Effective date: .
Account age and local use
Personal and organization-managed PearaByte accounts require age 13 or older, or a higher applicable product or regional minimum. Personal guardian enrollment and school-managed under-13 accounts are unavailable at initial launch. School approval, a purchase or platform app approval cannot override this restriction.
Neural Notes and PearStead allow basic local use without an account where platform rules permit. Local content and mandatory platform verification or parental-permission requirements still apply. Do not create an adult account for a child or upload a child's information through another account to bypass the restriction.
The initial school offering focuses on eligible high school and college students. School/work identities remain separate from personal identities and use age bands rather than exact DOB by default. School-created under-13 profiles and school-hosted sync are future options, not current services.
An entered birth date is self-declared; a platform age range can also be declared or parent-provided. School SSO, an email domain or a payment does not establish verified age or educational authority. School use requires current organization terms, privacy acknowledgment, data-processing terms and education-use requirements.
Contact support@pearabyte.com about a child's information, review, deletion or stopping further collection. No paid plan or account is required. We verify identity or authority before disclosing another person's information. Do not send identity documents or unnecessary sensitive child information with your initial request.
Local use and account checks
Neural Notes and PearStead open basic local features without requiring account creation, a country or age declaration, or signup-document acknowledgements. Required account age, residence, terms and privacy information is handled through shared PearaByte signup before account/cloud features are enabled.
Cloud eligibility remains separate from local use. The app may ask the device or store for applicable age-range or permission signals when connecting cloud features. Required verification, pending parental approval or revoked approval cannot be replaced by account information or a purchase. Native clients receive derived account eligibility and platform-policy requirements, not the stored account birth date.
Local notes or household records are not sent to PearaByte merely because you use local features. Optional network features, operating-system services and embedded SDKs can still process technical information. Local use is not a promise that the device makes no network requests. Account residence is declared policy information; these checks do not request GPS or prove your current location.
Optional mobile sign-in preferences
Neural Notes and PearStead mobile apps let you choose Remember username. This stores your sign-in username in the device's protected storage, independently of your password or website cookie choices. It remains after sign-out unless you uncheck the option.
After successful password sign-in, including any required MFA, supported devices can offer biometric sign-in. If you enable it, fingerprint or face authentication protects a device-held key for your encrypted saved account session. PearaByte does not receive biometric templates, and the app does not save your password. Local startup does not prompt for biometrics or require sign-in. You can change biometric sign-in in the account settings; changed device enrollment or an expired session may require password sign-in again. Sign-out clears the saved account credential and its key.
Contact support@pearabyte.com about privacy, access or deletion.
Who operates the service
PearaByte LLC is a North Carolina limited liability company.
Business mailing address: 510 Central St #180, Hudson, NC 28638, United States.
For support, privacy requests or legal questions, contact support@pearabyte.com or write to the address above. Do not send passwords or recovery keys.
Local household information
Inventory, shopping, recipes, meal plans, household names, member profiles, schedules, requests and reminders are stored on your device. Profiles may include names, allergies and dietary notes that you choose to enter. Local household use does not require an account. Avoid entering information about other people without their permission or appropriate parental authority.
Optional account and cloud features
Signing in uses the shared PearaByte account, including your email, account identifier and authentication information described in our account privacy notice. Signing in alone does not upload your household.
When you explicitly enable household sync or upload a cloud backup, PearaByte processes the household contents you choose to store, including member names, allergy notes, schedules, recipes, shopping and requests. Invitations also process recipient email addresses and household roles. The household owner's Pro access covers invited members. Authorized members can read shared household information; assigning an inventory item to a person does not make it private from the household.
Cloud households, sync and remote alerts require eligible accounts age 13 or older. Under-13 account use is unavailable at initial launch. A household invitation or requester role cannot override this restriction. Basic local use remains available where platform rules permit.
Connections use HTTPS and cloud household storage uses server-managed encryption and household access controls. This is not end-to-end encryption: authorized service processing can access the stored contents. Backups are separate snapshots, so deleting a live record does not remove it from an older backup.
Camera, photos and product lookups
Camera access is used for barcode scans. Receipt photos and the default recipe reader process selected or captured photos on your device for text recognition. These on-device readers do not upload photos for recognition. Text you review and save becomes household content and may be included when you enable cloud features.
If you explicitly choose free online recipe reading for an import, PearStead sends only the selected recipe photo or cropped area directly from your phone to OCR.space over HTTPS. The provider receives the image and normal network information, including your public IP address; PearaByte does not proxy or retain the upload. We do not attach household profiles, saved recipes, account identity or sign-in credentials. Choose an area containing only the recipe text you want read, without unrelated personal information. OCR.space states that uploaded documents are deleted after processing and API IP-address logs are retained for one month; see its privacy policy. Online reading is optional, subject to free-service limits, and requires confirmation for each import. If it cannot finish, the app reads the photo on your phone instead and identifies that fallback. Both readers keep the image comparison and correction controls available; check amounts and words before saving.
Online barcode lookup sends the scanned barcode to Open Facts and, if needed, UPCitemdb. These services receive normal network information such as your IP address. We do not send them household profiles, photos, account credentials or shopping lists. You can turn online lookup off and use confirmed local matches or manual entry. Review suggestions against the product label; they do not establish allergy safety or equipment compatibility.
