Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

AlkaGuide LLC ("AlkaGuide", "we", "us", "our") operates the AlkaGuide wellness education platform at alkaguide.com. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, how we protect it, and your rights regarding it.

2. Information We Collect

Account information: Email address, password (stored as a one-way Argon2id hash — never readable), date of birth, biological sex, height, weight, and timezone.

Health tracking data: Food logs, medication records, alcohol intake, exercise logs, sleep logs, stress logs, pH readings, supplement logs, and symptoms — all self-reported by you.

Communication profile: Your learning style preference (visual/auditory/kinesthetic) and wellness goal segment, collected during onboarding — used solely to adapt how information is presented to you.

Usage data: Session information, browser type (user-agent, version-stripped for security), and approximate date/time of activity. No third-party analytics trackers are embedded in the authenticated member area.

Payment data: Billing is processed by Stripe. AlkaGuide does not store full card numbers. Transaction records are retained for financial compliance.

3. How We Use Your Information

• To calculate your mineral depletion estimates using our patent-pending algorithm
• To generate personalised food and supplement recommendations
• To adapt the communication style of the platform to your learning preferences
• To send transactional emails (account verification, password reset, subscription notices)
• To maintain account security and prevent fraudulent access
• To enable account recovery if you request restoration of a deleted account

We do not sell your data. We do not use your data for advertising. We do not share your health data with third parties except as required by law or as described in Section 4.

4. Data Sharing

We share your data only with the following categories of service providers, and only to the extent necessary to provide the Service:

• Stripe — payment processing. Governed by Stripe's Privacy Policy.
• SMTP email provider — transactional email delivery only.
• Hosting infrastructure — server and database hosting (cPanel/MariaDB).

We may disclose your information if required to do so by law, court order, or governmental authority, or if we believe disclosure is necessary to protect the rights or safety of AlkaGuide, our users, or others.

5. Data Security

We implement industry-standard technical safeguards including: Argon2id password hashing, HTTPS encryption in transit, CSRF protection on all forms, session security with user-agent binding and periodic regeneration, rate limiting on authentication endpoints, and prepared statements throughout to prevent SQL injection.

No system is perfectly secure. While we take reasonable measures to protect your data, we cannot guarantee absolute security. You are responsible for keeping your login credentials confidential.

6. Data Retention & Deletion

Your data is retained for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, your data is archived for up to 365 days (to enable recovery at your request) and then permanently deleted. Payment records are exempt from deletion for financial compliance.

You may request deletion of your account and data at any time via Profile → Delete Account.

7. Your Rights

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate data
• Request deletion of your data (right to erasure)
• Object to or restrict certain processing
• Data portability (receive your data in a machine-readable format)

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at privacy@alkaguide.com. We will respond within 30 days.

8. Cookies & Local Storage

AlkaGuide uses one session cookie to maintain your authenticated session, and one client-side cookie (client_local_date) set by JavaScript to record your local date for accurate daily tracking. No advertising cookies, third-party tracking pixels, or marketing cookies are used in the authenticated member area.

9. Children's Privacy

AlkaGuide is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, please contact us immediately and we will delete it.

10. Contact

Privacy questions or requests: privacy@alkaguide.com