CIGARISTA
LEGAL · POLICIES

Privacy Policy

Effective May 24, 2026Terms of Service →

Mind Meat Machine, LLC, doing business as Cigarista (“Cigarista,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), provides this Privacy Policy to explain how we collect, use, share, and protect information about you when you use our mobile applications for Android and iOS, the website and web application at cigarista.app, and related services (collectively, the “Service”).

Mind Meat Machine, LLC is the data controller for personal information processed in connection with the Service.

1.1 Information You Provide

Account information. When you create an account, we receive your email address and a unique identifier from your sign-in provider (Google or Apple). If you sign in with Apple using its private-relay address, we receive that relay address instead of your underlying email.

Profile and preferences. Information you add to your profile and to features such as your display name, stated tastes, preferences, and goals. Your display name is shown publicly when you submit Public User Content (see Section 4.1).

User content. Cigars you add to your humidor, photographs of cigars, reviews, ratings, tasting notes, wishlist and “grails” entries, and any other content you submit through the Service.

Communications. When you contact us, we receive the content of your message and your contact details.

1.2 Information Collected Automatically

Device and usage information. Device model, operating system and version, app version, language and locale, time zone, crash and diagnostic data, and information about how you interact with the Service, such as screens viewed and features used. On the web, this includes your IP address, browser type and version, and pages visited.

Cookies and similar technologies on the web. Our website and web application use cookies and similar technologies for authentication, security, and basic usage measurement. See Section 8.

1.3 Information From Third Parties

Sign-in providers. When you sign in with Google or Apple, we receive the limited profile information those services share with us, typically an email address and a stable identifier.

Payment processors and stores. When you subscribe through Google Play, the Apple App Store, or our web payment processor, we receive subscription status, transaction identifiers, and entitlement information. We do not receive your full payment card number.

AI processing partner. When you use AI-assisted cigar identification, we send the photograph you submit to our AI provider (currently Anthropic) and receive identification output, which we associate with your account.

We use the information described above to:

If you are located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, we rely on the following legal bases under the GDPR or equivalent law:

We share personal information in the categories described below. Except as set out in this Section 4, we do not sell or share your personal information to third parties for monetary or other valuable consideration.

4.1 Public User Content and Commercial Partners

Reviews, ratings, tasting notes, photographs of cigars, and similar content you submit (collectively, “Public User Content”) are public by default and are attributed to the display name on your account. We publish Public User Content within the Service and on cigarista.app, where it is accessible without an account and may be indexed and cached by search engines. We may also license Public User Content to cigar brands, retailers, publishers, and other commercial partners of Cigarista for editorial, marketing, and product purposes, as authorized by Section 6.4 of our Terms of Service. By submitting Public User Content, you intentionally direct us to publish and license it as described above. We do not treat this consumer-directed disclosure as a “sale” or “sharing” of personal information under California or other state privacy laws, but you may opt out of commercial-partner licensing at any time as described in Section 7.4.

4.2 Aggregated and De-Identified Data

We create aggregated and de-identified data from User Content and from your use of the Service, including statistics, insights, and trend reports. We may share or sell this data to third parties (including market researchers, cigar industry partners, and analytics partners) for any lawful purpose. Aggregated and de-identified data does not identify you. We maintain and use this data in de-identified form, do not attempt to re-identify it, and require recipients to do the same.

4.3 Service Providers

We share information with vendors that process data on our behalf under written agreements, including:

4.4 Legal and Safety

We may disclose information when we reasonably believe disclosure is required by law, subpoena, court order, or other legal process, or is necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of Cigarista, our users, or the public.

4.5 Business Transfers

If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will require any successor to honor this Privacy Policy.

4.6 With Your Direction

We share information when you direct us to do so, such as by linking a third-party account.

Cigarista is based in the United States, and our service providers operate in the United States and other countries. When we transfer personal information out of the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, we rely on the Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission, the United Kingdom International Data Transfer Addendum where applicable, or another lawful transfer mechanism. You may request a copy of the safeguards we use by emailing josh@cigarista.app.

We retain personal information for as long as your account is active and for the period reasonably necessary thereafter to:

When you delete your account, we delete your account record, your private User Content (humidor inventory, wishlist, “What I Like” preferences, and other content you have kept private), and associated identifiers from our active systems, typically within thirty (30) days. Public User Content you have submitted (reviews, ratings, tasting notes, and photographs of cigars) remains publicly available on the Service after deletion, with your display-name attribution replaced by a generic label such as “Former user,” as described in Section 6.5 of our Terms of Service. Routine backup copies are overwritten in the ordinary course within ninety (90) days. Aggregated or de-identified information that cannot reasonably be associated with you may be retained.

