Privacy Policy

Last updated: 17 October 2026  ·  Effective: 24 October 2026 (signing in with Google: 12 October 2026; usage statistics: see Usage statistics; website statistics: 15 October 2026; the device you'd use, on the waitlist: 17 October 2026; the weekly hello: from the app version that adds it)

1. Who we are

Westie is a grocery price comparison app operated by Miss Tech ("Westie", "we", "us"). This policy explains what information the Westie mobile app and service collect, why, and what control you have over it. It applies to the Westie app and to westie.fyi.

Miss Tech is the data controller for the information described here. You can reach us at jmfrankl@gmail.com — see Contact us for full details.

2. What we collect

Account information

When you create an account we collect your email address and a password, and we generate a user identifier for you. Accounts are managed with Amazon Cognito; your password is held by Cognito in hashed form and is never visible to us. You choose a handle, which is how other users know you, and we record whether you've verified your email address. When you sign up we also record that you agreed to our Terms of Use and this Privacy Policy, which version, and when, and whether you asked for news and app tips by email (and when you last changed that).

Signing in with Google. If you choose "Continue with Google", Google tells us the email address of the Google account you pick, that Google has verified it, and an identifier for that account. We use the email as your Westie account's address and the identifier to recognise you when you sign in again. Google's sign-in token may also contain your name and profile photo; we do not use or store them. We never receive your Google password, and we do not access your contacts, Drive or any other Google data. We record whether an account was created with Google or with a password.

Location

With your permission, Westie collects your device's location while the app is open, to find the stores and prices near you and to attach the correct store to a price you log. Instead, you can pick a spot on the map in Settings; that spot is kept on your device. Either way, the location in use and your chosen search radius are sent with the requests that need them, such as searches. Westie does not collect location in the background or when the app is closed, and we don't build a history of your movements.

Photos, barcodes and camera

Westie collects the photos you take or choose inside the app — shelf tags, product shots, barcodes and receipts — and barcodes you scan or type. Photos are uploaded to our storage and analysed to extract prices and product details (see Automated analysis). If a photo you select from your library has GPS coordinates saved in it, we read those coordinates to work out which store the photo was taken at. Photos you take on one shopping trip are grouped into a session for you to review, and their times and locations are used to suggest the store.

Before a photo leaves your phone, the app removes its hidden information (camera and device details, and the like). A photo of a price or receipt keeps the date and time it was taken, and keeps its location only if it was taken within about 1,000 feet of a store — that's how we know which store a price is from. A product photo you add to an item keeps neither: no time and no location.

Receipt information

If you scan a receipt, we extract and store the text on it that's relevant to pricing: the store name and address, the date and time of purchase, the items purchased with their quantities and prices, and the subtotal, tax and total. A receipt may also show a transaction number and an abbreviated payment method (for example a card brand and the last four digits); where that text appears on the receipt it may be extracted and stored along with it.

Westie does not process payments for receipts and does not collect full payment card numbers, CVV codes, bank credentials or similar details. If you'd rather not share any of this, obscure it before photographing the receipt, or enter prices manually instead.

Content you contribute

We collect the prices, product names, sizes, quantities, units, store selections, notes and photos that you submit, together with the time you submitted them; corrections you make to items in the shared catalogue and the categories you choose; your lists, checklist entries, Interest List and saved searches (including their filters); the results of each list you price ("Find prices" or "One-Store Cart") and of each "Shop for Alternatives" you finish, which are saved automatically so you can look at them later — the prices, stores and totals as they were then, under a name made from the list and the time, or one you give it (you can rename or delete any of them); and the alternatives you choose for items a store didn't have.

Diamonds

We keep your diamond balance and the record behind it: diamonds received when you verified your email, earned for prices you log, and spent to see prices, including which prices you've seen this way.

Purchases

If you subscribe to Westie Premium, you pay Google Play, not us. Google gives us a purchase token, which we check with Google to learn the product, whether your subscription is active, and when it renews or ends. We never receive your payment card or bank details.

Social activity

If you follow other users, ask to follow them, let them follow you, or share a price, we store those relationships and actions so the features work. A new account follows Westie's own account (@westie) from the start, so its starter shopping list shows among the lists you follow; you can unfollow it at any time. We also store whether you've turned off Let people nearby find me (see What's visible to others).

Reports

If you report content, we store your report — what you reported, the reason and any details you add — with your account, and email it to ourselves with your handle so we can review it. A photo that's reported is hidden from everyone until we've reviewed it.

