Terms of Service

1. Introduction and Acceptance

Welcome to Hedgepal. These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the Hedgepal mobile app, our website at www.hedgepal.app, and any related services (together, the "Service"). Hedgepal is an AI-powered calorie and nutrition tracking app.

By creating an account, downloading the app, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

2. Eligibility and Your Account

You must be at least 13 years old to use Hedgepal. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you may only use the Service with the involvement of a parent or guardian. The Service is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their data.

Hedgepal is a nutrition tracking tool and is not designed for the diagnosis or treatment of eating disorders. If you have or are recovering from an eating disorder, please consult a qualified healthcare professional before using calorie tracking software.

You are responsible for keeping your account credentials secure and for all activity that occurs under your account. Provide accurate information when you register, and let us know promptly if you believe your account has been compromised. You may delete your account at any time as described in our Privacy Policy.

3. Health and Medical Disclaimer

Calorie counts, macronutrient values, portion estimates, BMI, body fat figures, and calorie or weight targets produced by the Service are estimates only. They are generated automatically, including by AI, and may be inaccurate or incomplete. Do not rely on them for medical decisions.

Always seek the advice of your physician, registered dietitian, or another qualified health provider before starting any diet, exercise, or weight-management program, and with any questions about a medical condition. Never disregard or delay seeking professional medical advice because of something you read in the app.

Hedgepal is not suitable as the sole basis for managing a medical condition. If you are pregnant or nursing, have diabetes, a heart condition, a food allergy, or any other medical condition, consult your healthcare provider before relying on the Service. If you believe you are experiencing a medical emergency, call your local emergency number immediately.

4. AI-Powered Features

Hedgepal uses artificial intelligence to estimate nutrition from food photos and meal descriptions, and to power the "Ask Hedgie" chat assistant. To provide these features, the content you submit is transmitted to Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service for processing. Section 6 of our Privacy Policy explains exactly what is sent, how it is used, and how it is protected.

AI output can be wrong. Food recognition may misidentify items, misjudge portion sizes, or miss ingredients such as oils, sauces, and hidden sugars, and the chat assistant may produce information that is inaccurate or out of date. You are responsible for reviewing and correcting entries the AI generates, and you should not treat AI responses as professional advice of any kind.

You agree not to submit content to the AI features that is unlawful, that infringes someone else's rights, or that contains other people's personal or sensitive information without their permission. We may apply usage limits to AI features, including limits that differ between the free and Premium tiers.

5. Advertising, Analytics, and Third-Party SDKs

The Hedgepal app includes the Meta SDK, provided by Meta Platforms, Inc. We use it to attribute app installs and to measure how our advertising performs — for example, how many people downloaded the app or started a subscription after seeing one of our ads. It records app events such as installs, app opens, registrations, and purchases, along with device information and, where you have permitted it, your device's advertising identifier.

Your health and nutrition data is never sent to Meta. Food logs, photos, weight and body measurements, calorie and macro data, and AI chat messages are excluded from this integration. Section 7 of our Privacy Policy sets out in full what is collected, how it is used, and how to opt out.

Meta acts as an independent controller of the data it receives and processes it under its own privacy policy and terms, which we do not control. By using the Service you acknowledge this third-party processing. On iOS we request your permission through Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt before accessing your advertising identifier, and you may decline or later withdraw that permission in your device settings without losing access to any feature of the Service.

6. Subscriptions, Billing, and Refunds

Hedgepal offers a free tier and a paid Hedgepal Premium subscription. Current features and pricing are shown in the app before you purchase.

• Billing: Subscriptions are sold and billed through the Apple App Store or Google Play, not directly by Hedgepal. We never receive or store your card details.
• Auto-renewal: Subscriptions renew automatically for the same period unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the current period ends. Your store account is charged at confirmation of purchase and again on each renewal.
• Cancelling: Manage or cancel your subscription in your App Store or Google Play account settings. Deleting your Hedgepal account does not cancel store billing — cancel there first.
• After cancelling: Premium access continues until the end of the paid period, then the account moves to the free tier. Your logged data is kept.
• Refunds: Refunds are handled by the store you purchased through, under its policies. For Apple, use reportaproblem.apple.com; for Google Play, use your Play Store order history.
• Price changes: We may change subscription pricing. Changes apply only to future billing periods, and we will give notice as required by the applicable app store.

