Next Cup, the coffee brew journal for iPhone, is made by Rare Creatures LLC ("we", "us"). This policy covers Next Cup wherever in the world you use it.
The short version
- Your journal, beans, recipes and photos stay on your iPhone. There is no account and no server of ours, and we receive none of it.
- The app has no analytics, no advertising and no tracking, and no third-party SDKs.
- Next Cup uses the network only for features you choose: AI with your own OpenAI or Anthropic key, roaster search with Apple Maps, barcode lookup with Open Food Facts, and opening the link in a QR code you scan. Each sends only what is listed below, only when you tap.
- With no AI key, the AI features use Apple’s on-device model where Apple Intelligence is available, and nothing leaves your iPhone.
What Next Cup stores, and where
Everything below is stored in Next Cup’s own storage on your iPhone:
- Your journal: each brew’s date, method, recipe, beans, dose, water, grind, temperature, time, optional TDS, grade, taste, notes and optional photo.
- Your beans and roasters: name, origin, process, roast level and date, flavor notes, bag weight, how much is left, freezer dates and an optional photo. Roasters you choose to save keep their name, city, website and map position.
- Your recipes, brew methods, water profiles and the names you gave to origins, processes and flavors.
- Suggestions you have received, and AI requests while they are waiting or running (see below).
- Drafts of a brew you are typing, so a relaunch does not lose it.
- Backups: up to seven daily copies of your data, photos included, kept on the phone. Something you delete can still be in a backup for up to seven days.
- Settings: units, filters, your look, which AI provider and model you picked for each feature, and that you read the AI notice.
- Your AI key, if you add one, in the iOS Keychain. It stays on this iPhone, is not synced, and is never included in Next Cup’s exports or backups.
Photos are stored with their location and camera details removed. Next Cup does not store your location, contacts, browsing history or any account details. Your iPhone’s own iCloud or computer backup may include Next Cup’s files, depending on your iOS settings; that backup is between you and Apple.
While a brew timer runs, iOS shows the recipe, the current step and the time on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. If you save a brew without tasting it, Next Cup can schedule a reminder on your phone to taste it about 20 minutes later. Neither sends anything anywhere.
When Next Cup uses the network
Logging, the timer, recipes, beans, Explore and your history all work offline. Next Cup connects to the internet only in these cases.
AI with your own key (optional, off until you set it up)
You can add your own API key for OpenAI or Anthropic in Settings → AI, and choose a provider and model for each feature. Before the first request to a provider, Next Cup shows a notice saying what will be sent and to whom, and nothing goes to that provider until you accept it. Requests then go directly from your iPhone to that provider, under your API account and your key. We never see them. Each action sends only:
- Checking your key: when you save a key, it is sent once to the provider to confirm it works and list the models you can use. No other data goes with it.
- Insights: up to the eight most recent brews of one coffee, each with its date, method, bean origin, process and roast, dose, water, grind, temperature, time, taste, grade and your notes. You see a preview first.
- Brew size: after you set an amount in “How much coffee?” and tap to tune it with your provider, the recipe name, brewer and the recipe’s numbers (dose, water, temperature, time). No notes or photos.
- Improve with AI (on a recipe): the recipe’s name, brewer, the name of the grinder you used last, dose, water, temperature, time, every step with its instruction, and the note you typed. No beans, brews or photos.
- Create with AI (the + on the Brew tab): the brewer and grinder you pick and what you type. No beans, brews or photos.
- Ask AI for Next Cup (on a past brew, also offered when you open a saved brew): that brew’s date, method, recipe name and steps, the bean’s name, roaster, roast, origin, process and the flavors printed on its bag, dose, water, grinder and grind, temperature, time, taste, rating and your notes, plus up to 8 of your other brews with the same method (same bean or similar dose and water first), each with its date, recipe name, bean name, roaster and roast, dose, water, grinder and grind, temperature, time, taste, rating and notes. No photos.
- Next Cup when you save a brew: when you save a brew with a taste or rating, and it is your newest with that method, the same details are sent without a further tap, with only your rated or tasted brews of that method and a similar dose and water. This may charge your account for each save. Turn it off in Settings → AI with Write my Next Cup when I save a brew.
- Bag recognition and coffee photos: the one photo you choose, with location and camera data removed, and a fixed instruction.
- Paper import: a photo of a handwritten journal page, in full, with location and camera data removed, only when you tap Read with my AI key. Everything written on the page is sent. Without that tap, the page is read on your iPhone by Apple’s text recognition.
Web search. For Create with AI and Next Cup, your provider first searches the web for popular recipes, with at most three searches, which it may charge to your account. That search uses only the brewer, the grinder and what you typed (Create with AI), or the brewer, grinder, roast and how the cup tasted (Next Cup). It never uses the bean’s name or your notes. The provider runs the searches on its own systems, so the websites it reads see your provider, not your iPhone. The pages it cites are listed as sources in the recipe’s note and open in your browser only when you tap them.
Photos of your brews are never sent to an AI provider. The request text and any photo are deleted from your phone when a request finishes, fails or is cancelled, and the answer to a photo request is deleted once the screen has used it. Answers to an insights request are kept with the brew as suggestions, which change nothing until you tap to use them. A recipe from Improve with AI or Create with AI is kept only when you tap Save. A Next Cup answer is saved on your iPhone as your recipe named “Next Cup”, one per brew method; asking again, or saving a newer brew, replaces it.
Your provider handles these requests under the terms of your API account with them, may keep them for a period it sets, and may charge your account:
- Anthropic: privacy policy and commercial terms.
- OpenAI: privacy policy and API data commitments.
Apple’s on-device model
With no key added, the AI features use Apple’s on-device model where Apple Intelligence is available on your iPhone. Photos are first read to text on the device, and it does not search the web. Nothing leaves your iPhone. If you add a key, you choose Apple’s model or your provider for each feature in Settings → AI.