Notifications and third-party components
Local reminders are scheduled on your device. Optional family-request alerts use Google Firebase Cloud Messaging. Google and PearaByte process installation identifiers and a push token to deliver these alerts. The notification contains a generic update and opaque references, rather than names, items or decision details. You can disable alerts in the app or Android settings. Device registrations expire after 30 days without renewal; request events expire after seven days, subject to bounded cleanup.
Google ML Kit performs on-device recognition and collects technical information such as device/app versions, installation identifiers, feature events, error codes and performance information for diagnostics and usage analytics. This SDK collection is separate from PearStead's optional Send report button. See Google's ML Kit disclosure and Firebase disclosure. Google Play also handles installation and update checks under its own privacy terms.
Error reports and service operations
PearStead error dialogs offer Close or Send report. Close does not send a PearStead diagnostic report. A report you send contains numeric error references, the operation category, app version, Android version and platform. It excludes household content, scanned barcodes, account identity, passwords and raw exception messages or stacks. Reports receive a random reference, are available to authorized support administrators, and expire after 30 days through bounded cleanup. If you choose email support, the email service also handles your address and the message you send.
The website and backend automatically record bounded technical errors for service reliability. Hosting, network and account services also process operational/security information needed to serve requests and protect accounts. PearStead has no advertising SDK and does not sell household data. Data is used to provide app functionality, account access, security, diagnostics and the technical analytics described above.
Retention, exports and deletion
Local information remains until you remove it, clear app storage or uninstall. Exported household archives are plain JSON and may contain private names, schedules and allergy notes. The file location or sharing service you choose may retain its own copy.
Cloud household data and snapshots are retained to provide the cloud features you enabled. Pro expiry stops new cloud writes rather than immediately purging saved backups. Owners can review and delete snapshots in the app, including through the retained-backup deletion controls after Pro expires. Use PearStead cloud-data deletion to remove your owned cloud households, snapshots, invitations and household access without deleting your shared account or Neural Notes data. This works without Pro and signs your account out everywhere. Other owners' household contents and local copies remain. Contact support for other product-data access or deletion requests; we verify identity or authority as appropriate before acting.
Request deletion of your PearaByte account to delete the shared identity, owned PearStead cloud households and their backups, and your household memberships. This affects other connected PearaByte products too. Contributions already held in another person's household, recipient copies and local/exported files are not remotely erased.
Operational database recovery backups exist separately from active account data. Their retention is currently operator-managed. Deleting active account records does not immediately remove every recovery copy. Operational logs are rotated according to infrastructure limits; the retention interval varies with activity. Records already held by infrastructure, payment, identity or email providers follow their applicable retention practices. Contact us with a privacy request concerning these records.
The shared account notice explains separate account, service-report and administrative/billing audit retention.
Your choices
You can use local features without signing in, decline cloud uploads, keep recipe reading on-device, disable online barcode lookup, control Android camera/photo/notification permissions, disable request alerts and close error dialogs without sending a report. Review household membership before sharing personal or health-related notes. PearStead is a household organizer, not medical advice or a medical device.
Privacy requests
Email support@pearabyte.com with the subject Privacy request. Tell us which product is involved and whether you want access or a copy, a correction, deletion, or help exercising another applicable privacy right. Include an account email if relevant and a way to contact you. You do not need a PearaByte account to raise a request, including about your information in another person's household or shared content.
A parent or guardian can contact us about a child's information, including review, deletion or stopping further collection. A household invitation alone does not establish parental authority. We may need to verify your identity or authority before disclosing or changing information. Do not send passwords, authentication codes, recovery keys, identity documents or private note, health or household contents with your initial request. If additional information is needed, we will explain what is necessary. Local exports do not include every server-held account or billing record.
The rights, exceptions and response deadlines that apply depend on the request and applicable law. If you disagree with our response, reply to request a review or an appeal where applicable. Contacting us does not waive your right to contact a regulator or use other legal remedies.
Changes to this notice
We will update the effective date when this notice changes. Material changes will be identified here or communicated through an appropriate account or product channel. Any notice or consent required by applicable law still applies.
Regional requirements and privacy choices
Account and cloud availability, age requirements, required residence information and parent or school authority depend on the product and applicable country/state rules. An available country selector is not an announcement that account services or purchases have launched there. Our stated launch offering remains in effect until we announce an additional region.
Terms acceptance establishes the applicable service agreement. A privacy acknowledgment confirms that the notice was presented; it is not blanket consent for optional processing or permission to collect a child's data. Where processing requires a separate consent, that choice must concern the stated purpose and can be withdrawn. Purchasing Pro, store parental permission or school sign-in does not provide that separate authority.
You can contact support@pearabyte.com about applicable access, correction, deletion, objection, restriction, portability or consent-withdrawal rights and help with a privacy complaint. This includes Mexico's applicable access, rectification, cancellation and opposition (ARCO) rights. Rights and response requirements depend on the applicable law. We verify identity or authority before disclosing another person's information; privacy help does not require Pro, a new purchase or acceptance of revised terms.
Organization authority applies only to its separate managed identity and approved service. School authority must cover the educational purpose and applicable jurisdiction; it does not authorize unrelated commercial use or access to a separate personal account. Published notices do not themselves establish a school's authority, an international transfer arrangement or age verification.