Scotch 4 Dummies LLC ("we," "us," "our," or "S4D") operates the Pour Decision mobile application (the "App"). This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. It applies to your use of the App and any related services we provide.
If you do not agree with this Policy, please do not use the App.
1. Who We Are
Pour Decision is published by:
Scotch 4 Dummies LLC
PO Box 646
Lebanon, IN 46052
United States
For privacy inquiries, contact: privacy@scotch4dummies.com
2. Age Restriction
Pour Decision is intended for adults of legal drinking age. You must be:
- 21 years or older if you are located in the United States, or
- Of the legal drinking age in your jurisdiction of residence, whichever is higher.
We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under the applicable legal drinking age. If we learn that we have collected information from a minor, we will delete it promptly. If you believe a minor has provided us information, please contact privacy@scotch4dummies.com.
3. Information We Collect
3.1 Information You Provide
When you create an account and use the App, we collect:
- Account information: email address, password (stored hashed, never in plaintext), display name, and optional profile details (bio, banner image, avatar).
- Tasting content: your tasting notes, flavor ratings, scores, and photos of bottles you choose to create.
- Community content: posts, comments, reviews, and other content you publish in the App's community features.
- Subscription information: purchase receipts and subscription status (processed by Apple, Google, and our subscription management partner RevenueCat — we do not store your payment card information).
- Communications: emails, support requests, and feedback you send us.
3.2 Information Collected Automatically
When you use the App, we automatically collect:
- Device and technical information: device type, operating system, app version, IP address (transiently, for session and security purposes), and language preference.
- Usage information: which features you interact with and timestamps of activity.
- Error information: when something in the App fails, we record the error message and code, where in the App it happened, and your account identifier, so we can find and fix it. This is our own logging, not a third-party service, and it is active today. We do not collect stack traces, screen recordings, or device telemetry beyond this.
- Push notification tokens: if you grant permission, we store a push notification token to deliver notifications. You can revoke this permission in your device settings at any time.
3.3 Information from Third Parties
We may receive information about you from:
- Authentication providers (such as Apple Sign In or Google Sign In, if we add these options) — limited to your email address and public profile information.
- Subscription processors (Apple App Store, Google Play, RevenueCat) — your subscription status, renewal dates, and transaction identifiers.
3.4 Voice Input
Some tasting features let you dictate a note instead of typing it. Voice input is converted to text by your phone's own operating system (Apple or Google). We never receive or store the audio. Only the text you choose to save is sent to us, and it is then treated like any other tasting note you typed. Apple's and Google's handling of that audio is governed by their own privacy policies.
You can use every part of the App by typing instead. If you prefer, you can deny microphone and speech recognition permission in your device settings and nothing else changes.
4. How We Use Your Information
We use your information to:
- Provide and operate the App's features (account management, tasting logs, community features, the Dram Wheel, Dram Club subscription benefits).
- Generate AI-assisted tasting suggestions, flavor extraction, and other AI features using third-party models (see Section 6).
- Process subscription payments and deliver paid features to Dram Club members.
- Send you transactional notifications (password resets, subscription confirmations, and push notifications you have enabled).
- With your permission, send you marketing emails from Scotch 4 Dummies: updates, giveaways, bottle releases, special offers, and other S4D news. This is off unless you turn it on, at signup or in Settings, and you can turn it off at any time in Settings or with the unsubscribe link in any of these emails. We record when you turned it on or off and the wording you were shown, so we can show you agreed.
- Protect the security and integrity of the App (fraud prevention, abuse detection, debugging).
- Respond to your support requests and feedback.
- Comply with legal obligations.
- Understand how our App is used and improve it over time (see Section 8 for future analytics).
Legal Bases for Processing (EEA, UK, Switzerland Users)
If you are located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, we rely on the following legal bases under the GDPR / UK GDPR:
- Contract: to provide the App and its features you have requested.
- Legitimate interests: to secure the App, prevent fraud, and improve our services — balanced against your privacy rights.
- Consent: where required (for example, push notifications, marketing emails, future analytics, and future advertising) — you may withdraw consent at any time.
- Legal obligation: where we must comply with applicable law.
