Privacy Policy
Last updated: October 5, 2026
1. Overview
Gochiso is a family recipe book for iPhone and iPad, developed by Orochi Systems (Can Kirsallioba, Tokyo, Japan). It is built so that your recipes stay yours. They are stored on your device and, if you choose, in your own private iCloud, and they are shared only with the people you invite. Gochiso does not require an account, has no server of its own for your recipes, and does not track you.
2. What Gochiso Stores
Gochiso keeps what you put into it: recipes with their ingredients, steps, times, categories, tags, and who they came from; notes and the photos you attach to a dish; voice memos and their transcripts; cooking-timer details; your theme, app icon, language, and other preferences; and unsaved drafts. All of it is stored in the App's own library on your device. When iCloud Sync is on, your recipes and attached media are also stored in your private iCloud database (CloudKit) so they appear on your other Apple devices. That database belongs to your Apple Account. Apple's iCloud terms apply to it, and the developer has no access to its contents. iCloud Sync is optional. If it is off, or you are not signed in to iCloud, your recipes stay only on the device where you entered them.
3. Shared Cookbooks
You can share a cookbook with your family. Invitations are sent through Apple's iCloud sharing, usually from Messages. Everyone you invite can see, add, and edit the recipes in that cookbook, and sees the name attached to each recipe. The cookbook stays in the owner's iCloud; participants read and write it through their own Apple Account. You can remove a participant or stop sharing at any time, and a participant can leave at any time. When sharing stops, the cookbook is removed from the other person's devices. Gochiso's sharing is private and invitation-only; nothing is published.
4. What Gochiso Does Not Do
- Gochiso does not require an account or sign-in, and there is no Orochi Systems login or cloud for your recipes. - Gochiso does not collect analytics, usage statistics, or crash reports of its own. - Gochiso does not use advertising, tracking, or any third-party software development kits. - When you add a picture, the system photo picker or camera provides the photo you choose or take. If you choose Save Image, Gochiso requests permission to add the exported image to your photo library. - Gochiso does not request your location, contacts, or calendar. The App does not ask for tracking permission because it does not track you.
5. Features That Process Your Content on Your Device
- Scanning a recipe from paper uses Apple's Vision text recognition on your device. - Voice memos are transcribed with Apple's Speech framework using on-device recognition only; the audio is not sent to Apple or to the developer. - On devices with Apple Intelligence, Gochiso uses Apple's on-device language model to sort spoken or imported text into ingredients and steps. On other devices a built-in parser does the same work. Nothing is sent to the developer or to any third-party AI service. - Siri Shortcuts, Spotlight search, the Recipe of the Day widget, and the cooking-timer Live Activity read a copy of your recipe titles, categories, and small photos kept on your device for those features. The camera, microphone, and speech recognition are requested only when you use the feature that needs them, and notifications only when you start a cooking timer. You can change these permissions at any time in the Settings app.
6. Importing From a Link
When you paste a recipe link or share a page from Safari, your device loads that web page directly from the website, the way a browser would, including any third-party content the page itself loads. The website receives ordinary network information such as your IP address. Gochiso reads the recipe out of the page on your device and keeps only the recipe and its main image. The page is not sent to the developer.
7. Backups and PDF Export
Complete Backup writes a file containing your recipes, photos, and voice memos to a location you pick. Export PDF produces a printable cookbook that also carries the data needed to restore it. These files are under your control; anyone you give them to can read them. Restoring merges the file back into your library without overwriting your current cookbooks. Protect exported files after they leave the App.
8. Earlier Versions and the Retired Server
Before its public release, Gochiso was tested with a version that kept accounts and recipes on a server. That server no longer accepts new recipes or account registrations. It may still hold early testers' display names, email addresses, Apple sign-in identifiers, password hashes from older password-based accounts, recipes, photos, and voice memos, only so that each tester can copy their old library into their own iCloud once, after confirming their identity with Sign in with Apple. Reauthentication sends an Apple identity token to verify the earlier account and creates a migration session that expires after 30 days. Your current iCloud recipes are not uploaded to that service. The retired service is retained to let early testers recover their recipes. To request deletion of data held on that service, contact gochiso@orochisystems.com. We may need to verify which earlier account belongs to you. The public App Store version of Gochiso creates no server accounts.
9. Apple Services and Legacy Account Identification
The optional import from an earlier version uses your account identifier and a migration session to retrieve the library belonging to that account. This serves app functionality and is not used for advertising or tracking. Section 8 describes the information retained by that earlier service. Apple may provide us with crash and usage information from TestFlight and the App Store under Apple's own terms, where you have agreed to share it with developers.
10. Security
Gochiso relies on Apple platform security, device encryption and sandboxing, and Apple's encrypted transport for iCloud. No storage or sync system can be guaranteed completely secure, but by keeping your recipes on your devices and in your own iCloud, Gochiso minimizes exposure by design. Protecting your devices with a passcode protects your recipes too.
11. Retention and Deletion
Gochiso keeps your recipes on your device, and in your private iCloud when sync is on, until you delete them. Deleting a recipe in the App removes it from your device and, through sync, from iCloud and your other devices. Settings → Advanced → Delete All Recipe Data removes every cookbook you own from iCloud and from the device, removes your access to cookbooks shared with you while preserving their owners' copies, and clears drafts, recovery copies, timer notifications, and any credential left from an early version; it reports an error rather than claiming success if a cloud deletion cannot be confirmed. Deleting the App removes its library from that device. You can also remove Gochiso's iCloud data from the Settings app under your name → iCloud → Manage Account Storage.
12. Your Rights
Because your recipes live on your own devices and in your own iCloud, you can exercise most privacy rights directly: see everything in the App, take a copy with Complete Backup, correct what you entered, and delete what you no longer want. Where the privacy law of your region (such as Japan's APPI, GDPR, or KVKK) gives you further rights over information held by us, including data on the retired server described in section 8 or anything you emailed us, contact gochiso@orochisystems.com and we will act on it.
13. Children
Gochiso is a general-audience recipe app. Recipes may contain personal information, including names, photos, or voice recordings. Consider whose information you include before sharing a cookbook or exporting a backup. The legacy import described above is limited to existing accounts from earlier test versions.
14. International Use
If you use Gochiso outside your own jurisdiction, local privacy law may apply. Apple may process operational data, such as iCloud, iCloud sharing, and App Store delivery, under its own infrastructure and legal obligations.
15. Changes to This Policy
Changes to this policy are published on this page, with a revised "Last updated" date, and noted in App updates when they matter.
16. Contact
If you have privacy questions about Gochiso, contact us at gochiso@orochisystems.com or visit https://orochisystems.com/gochiso/support.