Privacy Policy — Burnie

Last updated: October 16, 2026

Burnie ("we", "our", or "us") is a calorie-deficit weight-loss application built for Indian users. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use Burnie.

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Information You Provide

  • Mobile number — used for OTP-based login and account identification.
  • Email address — optional; used for email+password login if you choose to set one.
  • Profile data — display name, sex, birth date, height, weight goals, monthly loss goals. Used exclusively for BMR calculation and weight-loss projections.
  • Food log entries — what you ate, quantities, timestamps. Used to calculate your daily calorie deficit.
  • Weight entries — your weigh-in readings. Used to track progress and generate projections.
  • Academy comments — comments you choose to post are public to other signed-in Burnie members. You can report a comment, block its author, and delete your own comments.
  • Reflections — optional: how a day felt (a mood rating from 1 to 5) and any short note you add.
  • Product feedback — optional: your answer to "Is Burnie helping?" and any reasons or note you add. It is used only to improve Burnie.
  • Buddy posts, kudos and comments — optional: a moment you choose to share with your buddy leagues (for example "Down 2.0 kg" or "15 logged days in a row"), the kudos you give and the comments you write. A moment is seen only by the members of the leagues you share it with. A comment marked private is seen only by you and the person whose moment it is. Your weight, food and calories are never shown to buddies; a weight moment shows only the kilos or the percentage you chose to share. You can delete your moments and comments, hide comments on your moments, report a comment and block a person.
  • Gifts — when a new whole kilo below your starting weight earns you a gift, we store which kilo it was and, if you give it, which buddy received it and any note you add. Your buddy sees your name, the note and the days you gave, never your weight.
  • Burnie points — we keep each earned reward's category, date and point value so your balance is accurate across devices. For workout rewards, we keep a one-way hash of the health session identifier to prevent duplicate awards; we do not store the raw workout record or steps on the server. Instagram and photo rewards record only that Burnie handed off an Instagram Story or saved a photo, not the photo itself or whether you posted it.

    • 1.2 Health Data (Optional)

    If you opt in, Burnie reads the following from Apple Health on iOS or Health Connect on Android:

  • Active energy burned
  • Resting energy / basal metabolic rate
  • Exercise sessions and their calories
  • Step count
  • Body weight records

    • We never read or access: heart rate, sleep data, blood pressure, location, contacts, or any other health metric. Only the five categories listed above. Health access is read-only, optional, and controlled through Apple Health or Health Connect.

    1.3 Automatically Collected Data

  • Device token — for authentication.
  • Push notification token (FCM) — if you turn on notifications, a Firebase Cloud Messaging registration token for your device is stored so we can deliver them. See Section 1.4.
  • App version and platform — for debugging.
  • Email notification preference — if you explicitly enable email notifications, we use your verified email address to send only the notification categories you selected.

    • We do NOT use advertising identifiers, third-party analytics SDKs, or tracking cookies.

    1.4 Burnie AI (Optional)

    Burnie AI is the assistant inside Burnie. It is free for everyone. Before your first use, Burnie asks for your consent in the app, and you can turn Burnie AI off at any time in Settings.

    When you use a Burnie AI feature — describing a meal or your whole day in text, speaking a meal by voice, taking a photo of your food or of a bill or receipt, asking Burnie AI a question, or opening your day review, morning reflection, weekly or monthly story, records story or metabolism insight — the following is processed by Burnie AI to answer you. After you consent, a few short Burnie AI notes, such as your daily insight and weekly report, are prepared ahead of time from your own numbers so they are ready when you open the app.

  • the text you type, or your voice recording, which is turned into text to understand what you ate;
  • the food photo or the bill or receipt image you choose;
  • the mood rating and note you add to a reflection;
  • the minimum context from your Burnie account needed for that answer, such as your food log, daily calorie totals, goal and progress numbers.

    • The metabolism insight sends only summary numbers such as the estimated daily burn, logging-day and weigh-in counts, and confidence level. A photo you make with Burnie in the photo studio stays on your device and is saved to your photo library only when you choose Save; it is not sent to Burnie AI or our server for that feature.

    Burnie AI uses a partner AI service to answer you. Information is sent to it securely, only after you consent, and only what each answer needs.

    To answer questions that need current information, such as the nutrition of a packaged food or a restaurant dish you look up on the web, Burnie AI sends a short search query about the topic (never your name or personal details) to a web search service and reads the public pages it finds. Burnie does not save the question.

    When you ask Burnie AI about a Burnie Academy article, your questions, Burnie AI's answers and any note you save are kept in your account so you can read them again on any of your devices. You can delete a discussion at any time, and deleting your account deletes them all.

    If you turn on 'Help improve Burnie AI', the questions you ask in Burnie Academy and Burnie AI's answers may be kept, without your name, to improve Burnie AI's answers. It is off unless you turn it on, and you can turn it off in Settings.

    Burnie AI answers are estimates that you can edit or delete; they are not medical advice. This information is not used for advertising. Raw Apple Health or Health Connect records are not sent to Burnie AI; only the daily calorie totals Burnie already keeps for your deficit may be used as context. Food items you confirm from a Burnie AI or barcode estimate are saved to your private food library; they are not published to the community database.