5. Who We Share Information With
We do not sell your personal information. We share information only with:
5.1 Service Providers (Subprocessors)
We use the following vendors to operate the App. Each is contractually required to protect your data:
| Service Provider | Purpose | Data Category |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Stores your account and everything you save in the App, including the photos you upload | Your login details, your tastings and your bunker, your posts and comments, and your photos |
| Cloudflare (R2) | Holds older bottle pictures that were saved before we moved image storage, and is used by our internal image tools | Bottle pictures |
| Anthropic PBC | Runs the AI features: identifying a bottle from your photo, giving you a hint during a tasting, and pulling flavors out of your notes | The photograph you take of a bottle, and the text of your tasting notes and the flavors you picked, sent only when you use one of those features |
| RevenueCat | Keeps track of whether you have a Dram Club membership | Your membership status and the receipt from your app store |
| Apple Inc. | Delivers the App on iPhone, handles any purchase you make, and turns your speech into text on your device | Your purchase details, and the audio of your voice when you dictate, which stays with Apple and never reaches us (see Section 3.4) |
| Google LLC | Delivers the App on Android, handles any purchase you make, sends your push notifications, and turns your speech into text on your device | Your purchase details, the token used to send you notifications, and the audio of your voice when you dictate, which stays with Google and never reaches us (see Section 3.4) |
| Expo Application Services | Builds the App and gets new versions onto your phone | Anonymous information about the build and the device, not tied to your account |
| Resend | Sends the emails the App needs to send you: your confirmation code, password reset links, and account deletion notices, and, if you have opted in, our marketing emails | Your email address and what those messages say |
| IONOS (email) | Hosts the mailbox that our support address delivers into | Anything you write to us |
If we add analytics, advertising, or crash reporting providers in the future, we will update this list before enabling them.
5.2 Legal and Safety
We may disclose information:
- To comply with applicable law, court orders, subpoenas, or lawful government requests.
- To enforce our Terms of Service, investigate fraud, or protect the rights, property, or safety of S4D, our users, or others.
- In connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets — in which case we will notify you and provide choices where required by law.
5.3 With Your Consent
We may share information in other situations where you have provided consent.
6. AI Features and Your Data
Pour Decision uses AI models provided by Anthropic (Claude) to power three features. These are the only features that send anything you have written or photographed to an AI model, and each one is something you start:
- Bottle photo identification. When you photograph a bottle so the App can identify it, that photograph is sent to Anthropic. This is the only AI feature that sends an image rather than text.
- Tasting hints, including Dr. Scotch explanations. When you ask for a hint during a tasting, the App sends text: the tasting stage you are on, the bottle name and distillery, the flavor descriptors you have selected, and your stated experience level.
- Flavor extraction from your tasting notes. When you save a written tasting note, the text of that note is sent to Anthropic so the flavors you described can be tagged.
In every case:
- We do not permit Anthropic to use your data to train their models, per our service agreement.
- Responses generated by AI are suggestions and should not be relied on as medical, health, or professional advice.
You can avoid using AI features by not interacting with them. Typing your own notes, choosing your own flavors, and adding bottles by searching instead of photographing them all work without any AI involvement.
7. Photos and User-Generated Content
When you upload photos of bottles or create written tasting content:
- The content is stored in our secure cloud infrastructure. Photos you upload are stored in Supabase Storage. Cloudflare R2 continues to host previously stored bottle images.
- You retain ownership of your content. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, display, and process your content solely to provide the App (see Terms of Service).
- You can delete your content at any time via the App's settings or by deleting your account.
Community Content
If you choose to share your tasting notes, photos, or comments to community features within the App, that content becomes visible to other users of Pour Decision. Do not share anything you do not want other users to see.
8. Future Use: Analytics, Crash Reporting, and Advertising
We reserve the right to add the following in future releases, subject to applicable consent requirements:
Analytics
We may integrate analytics services (such as PostHog, Amplitude, or similar) to understand how the App is used. If enabled, these services would receive anonymized or pseudonymized usage data such as screen views, feature interactions, session duration, and device characteristics. We will update this Policy and — where required — obtain consent from EU, UK, and other applicable users before enabling analytics.
Crash Reporting
We may integrate a third-party crash reporting service (such as Sentry) to diagnose app crashes. If enabled, crash reports may include device model, OS version, app version, and a stack trace of the error. We will minimize personal data in crash reports. Our own in-app error logging is a separate thing, it is active today, and it is described in Section 3.2.
Advertising
We may, in the future, display third-party advertising to free-tier users. Dram Club subscribers will continue to have an ad-free experience. If we enable advertising, we will:
- Update this Policy to disclose advertising partners.
- Obtain consent where required by law (including GDPR in the EU/UK, CCPA/CPRA in California).
