In short
- We only collect what the app needs to work: your account, your wines, your cellar and your taste profile.
- We don’t sell your information, we don’t show ads and we don’t track you across other apps.
- Your main data is hosted in Montréal. Some services (sign-in, crash reports, AI) may process it outside Québec; we tell you which below.
- Your taste profile is profiling: we explain how it works and you can reset it. Location is off by default.
- You can access, correct, export or delete your data at any time.
1. Who we are
tchin.ai is a wine app (cellar, pairings, evenings with friends, help at the store) and a website, tchin.ai, operated by Logiciels E’nergik Software inc., a Québec company (“we”, “us”).
This policy covers the tchin.ai app for Android and iPhone, the tchin.ai website and your communications with us. It explains how we handle personal information, meaning any information that identifies you, directly or indirectly.
The French version of this policy, Politique de confidentialité, prevails if the two differ.
2. Person in charge of the protection of personal information
The person in charge of the protection of personal information makes sure this policy and the law are followed. Contact them with any question, request or complaint:
Person in charge of the protection of personal information
Logiciels E’nergik Software inc.
Email: confidentialite@tchin-ai.com
3. What we collect
We only collect what is needed for the purposes in section 5. Some features are optional: if you don’t use them, we don’t collect the information that goes with them.
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Account | An anonymous ID created when you first open the app. If you link an Apple or Google account: your email (or Apple’s relay address), name, profile photo and the provider’s user ID. |
| Age and preferences | Your confirmation that you are of legal drinking age (a “yes” and its date, never your date of birth), your language and how the app addresses you. |
| Tasting notebook | The wines you rate or add, your ratings, your comments and your “to rate” lists. |
| Cellar | Your locations and cellars (with an address if you enter one), your bottles, their price, purchase date and place, and who drank, gave or moved a bottle in a shared cellar. |
| Photos and text you submit | Photos of labels, store shelves, receipts or dishes, and what you type or dictate to the app (your meal, for example). |
| Taste profile | What the app infers from your ratings: aromas, styles, regions and grapes you like or avoid, and the preferences you confirm to the assistant. |
| Evenings and games | Your answers and votes during a game. They feed your taste profile only if you agree. |
| Location (optional) | Only if you turn on “based on my location” for a location, so the app picks the right cellar automatically. Off by default. |
| Subscription | Your plan and its status. Payment is handled by Apple or Google: we never see your card. |
| Technical data | Proof that a request comes from the real app on a real device and, when the app crashes, the type of error, device model, OS version and an installation ID. |
| Communications | The content of emails you send us. |
Your drinking habits may be considered sensitive. We handle them with care: they are only used to serve you in the app, never appear in our logs or crash reports, and are never sold or used for advertising.
Photos taken during an evening may show people. The app only looks for bottles in them; avoid photographing people who haven’t agreed to it.
4. How we collect it
- From you, when you use the app, take a photo, rate a wine or write to us.
- From Apple or Google, when you link your account (with your permission in their sign-in window).
- Automatically, for the technical data described above.
- By inference, for your taste profile, from your ratings and answers.
5. Why we use it
- To create and secure your account, and let you get it back on a new device.
- To recognise wines in your photos and keep your notebook and cellar.
- To recommend wines and pairings based on your taste, meal, budget and what you already have.
- To run evenings and games with friends, and shared cellars.
- To manage your subscription and the free plan’s limits.
- To check that you are of legal age to use an app about alcohol.
- To fix crashes, prevent fraud and abuse, and protect our services.
- To answer your questions and meet our legal obligations.
We don’t use your information for any other purpose without your consent, unless the law allows it.
6. Taste profile, AI and location
Your taste profile is profiling
The app analyses the wines you rate and your answers to estimate your preferences. This profile is only used to suggest wines and pairings. It isn’t used for advertising, isn’t sold and doesn’t lead to any decision with legal or significant effects on you: these are suggestions only, and you are free to ignore them.
You can view your profile in the app, correct a preference, stop the use of your game answers or ask us to reset your profile.
Artificial intelligence
To read a label, a shelf, a receipt or a dish, the app sends that photo or text to an artificial intelligence service, along with the parts of your taste profile needed for the recommendation. The provider processes this data only for us: it doesn’t keep it beyond the request and doesn’t use it to train its models. Estimates (drinking window, value) are labelled as estimates, with their source.
Location
“Based on my location” is off by default. If you turn it on for a location, the app compares your position with that location’s address on your device to preselect the right cellar. You can turn it off at any time in the app or in your phone’s settings.
7. Your consent
We ask for your consent when we collect your information, for specific purposes, in a clear and separate way. For optional features (location, using your game answers for your profile, camera access), we ask separately, and the most private setting applies by default.
You can withdraw your consent at any time, in the app or by writing to us. Some features may then no longer be available.
8. Who we share with
We don’t sell or rent your personal information. We only share it:
- With our service providers, who process it for us, on our instructions and under contract, with appropriate protection and confidentiality measures (table below).
