Last updated: September 12, 2026
KnowRecalls ("we," "us," the "app") helps you stay aware of food recalls and safety alerts published by U.S. government sources, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS). The app is a free, informational service.
To personalize what you see, the app saves your settings — your selected allergens, your chosen U.S. state, and whether to highlight the most serious (Class I) recalls — in local storage on your own device. Unless you turn on recall alerts (below), this information stays on your device and is not transmitted to us or any third party. It is removed if you delete the app or use the in-app "Start over" reset.
Allergen selections can be health-related, so we treat them with care: they leave your device only if you turn on alerts, they are never tied to your identity, and we never log, share, or sell them.
The app downloads the latest public recall data from our content delivery network (provided by Cloudflare). As with any request over the internet, the network provider may automatically and temporarily record standard technical information such as your IP address, the time of the request, and your device's user-agent string, for security and reliability purposes. We do not use this information to identify you, build a profile, or track you across services, and we do not combine it with the settings stored on your device.
Recall alerts are optional and off until you turn them on (on the alerts screen after setup, or with the "Recall alerts" switch in Profile). When you turn them on, the app registers with our alert service and stores the following, and nothing else:
That is the whole record. There is no name, email, phone number, account, precise location, or IP address attached to it. We use it for one purpose: to decide which new recalls match your settings and send you those alerts. We never use it for advertising, never sell or share it, and never combine it with anything else.
Where it is stored and who processes it. The alert service runs on Cloudflare (United States). Notifications are relayed through Expo's push service and delivered by Apple Push Notification service (or Google's equivalent on Android). Each of them handles the token only to deliver the notification.
Deleting it. Turn the "Recall alerts" switch off in Profile and the app asks the service to delete your record immediately. Deleting the app also invalidates the token, and records with dead tokens are removed automatically. Turning off notifications for KnowRecalls in iOS Settings stops delivery; use the in-app switch to delete the record as well.
Alert settings can be health-related (allergens). We treat them as sensitive: they are stored without any identifier, they are never written to logs, and the alert service exposes no way to read them back.
The Receipts feature lets you photograph a grocery receipt (or an order screenshot) so the app can watch the items on it for future recalls. It is entirely optional; the rest of the app works without it. When you add a receipt:
Deleting it. Remove an item, or all of your receipt data, in the app and it is deleted from our service immediately, including any receipt photo still within its 24-hour window. Deleting the app orphans the install id; orphaned records are removed when their 12 months are up.
A receipt can reveal what you eat and where you shop. We treat that as sensitive: the photo is held only briefly and only for accuracy checks, the items are never tied to an identity, never used for advertising, and never sold or shared.
KnowRecalls Pro is an optional auto-renewing subscription that unlocks unlimited receipts. Payment is handled entirely by Apple through the App Store; we never see your card, billing address, or Apple ID. We use RevenueCat to check whether a subscription is active. RevenueCat receives the app's random install id, the App Store purchase record, the app version, OS version, device model, and the IP address of the request. It does not receive your receipt items, matches, alert settings, or any contact detail. Our service stores only whether the install id is currently Pro and when that expires.
To learn which parts of the app are used and which alerts get opened, the app sends a small number of anonymous events to our service (for example "alert tapped," "search performed" with the number of results, or "tab opened"). Events carry the same random install id described above and nothing else; search text is never sent. Events are deleted after 180 days. We do not use any third-party analytics service for this.
The app is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone. Because the app collects no personal information, there is nothing for a parent or guardian to request that we delete; the anonymous alert record described above can be removed at any time with the in-app switch.
Recall information is provided by the FDA, USDA FSIS, and other official sources and is shown "as is." It may be incomplete, delayed, or updated after publication. KnowRecalls is an informational tool and is not a substitute for the official recall notices, professional, or medical advice. Always consult the official source and, for health concerns, a qualified professional.
If we change how the app handles information, we will update this page and revise the "Last updated" date above.
Questions about privacy? Email privacy@knowrecalls.com.