- Provide controls to opt out of personalized advertising.
Dram Club Membership
Dram Club is an optional, auto-renewing paid membership. It supports Scotch 4 Dummies and unlocks member features in the App. It uses the same account and tasting data described in this Policy, plus the subscription information described in Section 3; it does not collect any additional personal information. Anything the App shows you about your own palate is calculated from your own tasting data and shown only to you.
We will notify you of material changes to our data practices before they take effect.
9. Data Retention
We retain your information for as long as your account is active and as long as necessary to provide the App. Specifically:
- Account and profile data: retained until you delete your account.
- Tasting notes, photos: retained until you delete the specific content or your account.
- Subscription transaction records: retained for at least 7 years for tax and legal compliance.
- Support correspondence: retained for up to 3 years for operational and legal purposes.
- Backups: standard database backups are retained for up to 7 days.
- Logs: technical logs are retained for up to 30 days.
If you delete your account, we will delete or anonymize your personal information within 30 days, except where we are required to retain it for legal, accounting, or fraud-prevention purposes.
10. Your Rights and Choices
You have the following rights with respect to your personal information. To exercise any right, email privacy@scotch4dummies.com or use the in-app controls described below.
Universal Rights (Available to All Users)
- Access: request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Correction: update inaccurate information, directly in the App via your profile settings.
- Deletion: delete your account and associated data via the App (Settings → Account → Delete Account) or by emailing us.
- Content control: delete individual tasting notes, photos, or community posts at any time.
- Communication preferences: Manage push notifications in your device settings. Turn marketing emails (updates, giveaways, bottle releases, special offers, and other S4D news) on or off in Settings, or use the unsubscribe link in any of them. Service emails (confirmation codes, password resets, and account or subscription notices) are always sent, because the App cannot work without them.
GDPR / UK GDPR Rights (EEA, UK, Switzerland)
In addition to the above, you have the right to:
- Data portability (receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format).
- Restrict or object to certain processing.
- Withdraw consent at any time (without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing).
- Lodge a complaint with your supervisory authority.
California Privacy Rights (CCPA/CPRA)
California residents have the right to:
- Know what personal information we collect, use, disclose, and sell (we do not sell personal information).
- Delete personal information (subject to legal retention requirements).
- Correct inaccurate personal information.
- Opt out of sharing personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising (not currently applicable, as we do not do this).
- Limit use of sensitive personal information (we do not process sensitive personal information as defined by CPRA).
- Non-discrimination for exercising your rights.
To make a CCPA/CPRA request, email privacy@scotch4dummies.com. We will verify your identity before responding and will respond within 45 days.
Other US State Rights
Residents of Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and other states with comprehensive privacy laws have similar rights (access, correction, deletion, opt-out). Email privacy@scotch4dummies.com to exercise these rights.
11. International Data Transfers
We are based in the United States, and our service providers operate in multiple countries. If you are located outside the United States, your information will be transferred to, stored in, and processed in the United States and other countries where our service providers operate.
For transfers of personal data from the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, we rely on:
- Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission (or UK equivalents) with our service providers.
- Adequacy decisions where applicable.
You may request a copy of the safeguards we use by contacting privacy@scotch4dummies.com.
12. Security
We implement administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect your information, including:
- Encryption in transit (HTTPS/TLS).
- Encryption at rest for sensitive data stored in our databases.
- Role-based access controls and row-level security on user data.
- Service provider contracts requiring equivalent protections.
- Routine security reviews and updates.
No system is perfectly secure. If you believe your account has been compromised, contact privacy@scotch4dummies.com immediately.
13. Children's Privacy
Pour Decision is not directed to children under the applicable legal drinking age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe we have collected information from a child, contact privacy@scotch4dummies.com so we can delete it.
14. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will:
- Update the "Last Updated" date at the top.
- Notify you in the App and/or by email before material changes take effect.
- Where required by law, obtain your consent to the new practices.
Continued use of the App after an update constitutes acceptance of the updated Policy (subject to applicable consent requirements).
15. Contact Us
Questions, requests, or complaints about this Privacy Policy or our data practices:
Scotch 4 Dummies LLC
Attn: Privacy
PO Box 646
Lebanon, IN 46052
United States
Email: privacy@scotch4dummies.com
This Privacy Policy is provided for informational purposes and reflects our current practices. It is not legal advice. We recommend consulting a qualified attorney for legal questions specific to your situation.