Foodie Banter

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 28 September 2026

Foodie Banter ("we", "us") is a private beta mobile app that helps you discover places to eat and drink through reviews from people you trust. This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and your choices.

Information we collect

  • Account information. When you sign up, we collect your email address (via magic link), or the account identifier and verified email address provided by Sign in with Apple or Google Sign-In, plus the display name you choose. We do not receive your password from Apple or Google, and we do not request access to any other data in your Apple or Google account.
  • Location. With your permission, we use your device's location to suggest nearby restaurants and places. Location is sent to our servers only when you use place recognition or related features.
  • Photos and camera. With your permission, you can attach photos or videos from your camera or photo library to reviews. Media you choose to upload is stored on our servers.
  • Reviews and activity. We store the places you review, ratings, comments, and related metadata (such as when a review was created).
  • Notifications. With your permission, we send push notifications when friends post a new review and when someone accepts your invitation to connect. You can turn notifications off at any time in your device’s notification settings for Foodie Banter.
  • Device and usage data. We may collect basic technical information needed to operate the app (for example, an anonymous install identifier used before you sign in, and error logs if something fails).
  • Connected AI apps. If you connect an AI app, we store its name, the web address it gave us, when you connected it, and the security codes it uses, which we keep only in scrambled form. We also record each time it calls us: which tool it used, when, and whether it worked. We never record what it asked for or what it was told. We use this to stop misuse and to see how the feature is used.

How we use information

  • To create and manage your account and authenticate you.
  • To suggest nearby places and record your reviews and corrections.
  • To show you recommendations and reviews from people in your trust network — not public reviews from strangers.
  • To improve reliability, security, and the beta experience.

How we share information

Foodie Banter is built around a trust network. Reviews and profile information you add are visible to friends you connect with in the app — not to the general public. We do not sell your personal information.

We use service providers to run the app, including:

  • Supabase — authentication, database, and file storage.
  • Google Places — looking up restaurant and place details when you use location-based features. This is separate from Google Sign-In below; place lookups are not linked to your Google account.
  • Apple — Sign in with Apple, when you choose that sign-in method.
  • Google Sign-In — verifying your identity when you choose to sign in with Google.

These providers process data on our behalf under their own privacy policies and our agreements with them.

AI apps that you or your friends choose to connect are not our service providers. They act for the person who connected them, as described below.

Connected AI apps

You can connect an AI app, such as Claude or ChatGPT, to Foodie Banter so it can answer questions like “where have my friends eaten in Lisbon?”. Nothing is connected unless you sign in on our website and choose Allow.

A connected app can read, on your behalf:

  • the reviews, ratings and comments written by you and by the friends you are connected with, and when they were written;
  • the names of the people who wrote them;
  • the places reviewed, with their names, addresses and locations;
  • your own display name.

It cannot post, change or delete anything, and it cannot see your email address, your photos, your location, or reviews from anyone outside your trust network.

Once an AI app has read something, what happens to it is covered by that app provider’s own terms and privacy policy, not ours. It may, for example, be kept in your chat history. Only connect apps you trust.

If a friend connects an AI app, that app can read your reviews in the same way your friend sees them in Foodie Banter. It sees nothing of yours that your friend could not.

A connection stays active while the app keeps using it, and lapses after 90 days without use. To end it sooner, remove Foodie Banter in the AI app, or email [email protected] and we will disconnect it. Deleting your account disconnects every app.

Your choices

  • You can deny or revoke location, camera, photo, and notification permissions in your device settings; some features will not work without them.
  • You can disconnect any AI app you have connected, as described above.
  • You can sign out of the app at any time. To delete your account and associated data, email [email protected] and we will remove it.

Data retention

We keep your information while your account is active and as needed to operate the beta.

You can delete your account at any time from inside the app: Profile → Account → Delete Account. Deletion is immediate and permanent. It removes your account and display name, the places you added, your reviews and comments, the photos you uploaded (including the image files), your friend connections and invites, your push notification registrations, and every AI app you connected. Full details, and what to do if you no longer have the app, are on the account deletion page.

Restaurants and places themselves are shared reference data and remain in the app, no longer linked to you. Usage and error logs are kept with the link to your account removed, so they no longer identify you.

For connected AI apps, expired security codes are deleted a day after they expire, and a disconnected app’s record a day after you disconnect it. Counts of how often apps call us are deleted after a day.

After a deletion we keep a dated note that the deletion happened, including how much data was removed. We don’t keep your name or email address — only a scrambled version, like a fingerprint. It can’t be turned back into your details, but if you write to us later with your email address, we can scramble it and check whether it matches. The only other thing the note holds is the random ID number our system used for your account, which points to nothing once the account is gone.

We keep this note for 6 years so that we can confirm a deletion was carried out if you or anyone else asks, and to defend legal claims within the usual time limit for bringing them.

Minimum age

Foodie Banter is intended for people aged 18 and over. You must be at least 18 to create an account or use the app during the beta. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18.

Changes

We may update this policy as the beta evolves. We will change the "Last updated" date at the top when we do. Continued use of the app after changes means you accept the updated policy.

Contact

Privacy questions or deletion requests can be sent to [email protected] or submitted through the Foodie Banter app.