Privacy Policy for MyGutMap
Last updated: 6 October 2026
The short version
MyGutMap keeps everything on your device. It has no servers, no accounts and no analytics. Nothing you record is ever sent anywhere — not to the developer, not to anyone else — unless you deliberately export or share it yourself.
The app uses the network for two things, both through Apple: if you switch on Record where you ate, saving a meal sends that meal's coordinates once to Apple's mapping service to get back the name of the place; and when you open the Support MyGutMap section in Settings, the App Store is asked for the tips' names and prices. Neither carries anything from your diary.
What MyGutMap stores
Everything you enter is written to a database on your device:
- Meals and drinks: the time, the meal type, what you wrote, the foods recognised from your description, and the taste attributes (spicy, rich, sweet, salty)
- Bowel movements: the time, the Bristol type, colour, consistency, size, symptoms and any note
- Photographs you attach to an entry
This database lives in the app's own storage area on your device, in a shared container so that the app and its Siri shortcuts can read the same records. It is included in your device backups (iCloud or local) if you have backups turned on — those backups are covered by Apple's privacy policy, not this one.
Health data
If you allow it, MyGutMap reads three values from the Health app:
- Body weight
- Step count
- Exercise minutes
These are shown alongside your records so you can see them in context. MyGutMap only reads — it never writes anything back to the Health app, and it does not read anything else. This data is not transmitted anywhere and is not used for advertising or shared with anyone.
You can withdraw this permission at any time in the Health app, under Sharing.
Camera and photographs
You can attach a photograph to an entry by taking one with the camera or choosing one you already have, and a shortcut can hand one to MyGutMap for you.
Taking a photo uses the camera inside the app. iOS asks your permission the first time.
Choosing an existing photo opens the standard iOS photo picker. That picker is run by iOS, not by MyGutMap, and it hands back only the single picture you select. MyGutMap is never given access to your photo library as a whole, cannot browse or search it, and cannot see anything you did not choose — which is why iOS does not ask you for photo permission here.
A shortcut you set up in the Shortcuts app can pass a photo to MyGutMap's Log Meal action. MyGutMap stores the photo it is given. Anything the shortcut did with the photo before handing it over happened outside MyGutMap, under the terms of whatever that shortcut used.
If a photo records when it was taken, a new meal takes that time instead of the moment you saved it; you can change it in the meal's form. The picture is resized and stored with the entry it belongs to, on your device. MyGutMap does not add anything to your photo library.
Where you ate
This is switched off until you turn it on, in Settings → Places → Record where you ate. While it is off, MyGutMap never asks iOS for your location and never records one.
With it on, a meal can carry the place it was eaten. That comes from one of two sources:
- A photo you chose from your library, or one a shortcut handed over, usually already knows where it was taken, because the Camera app wrote it into the file. MyGutMap reads that from that single photo. This needs no location permission at all.
- A photo you take inside MyGutMap carries no location of its own, so the app asks iOS for your current position. iOS asks your permission the first time this happens — not when you flip the switch, but when you first open the camera afterwards.
Once there is a position, MyGutMap makes one request to Apple's mapping service to turn it into a name like a restaurant or a street. That request happens when the meal is saved, it contains the coordinates and nothing else — no name, no account, nothing identifying you — and it is covered by Apple's Privacy Policy. The name that comes back is stored with the entry on your device, so reading your diary later never needs the network again.
The place is yours to change: type over the name, or remove it, in the meal's own form. Turning the switch off stops any new places being recorded; places already saved stay until you edit or delete those entries.
Bowel entries never record a place, and photographs attached to them are never read for one.
Siri
You can log a meal, a drink or a bowel movement by speaking to Siri. When you do, Siri handles the speech; that is Apple's feature and Apple's processing, covered by Apple's Privacy Policy. What Siri hands to MyGutMap is stored on your device like anything you type. The same actions are available in the Shortcuts app and on the Action Button.
Apple Intelligence
On an iPhone with Apple Intelligence, Analyze with AI on the Dashboard asks Apple's on-device language model to read your recent entries — up to your last 30 meals and 30 bowel movements, together with the counts the app has already worked out from them — and write a short summary in plain language. Photographs, places and Health data are not part of what it reads. It runs only when you tap it. The model runs on your iPhone: nothing is uploaded to be read, and nothing is sent to the developer. The summary is shown on screen and is not saved; asking again writes a new one.
Suggest foods from photo appears under a meal's photo on iOS 27, when the on-device model on your iPhone can read images. Tapping it asks that model to look at the one photo and suggest the foods in it. The photo is not uploaded and nothing is sent to the developer. The suggestions are only suggestions — the model can be wrong — so none of them is added to your entry unless you tap it. The ones you tap are added to the description, and MyGutMap remembers that those words came from the photo so the entry and the PDF report can say so. The suggestions you do not tap are not kept.
MyGutMap also contains code that can use the same on-device model to help read meal descriptions. That is switched off in this version and cannot be turned on.
Tips
Settings has a Support MyGutMap section where you can leave an optional tip. A tip unlocks nothing; every feature is free with or without one.
- When that section is shown, MyGutMap asks the App Store for the tips' names and prices in your currency. Nothing from your diary is part of that request.
- If you tip, the payment is made through Apple's In-App Purchase and handled entirely by Apple, under Apple's Privacy Policy. The developer never sees your name, your email address or your payment details — only the aggregated sales figures Apple reports to every developer.
- MyGutMap keeps, on your device only, how many times you have tipped (to say thank you) and the IDs of those purchases (so one is never counted twice).
What MyGutMap does not do
- No accounts, no sign-in, no email address collected
- No analytics, crash reporting, or usage tracking
- No advertising and no advertising identifiers
- No third-party software libraries of any kind
- No selling or sharing of data — there is nothing collected to sell
When your data does leave the device
Your records leave the device in two ways. The first is automatic and is described under Where you ate: one lookup per saved meal, and only when you have turned that on. (The tip prices described under Tips carry nothing from your records.) The second is when you choose to send something. MyGutMap can:
- Export your records as a JSON file
- Produce a PDF report, which includes the entries in the period you pick, along with any photographs attached to them
Both go to the iOS share sheet, and from there wherever you send them — mail, a messaging app, Files, a printer. Once you have sent something, this policy no longer governs it; whatever service you sent it to does. The PDF report can contain photographs of meals and of bowel movements, so it is worth a look before you send it to anyone.
Deleting your data
- Settings → Delete All Data removes every meal and bowel record in the app.
- Deleting the app removes the database and every photograph with it. If you use iCloud Backup, a copy may remain in your backup until that backup is replaced or deleted.
Children
MyGutMap is not directed at children. It has no accounts and collects nothing about who you are; the only part of your records that ever leaves the device is the place lookup described above, and that is off unless you switch it on. Tips are made through Apple's In-App Purchase, which follows the purchase settings of the Apple Account on the device, including Ask to Buy.
Changes to this policy
If a future version of the app changes what it stores or where anything goes, this page is updated and the date at the top changes with it.
Contact
Questions about this policy or about the app: