Privacy Policy

The Shops is operated by Rhys Wyles, an independent developer based in Sydney, Australia. This policy explains what the app collects, why we collect it, how we use it, and who processes it.

What we collect

• Name, display name, email address and account identifier, provided when you sign in with Apple or Google, or choose a name for your household. We use these to create and operate your account and show household activity.
• Optional postcode, which we use to select the relevant state price zone. We do not request your device's GPS location.
• Push notification token and device label, if you allow notifications. These let us send household updates to the right device.
• Household and list content: your household membership, household name, list items and notes, categories, custom shops and product choices.
• Barcodes you scan, used to fetch product and nutrition information and link products to your items.
• Optional Open Facts contributions: if you explicitly turn this feature on and submit a contribution, we collect the product photos you take, barcode, product name and your consent record.
• Product-usage and diagnostic data: app interactions, device and app information, crashes and performance data. On a signed-in account, this is associated with a pseudonymous account identifier. Our product analytics events are designed not to include item names, shop names, household names, notes or other user-typed content.

How we use it

• To provide the app: authenticate you, sync your household, compare prices, choose a price zone and deliver notifications you opt into.
• To understand whether features work and to diagnose crashes or performance problems.
• To submit an Open Facts contribution only when you choose that optional feature.

We do not sell personal information, show advertising, or use your information to track you across other companies' apps or websites.

What we don't collect

• Your precise location (we only store an optional postcode for price-zone selection)
• Your contacts
• Payment or financial information (The Shops has no payments)
• Health data
• Your device's advertising identifier
• Data from any third-party social profile

Who processes your data

Your account, household, shopping-list and postcode data are stored in Australia. We use processors in Australia and the European Union as described below.

• Supabase (Sydney ap-southeast-2 region) — primary database, storage and authentication.
• Expo Application Services — relays push notifications to Apple (iOS) and to Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging (Android).
• Apple and Google — provide the identity services you choose, and Apple/Google deliver notifications. We never receive your Apple or Google password, contacts or social-profile data.
• Sentry (EU region, ingest.de.sentry.io) — crash and diagnostic reporting, associated with a pseudonymous account ID when available.
• PostHog (EU region, eu.i.posthog.com) — product analytics, associated with a pseudonymous account ID on signed-in accounts. We do not intentionally send item names, shop names or other user-typed content in these events.
• Open Food Facts and its sibling Open Beauty Facts and Open Products Facts projects — when you scan a barcode, the app sends the barcode to look up product information. No account information is sent with a normal barcode lookup. If you opt into contributing photos, your submitted product photos, barcode and product name are sent to the selected Open Facts project under the public TheShops contributor account.

Connecting to your supermarket account

The Shops has an optional online-ordering feature that opens Coles' or Woolworths' own website in an in-app browser so you can send your list to your retailer account.

• You sign in directly with the retailer on their own page. We never see, collect, or store your retailer username, password, or sign-in session — it stays in the in-app browser on your device and is never sent to us.
• To build your list, the app sends the retailer (using your own signed-in session) only the product identifiers, quantities, and item names. We do not send your name, email, address, or payment details.
• We never receive your cart contents, order, or payment information. Checkout and payment happen entirely on the retailer's website, under the retailer's own privacy policy.
• We record limited product-use analytics for this feature — for example, whether an online list was built and the retailer option chosen. These events are associated with a pseudonymous account ID when you are signed in, and do not include item names.

Your choices, access and deletion

• Delete your account in the You. tab of the app, or ask us at hello@rhyswyles.com. We remove the account, profile and notification records from our primary app database. If other people are still in the household, its shared list remains available to them.
• Access or export your data by emailing the support address above.
• Correct your data in the app or by emailing the support address.
• Manage notifications in your device settings at any time.

Complaints

If you believe we've mishandled your personal information, email hello@rhyswyles.com and we'll respond. If you're not satisfied with our response, you can lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.

Retention

We keep account and household data while the account or shared household is active. When you delete an account, its primary account records are removed as described above; secure backups and diagnostic or analytics records can remain for their normal retention periods. Unpublished Open Facts contribution uploads are deleted within 72 hours. Contributions already published to an Open Facts project are public and permanent under that project's licence, so account deletion cannot remove them. Retailer price data is sourced from public retailer information and is not personal data.

Children

The Shops is not specifically directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Changes to this policy

We'll update this page if our practices change. The "Last updated" date at the top of the page reflects the most recent change.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Email hello@rhyswyles.com.