Emails we send you

We email you sign-up and verification codes; codes and confirmations when you change your email address or password, change your handle, or delete your account on the web; follow requests other users send you; and important notices about the Service and these policies. News and app tips come only if you tick "Receive news & app tips by email" when you sign up — it's unticked unless you tick it — and you can turn them on or off at any time in Settings → Communication, or by emailing us. We don't send any other marketing email.

Technical information

When the app talks to our servers we receive basic technical information that's inherent to an internet request — such as your IP address, the app version and the time of the request. This is used to operate and secure the service. The app includes no advertising SDKs and uses no cookies. Its one measurement tool is described next; the website's is described under Website statistics.

Usage statistics

Westie uses Google Analytics for Firebase to count how the app is used: that it was opened, which sign-up screens were reached, that an account was created or signed in to (and whether with a password or Google), that prices were looked at, that a price or a receipt was added, that a list was compared with One-Store Cart (how many stores and how many lines, and whether it was paid for with diamonds or Premium — never what's on the list), that a list's priced results were saved (whether from Find prices or One-Store Cart — never their name or contents), that a weekly hello notification was opened (which one), and — outside the areas we cover — that the "not in your city yet" screen was shown or its waitlist joined. With each of these Google receives basic information about the app and the device (app version, device model, operating system, language), the general area you're in as worked out from your IP address (a city or region — the IP address itself is not kept), and an identifier that Firebase creates for this installation of the app.

We do not send what you search for, the items, barcodes or stores you look at, your precise location, your handle, your email address or your Westie user identifier, and we do not link these statistics to your account. The advertising identifier is not collected, and the data is not used for advertising or ad personalisation. We may record which area we cover you're in (for example "Cary"), or that you're outside one.

Where you came from. A link or QR code that leads to Westie's Play Store page can carry a short channel code (for example "flyer-library-cary"). Google Play passes that code to the app the first time it opens, and it is recorded with the statistics above so we can tell which announcements bring people to Westie. It identifies the link, not you.

Turning it off. Settings → Privacy → "Share usage statistics". While it's off, nothing described in this section is collected.

When it starts. These statistics are in versions of the app released after 12 October 2026. Before you have an account — the first time the app opens, and on the sign-in and sign-up screens — they are collected from the start. If you create your account in one of those versions, they continue from then. If your account already existed, nothing is collected while you're signed in until 27 October 2026.

We keep these statistics for 14 months.

Website statistics

Our website, westie.fyi, uses Google Analytics to count visits: which pages were viewed, the link, post, flyer or ad that brought the visit (the code in links such as westie.fyi/?ch=fb-cary), and whether the visitor tapped "Get Westie on Google Play" or joined a city's waitlist. With each visit Google receives basic information about the browser and device, the general area worked out from the IP address (the IP address itself is not kept), and the page that linked to ours. To tell a returning visitor from a new one, Google Analytics sets cookies (named _ga) in your browser.

We do not send the email address or place you type into the waitlist form, and we don't link these statistics to a Westie account. Google signals and ad personalisation are turned off, so the data isn't used for advertising.

Turning it off. If your browser sends the Global Privacy Control signal, the website doesn't load Google Analytics at all. You can also block it with Google's opt-out browser add-on, or clear and block cookies for westie.fyi in your browser's settings. The site works the same either way.

We keep these statistics for 14 months.

City waitlist

If you join a city's waitlist in the app, we record which metro area you asked for, worked out from your location or the city or ZIP you typed, and that you use Android (the app is Android only). If you join on westie.fyi, we collect your email address, the city or ZIP you entered (kept only as the metro area), the kind of device you'd use Westie on (iPhone, Android, Windows, or what you type under "Other"), the date, and a short code identifying the link you arrived from. We use this to count interest per metro and per device, to decide where to launch next and which devices to build for, and to tell you when Westie reaches your city. To limit abuse of the web form we keep a one-way hash of the sender's IP address for up to a day. You can leave the waitlist in the app at any time, or ask us to remove a web entry by emailing us; deleting your account removes your entry. Per-metro totals are public; who is on a list is not.

Kept on your device

Some choices stay on your phone and aren't sent to us except as described above: a spot you picked on the map, your search radius, units of measure, the filters you last used for a search or category, which tips you've seen, and whether you've turned usage statistics off. A saved result that hasn't reached our servers yet (no signal, say) is kept on your phone until it can be sent, then removed from it. Your login token is kept in your device's secure storage.

3. Device permissions

Westie requests the camera, location, photo-location and notification permissions described on our permissions page. Each is requested in context, and each is optional — you can decline or later revoke any of them in your device settings, though features that depend on a permission won't work without it.

