Privacy
Last updated 10 November 2026.
Monthmenu plans your household's dinners. To do that it needs to know a little about the people you cook for. This page explains what we keep, why, where it lives, and what you can ask us to do with it, as the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) requires.
Who we are
Monthmenu is run by Vanthor (Pty) Ltd (registration 2026/479520/07), 375 Veronica Rd, Montana, Pretoria, Gauteng, 0182. Vanthor is the responsible party for your information, and its Information Officer is registered with the Information Regulator. Contact the Information Officer at [email protected].
What we keep
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Your name, email address and password (stored only as a secure hash) | To give you an account and let you log in |
| The people you cook for: first names, adult, teenager or child, and the days each eats at home | To plan who eats each night and how much to cook |
| Diets, dislikes and eating times (for example halaal, vegetarian, gluten-free, no pork sausages, eating from 4pm) | To keep every dinner within what each person eats |
| Who cooks, away dates, special days, weekday themes, your own names for dishes, ratings and your own recipes | To plan the month the way your household works |
| If you track shopping: your grocery budget, payday, what you spent before Monthmenu, receipt totals you enter | To fit the month and the shopping lists to your budget |
| If you use or share a referral code: which household referred which, when the first payment cleared, and the free time given | To give the friend their discount and the referrer their free month, and to stop abuse |
| Notification subscriptions, if you turn reminders on | To send dinner, defrost and shopping reminders to that device |
| Basic request data (IP address, browser) in short-lived server logs | To keep the service running and secure |
We don't use advertising trackers, we don't sell your information, and we don't use it to train AI. We only email you news and tips if you tick that separate box, and you can stop them any time in Settings; account emails like password resets don't depend on it.
Diets and children's details
Some diets can show someone's religion or health (halaal, gluten-free), which POPIA treats as special personal information. When you sign up you agree that Monthmenu may store diets and dislikes only to plan your meals. You can remove them at any time in your household settings.
Accounts are for adults. If you add children to your household, you confirm that you're their parent or guardian or have permission to. Keep it to what's needed: a first name or a word like “Granddaughter” is enough.
What other people can see
- People in your household (a partner you invite) see the same plan.
- The cook card, if you create one, is a private link showing tonight's dinner and the first names of who's eating. Anyone with the link can see it, so share it with care. You can make a new link or turn it off in Settings.
- The recipe pool: if you share a recipe, other households see it with your first name. Only recipes you choose to share are shown.
Where it's kept, and who helps us
Your information is stored in a database on a server in South Africa. For now that server is a computer Vanthor runs in Pretoria; we'll update this page when it moves to a hosting provider. These services help us run Monthmenu and only get what they need:
| Service | What it does | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | Carries every visit to the server securely (HTTPS) and protects it from abuse | United States and worldwide |
| PayFast | Takes payments for Plus. Card and bank details go to PayFast, never to us; we keep the amount, date and PayFast's reference | South Africa |
| Resend | Sends account emails, such as password resets and referral notices | United States |
| Your browser's notification service (Google, Apple or Mozilla) | Delivers reminders to your phone, if you turn them on | Worldwide |
Where information leaves South Africa, we rely on these providers' data protection agreements, as POPIA section 72 allows.
How long we keep it
For as long as you have an account. When you delete your account in Settings, your household, plans and recipes are removed straight away. Recipes you shared in the pool are removed too. Server logs are kept for a short time only.
Your rights
You can ask to see the information we hold about you, correct it, have it deleted, or object to how we use it. Most of it you can change or delete yourself in the app, and Settings has a Download my data button for a copy of everything. For anything else, email [email protected] from your account's email address and we'll respond within 30 days.
If you're not happy with how we handle your information, you can complain to the Information Regulator: [email protected], inforegulator.org.za, JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001.
Keeping it safe
Passwords are stored as one-way hashes, every connection is encrypted, sessions are signed, and access to the server is limited to Vanthor. If a breach ever affects your information, we'll tell you and the Information Regulator as soon as we reasonably can.
Cookies
Monthmenu uses one cookie, to keep you logged in. Your browser also stores pages you've opened so they work without signal; signing out clears them. There are no advertising or tracking cookies.
Changes
If we change this page in a way that matters, we'll tell you in the app before it takes effect.