The short version
ScaleRecipe doesn't require an account, doesn't store recipes server-side, and doesn't directly run analytics. The recipes you scale, the converters you use, and the pages you visit stay between you and your browser. The site does carry advertising via Google AdSense, which means Google and its partners may set cookies on your device for ad personalisation, frequency capping, and fraud prevention. You can opt out of personalised advertising at any time — see the Advertising section below, or our dedicated Cookie Policy.
Who we are
ScaleRecipe is an independent project built and maintained by Muhammad Salman Saleem. If you have a question, request, or correction about this policy, contact us via the contact page.
What we don't collect
- No first-party analytics. No Google Analytics, no Plausible, no Fathom, no Mixpanel, no first-party event tracking. We cannot tell, on our own, which pages you visited or how long you stayed.
- No fingerprinting. We don't run browser-fingerprinting code, canvas tracking, or device identification.
- No accounts. No sign-up, no login, no email collection, no password storage. There is no “user” record on our side.
- No recipe storage. Recipes you paste into the scaler are processed entirely in your browser. They never reach our servers.
- No data sales. We do not sell, rent, or trade personal data with anyone.
What stays in your browser only
ScaleRecipe uses your browser's localStorage and sessionStorage for features that need to persist across visits or page navigation. These are stored on your device and never transmitted to us:
- Theme preference (light or dim).
- Saved recipes — when you tap the bookmark on a recipe page, the recipe's ID, name, and image URL are stored locally.
- Recently viewed recipes — a list of the last 50 recipe pages you opened, kept locally so the Saved & Recent page can show them.
- Shopping list — items you add from a recipe's ingredient list, kept locally until you clear them.
- Pending scaler payload — when you push a recipe from a recipe page to the scaler, we briefly store the ingredients in
sessionStorage. It's deleted immediately after the next page picks it up.
You can clear this data anytime by clearing your browser's site storage for www.scale-recipe.com. The site will continue to work; you'll just lose saved recipes and viewing history.
What leaves your device, and where it goes
1. Page and asset loads
Like every website, when you visit a page on ScaleRecipe, your browser sends a standard HTTP request to our hosting provider. This request includes your IP address (a consequence of how the internet works) and the page you're asking for. Our hosting provider may keep short-term server logs of these requests for security and debugging purposes. We do not personally read or analyse those logs and they are rotated out within a short retention window.
2. Recipe API requests
When you search for recipes, browse a category, or open a recipe page, your browser (or our server, depending on the page) makes a request to TheMealDB, an open recipe database. We are not affiliated with them. Their privacy policy is their own; we recommend reviewing it if you're concerned.
3. Translation requests
When you switch a recipe page to another language, the recipe text is sent through a translation provider (currently Google Translate's public endpoint, with MyMemory as a fallback). The text passes through that provider's servers but is not associated with you personally. Translations are cached on our server so the same text is not re-sent on subsequent visits.
4. YouTube embeds (on recipe pages with videos)
Some recipe pages have a click-to-play YouTube video. The video frame is loaded only after you click the play button — we use youtube-nocookie.com, which doesn't set cookies until you start playback.
Cookies
ScaleRecipe itself does not set any first-party cookies. Our advertising partners (Google AdSense and its sub-processors) do set cookies on your device for ad serving and personalisation. Full detail lives in our Cookie Policy.
Advertising
ScaleRecipe uses Google AdSense to serve advertising. As a third-party vendor, Google uses cookies and similar technologies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to show ads based on those visits.
Specifically, Google may use cookies to:
- Personalise ads shown to you on this and other sites,
- Measure ad performance and limit how often the same ad is shown,
- Detect and prevent fraud or abuse,
- Aggregate analytics on how ads perform across the network.
We don't personally select the ads, don't see what specific ads were shown to you, and don't receive any personally-identifiable information from Google beyond aggregate revenue reporting.
Opt out of personalised advertising at any time:
- Google's Ads Settings— opt out across Google's network.
- www.aboutads.info — Digital Advertising Alliance opt-out (US).
- www.youronlinechoices.eu — European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (EEA / UK).
- optout.networkadvertising.org — Network Advertising Initiative opt-out.
Your rights — GDPR / UK GDPR
If you visit ScaleRecipe from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you have these rights under the GDPR / UK GDPR:
- Right of access — to know what personal data is processed.
- Right to rectification — to correct inaccurate personal data.
- Right to erasure — to have personal data deleted.
- Right to restrict processing — to limit how personal data is used.
- Right to data portability — to receive a copy of your personal data.
- Right to object — to processing based on legitimate interests, including direct marketing.
- Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority in your country.
Because ScaleRecipe doesn't collect personal data on its own, most of these rights apply to data our advertising partners collect via cookies. Use the opt-out links above to exercise them at the source. For requests that concern us specifically (e.g. server logs that may contain your IP), write via the contact page.
Your rights — CCPA / CPRA (California)
If you visit ScaleRecipe from California, you have rights under the CCPA and CPRA:
- The right to know what categories of personal information are collected, used, disclosed, or sold.
- The right to delete personal information held about you.
- The right to correct inaccurate personal information.
- The right to opt out of the “sale” or “sharing” of personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising.
- The right not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights.
ScaleRecipe does not sell personal information. The use of advertising cookies by Google AdSense may be considered “sharing” under CCPA/CPRA. Use the opt-out links in the Advertising section above to opt out.
Children
ScaleRecipe is a recipe-scaling tool aimed at home cooks. The content is suitable for general audiences. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (or under 16 in the EEA). If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
Data retention
We don't maintain a personal-data store. Server logs from our hosting provider are short-term and rotate out automatically. Translation cache entries are stored on our server keyed only by the source text and target language — no user identifier is attached.
Security
ScaleRecipe is served over HTTPS. There is no user account system to attack — there is no “user” object to compromise. We use standard industry practices for the small amount of state we maintain (translation cache, hosting infrastructure).
International transfers
ScaleRecipe is hosted on infrastructure that may serve content from data centres around the world. Our advertising partner Google operates globally; their data transfers are governed by their own policies and standard contractual clauses.
Changes to this policy
If we change how the site handles data — adding analytics, switching ad networks, adding accounts — we'll update this page and revise the date at the top. We will not retroactively change what we collect about past visits, because we don't have it.
Contact
Questions about privacy, data requests, or this policy? Use the contact page. We respond personally to anyone who writes in.
Related
- Cookie Policy — full detail on cookies and how to opt out.
- Terms of Service — the rules of using the site.
- Disclaimer — boundaries of recipe / cooking advice.
- Editorial Standards — how we write, source, and correct.