7.1 In-Service Controls

You can access, update, or correct most account information from within the Service. You can delete individual cigars, reviews, photographs, and wishlist entries at any time. You can cancel a subscription through the platform or processor where you purchased it.

7.2 Account Deletion

You may delete your account from within the Service or by emailing josh@cigarista.app. Account deletion removes your authentication record and your user document and subcollections from our database, as described in Section 6. Subscription records held by Google, Apple, or our web payment processor are governed by their respective privacy policies.

7.3 EEA, UK, and Switzerland Residents

You have the right to:

To exercise these rights, email josh@cigarista.app. We may ask you to verify your identity before fulfilling a request.

7.4 California Residents

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (the “CCPA”), California residents have the right to:

Sale and sharing. We do not sell personal information for monetary or other valuable consideration, and we do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, as those terms are defined under the CCPA. When you submit Public User Content (reviews, ratings, tasting notes, photographs, and the display name attributed to them), you intentionally direct us to make that content publicly available and to license it to our commercial partners for editorial, marketing, and product purposes, as described in Section 4.1 and authorized by Section 6.4 of our Terms of Service. Consumer-directed disclosure of this kind is excluded from the definition of “sale” under the CCPA. We do not sell or share the personal information of consumers we actually know to be under 16 years of age.

Opting out of commercial-partner licensing. Although the licensing of Public User Content described above is not a “sale” under the CCPA, you may opt out of it at any time by emailing josh@cigarista.app with the subject line “Partner Licensing Opt-Out” and the email address on your Cigarista account. Opting out stops us from licensing your Public User Content to commercial partners going forward; it does not remove Public User Content from public display on the Service. To remove particular items from public display, delete them from within the Service.

We also share aggregated and de-identified data with third parties as described in Section 4.2. Aggregated and de-identified data is not “personal information” under the CCPA.

To exercise your California rights, email josh@cigarista.app. You may use an authorized agent; we will verify the agent’s authority before responding.

The categories of personal information we have collected in the preceding twelve months, the sources of that information, the purposes for collecting it, and the categories of recipients are described in Sections 1, 2, and 4 of this Privacy Policy.

7.5 Other U.S. State Residents

Residents of Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Utah, and other U.S. states with comprehensive privacy laws have similar rights to access, correct, delete, and obtain a copy of their personal information, and to opt out of the sale of personal information, targeted advertising, and certain profiling. We do not sell personal information for monetary or other valuable consideration, engage in targeted advertising, or use personal information for profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects. As described in Section 7.4, when you submit Public User Content you direct us to publish and license it, and we treat that as consumer-directed disclosure rather than a sale. You may nonetheless opt out of commercial-partner licensing at any time by emailing josh@cigarista.app with the subject line “Partner Licensing Opt-Out” and the email address on your account. To exercise other rights, email the same address.

7.6 Marketing Communications and Your Choices

If we have the necessary permission or other lawful basis, we may send you marketing and promotional messages through the following channels:

To opt out of marketing communications in any channel, email josh@cigarista.app with the subject line “Marketing Opt-Out” and the email address on your Cigarista account.

On our website and web application we use:

We do not use cookies or similar technologies for cross-site advertising. Where required by law, we will request your consent before setting non-essential cookies. You can control cookies through your browser settings; disabling necessary cookies may impair the Service.

The mobile apps do not use advertising identifiers and do not track you across other companies’ apps or websites.

We implement administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. These include encryption in transit, encryption at rest in our cloud provider’s storage, access controls, and authenticated cloud functions for sensitive operations. No security measure is perfect; we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your information.

If we become aware of a personal-data breach that affects you, we will notify you and the appropriate authorities as required by applicable law.

The Service is not directed to, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from, individuals under the minimum age required for use of the Service in their jurisdiction: 21 in the United States, and 18 elsewhere. If you believe a person under the applicable age has provided us with personal information, please email josh@cigarista.app and we will take appropriate steps to delete it.

The Service may contain links to third-party websites or services. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those third parties. We encourage you to review their privacy policies before providing them with personal information.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will provide notice through the Service or by email and update the Effective Date above. Your continued use of the Service after the changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

For privacy questions or to exercise any right under this Privacy Policy:

PRIVACY CONTACT
Mind Meat Machine, LLC
d/b/a Cigarista
josh@cigarista.app

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