Privacy Policy — YKO.earth

What we collect

YKO.earth is designed to be minimally invasive. We collect as little data as possible to operate the platform. Specifically:

Anonymous barcode scans from GreenSpecs — no user account is required to scan a product
Your email address only if you contact us directly at hello@yko.earth
No page-view analytics, no tracking pixels, no third-party ad networks, no social media SDKs — we run no analytics or tracking scripts of any kind

How we use it

Scan data is aggregated to build and improve the YKO scoring dataset. Individual scan records are never sold, licensed, or shared with third parties for commercial purposes.

Email contacts are used exclusively for the conversation you initiated. We do not add you to marketing lists without explicit consent.

To read a product label, GreenSpecs sends the scan image and label text to Google's Gemini vision model, which acts as a processor on our behalf. These requests carry no user, account, or device identifier. We do not permit this data to be used to train Google's models.

We use only Cloudflare's required infrastructure cookies, which are necessary for security and basic platform operation. These cookies do not track you across websites and are not used for advertising or analytics profiling.

We set no marketing cookies, no analytics cookies, and no persistent identifiers beyond what Cloudflare requires for edge caching and bot protection.

The YKO score dataset

When GreenSpecs scans a product, we record product-level information about the scan. None of it is tied to your identity, an account, or a device — scan records carry no user, session, or device identifier, so they cannot be linked back to you or joined into a profile.

Fields recorded per scan

Product identity — barcode and/or the brand and product name read from the label

Timestamp — coarsened to the hour; we do not retain minute-level precision

Coarse location of scan origin — city, state, and country derived from your IP address at the edge (not GPS); we keep the place names, not the IP

The YKO score shown, and the AI-derived assessment of the product — category, the claims and certifications read from the label, our rubric sub-scores, and the flags or tips generated

Shelf context where available — the retailer or store name and the shelf price, used as aggregate market signal

We do not record your identity, device fingerprints, advertising identifiers, precise (GPS) location, or any cross-site or cross-app identifier. The scan photo is processed to read the label and is not stored unless you explicitly choose to contribute it. This data exists only in aggregate — as product and market signal that powers the independent score — never as a record of who you are or what you personally scanned over time.

Brand data

All brand scoring data used in YKO assessments comes from publicly available sources: company sustainability reports, regulatory filings, third-party audits, and published certifications. Data sources are cited in every score entry.

We do not obtain proprietary supply chain data or non-public information from brands. If a brand believes data we have published is factually incorrect, they can contact us at hello@yko.earth with supporting documentation.

Your rights

You have the right to request access to, correction of, or deletion of any personal data we hold about you. Because we do not collect personal data through normal platform use, this primarily applies to email correspondence.

To make a data request, email hello@yko.earth with the subject line "Data Request." We will respond within 30 days.

If you are located in the European Economic Area, you have additional rights under GDPR. If you are located in California, you have additional rights under CCPA. We honor these rights regardless of your location.

Contact

Questions about this policy or our data practices: hello@yko.earth

YKO.earth is operated by the team behind GreenSpecs.app. We are based in California, USA.