Barwise Privacy Policy
Effective November 2, 2026
No. 01What Barwise is
Barwise is a home bar companion. You list the bottles and mixers you have, ask “What can I pour tonight?”, review a drink the coach drafts from that stock, and save the recipes you like. This policy describes what the app actually does with information in the version released from our current source code.
No. 02What you put on the shelf
Barwise keeps the following on your device, inside the app’s private storage (Application Support):
- Bar items you add with Quick add or Scan shelf: the bottle name, a category (for example spirit or garnish) and, if you scanned a shelf, a link to that photo.
- Recipe drafts and saved recipes: drink name, glassware, ingredients with amounts, and steps.
- Your feedback: when you save a recipe or tap Too sweet, More sour or Stronger, Barwise records that choice so later drafts can be adjusted.
- App state: the last screen you were on, your AI-sharing choice, and a record of drink cards you exported.
We do not receive any of this. It is not synced to iCloud or to any server operated by us.
No. 03Camera, photos, microphone and speech
| Access | When it is asked | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Camera | You tap Open camera in Scan shelf. | The photo you take is saved as one shelf photo in the app’s private storage (each new scan replaces the previous one) and shown as a thumbnail next to the bottles you accept. It is not uploaded. |
| Photo library (pick) | You tap Choose from library. | Uses the system photo picker, so Barwise only receives the single photo you select. It is stored and used the same way as a camera photo. |
| Photos (add only) | You tap Share to Photos on a saved recipe. | Barwise draws a drink card (name, glass, ingredients, steps and, if linked, your shelf photo) and adds it to your Photos library. It cannot read your library with this permission. A copy of the card is also kept in the app for preview. |
| Microphone & Speech Recognition | You tap the microphone in the ask bar. | Barwise listens for about two seconds and uses Apple’s speech recognition (US English) to turn your words into text in the ask field. Apple may process that audio on its servers under Apple’s privacy policy. Barwise does not store the audio. |
The suggested bottle labels shown after a scan are offered by the app itself; the current version does not analyse the photo’s contents and does not send it anywhere. You can decline any permission and still add bottles by typing them.
No. 04Purchases and Apple services
Barwise has no in-app purchases, subscriptions or account sign-in. If you use the Shortcuts or Siri phrase “Add bottle to Barwise”, the bottle name you give is handed to the app on your device. App downloads and any refunds are handled by Apple under Apple’s terms.
No. 05The drink coach (AI), tracking and analytics
Recipe drafts come from DeepSeek, a third-party AI service. Nothing is sent until you tap Allow suggestions on the consent screen. When you then tap Draft or Ask coach, Barwise sends one request over an encrypted connection to api.deepseek.com containing:
- the text you typed or dictated, together with Barwise’s built-in recipe instructions;
- the names and categories of the bar items included in the request, with random item IDs generated by the app;
- when you choose Make again, the saved recipe’s drink name and ingredient names;
- random IDs of your earlier feedback entries and of the current mixing session, so the coach can refer to them.
Barwise does not send photos, audio, your name, contact details, location, or device or advertising identifiers. DeepSeek processes the request on its own servers to return the draft; its handling is governed by the DeepSeek privacy policy, which is also linked in the app under Settings › Provider policy. Do not type information into the ask bar that you would not want shared with that provider.
You can stop sharing at any time with Settings › Share bar context for drink suggestions. When it is off, the coach will ask for consent again before any new request.
Barwise contains no advertising, no analytics or crash-reporting SDKs, and does not track you across apps or websites. It uses the system network monitor only to show an “offline” notice on your device.
No. 06Network access and third parties
The only online service the app talks to is DeepSeek, for the drink coach described above. Apple provides the speech recognition, camera, photo picker and Photos services. The policy page linked in Settings is loaded from DeepSeek’s website when you open it. We do not sell or rent information, and we have no other data processors.
No. 07Keeping and clearing your data
Everything Barwise stores stays on your device until you delete the app, which removes the bar list, recipes, feedback, shelf photo and in-app drink-card copies. The current version has no in-app button to remove single bottles or recipes. Drink cards you added to Photos remain in your library until you delete them there. Data is protected by iOS app sandboxing and your device passcode. How long DeepSeek keeps coach requests is set by DeepSeek’s policy.
No. 08Age
Barwise is about alcoholic drinks and is meant only for adults of legal drinking age where they live. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from them.
No. 09Changes to this policy
If a future version handles data differently, we will update this page and its effective date before that version is released.
No. 10Contact
Questions about privacy in Barwise:
lastcall@pourledger.studio