Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 31, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how The Guru Index ("we", "us", "our") collects, uses, and protects information when you use our website (the "Site") and our mobile app (the "App"). By using either, you agree to the practices described here. Section 7 covers the App and its photo scanner specifically.

1. Information we collect

• Email address: only if you choose to subscribe to our newsletter or digest. We collect the email address you submit (and nothing else from that form).
• Usage and analytics data: if you consent to analytics cookies, we collect information such as pages visited, time on page, approximate location (country/city level), device and browser type, and referring source, via Google Analytics 4.
• Searches we could not answer: when you search this site and we have nothing that matches, we record the words you typed, so we know which products to add to the index. We record the search text and a count, and nothing else: no IP address, no cookie, no account, and nothing that could link two searches to the same person. We keep it for up to 90 days. Searches we can answer are counted only as a daily total, with no text kept. A search that looks like personal information rather than a product, such as one containing an email address or a long number, is discarded without being recorded at all.
• Technical data: standard server logs from our hosting provider (e.g. IP address, request time) used for security and reliability.

We do not knowingly collect information from children, and we do not ask for sensitive personal information.

2. How we use your information

• to send you the newsletter or digest you subscribed to;
• to understand how the Site is used so we can improve content and performance (analytics);
• to maintain the security, integrity, and reliability of the Site;
• to comply with legal obligations.

3. Legal bases (where GDPR / UK GDPR applies)

• Consent: for sending you marketing emails and for setting analytics cookies. You can withdraw consent at any time.
• Legitimate interests: for basic security and the reliable operation of the Site.

4. Cookies and analytics

We use cookies and similar technologies. Non-essential cookies (including Google Analytics 4) are only set after you give consent via our cookie banner. You can change or withdraw your choice at any time. For details on the specific cookies we use, see our Cookie Policy.

Google Analytics is provided by Google LLC. Information collected may be processed on servers outside your country. You can learn more in Google's Privacy Policy, and you can opt out using the Google Analytics opt-out add-on.

5. Service providers we share data with

We don't sell your personal information. We share limited data with the providers that run the Site:

• Cloudflare: website hosting and content delivery.
• MailerLite: newsletter sign-up and email delivery (your newsletter email is stored in our MailerLite account).
• Web3Forms: processing "Nominate a guru" form submissions (the channel details you enter, and your email if you choose to include it).
• Google (Google Analytics 4): website analytics, only with your consent.
• Anthropic: reading the brand and product name off a photo taken in the App's scanner (see section 7). The photo is processed for that request and not stored.

These providers process data on our behalf and are bound by their own privacy and security commitments.

6. YouTube API Services

The Guru Index uses YouTube API Services. There are two places this happens, and neither one touches your Google account.

• Embedded videos. Product, brand, guru, and procedure pages embed the YouTube player so you can watch the moment a reviewer gives their take. The player is operated by Google, and when you play a video Google may collect information about that playback and may show advertising inside the player. We don't control either. We embed through YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com), which limits the cookies YouTube sets on your device unless you press play.
• Publishing our own videos. We use YouTube API Services to upload our own short videos to our own YouTube channel. The only data this touches is ours: the video file and its title, description, and tags.

We do not access, collect, or store any information from your Google or YouTube account, and we never ask you to sign in with Google to use the Site. We hold no YouTube user data. If you believe we hold data about you, email us at [email protected] and we will delete it within 30 days.

Google's handling of any information collected through YouTube API Services is governed by the Google Privacy Policy. If you have ever granted an application access to your Google account, you can review and revoke that access at Google's security settings page. By using the Site you also agree to be bound by the YouTube Terms of Service.

7. The Guru Index app and its photo scanner

The Guru Index app (the "App") has one feature the Site does not: you can photograph a product on a shop shelf and the App will tell you what the experts said about it. This is what happens to that photo.

• The photo is sent to us and read, then discarded. Reading a label needs a vision model that cannot run inside the App, so the photo is sent over an encrypted connection to our scanning endpoint, where a model reads the brand and product name off the packaging. We do not store the photo, and it is not linked to you or to any account: the scanner never looks at who you are, whether you are signed in or not.
• Anthropic processes the photo on our behalf as a service provider, for that single request. See Anthropic's Privacy Policy.
• What we keep is the product name, not the photo. When a scan finds a product we do not cover, we store the brand and product name that was read off the packaging, so we know what to add to the index. That text carries nothing that identifies you, and we keep it for up to 12 months.
• The camera, and nothing else. The App opens your device's camera app to take a single photo. It does not read your photo library, your location, your contacts, or your device identifiers.
• No advertising and no analytics in the App as it stands. If that ever changes, this policy will say so before the change ships.

Signing in to the App

You can use the whole App without an account. Everything you save stays on your own phone unless you sign in, and signing in exists for one reason: so your wish list and your routines follow you to a new phone.

• What signing in gives us. You sign in with Apple or with Google, and the provider tells us your email address, your name, and an id that lets us recognise you next time. We keep those three things and nothing else. We never see your password, and we ask for no other permission on your account.
• What we then store for you. Your wish list, your morning and night routines, and the experts and brands you follow. We keep that list so we can hand it back to the App; we do not read it, mine it, or sell it, and nobody outside The Guru Index sees it.
• No tracking. None of it is used to advertise to you, and none of it is shared with anyone for their own purposes. We do not track you across other apps or sites.
• Deleting it is one tap. Open the Faves tab, tap Delete my account and everything in it, and your account, your email, your name and everything you saved are gone from our records in the same moment. You can also email [email protected] and we will do it for you within 30 days.

Our legal basis for handling a scan is the performance of the service you asked for by taking the photo, and our legitimate interest in knowing which products people look for.

8. Data retention

We keep your email address until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete it. Analytics data is retained according to our Google Analytics settings (by default, up to 14 months). Photos taken in the App are not retained at all; the product names read from scans we could not match are kept for up to 12 months. If you have signed in to the App, what we hold for your account is kept until you delete it, and deleting the account removes all of it at once.

9. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or port your personal data, to object to or restrict its processing, and to withdraw consent. To exercise any of these rights, email us at [email protected]. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority.

If you are a California resident, you have the right to know what personal information we collect, to request deletion, and not to be discriminated against for exercising your rights. We do not sell personal information.

10. Unsubscribing

Every email we send includes an unsubscribe link. You can opt out at any time, and we will stop sending you the newsletter.

11. Data security

We use reputable providers and reasonable technical measures to protect your information. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, but we work to safeguard your data.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes take effect when posted here, and we will update the "Last updated" date above.

13. Contact

Questions or requests about your privacy? Email us at [email protected].