Privacy Policy

Last updated: 17 October 2026

Kitchen Timer is a free app for running cooking timers, at kt.tnyforge.com and as an Android app. It is made by Tinyforge (“we”), as a free research preview. This page explains what information the app uses and why. Questions: privacy@tnyforge.com.

The short version

• No account, no sign-up, no name or email needed to use the app.
• Your timers, presets, meals and history are kept on your device and backed up on our server, so alarms can ring even when your phone is asleep. Syncing can't be switched off.
• We count which features are used, without your timer names or anything you type. You can switch this off.
• We don't sell your information and we don't show ads.

What we keep, and why

Your kitchen

Your timers, presets, meals, settings and cooking history are stored on your device and synced to our server, linked to a random ID the app creates for your device (not your name or phone number). We use them to keep your timers in sync, to send the alarm when a timer finishes, and to restore your kitchen if something goes wrong. History stays on our server until you delete your data. Your device's time zone is stored so alarms ring at the right local time.

Alarm notifications

If you allow notifications, your browser or phone gives us a delivery address for notifications. We use it to send your timer alarms, and to tell your phone when an AI assistant you linked has changed your timers. If you tap “Remind me” on a shared meal plan page, your browser's notification address is also kept with that one plan, to send its reminders, and is removed with the plan (see below).

Feature usage

To see which features people use and what breaks, the app records events such as “a timer was started” or “the meals screen was opened”. Each event carries your device's random ID, the app version and the kind of device (a browser, an installed web app or the Android app). These events never include your timer names, notes or anything you type; the app and our server only send values from a fixed list. We keep them on our server for 180 days and also send them to PostHog, our analytics provider in the United States. PostHog also receives your browser and device type, screen size and time zone, and your IP address as part of the connection. Errors in the app are reported the same way, without the error message text. Usage sharing is on unless you turn it off. You can switch it off at any time in ⋯ → Advanced → Share usage.

Feedback, bug reports and help-test answers

If you send feedback or a bug report, we receive your message, any screenshot, screen recording or voice message you attach, and your email address if you choose to give one. A bug report or screen recording also carries technical details: your device's random ID, app version, device and browser type, platform, languages, screen size, notification permission, time zone, how many timers you have and your app settings. A voice message's audio file is deleted 90 days after you send it; its transcript stays. Help-test answers (with an optional note) are kept too. We keep all of these to fix problems and reply to you, with no fixed time limit. “Delete my data” does not remove them: write to privacy@tnyforge.com and we will.

AI assistants you link (optional)

If you link ChatGPT, Claude or another AI assistant to your kitchen, that assistant can read and change your timers, presets, meals and history on your behalf, and what it reads is sent to the company that runs it (for example OpenAI or Anthropic) under their privacy policy. We store only a scrambled (hashed) version of its access keys. Access keys last one hour and renew while the assistant uses the link. If the assistant doesn't use the link for 60 days, its access stops and it has to be linked again. A link stays listed in ⋯ → Link an agent until you revoke it there.

Signing in with Google (optional)

You can sign in with your Google account from ⋯ → Sign in with Google. It is entirely optional and the app works the same without it. If you sign in, we store a random account ID made for you, Google's own identifier for your account, and the email address on that account. Google tells us these; we never see your Google password. We use them so that your presets, meals and history are the same on every phone you sign in on (running timers stay on the phone that started them), and so that a report you send shows it really came from you. The email is only for us to be able to reach you about a report: the app never shows it, and it is not sent to PostHog or put in our logs. Sign out on a phone stops it sharing with your other phones and keeps everything that is on it. When the last phone signs out, your account ID, Google identifier and email address are deleted. “Delete my data” removes this phone's link to your account, and when it is the last phone linked, your account ID, Google identifier and email address as well. Reports you sent while signed in stay as described above.

Shared meal plans

When someone creates a shared meal plan, we store its dish names, cooking times and steps, the time dinner is ready and when the plan was made, under a random code in the plan's link. Anyone with the link can see the plan. Until someone taps Start on a phone, a plan isn't linked to a device, a kitchen or a person. When you tap Start on a plan made from a chat, we record which phone started it (only so that chat can pause, adjust or cancel that plan's timers and nothing else on your phone); “Delete my data” removes that link, and the chat's secret control key is kept only as a one-way hash and is deleted with the plan. We delete each plan, and any “Remind me” notification addresses saved with it, about 24 hours after its ready time. A plan made from a chat with an AI assistant (through our open planner, which needs no sign-in) is the same: public by link, no personal data (we don't know who asked), and deleted about 24 hours after its ready time.

Shared links

When you share a meal or a preset, the link carries it inside the link itself (the part after the #). We don't store it, and your browser doesn't send that part to us.

Technical logs

Like any website, our server sees your IP address when your device connects. It uses it in memory to limit abuse (for example too many reports from one address). Our server logs can also record it next to your device's random ID when we are diagnosing a problem; the main log is rotated, and “Delete my data” removes your device's lines from the diagnostic log.

Who else handles your information

We don't sell or rent your information, and we don't share it with advertisers.

Your choices

• Turn off usage sharing: ⋯ → Advanced → Share usage.
• Turn off notifications: in your browser or phone settings.
• Unlink an AI assistant: ⋯ → Link an agent → Revoke.
• Delete your data: ⋯ → Delete my data from the server removes your kitchen (timers, presets, meals, settings and history), usage records, notification address, AI-assistant links and Google sign-in link from our server straight away, and from every backup copy within 30 days. It does not remove feedback, bug reports, screen recordings, voice messages or help-test answers you sent (see above), usage events PostHog has already received, or shared meal plans (they aren't linked to you and delete themselves within about a day). Uninstalling the app or clearing the site's data removes the copy on your device.

If you live in a place with privacy laws that give you more rights (for example the EU, UK or California), you can ask us for a copy of your data, or to correct or delete it, at privacy@tnyforge.com.

Children

Kitchen Timer is not aimed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them.

Changes

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we'll update the date above and show a notice in the app.

Terms of Use · Open Kitchen Timer