- With people you share with, such as members of a shared cellar or players in a game, who see what that feature shows them.
- When the law requires or allows it, for example at the request of a competent authority.
- In a business transaction (sale or merger of the company), only what is needed, under a confidentiality agreement, as the law provides.
| Provider | What it does for us | Where it processes data |
|---|---|---|
| Google Cloud and Firebase (Firestore, Storage, Cloud Run) | Database, photo storage and the app’s servers | Montréal (Canada) |
| Firebase Authentication (Google) | Sign-in and account management | United States |
| Firebase App Check (Google) | Checks that requests come from the real app | United States |
| Firebase Crashlytics (Google) | Crash reports | United States |
| Google Gemini (Google Cloud) | Artificial intelligence: photos, pairings, recommendations | Canada or United States |
| Apple and Google | Sign in with Apple or Google, app distribution, subscription payments | United States and elsewhere |
| Microsoft Azure | Website hosting | Canada, United States and elsewhere |
| Google Fonts | Website fonts | United States |
9. Sharing outside Québec
Your main data (notebook, cellar, taste profile, photos) is hosted in Montréal. Some providers in the table above process information outside Québec, mainly in the United States. Before sharing information outside Québec, we carry out a privacy impact assessment and make sure, by contract, that the information will be adequately protected. The laws where data is processed may still allow local authorities to access it.
10. How long we keep it
- Account, notebook, cellar and profile: as long as your account exists. You can delete them at any time.
- Unused anonymous account: deleted with its data after 12 months without use.
- Capture photos: deleted automatically after 30 days; we only keep the result (the recognised wine).
- Crash reports: 90 days.
- Emails with us: while we handle your request, then up to 2 years for follow-up.
- Backups: erased no later than 30 days after the original data is deleted.
When information is no longer needed, we destroy or anonymise it as the law provides.
11. Security
We take reasonable measures to protect your information, according to its sensitivity: encryption in transit and at rest, access limited to the people who need it, checks that requests come from the real app, and no personal data in our logs or crash reports (technical IDs only).
No system is perfect. If a confidentiality incident presents a risk of serious harm, we promptly notify Québec’s Commission d’accès à l’information and the people affected, and we record every incident in a register.
12. Your rights
Under the law, you can:
- Access your personal information and learn how we use it.
- Have it corrected if it is inaccurate, incomplete or ambiguous.
- Get a copy of the information you gave us, in a structured, commonly used technological format, for yourself or another organisation (portability).
- Withdraw your consent to a use or a disclosure.
- Ask for deletion of your information and your account.
- Ask us to stop disseminating information or to de-index a link to it, in the cases the law provides.
- Be informed of the information used to build your taste profile and how to change it.
Many of these can be done directly in the app (Profile). For the rest, write to confidentialite@tchin-ai.com. We reply within 30 days, free of charge. We may ask you to confirm your identity, for example by writing from the address linked to your account.
13. Delete your account
In the app: Profile → Delete my account. Your account, notebook, profile, photos and the cellars you own are deleted.
If you no longer have the app, write to confidentialite@tchin-ai.com from the address linked to your Apple or Google account, with the subject “Delete my account”. We delete your account and data within 30 days and confirm it to you.
Deleting your account doesn’t cancel a subscription: cancel it in your App Store or Google Play settings.
14. Minimum age
tchin.ai is about wine. The app is only for people of legal age to buy and drink alcohol where they are (18 in Québec). We don’t knowingly collect information about minors; if we learn that an account belongs to a minor, we delete it.
15. The website and cookies
The tchin.ai website uses no cookies, no audience measurement and no advertising trackers. As with any website, our host (Microsoft Azure) receives technical connection data, such as your IP address and browser, to serve the pages and protect the service. Fonts are provided by Google Fonts, which also receives your IP address.
If we ever add cookies or measurement tools, we will update this policy and ask for your consent where the law requires it.
16. Our governance
The person in charge of the protection of personal information approves our internal rules and makes sure they are applied. These rules cover, among other things:
- the roles and responsibilities of everyone who has access to personal information;
- a privacy impact assessment before any new project, system or provider that handles personal information, and before any sharing outside Québec;
- retention and destruction of information (section 10);
- handling confidentiality incidents and keeping their register;
- handling access and correction requests and complaints (sections 12 and 17).
Privacy is built into the app from the start: we collect the minimum, keep your main data in Montréal and apply the most private settings by default.
17. Complaints
If you believe your information wasn’t handled properly, write to our person in charge at confidentialite@tchin-ai.com and describe the situation. We acknowledge receipt, review the complaint and reply in writing within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with the answer, you can contact Québec’s Commission d’accès à l’information.
18. Changes
We may update this policy, for example when we add a feature or a provider. The date at the top of the page shows the latest version. For any significant change, we notify you in the app or by email before it takes effect and, where needed, ask for your consent again.