4. How we use information

• To create and secure your account and sign you in.
• To show prices for the stores near you and let you search and browse the catalogue.
• To read prices and product details off the photos you submit, and suggest categories for new items.
• To attribute prices you log to the correct store and product.
• To build price history so items can be compared over time.
• To keep your diamond balance and Premium subscription working.
• To operate social features you use — following, sharing, follow requests (including emailing the person you ask) and, unless you turn it off, "Find others nearby".
• To keep your lists, saved searches and saved results, and show their lowest prices.
• To show other users, as a count and without your name, the alternatives you choose for an item a store didn't have.
• To notify you when your photos have finished processing, if you've allowed notifications.
• If you've allowed notifications, to send a weekly hello: a short note from Westie once a week, about the app — on Saturdays at 10am unless you choose another day and time. It's skipped in a week you've just used the app, and you can change it or turn it off in Settings → Communication. The app keeps which note you'll get next on your account, so none repeats until you've had them all.
• To review content you or others report, and to respond to your support requests.
• To send the account emails and notices described above.
• To see, in aggregate, how the app is used and which of our announcements bring people to it (see Usage statistics).
• To detect, investigate and prevent abuse, fraud, and violations of our Terms.
• To meet legal obligations.

Where the law requires a legal basis (for example in the UK and EEA), we rely on: performance of our contract with you, to provide the service; your consent, for device permissions such as camera, location and notifications; and our legitimate interests, in keeping the service working, accurate and secure, and in helping shoppers near each other find and follow one another ("Find others nearby", which you can turn off at any time).

5. Automated analysis

Photos you submit are analysed automatically so Westie can read the price, product name, size, barcode and similar details off them, and new items are suggested a category automatically. This involves:

• On-device barcode decoding and image handling in the app itself.
• Analysis by a third-party AI service. Photos — and, to suggest a category, an item's name and details — are sent to Anthropic's Claude API, which returns the structured details or suggestion. Anthropic processes them to provide that result and, under its commercial API terms, does not use them to train its models. See Anthropic's privacy policy.

Automated analysis can misread a photo or suggest the wrong category. Nothing you submit is published as a price without you reviewing and confirming it first, and these processes don't produce legal or similarly significant effects for you.

6. How information is shared

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising. We share information only as follows:

• With other users — as described in What's visible to others, including emailing your follow request, with your handle, to the person you ask.
• With service providers who run the infrastructure behind Westie, and only so they can provide it to us:
  • Amazon Web Services — hosting, storage of your photos, accounts and authentication (Cognito), sending email (SES), and our APIs. United States.
  • Anthropic — automated analysis of submitted photos and item details, as described above. United States.
  • Neo4j Aura — the database storing products, stores, price records and accounts. United States.
  • Typesense — the search index that powers item search. United States.
  • Google Play — app distribution and updates, and Westie Premium: Google processes the payment, and we check your subscription with Google. Google's own handling is governed by its privacy policy.
  • Google Analytics for Firebase (Google) — the usage statistics described under Usage statistics. United States.
  • Google Analytics (Google) — the website statistics described under Website statistics. United States.
  • Google Sign-In — to sign you in with your Google account, if you choose to. Google learns that you signed in to Westie. United States.
  • OpenStreetMap — the map in Settings loads its map images from OpenStreetMap's tile servers, so those servers see your IP address and the area of the map you're viewing. See the OpenStreetMap Foundation's privacy policy.
  • Open Food Facts — when you scan a product barcode, our server looks the barcode up in the Open Food Facts database. Only the barcode is sent, nothing about you.
• For legal reasons — where we reasonably believe disclosure is required by law or legal process, or is necessary to protect the rights, safety or property of our users, the public or us.
• In a business transfer — if Westie is involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, information may transfer as part of that transaction. We'll notify you before your information becomes subject to a materially different policy.

7. What's visible to others

Westie is a shared price database, so some of what you contribute is visible to other users:

• Prices you log — the price, product, store, unit and date, and photos attached to them — can be seen by other users (some may spend diamonds to see them). Your handle is shown on them only to you, to people you've allowed to follow you, and to people you've shared that price with; everyone else sees the price without your name.
• Followers you allow can see your price log and your Interest List, including its saved searches.
• A price you share can be seen by whoever you share it with.
• Your handle can be found by other users who search for it, and is shown to the person you send a follow request to — in the app and in the email we send them.
• Corrections you make to items in the shared catalogue are seen by everyone, without your name.
• Alternatives you choose for an item a store didn't have are shown to other users whose saved search is the same — what was chosen and how many people chose it, never who.
• Product photos you add to an item are seen by everyone who looks at that item, without your name. A photo on a price you log may also be shown as the item's picture. Anyone who can see a photo can save it, and a photo on a price keeps the time it was taken and, if taken at a store, that location (see Photos, barcodes and camera).
• "Find others nearby" — unless you turn it off. Let people nearby find me (Settings → Privacy) is on unless you turn it off. While it's on, other users can see your handle and how far — to about 50 feet — the nearest store where you've logged prices is from a location they choose. Because they can choose any location, someone could use this to work out which stores you've logged prices at. If you'd rather they couldn't, turn it off — you're removed from those results straight away.