Where a free trial is offered, any unused portion is forfeited if you purchase a subscription during the trial. Unless you cancel before the trial ends, the subscription begins automatically and your store account is charged.

7. License and Acceptable Use

Subject to these Terms, Hedgepal grants you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Service for your own personal, non-commercial use. We retain all rights not expressly granted.

You agree not to:

• Copy, modify, distribute, sell, or lease any part of the Service
• Decompile or reverse engineer any software in the Service, except where that restriction is prohibited by law
• Access the Service through automated means, or scrape, harvest, or bulk-download its content
• Interfere with or disrupt the Service, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to it or to other users' accounts
• Use the Service to build a competing product, or to train a machine learning model
• Share your account, or use the Service for anything unlawful or in violation of these Terms
• Remove any copyright or other proprietary notices from the Service

8. Your Content

You keep ownership of the content you submit, including food photos, meal descriptions, and chat messages ("Your Content"). You grant Hedgepal a limited, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, process, and transmit Your Content solely to operate and provide the Service to you — including sending it to the AI processor described in Section 4.

This license exists only so that we can run the Service for you, and it ends when you delete the content or your account. We do not sell Your Content, use it for advertising or ad targeting, or use it to train AI models, and Your Content is never shared with the advertising and measurement partner described in Section 5. You are responsible for having the necessary rights to the content you submit.

9. Service Availability and Termination

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Service at any time. We aim to keep the Service available, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation, and features may change over time.

You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your account if you materially breach these Terms, if required by law, or to protect the Service or other users. If we terminate your account without cause while you hold a paid subscription, you may be entitled to a pro-rata refund through the relevant app store.

10. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Hedgepal disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free, or that any nutrition estimate, health metric, or AI output will be accurate, complete, or current. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

11. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Hedgepal and its suppliers will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, profits, or goodwill, arising out of or relating to your use of or inability to use the Service — including any reliance on nutrition estimates, health metrics, or AI-generated output.

To the extent permitted by law, our total liability for any claim relating to the Service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid Hedgepal in the twelve months before the claim arose, or USD 50. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations of liability, so parts of this section may not apply to you. Nothing in these Terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or any other liability that cannot be excluded by law.

12. App Store Terms

If you downloaded Hedgepal from the Apple App Store, you acknowledge that these Terms are between you and Hedgepal only, not Apple, and that Apple is not responsible for the app or its content. Apple has no obligation to provide support or maintenance for the app. If the app fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price; to the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no other warranty obligation with respect to the app.

Apple is not responsible for addressing any claims relating to the app, including product liability claims, claims that the app fails to conform to a legal or regulatory requirement, and claims arising under consumer protection or similar legislation. Apple is not responsible for investigating or resolving any third-party claim that the app infringes intellectual property rights. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you.

If you downloaded Hedgepal from Google Play, your use is also subject to the Google Play Terms of Service. You must comply with all applicable third-party terms when using the Service.

13. Third-Party Links and Services

The Service may link to or rely on third-party websites and services that we do not control. We are not responsible for their content, practices, or availability, and the inclusion of a link does not imply endorsement. Your use of a third-party service is governed by that party's own terms and privacy policy.

14. Changes to These Terms

We may revise these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date above and, where required by law, give you notice in the app or by email. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect means you accept the revised Terms. If you do not agree, stop using the Service and delete your account.

15. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which Hedgepal operates, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. You and Hedgepal submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in that location, except where mandatory local consumer law gives you the right to bring proceedings where you live.

If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions stay in full force. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. Before starting formal proceedings, please contact us at hello@hedgepal.app — most issues can be resolved quickly.