Kobo stores what you need to keep a wine journal and share it with friends. We do not sell your data, show ads, or track you across other apps.
Kobo is operated by Zach Nussbaum ("we"). This policy covers the Kobo iPhone app and kobowine.com. Questions go to support@kobowine.com.
When you sign in, our authentication provider gives us your email address, your name and, if available, a profile photo. We create a username for you and store any display name, bio or avatar you set. We also store a one-way SHA-256 hash of your email so friends can find you through contact matching.
Tastings (verdict, notes, vintage, date), the photos you attach, label photos you scan, wines you correct or add, your head-to-head comparisons and resulting rankings, likes, comments, follows, wishlist items, favourite wines and the friends you tag in a tasting.
When logging a tasting you can attach a place. Place search runs on your phone using Apple Maps, and your current location is used only to sort nearby suggestions while that screen is open. We store the place you chose (its name, identifier and coordinates) with the tasting. Kobo never records your location in the background.
If you use find friends, the app hashes the email addresses in your contacts on your device and sends only the hashes. We compare them with hashes of registered users, return matches, and do not keep the hashes you sent. Names, phone numbers and raw email addresses never leave your phone.
If you turn on push notifications we store the Apple device token needed to deliver them. Signing out or turning notifications off removes it.
Our servers keep short-lived request logs (IP address, request path, timing, errors) to keep the service reliable and secure. The app contains no analytics or advertising software and does not use the advertising identifier.
We do not sell personal data, use it for advertising, or share it with data brokers.
These providers process data on our behalf under their own terms. We share only what each needs.
| Provider | Purpose | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| WorkOS | Sign-in | Your email, name and sign-in provider identity |
| OpenAI or Google | Reading wine labels | The label photos you scan. No account information is attached. |
| Parallel | Looking up missing wine details on the web | The producer and wine name read from a label. No personal data. |
| Apple | Push notifications; on-device place search | Device token; place searches run on your phone under Apple's privacy policy |
| Cloudflare | Photo storage and delivery; hosting this website | Photos you upload; standard web request logs |
| Modal and our database provider | Running the Kobo API and storing your data | Everything listed under "What we collect" |
Our providers run primarily in the United States. By using Kobo you consent to your data being processed there.
Your username, display name, avatar, bio, follower counts and favourite wines are visible to other Kobo users. Each tasting is shown according to its visibility setting, which you can change at any time. Comments and likes are visible to anyone who can see the tasting they belong to. Wine details you correct become part of the shared catalogue without your name attached.
We keep your data while your account is active. Deleting a tasting removes it from Kobo. Deleting your account removes your profile, tastings, photos, comments, likes, follows, rankings and device tokens immediately, and your sign-in identity at our authentication provider. Wines you added to the shared catalogue stay, no longer linked to you, as do aggregate statistics. Server logs are retained for a short period for security.
If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or California you may have additional rights under local law, including to object to processing or lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. Contact us and we will help.
Data travels over HTTPS. Sign-in tokens are short-lived. Our storage and database providers encrypt data at rest. No system is perfectly secure, so please tell us if you find a problem.
Kobo is about alcohol and is intended for people of legal drinking age where they live. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has an account, contact us and we will delete it.
We will post any changes here and update the effective date. Material changes will be announced in the app.