    1.5 Push Notifications (Optional)

    If you enable notifications, Burnie sends push notifications — such as meal-time reminders, "you forgot to log" nudges, and streak or achievement updates — using Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM), a service provided by Google. To deliver them, your device's FCM registration token is shared with Google solely to route the notification to your device; the message content is created by us, and Google acts only as the delivery channel. These are functional reminders about your own activity — we do not send marketing or promotional notifications. You can choose the type and channel of each notification (push, email, or in-app), or turn them off entirely, from the app's notification settings or your device's system settings. Your push token is deleted when you delete your account.

    1.6 Free access and historical purchase records

    Burnie features are free. There is no paid membership or expiring trial. Historical trial, gift and store purchase records may be retained for accounting, reconciliation and support; existing store notifications continue to be verified. Historical payment records contain product, renewal date and store transaction references, never your card or bank details. Removing charges does not delete your food, workout or buddy records.

    1.7 Waitlist (Closed)

    The plans waitlist is closed and takes no new emails. If you joined it at /plans, we stored the email address you entered, the option you picked, which version of that page you were shown, and — if you answered — your feedback on that page and any short note you added. Nothing else. No payment details were requested or stored, and nothing was charged. If you were signed in when you joined, the entry is linked to your account so we do not email you twice.

    2. How We Use Your Information

    PurposeData Used
    Create and authenticate your accountMobile number, device token
    Calculate BMR (resting calorie burn)Sex, birth date, height, weight
    Compute daily calorie deficitFood entries, active calories (from phone or manual)
    Generate weekly/monthly weight-loss projectionsAll profile + food + weight data
    Show streak and on-track statusFood entries, deficit calculations
    Sync phone health data (optional)Resting energy, active energy, workouts, steps and weight from Apple Health or Health Connect
    Answer you with Burnie AI (optional, after consent)The text, voice recording, photo, bill or receipt image, reflection or question you submit, and the minimum account context that answer needs (see Section 1.4)
    Keep your morning reflections (optional)Mood rating, note and Burnie AI's reply
    Keep your Burnie Academy discussions and notes (optional)Your questions about an article, Burnie AI's answers, your thumbs up or down and any note you save
    Help improve Burnie AI (optional, off unless you turn it on)Your Burnie Academy questions and Burnie AI's answers, without your name
    Improve Burnie from feedback you choose to send (optional)Your "Is Burnie helping?" answer, reasons and note
    Display an Academy comment you choose to publishComment text, display name and moderation state
    Send the push notifications you've enabled (reminders, streaks, achievements)FCM registration token
    Send email notifications you explicitly enableVerified email address and selected notification category
    Respond to support or grievance requestsContact details you provide

    3. Data Storage & Security

  • All data is stored on servers located in India.
  • Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS) and at rest.
  • Authentication tokens are managed via Laravel Sanctum with automatic expiry.
  • We do not sell or rent your personal data. Service providers receive only the data required for the feature you choose: Google Firebase Cloud Messaging for enabled push delivery, the configured email delivery provider for enabled email delivery, the partner AI service behind Burnie AI when you use Burnie AI after consent (see Section 1.4), and a web search service, which receives only a short search query about the food, when you look a food up on the web.

    • 4. Your Rights Under the DPDP Act, 2023

    As an Indian user, you have the right to:

  • Access — request a copy of all your data (use the Export button in Settings).
  • Correct — update your profile, weight, or food entries at any time.
  • Erase — delete your account and associated data permanently in Settings, or request deletion at /delete-account if you cannot access the app.
  • Grievance — contact our Grievance Officer (see Grievance Officer section).
  • Nominate — designate a nominee to exercise your rights in case of incapacity.

    • 5. Data Retention

  • Active accounts: data retained indefinitely while you use the app.
  • Deleted accounts: the in-app flow deletes account data immediately. Verified external requests are completed within 30 days unless a legal obligation requires limited retention.
  • OTP records: deleted within 15 minutes of verification.
  • Waitlist entries (Section 1.7): kept until the single notice to waitlist members is sent, then deleted within 30 days. Entries that never receive that notice are deleted after 12 months regardless. The notice carries a one-click removal link, and you can ask us to remove you at any time before it. This is enforced by a scheduled job, not by hand.
  • Push notification token: kept while notifications are enabled; deleted when you delete your account.
  • Reflections and product feedback: kept while your account is active; deleted when you delete your account, and included in your data export.
  • Apple Health / Health Connect data: re-read from the phone on each sync. We do not copy raw health records to our server. Burnie stores daily resting- and active-calorie summary values used for your deficit calculation. Step totals remain on the device. A phone weight reading is stored only after you confirm that you want to use it.
  • Burnie point events: kept with your account and included in your data export. Deleting your account deletes them.

    • 6. Children's Privacy

    Burnie is intended only for adults aged 18 or older. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

    7. Changes to This Policy

    We will notify you of material changes via the app. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance.

    Contact: See the Grievance Officer section for contact details.