Roaster search (Apple Maps)
When you search for roasters, or match a bag to a roaster, the text of that search goes to Apple Maps: the area on the map or the city you typed, or the roaster’s name followed by “coffee roaster”. If you tap Use my location, iOS asks your permission first, and Next Cup asks only for your approximate location. It is used for that search and not stored. Apple handles these searches under the Apple Privacy Policy.
Barcode lookup (Open Food Facts)
When you scan the barcode on a coffee bag, only the barcode number is sent to Open Food Facts, a free public product database, to look up the coffee’s name and brand. No account, identifier or location goes with it. The camera view used for scanning is processed on your iPhone and is not recorded or sent. The result fills in the form for you to check, and nothing is saved until you tap Save.
QR codes on bags
When you scan a QR code on a coffee bag and it holds a web link, Next Cup opens that link once from your iPhone, the way a browser would but without cookies, to read the coffee’s details from the page. Only web links are opened, and a plain http link is upgraded to https. The website the code points to, usually the roaster’s, sees that request, including your IP address, under its own terms; nothing else goes with it. A QR code that is not a link is read on your iPhone only. What the page says fills in the form for you to check, and nothing is saved until you tap Save.
Links you tap
Recipe credits, grind-setting sources and the sources an AI recipe cites link to the websites they came from. Those open in your browser only when you tap them.
Like any service on the internet, Apple, Open Food Facts, your AI provider and the website behind a QR code you scan can see the IP address a request comes from. Next Cup makes no other network requests.
Camera and photos
Photos you add come from the system photo picker, so Next Cup can see only the photos you pick, not the rest of your library. If you choose to take a photo or scan a barcode or QR code, iOS asks for camera access first, and the camera is used only while it is open.
What we receive
Nothing. We collect no identifiers, no usage data, no crash reports of our own and no contact details through the app. We cannot see your journal, your beans, your AI requests or whether you use the app at all. Apple may share aggregated download figures and, if you allow it in your iPhone’s settings, crash reports with developers. Those do not identify you.
If you email us, we receive what you choose to send, and use it only to answer you.
Who is responsible for your data
Rare Creatures LLC is responsible for Next Cup and for this policy. Because the app keeps your data on your device and we never receive it, we do not hold or process your journal. When you send a request to OpenAI or Anthropic with your own key, that provider handles it under your agreement with them. Apple handles Maps searches, Open Food Facts handles barcode lookups, and the website behind a QR code handles that page request, under their own policies.
Legal bases
Where data protection laws such as the GDPR or UK GDPR apply: Next Cup handles data on your device to provide the features you ask for. It sends data to an AI provider only on the basis of your consent, given when you accept that provider’s notice, and you can withdraw it at any time by removing your key in Settings → AI. Withdrawing does not affect what was sent before. Roaster searches, barcode lookups and QR links are made only when you ask for them, to provide that feature. If you email us, we use your message to answer you, which is in our legitimate interest and yours.
International transfers
Your AI provider, Apple, Open Food Facts and the website behind a QR code may process requests in the United States, the European Union or other countries, under their own safeguards as described in their privacy policies. Those requests go directly from your iPhone to them. We do not transfer your data anywhere, because we never receive it.
How long data is kept
On your iPhone: until you delete it, and for up to seven days more in the on-phone backups. AI request text and photos: until the request ends. At your AI provider, Apple, Open Food Facts or a website you open by QR code: as long as their own terms say. With us: never, because we hold none, except emails you send us, which we keep only as long as we need to help you.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict, object to or take a copy of your personal data, to withdraw consent, and not to be discriminated against for using these rights. Because Next Cup keeps your data only on your iPhone, you can exercise most of these yourself with the controls below. For data held by your AI provider, contact that provider. If you have a question or request for us, write to the address under Contact and we will answer within 30 days. If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you may also complain to your local data protection authority.
United States
We do not sell or share personal information, use it for targeted advertising, or use it to profile you, as those terms are defined under California and other US state privacy laws. We do not collect sensitive personal information.
Children
Next Cup is not directed at children under 13, or under the age of digital consent where you live if that is higher, and we do not knowingly collect data from anyone. If you use the AI features, your AI provider sets its own minimum age for its API, and you must meet it.
Security
Your AI key is kept in the iOS Keychain on this device only and is never logged. Backups on the phone use iOS’s strongest file protection. Photos lose their location and camera details before they are stored or sent. Requests go straight from your iPhone to the service over an encrypted connection. No system is perfectly secure, and you are responsible for keeping your iPhone and your AI provider account secure.
Services we don’t control
OpenAI, Anthropic, Apple, Open Food Facts, the websites behind QR codes, and the websites behind recipe credits, AI sources and links are not owned or controlled by us. We are not responsible for their content or their privacy practices. AI answers and recipes, barcode and QR results and roaster details can be wrong; check anything that matters before you rely on it.
Your controls
- Export your journal, beans, recipes and more as CSV or JSON in Settings → Your data. Import shows a preview and never overwrites without asking, and you can restore a backup.
- Delete all data in Settings → Your data. It removes your journal, drafts, backups and AI keys, and offers Undo for a short time.
- Remove your AI key in Settings → AI to stop every request to that provider.
- Turn off location, camera or notifications for Next Cup in iOS Settings at any time.
- Delete the app to remove everything it stored on this iPhone.
- What you sent to your AI provider is deleted through your account with them.
Changes
We may update this policy. If it changes, the date at the top changes with it, and if what Next Cup sends changes, the app asks for your consent again before sending anything new. Using Next Cup after an update means the updated policy applies.
Contact
[email protected]
Rare Creatures LLC. Company details are on the legal page.