Your email address is never shown to other users. After you delete your account, prices you contributed show the contributor as "[deleted]".

Please don't photograph anything you don't want shared — check that receipts and shelf-tag photos don't capture personal details before you submit them.

8. How long we keep it

• Account information — for as long as your account exists.
• Photos — while they're needed to support the prices they document or picture the product, until you remove them, and deleted when you delete your account. A reported photo is kept, hidden, while we review it.
• Lists, saved searches, saved results, the alternatives you choose, follows and your diamond balance — while your account exists, and deleted with it.
• Prices, receipts and item corrections — retained as part of the shared catalogue. When you delete your account they're disassociated from you, so the record remains but is no longer linked to your identity. See Deleting your account.
• Subscription records — the Google Play purchase token and status, for as long as we need them for billing questions and refunds, and as the law requires, including after you delete your account.
• Reports — for as long as needed to review them and to deal with repeated abuse.
• Website statistics — 14 months, with Google Analytics.
• Support correspondence — up to two years after your last message.
• Records we must keep by law — for as long as the law requires.

9. Deleting your account

You can delete your Westie account and associated data yourself, at any time, and it takes effect immediately:

• In the app — Settings → Account → Delete my account.
• On the web — westie.fyi/delete-account. You'll sign in and confirm with a code we email to your registered address.

If you can't sign in, email jmfrankl@gmail.com from the address you registered with, with the subject "Delete my Westie account". We'll verify the request and action it within 30 days, and confirm when it's done.

If you subscribe to Westie Premium, cancel it in Google Play first. Deleting your account doesn't cancel the subscription, and Google would keep billing you.

• What is deleted: your account and login credentials, the link to your Google account if you signed in with Google, your email address, your handle (replaced by "[deleted]"), the photos you uploaded and the shopping sessions made from them, your lists, saved searches, saved results and Interest List, the alternatives you chose, your follows, follow requests, shares and access grants, your diamond balance and the record of prices you unlocked, your "Find others nearby" setting, and your support correspondence.
• What is retained: the prices, receipts and item corrections you contributed remain in the shared catalogue in a form that is no longer associated with you or your account, so that historical price comparisons stay intact for other users; reports you made; your subscription purchase record, for billing questions and refunds; and anything we're required to keep by law.

If you'd like the price records themselves removed as well, email us and we'll review the request.

10. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to: access the personal information we hold about you; correct it; delete it; obtain a portable copy; object to or restrict certain processing; and withdraw consent you've given (such as a device permission) at any time. You can also turn off "Find others nearby" yourself, in Settings → Privacy.

California residents. You have the rights to know, delete, correct, and to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined by the CCPA/CPRA, and we do not knowingly sell the personal information of anyone under 16. We won't discriminate against you for exercising your rights.

UK and EEA residents. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.

To exercise any of these rights, email jmfrankl@gmail.com. We may need to verify your identity before acting, and we'll respond within the time the applicable law allows.

11. Security

Data sent between the app and our servers is encrypted in transit using TLS. Your login token is stored on your device using the platform's secure storage — the iOS Keychain, or Android's encrypted shared preferences. Photos and database contents are stored on AWS and Neo4j Aura infrastructure with encryption at rest, and access to production systems is restricted.

No service can promise perfect security, but if a breach affects your personal information we'll notify you and the relevant authorities as required by law.

12. International transfers

Westie is operated from the United States, and the service providers listed above process information in the United States. If you use Westie from outside the US, your information will be transferred to and processed there, where data protection laws may differ from those in your country. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.

13. Children

Westie is not directed to children. You must be at least 13 years old (or 16 in the UK/EEA, or the minimum age required in your country) to create an account, and anyone under the age of majority needs a parent or guardian's permission to buy a subscription. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under those ages. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we'll delete it.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the app changes. We'll revise the "Last updated" date above, and for material changes we'll give notice in the app or by email before they take effect. Continuing to use Westie after a change means you accept the updated policy.

15. Contact us