the browser or app where you saved them, or wherever you’re signed in. There is no public profile and no list of who saved a Rec.
- Your name and account details are never shown to other people. Only TruSauce’s team sees them, to run and support the service.
Who processes it
We use a small number of providers. Each receives only what its job needs, under its own terms and privacy policy.
| Provider | What they receive | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Oracle Cloud | Everything described above, stored on our server | Hosting. Privacy policy |
| Apify | The public post link, and place names for video searches | Retrieving public post details and YouTube search results. Privacy policy |
| Google (Gemini API) | The public post’s video and audio, its caption and tags — only when we use Gemini to read a post, and for Google Maps grounding when a place is unclear | Reading what the post shows and says (including text on screen) to identify the place. Sent on the paid tier with storage turned off; Google doesn’t use it to improve its products. Privacy policy |
| Groq | The post’s public text (caption, hashtags, tags, location, transcript) and its audio | AI reading of the post and speech-to-text. Privacy policy |
| TypeSafe | The post’s public text (caption, hashtags, tags, location, transcript, text shown on screen), what our reading found in it, and the names of places the post mentions | Double-checking that reading: whether the post is about a food business, whether it really mentions each dish, price and deal, and which place it recommends when it names several. TypeSafe doesn’t train on it. Privacy policy |
| Google (Places API) | A place name and area when matching; a place ID when you view a Rec | Matching the real place, and showing its details and reviews live. Privacy policy |
| Meta (WhatsApp) | Your number, the messages you exchange with TruSauce, and our replies — only if you use the WhatsApp chat | Delivering messages. Privacy policy |
| Resend | Your email address and the confirmation or password-reset email we send you — only if you sign in with email | Delivering account emails. Privacy policy |
| Google (Sign in with Google) | The fact that you’re signing in to TruSauce — only if you choose “Continue with Google” | Confirming who you are. Privacy policy |
| Apple (Sign in with Apple, and push notifications) | The fact that you’re signing in to TruSauce, and — only if you allow notifications in the iOS app — a reminder addressed to your device | Confirming who you are and delivering notifications. Privacy policy |
| Your browser’s push service (for example Google, Apple, or Mozilla) | An encrypted reminder, addressed to your subscription — only if you turn reminders on | Delivering the notification. The message is encrypted so the push service can’t read it. |
| Meta (Instagram) | Our replies, and the post IDs we look up | Operating the Instagram channel. Privacy policy |
None of these providers receive your list or your verdicts from us, except that WhatsApp carries the messages you exchange with TruSauce there.
Images and links. Post thumbnails, video thumbnails, and Google profile photos (reviewers’, and your own on your account page) load in your browser straight from Instagram’s, YouTube’s, and Google’s servers, so those companies can see your IP address when the image loads, as with any embedded image. Opening “Go there”, Google Maps, Instagram, or YouTube links takes you to their services, under their policies.
We may disclose information if required by law, or to protect TruSauce and its users from fraud or abuse.
Where it’s stored
Our server runs in Oracle Cloud’s Hyderabad region in India. Our providers operate in other countries, including the United States. When information moves between countries, we rely on the provider’s contractual and security commitments to protect it.
How long we keep it
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Your account, sign-in details (email, password hash, Google or Apple ID), your name and the details you added about yourself, list, verdicts, reminders, push subscription or iOS notification token, Shortcut key, WhatsApp number, and activity log | Until you delete your data — in the app, or by sending DELETE MY DATA on WhatsApp. Deleting removes all of it immediately. |
| Email confirmation and password-reset links | Until used or expired (1 hour for resets, 48 hours for confirmations). |
| WhatsApp message IDs | 7 days, only to avoid handling the same message twice. No message content. |
| Recs (public post details and what we worked out) | Until they’re removed on request, or until we remove old Recs. Verdict totals disappear with the verdicts behind them. |
| Post audio and video | Only while it’s being transcribed or read — seconds to a minute. Never written to disk or stored. |
| “Tonight” suggestions shown to you, and what you did with them | Until you delete your data. Deleted with your account. |
| “Wrong place?” reports | Until you delete your account; a report on a Rec is replaced if you send another. |
| Google place details and reviews | Not stored. Fetched when you view a Rec. |
| Cached YouTube video links for a place | Refreshed roughly every 30 days. |
| IP addresses for rate limiting | In memory, under an hour; never stored. |
| Network keys on verdicts and new-account counts | 30 days, then erased. Daily account counts per network: 2 days. |
| Anonymous accounts that never saved anything | Deleted after 30 days without use. |
| Instagram-channel saves | Until you remove TruSauce from Instagram or ask us to delete them. |
| Database backups | 14 days, then overwritten. Deleted data disappears from backups within this window. |
| Instagram deletion records | A confirmation code, the Instagram-scoped ID, the number of records removed, and timestamps — kept to show a deletion happened. |
| Server logs | Rotated automatically; kept only as long as useful for troubleshooting. |
Cookies & storage
TruSauce sets one essential cookie, ts_session, the first time you save a Rec. It keeps
your list tied to your browser. It can’t be read by scripts, isn’t shared with anyone, and expires after 400 days.
We set no advertising or analytics cookies, and browsing without saving sets no cookie at all.
If you choose “Continue with Google”, a second essential cookie, ts_oauth, lasts up to 10 minutes to
make sure the sign-in that comes back from Google is the one this browser started.
If you turn on reminders, your browser installs a small TruSauce service worker so it can show the notification. Clearing your browser data removes the cookie; your account then can’t be linked back to you, and your list won’t appear in that browser again.
Your rights
Depending on where you live — including under the UAE’s Personal Data Protection Law, the EU and UK GDPR, and India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act — you may have the right to access, correct, or delete personal data about you, to object to or restrict how it’s used, and to complain to your local data protection authority.
Your list shows everything saved to your account. To delete it all, use Delete my data in the app; for anything else, see Delete your data or email hello@trusauce.com. If you created an account, you can see and change your name and details on your account page. Anonymous accounts can only be acted on from the browser or app they live in. We won’t charge for any request.
If you’re a creator whose post appears on TruSauce, see Creators & takedowns.
Children
TruSauce isn’t directed at children under 13 (or the minimum age for Instagram in your country), and we don’t knowingly collect their data. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact us and we’ll delete it.
Security
All traffic uses HTTPS. Passwords are stored only as salted scrypt hashes; session cookies, Shortcut keys, and email links are stored only as hashes. Sign-in attempts are rate-limited, and resetting a password signs you out everywhere else. Pages from other sites can’t act on your account, messages from Instagram are cryptographically verified, reminder notifications are encrypted, and public Recs only ever show a fixed set of fields. No system is perfectly secure; if we learn of a breach affecting your data, we’ll notify you where the law requires.
Changes to this policy
When we change what we collect or how it’s used, we update this page and the date at the top. Significant changes will also be announced in the app before they take effect.
Contact
Questions or requests about privacy: hello@trusauce.com.