How Wijnfeld handles your data

What data does Wijnfeld store?

Wijnfeld only stores what is needed to run your digital wine cellar:

• Account details: your name, email address, language preference and an encrypted (hashed) version of your password. Nobody can read your password, not even the administrator. If you enable two-factor authentication, its secret is stored encrypted.
• Your collection: wines, vintages, individual bottles, purchase prices, suppliers, estimated values, drinking windows, cellar locations, reservations and the history of stock changes.
• Tasting notes and taste preferences: scores, dishes, occasions, free-text notes and characteristics such as body, acidity, tannin, oak and sweetness, plus the preferences you enter.
• Wishlist: wines you still want to buy, with target price, quantity and priority.
• Label photos: photos you upload for label recognition. You can delete a scan at any time; the photo is then removed from storage too.
• Conversations with the sommelier: your questions and the answers, so a conversation keeps its context, plus a counter of questions per month.
• WhatsApp messages: only messages from a phone number you linked yourself, including the number and the replies sent.
• Subscription details: your plan and subscription status. Wijnfeld does not store payment details such as card numbers; those live exclusively with our payment provider Stripe.

Where is your data stored?

Wijnfeld runs on DigitalOcean in the Amsterdam data centre. The database is a managed PostgreSQL database with encrypted connections. Label photos live in private, non-public storage and are only shown to you after Wijnfeld has verified the scan is yours. All traffic between your browser and Wijnfeld uses a secure HTTPS connection.

Who can see your data?

Only you. Every user sees only their own wines, bottles, locations, tasting notes and conversations. A Wijnfeld administrator may temporarily view your cellar solely to help you with a question or an incident; this is always recorded in an audit log. There are no public profiles, shared cellars or public lists. Wijnfeld does not sell or share your data with third parties for marketing purposes.

How does the sommelier use your data?

The Wijnfeld sommelier uses a language model from an external AI provider to understand your questions and formulate an answer. To answer a question, Wijnfeld sends your question and the relevant cellar data to that provider, for example the wines matching your query or your calculated taste profile.

• The AI has no direct access to the database. It can only use a fixed set of controlled functions, which return only your data.
• The AI can only write off a bottle if you say so unambiguously. Every change is recorded in your cellar history with the source “AI”.
• With every request Wijnfeld sends the setting that the provider does not need to retain the data for reuse. Any additional retention periods a provider applies are described in that provider's terms.

How does WhatsApp use your data?

The WhatsApp sommelier works via Meta's official WhatsApp Cloud API. Messages you send to Wijnfeld and the replies you receive therefore pass through Meta's systems, like any other WhatsApp message. You link your number yourself by sending a one-time code from your phone, proving the number is yours. Wijnfeld processes messages from linked numbers only. Messages from other numbers are ignored and never get access to cellar data. Every incoming message is checked for a valid Meta signature so nobody can forge messages.

Payments

If you choose a paid plan, payment is handled by Stripe. Stripe processes your payment details as an independent controller under its own privacy policy. Wijnfeld only receives from Stripe what is needed to manage your subscription, such as its status and a customer reference.

Cookies and statistics

Wijnfeld uses functional cookies needed to keep you logged in and to secure forms. On the public website we may, only with your consent, use analytics cookies via Google Tag Manager to understand how the website is used. No analytics cookies are set inside the web app. The cookies page lists the cookies and lets you change your choice.

How long do we keep your data?

Your collection, tasting notes and conversations are kept as long as your account exists, because that history is what makes Wijnfeld personal. To have data deleted or your account closed, contact us via the contact page. You can also export your inventory as a CSV file at any time.

Your rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) you have the right to access, correct and delete your data, and to receive a copy of it. You can view, edit, export or delete most of it yourself in Wijnfeld. For anything else we help you via the contact page.

Security in short

• Passwords are stored hashed and login attempts are rate limited; two-factor authentication is available.
• All connections use HTTPS; session cookies are secured.
• Data is strictly separated per user.
• The AI has no free access to the database, only controlled functions.
• WhatsApp messages are signature-checked and processed from linked numbers only.
• Secret keys are never in the source code, only in encrypted environment settings.