OriginalCaveman Companion — Privacy Policy

Last updated: 12 October 2026. Applies to the OriginalCaveman Companion app on Android and iPhone, and its website version at originalcaveman.com/community.

On this page

Who we are
The short version
What we collect and why
What stays on your phone
Phone permissions
Thermometers (MEATER and Inkbird)
Who we share it with
Data outside the UK
How long we keep it
Your rights
Deleting your account
Age limit
Security
Changes to this policy
Contact us

1. Who we are

The app is run by Redec Industrial Ltd, trading as OriginalCaveman (company number 05394419, registered office 1 Easter Industrial Park, Ferry Lane South, Rainham, Essex RM13 9BP). We are the controller of your personal data under UK data protection law (UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018).

Questions about your data: sales@redecindustrial.com.

2. The short version

We collect what the app needs to work: your account, what you post, your messages to us, and (for Embers) your originalcaveman.com orders.
No adverts, no third-party analytics or tracking tools, and we never sell your data. The only usage figures we keep are anonymous totals for everyone together.
Cook Notes you don't share stay on your phone. A cook you write in Cook Desk on the website is held on our server only until the app collects it (30 days at most).
You can delete your account at any time in the app (Account → Delete my account) or without the app.

3. What we collect and why

The app and originalcaveman.com share one login, so your app account is your originalcaveman.com account. The website version of the app (originalcaveman.com/community) uses the same account and the same data as the phone app; anything in this policy about "the app" covers both.

What	Why we use it	Legal basis
Account details: name or username, email address, password (stored scrambled, never readable)	To create your account, sign you in and contact you about your account	Contract
Your profile: display name, an optional profile photo, labels, level, Embers, ticks, when you joined	To show your profile and run Embers, levels and rewards	Contract
What you post: cooks, recipes, photos, videos (up to 30 seconds, shrunk on your phone before upload), comments, polls (in the Group and in Pit Chat), Pit Chat messages, emoji reactions, and the temperature graphs on cooks you share	To show them in the Group, in Pit Chat and on your profile. Other members can see who reacted to a message with an emoji. Poll results only show totals; nobody else can see how you voted	Contract
Messages between you and the team (Messages with the team), and their photos	To answer you, give support, and let our team contact you privately about your account or your posts	Contract
Cooks you write in Cook Desk on the website (title, ingredients, method, notes)	To send them to your phone, where they appear in Cook Notes. They're deleted from our server a day after the app collects them, or after 30 days if it never does	Contract
Caveman's Picks: which of your posts our team has picked, and when	To show the pick in the Group and in Caveman's Picks, notify you, and add the Embers for it	Contract
@mentions: who you mention, and the times of the mentions you've sent in the last hour	To notify the person you mention, and to limit members to 3 mentions an hour so nobody gets spammed	Contract; legitimate interests (preventing spam)
Fires (likes), saves, poll answers, reports you make	To run those features, work out Embers and keep the community safe	Contract; legitimate interests (safety)
Your completed originalcaveman.com orders (order number, date, items, total, refunds). This includes orders you placed as a guest with the same email address, which we add to your account once you've confirmed that email address is yours	To award Embers for shopping, shown in Account → Embers, and so your past orders show in your account	Legitimate interests (rewarding customers)
Your phone's notification token and type (Android or iPhone)	To send the notifications you've switched on	Contract; your phone's permission
Your notifications: what happened (a reply, a mention, a fire, a new special), who did it and when	To show them in Alerts (the bell) and on your phone	Contract
Whether you've switched off Butcher's Block notifications (they're on when you join)	To tell you when our partner butcher posts a special cut, at most once a day, and to stop if you switch them off	Legitimate interests (letting customers know about limited cuts). Switch them off any time in Account → Notifications, or with the bell on the Block tab
That you've joined the app: your display name and when you joined	Our team gets a notification when someone new joins, so they can welcome you and keep the community safe	Legitimate interests (running the community)
Sign-in records: when you sign in and were last active	To keep you signed in securely and count active members	Legitimate interests (security, running the service)
How long the app is open each day, counted only as anonymous totals for everyone together (we never keep how long any one person uses it)	To understand how much the app is used, so we can improve it	Legitimate interests (improving the app)
When you were last using the app (only the latest time is kept). While the app is open on your screen it tells us about once a minute; nothing is sent while it's in the background	To show other members a green "online" ring round your photo while you're using the app. You can switch this off any time in Account → Privacy and blocking → Show when I'm online, and you'll never show as online to other members. Our team can always see who is online now and when each member was last in the app, in the moderation tools	Legitimate interests (a lively community; running and moderating the service)
Moderation records: reports, removals, suspensions and bans	To enforce the community rules	Legitimate interests (safety)
Web server logs, including IP address	To protect the service from abuse and fix problems	Legitimate interests (security)
A scrambled (hashed) form of your IP address, in short-lived anti-spam counters	To limit sign-in attempts and new accounts per connection	Legitimate interests (security)

We don't collect your location, contacts, health data or payment card details. Payments happen on originalcaveman.com under its own policies, not in the app.

