ShopAbout privacy policy
nSignia Software · last updated 7 November 2026
ShopAbout is a shared shopping list app for families: groceries, the chemist, the hardware store, any shop. This explains what it collects, why, where it's kept, who else sees it, and how to delete it. We don't sell your data, show ads, or track you across other apps or websites.
What we collect
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Your Apple account ID from Sign in with Apple (a random ID, not your Apple ID's email) | To recognise you when you sign in |
| Your name and email, only if you choose to share them with Sign in with Apple (the email may be an Apple private relay address) | To show the people on your lists who added what. Only people on a list with you see your name; there's no directory of people |
| Your lists: items, amounts, notes, sections and shops | The shopping list itself, shared with the people on that list |
| Photos you add to items | To show which product to buy. Location and other details are removed from photos before they're stored. |
| What you buy: what goes in the cart, the shop, amounts and prices | Ticking things off, price history, and matching receipts |
| Your settings and the names of the devices you're signed in on (e.g. "Graham's iPhone") | Your preferences, and so you can sign out a lost phone |
| Your subscription and AI scan packs from the App Store: the plan, when it renews or ends, and Apple's transaction numbers. Apple takes the payment; we never see your card or payment details | To give you what you've paid for; kept until you delete your account |
| How many AI scans you've used (receipts and ingredient scans read) this month or in the free trial, how many you've bought and have left, and how many smart-section guesses today (counts only) | Your plan's allowance, and a daily limit on guesses; a month's count is deleted about 3 months after the month ends, the trial's after a year, a day's after 3 days |
| Products you scan: a barcode's product facts (name, brand, size, section), when you add one to ShopAbout's shared catalogue by reading its label or saving it. Not who you are or what you buy: it's kept with your account only privately, to remove bad entries, and forgotten when you delete your account | So the next person who scans that product doesn't have to |
| Server logs: your IP address, the time, and which part of the service was used (not what's on your list) | Keeping the service secure and working; kept 30 days |
Ingredients you scan with Ingredient scan (text or photos), and receipts you add (photos, a PDF or text), are not stored by us: they're read, shown to you to check, and discarded. What you choose to save from a receipt is kept with that shop, like anything else on your list: what was bought, amounts and prices, the total and what was paid, and the receipt written out as text so you can look at it again. The photo or PDF itself isn't kept, unless the list's owner turns on Keep receipt originals: then it's kept with that shop, so anyone on the list can look at it or share it later (for a return or a warranty), until someone deletes it or the shop or list is deleted. Kept originals, and each receipt's text, payment and receipt number, are encrypted where we store them.
Claude (Anthropic)
These optional features use Claude, an AI service from Anthropic, PBC (United States). They only work after you turn them on in the app, and you can turn them off at any time in Settings.
- Smart sections: when you add something new, its name (for example "coconut milk") is sent to work out which supermarket section it belongs in. Only the name is sent.
- Product labels: the photo of a pack's front you take, when its barcode isn't known, so its name and size can be read. To look a barcode up, the app also asks Open Food Facts for it directly: only the barcode is sent.
- Ingredient scans: the ingredients (or a recipe's text or photos) you choose are sent so what to buy can be listed for you.
- Receipt reading: the receipt photos, PDF or text you choose are sent, with the names of the things in that shop's cart and on the list, so the receipt can be read and matched to them. Of the payment, only the card type and its last 4 digits are kept (a longer card number is cut to its last 4); loyalty card numbers are left out.
Your name, email and account ID are never sent to Anthropic, and the rest of your list is only sent when you read a receipt (the names of things in that shop's cart and on the list, to match it). Under Anthropic's commercial terms, it may not use what we send to train its models. Anthropic deletes it within 30 days, unless its safety systems flag it for misuse, in which case it can keep it for up to 2 years.
Where it's kept and who else sees it
- Our server, hosted by Vultr in Sydney, Australia.
- Backblaze, in the western United States, which stores our nightly backups for up to 6 months. They're encrypted on our server before they leave it, so Backblaze can't read them.
- Your devices, and the devices of the people on the lists you share.
- Other ShopAbout households see only typical prices: for a product with a barcode, the middle price people paid at a chain (or one shop) in a state, worked out from at least 3 households, and the week it was last seen. Never who paid it, which list it was on, or what else was bought. Turn it off in Settings → Share prices anonymously.
- Apple handles Sign in with Apple.
- Anthropic receives what's described above, only if you turn those features on.
- Cloudflare only answers the lookup for our server's address; your data doesn't pass through it.
We use no analytics, advertising or tracking tools, and the app contains no third-party code.
How long we keep it
Your account and lists are kept until you delete them. Server logs are kept 30 days. Usage counts are deleted about 3 months after their month (receipts and recipes), a year after the free trial, or 3 days after their day (guesses). Copies in our backups are gone within about 6 months (our nightly backups keep the last 7 days, 4 weeks and 6 months, and anything deleted stays in them until then).
Deleting your account
In the app, go to Settings → Delete account. This deletes your account, your name and email, your signed-in devices, and any list only you were on (with its photos). Items you added to lists shared with others stay on those lists, shown as from "a former member", so the rest of the family's list isn't lost. If you'd like those removed too, delete them before deleting your account, or ask us.
Your choices and rights
You can see and change your lists in the app at any time, turn the Claude features on or off in Settings, and delete your account in the app. To ask for a copy of your data, a correction, or anything else about your privacy, email info@nsignia.au.
Children
ShopAbout isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their personal information.
Changes
If this policy changes, we'll update this page and the date at the top.
Contact
Graham Walker, trading as nSignia Software (ABN 66 136 343 706), Tasmania, Australia · info@nsignia.au