Privacy Policy
Last updated November 9, 2026
This policy covers every Fireside Labs app: Spark, Ember, Hearth, Sear and Gather, and this website. In short: we don't sell your information, we don't show ads, and we don't track you across other apps or websites.
| App | What Fireside Labs receives |
|---|---|
| Spark | Nothing. Spark connects only to the Jellyfin server you choose. |
| Ember | Nothing. Ember connects only to the Jellyfin server you choose. |
| Hearth | Nothing. Hearth connects only to your own TV server. |
| Sear | Your account, your household, and the recipes and photos your household saves. |
| Gather | Your account, your household, and the lists your household keeps. |
Spark, Ember and Hearth
These apps play music, video and TV from a server you run yourself (for example Jellyfin). They talk directly to that server; nothing passes through Fireside Labs.
- The server address and your sign-in for it are stored on your device, in Apple's Keychain.
- What you play, your watch history and your favorites are saved on your server, as that server normally does.
- Settings stay on your device.
- These apps contain no analytics, advertising or tracking code.
Sear and Gather
Sear and Gather keep a household's recipes and lists in sync across its members' devices, so they use a Fireside Labs account and our server.
What we store
- Your account. When you sign in with Apple, Apple gives us a random identifier for you and, the first time only, the name you choose to share. We use the name to show who added what in your household. If you choose to share your email or Apple's private relay address, we don't store it.
- Your households. The households you belong to, your role in each (owner, member or viewer), and the invite links you create.
- What your household saves. Recipes, their photos, notes, ratings and favorites, grocery lists, and the earlier versions of each recipe (so edits can be undone).
- Recipe imports. When you import a recipe from a web page, our server fetches that page and its photo to make a copy for your household.
- Sign-in sessions. A cookie or token that keeps you signed in. We store only a scrambled (hashed) form of it.
How we use it
Only to run Sear and Gather for you and your household. We don't use it for advertising, sell it, or share it with data brokers, and we don't build profiles of you.
Who can see it
- Your household. Everything in a household is visible to its members. Viewers can see but not change it.
- People you send a recipe link to (coming soon). A shared recipe link will show that one recipe to anyone who has the link, until it expires or you turn it off.
- Our service providers, only so the service works: Cloudflare hosts the server and stores the data; Apple provides Sign in with Apple.
- If the law requires it, for example a valid court order.
Keeping and deleting your information
- Deleted recipes stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days so they can be restored, then their content is removed.
- Deleting your account (on the Sear account page, or in the app) removes your sign-in, your sessions and your personal household straight away, and tells Apple to revoke Sear's access. Recipes you added to a shared household stay with that household, without your name on them. If you were the only owner, ownership passes to the household's longest-standing member.
- Turning off Sign in with Apple for Sear in your Apple ID settings signs you out everywhere. Deleting your Apple account deletes your Sear account.
- Backups made for recovering from mistakes may hold deleted data for up to 30 days before it's gone for good.
Security
Everything travels over HTTPS. Sign-in tokens and invite links are stored only in hashed form, session cookies can't be read by scripts or other sites, and every request is checked against your household membership.
This website
firesidelabs.app uses no cookies, analytics or tracking. The demos on the homepage run entirely in your browser. Like any website, our hosting provider (Cloudflare) briefly processes your IP address to deliver pages and stop abuse.
Children
Our apps aren't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their information. A parent may invite a child to a household; if you believe a child's information is held without a parent's consent, contact us and we'll delete it.
Your rights
You can see, correct and delete your information in the apps at any time. Depending on where you live, you may have further rights, such as getting a copy of your data. Contact us and we'll help within 30 days.
Changes
If this policy changes, we'll update the date above. If a change affects how we use information you've already given us, we'll tell you in the app first.
Contact
Questions or requests: privacy@firesidelabs.app