Using the app on the website

You're signed in with your normal originalcaveman.com login. The website uses its usual sign-in cookies for this, which are needed for it to work.
A post or Cook Desk cook you're still writing is kept in your browser on that computer (not on our server) until you post it or clear it, so you don't lose it if the page closes. Clearing your browser's site data removes it.
Photos and videos you add are uploaded to us in the same way as from the phone app. Videos can be up to 30 seconds; on the website they're uploaded as they are, without being shrunk first.
The website version doesn't show you as "online" to other members and doesn't send us the app-usage pings described above.

4. What stays on your phone

Cook Notes you haven't shared to the Group, and their photos.
Live thermometer readings and recordings, which the app keeps for 2 days so you can add a graph to a cook.
Your MEATER sign-in token, if you connect MEATER.
Your app settings, such as °C or °F and which notifications you want.

These are removed when you delete the app; Cook Notes for your account are also removed when you delete your account in the app.

5. Phone permissions

The app only asks when you use the feature that needs it, and you can say no or change your mind in your phone's settings.

Notifications: replies, @mentions, comments, messages from the team, timers, thermometer alarms, offers and Butcher's Block specials. You choose which in the app (Account → Notifications), and your phone also lets you turn them all off.
Bluetooth: to read an Inkbird thermometer. On Android 11 and older, Android also requires the Location permission for Bluetooth scanning; the app never reads or stores your location.
Photos and camera: to add photos and videos to your cooks and posts, and your profile photo. The app only sees the photos and videos you pick.
Background activity: keeps reading your thermometer while you cook with the screen off. On iPhone, Bluetooth thermometers can keep reporting in the background; MEATER readings update while the app is open.

6. Thermometers (MEATER and Inkbird)

MEATER: when you connect MEATER, your MEATER email and password go straight from your phone to MEATER to sign you in; we never receive them. The app keeps MEATER's sign-in token on your phone only and reads your cook temperatures from MEATER's service. MEATER's own privacy policy covers its service.
Inkbird: the app reads iBBQ Bluetooth thermometers directly over Bluetooth. Nothing is sent to Inkbird by us.
Temperature readings only leave your phone if you add a graph to a cook and share that cook to the Group.

MEATER and Inkbird are trademarks of their respective owners. OriginalCaveman isn't affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by them.

We never sell your data and we don't use advertising or tracking. We use these service providers, who may only use your data to provide their service to us:

Our web hosting provider (servers in the UK), where the app's data and originalcaveman.com are stored.
Google Firebase Cloud Messaging, to deliver notifications. On iPhone, notifications are delivered through Apple Push Notification service.
Google Cloud Vision, which may automatically check photos you post (including profile photos, and three still frames from each video) for adult or violent content before they're shown. The video itself isn't sent to Google.

What you post in the Group and Pit Chat is visible to other members of the app. Partners who post in the app, such as our partner butcher on the Butcher's Block, see the app like any other member; we don't give them your details or tell them who gets Butcher's Block notifications. We may also share data if the law requires it, or to protect people's safety.

8. Data outside the UK

Google may process notification tokens and photo checks outside the UK. Where it does, the transfer is protected by UK adequacy regulations or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum.

9. How long we keep it

Your account, profile and posts: until you delete them or your account.
Notification tokens: until you sign out, delete your account, or the token stops working.
Cook Desk cooks: until a day after the app collects them, or 30 days if it never does.
Anonymous app-usage totals: 35 days.
The times of your @mentions: one hour (older ones are ignored and cleared).
Moderation records: 12 months.
Order records: kept by originalcaveman.com for as long as tax law requires (usually 6 years), even after your account is deleted.
Web server logs: up to 30 days.
Anti-spam counters: deleted automatically, after 24 hours at most.

10. Your rights

You can ask us to: see the data we hold about you; correct it; delete it; restrict or object to how we use it; or give you a copy to take elsewhere. Email sales@redecindustrial.com; we'll reply within one month.

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, though we'd appreciate the chance to put it right first.

11. Deleting your account

In the app: Account → Delete my account. Without the app: see Delete your account. Deleting your account:

deletes your originalcaveman.com login too, since the app and website share one account;
removes your Group posts, their photos and videos, every video you uploaded, the fires you gave, your poll answers (in the Group and Pit Chat), your emoji reactions, your notifications, your messages with the team, your Cook Desk cooks, your saved posts, your rewards history and your sign-ins;
keeps comments and Pit Chat messages that other people replied to, so conversations still make sense, but shows them as "Former member" with any photo removed;
keeps your past orders as guest orders, because tax law requires it;
keeps your username in the list of past Race of the Year winners, if you won;
keeps moderation records for 12 months.

12. Age limit

The app is for people aged 18 and over. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone younger; if you think we have, contact us and we'll delete it.

13. Security

All data travels encrypted (HTTPS). Passwords are stored scrambled and can't be read, even by us. Only our team can see the moderation tools, and only to run the service.

14. Changes to this policy

If we make important changes, we'll tell you in the app. The date at the top shows when this policy last changed.

15. Contact us

Redec Industrial Ltd, trading as OriginalCaveman (company number 05394419, registered office 1 Easter Industrial Park, Ferry Lane South, Rainham, Essex RM13 9BP). Email: sales@redecindustrial.com. You can also message the team in the app.