Brainy Chef · chef.brainy.ae · Español · العربية

Privacy notice

Last updated: 12 October 2026 (open to everyone in the UAE, automatic replies and waiting list)

Who is responsible

Brainy Chef (chef.brainy.ae and its WhatsApp line) is operated by SOFT DEV FZ LLC, a free zone limited liability company licensed by Fujairah Creative City – Media Free Zone (licence No. 9485/2016). Registered address: Fujairah – Twin Towers, P.O. Box 4422, Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. Privacy contact: prices@brainy.ae.

We process personal data under the UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 on the Protection of Personal Data (PDPL).

What Brainy Chef does

Brainy Chef helps a household plan its meals over WhatsApp: it sends meal plans and simple recipes and prepares shopping lists, with a link to each product and, where the store offers it, a link that adds the items to your own cart when you open it in your app. We never pay for you, and we never ask for or keep the passwords of your store accounts or your payment details. You review and pay every order yourself, in your own app.

Brainy Chef is free and open to households in the UAE: you can join from a UAE (+971) WhatsApp number, or with an invitation or partner code.

What we collect and why

• The household's account holder (an adult, 18 or over): WhatsApp number, name or alias, language, and the household details you choose to give us to plan meals — likes and dislikes, cooking rules (for example «no pepper»), kitchen equipment, budget and meal times. We use them only to prepare your plans, recipes and lists. Legal basis: your consent.
• Ingredients to avoid (optional): if someone in the household has an allergy or intolerance, the account holder can ask us to avoid certain ingredients for the whole household (for example «no nuts»). We record it only as a household cooking rule — not as a diagnosis and not linked to a named person. Because it may reveal health information, which is sensitive personal data under the PDPL, we record it only with the account holder's explicit consent, and you can ask us to delete it at any time. Every recipe and list respects it and reminds you: «Always check product labels; this is not medical advice.»
• Other adults in the household who receive messages (for example the person who cooks): WhatsApp number, alias, language and their answer to our consent message. When the account holder asks us to, we send them one message asking for consent; we send nothing else unless they reply YES. Legal basis: their consent. We only message adults (18 or over).
• Messages, voice notes and photos you send us (for example a shopping list or a photo of your fridge or pantry): we read them to update your list or plan. We keep the result (the list, the preference), not the original voice note or photo, which is deleted within 30 days. Legal basis: your consent. Please do not send photos of people or documents, or card or loyalty numbers.
• Shopping lists: the store, the items and the quantities of the lists we prepare for you, so we can send you a summary and learn what your household likes.
• Children: we never message children and never collect data from them. The account holder, as parent or guardian, may tell us food preferences of children in the household (for example «a plain version»); we use them only to adapt recipes. We do not keep health information about any named person: if an allergy matters in your household, it can be added as an ingredient to avoid for the whole household (see above). We do not need children's names or ages.

We do not sell personal data, do not use it for advertising and do not make automated decisions about you with legal or similarly significant effects.

Service providers and transfers outside the UAE

• Meta Platforms (WhatsApp Business Platform) carries our WhatsApp messages; Meta may process them outside the UAE.
• Google Cloud stores household profiles, lists and consent records in its me-central1 region, in Doha, Qatar (outside the UAE).
• We use Google Cloud Vertex AI, which runs Google's Gemini models, to read lists, voice notes and photos and to help draft plans. Google acts as our service provider under the Google Cloud terms and data processing addendum and does not use this data to train its models; it may keep it for a short time to provide the service and to detect abuse. Google may process these requests in any of its regions, inside or outside the UAE. Households that join on their own (without a personal invitation) get fixed automatic replies that do not use AI: we only read their text messages and do not transcribe their voice notes or photos.
• Twilio, Inc. (United States) provides the Brainy Chef phone number and passes our WhatsApp messages and their delivery status between us and WhatsApp.
• Emails you send to prices@brainy.ae are kept in our Google Workspace mailbox, which may be stored outside the UAE.

Because of these transfers, our first WhatsApp message asks for your explicit consent, including to the transfer of your data outside the UAE. Without that consent we cannot provide the service.

Affiliate links and partner codes

Brainy Chef may earn a commission when you buy through our links; it costs you nothing extra. We tell you this in the summary you confirm with «OK» when you join, and in every shopping list that carries affiliate links.

As an Amazon Associate, Brainy Chef earns from qualifying purchases. Some Amazon.ae links in our messages (for example «Add to Amazon.ae cart») include our Associate tag, so Amazon can tell that the visit came from us. Amazon does not send us your personal data or what else you buy, and the price is the same for you. We never show Amazon prices and we do not rank stores by commission. Your use of Amazon.ae is covered by Amazon's own privacy notice.

Links to other stores carry an affiliate code only when that store has an affiliate programme with us; otherwise they are plain links. Purchases by the people who run Brainy Chef, and by households they invited personally, never carry a tag.

Partner codes. If you arrive through a partner's link, our page keeps a short code (for example BC-7K2QXM) in your browser for 30 days (local storage, no cookies) and adds it to the WhatsApp message you send us; we record that code with your household. If, between day 7 and day 30 after joining, your household uses Brainy Chef again (for example asks for a change, asks a question or requests a new list), we tell the partner network (Clickwise) only that the referral became active, with the network's anonymous click identifier and an event number: never your name, number, messages or lists.

How long we keep it

• Household profile, preferences and ingredients to avoid: while you use Brainy Chef; deleted within 30 days after you send DELETE MY DATA, or after 12 months without any message from the household.
• Original voice notes and photos: up to 30 days.
• Shopping lists: up to 12 months.
• Waiting list (only if we are full when you write): a pseudonymous identifier, your language and dates, without the content of your messages; deleted after 60 days.
• Consent records (YES, NO, STOP and when): as long as needed to prove consent and to respect your opt-out.
• Technical logs of our services: up to 30 days, without the content of your messages.

Your rights and how to stop

Reply STOP on WhatsApp at any time and we stop sending you messages. Under the PDPL you can also ask to access, correct or delete your data, restrict or object to its processing, withdraw your consent, and receive your data in a portable format: write to prices@brainy.ae (subject: Brainy Chef) or send «DELETE MY DATA» on WhatsApp. You can also complain to the UAE Data Office.

Changes

If we change this notice, we update the date above and, for important changes, tell you on WhatsApp before they apply.