Privacy Policy
Last updated:
At a Glance
- No third-party trackers or ad cookies: We currently do not use advertising networks or invasive surveillance trackers.
- IP Privacy: We do not store your IP address in the application database. Hostinger uses it transiently to determine your country for recipe ordering.
- Secure accounts: Passwords are encrypted with one-way cryptographic hashing (
bcrypt). - Minimal data collection: We only store what you voluntarily share (e.g. account profile, ratings, feedback).
1. Introduction
World on Plate (“we”, “our”, or “us”) is committed to respecting your privacy and protecting the personal information you share with us while discovering, cooking, and reviewing delicious culinary recipes from across the globe.
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information when you visit and interact with our website.
2. Information We Collect
We practice data minimization and only collect information required to operate our service:
A. Account Information
When you create an account, we collect your email address and optional display name. If you register using a password, it is cryptographically hashed using standard one-way algorithms before storage. We never store or have access to your plain-text password.
B. User Contributions & Activity
When you engage with recipe features, we record:
- Recipe star ratings (1 to 5 scale) associated with your user ID to prevent duplicate ratings.
- Recipe likes and favorites associated with your account or anonymous session.
- Public feedback, reviews, or comments that you voluntarily submit.
C. Aggregated Site Analytics
We collect anonymous, aggregate daily usage metrics (such as total page hits and unique daily visitor count) via a self-hosted counter to monitor site reliability. We do not use third-party analytics services like Google Analytics or Meta Pixel.
3. Geolocation & IP Address Handling
On the homepage, the browser requests a country code from an endpoint hosted with our Laravel API. Hostinger’s GeoIP feature derives that country code from the request IP and supplies it to the endpoint. It returns only the country code; World on Plate does not store or send the raw IP address to a separate geolocation provider. IP-based location is approximate and may be unavailable or incorrect.
The country code is used to order recipes from the visitor’s country first, then nearby regions, then other regions. No location permission prompt is shown. The raw IP is handled by the hosting platform to serve the request; it is not saved to the World on Plate application database by this feature.
4. Cookies and Local Storage
We use only essential and functional storage technologies:
- Session Cookies: Secure, HTTP-only authentication cookies used to keep you securely signed in to your account.
- Local Storage: Stored locally on your device to remember simple state preferences (such as your daily visit status for aggregate counters and local recipe likes) without linking to personal identities. Recipe order is shuffled for each homepage visit; the country code is not saved by the browser.
We currently do not use tracking cookies, advertising cookies, or third-party marketing beacons.
5. Third-Party Recipe Content
World on Plate indexes recipes from public and licensed culinary databases (including TheMealDB, DummyJSON, Forkify, and the open UniTools World Recipes CC BY-SA 4.0 collection).
No personal user information or account data is shared with or sent to these recipe providers.
6. Data Security & Retention
We employ strict technical and organizational safeguards to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, loss, or alteration. We retain personal data for as long as your account remains active or as needed to maintain your submitted ratings and reviews.
7. Your Rights and Choices
Depending on your jurisdiction (including GDPR in Europe and CCPA/CPRA in California), you have rights regarding your personal data:
- The right to access the personal information we hold about you.
- The right to rectify inaccurate or incomplete data.
- The right to request deletion of your account, ratings, and associated records.
- The right to withdraw consent at any time.
8. Contact Us
If you have any questions, feedback, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal information, please contact us at: