Privacy Policy

1. What we collect

• Information you give us. Your email address when you subscribe or create an account; your display name and any profile details you add; the text and rating of reviews you post; the contents of messages you send through the contact form.
• Information collected automatically. Standard server logs (IP address, browser and device type, referring page, pages viewed, timestamps) and cookies or similar technologies described below.
• Vote records. When you rate a restaurant with a thumbs up or thumbs down without an account, we store a rotating, one-way fingerprint derived from your IP address and browser so the same visitor is not counted twice. It is not reversible into your identity and it changes daily.
• Approximate location. To show picks near you, we may use the coarse region hint that comes with your request, or, only if you tap "use my location," the coordinates your browser provides. We use them to work out your state and do not store precise coordinates.

2. Reviews are public

A published member review shows your display name, your rating, your text, and the date. Do not include anything in a review that you would not want to be public and indexed by search engines. You can ask us to remove or de-identify a review at any time.

3. How we use information

• to operate the Site, sign you in, and keep your session secure;
• to moderate, publish, and display reviews, ratings, and votes;
• to send the newsletter you asked for, and to measure whether it was delivered;
• to understand which picks and pages readers find useful, in aggregate;
• to detect and prevent spam, vote manipulation, and other abuse;
• to respond to your messages and legal requests.

4. Cookies and advertising

We use essential cookies to keep you signed in and to remember preferences such as your selected state. With your consent where required, we use analytics cookies to measure traffic, and advertising partners may set cookies to serve and measure ads. You can block or delete cookies in your browser, though parts of the Site may stop working.

5. Who we share with

• Service providers that host the Site, store our database, send email, provide business listing data and photos, and measure traffic. They may process data only on our instructions.
• Advertising partners, where ads are shown, subject to their own policies.
• Legal recipients, when we must respond to lawful requests or protect our rights, users, or the public.

We do not sell your personal information for money.

6. Retention

We keep newsletter subscriptions until you unsubscribe, plus a short record of the unsubscribe so we do not email you again. Account data is kept while your account is open. Contact messages and moderation notes are kept for a limited period, typically no more than 24 months. Published reviews may remain online indefinitely unless you ask us to remove them. Vote fingerprints expire on a rolling basis.

7. Your choices

• Newsletter: unsubscribe using the link in any email, or email us.
• Account: update your display name from your account page, or ask us to close the account and delete it.
• Your reviews: ask us to remove or de-identify a published review at any time.
• Location: decline the browser prompt, or pick a state manually.

8. US state privacy rights

If you are a California resident, you have the right to know, delete, and correct the personal information we hold, to opt out of "sales" or "sharing" as those laws define them, and not to be discriminated against for exercising a right. Residents of other states with comparable laws have similar rights. To exercise a right, email privacy@tryrestaurantsnear.me. We may need to verify your request by confirming control of the email address involved, and we respond within the time the law allows.

9. GDPR and UK GDPR

Where GDPR or UK GDPR applies, our legal bases are: consent (newsletter, non-essential cookies), contract (your account), and legitimate interests (running and securing the Site, moderating content, measuring readership). You may request access, correction, deletion, portability, or restriction of processing, and you may withdraw consent at any time. You may also complain to your local supervisory authority.

10. Children

The Site is not directed to children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child has provided us information, email us and we will delete it.

11. Security

We use industry-standard measures to protect information in transit and at rest. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

12. Changes

We may update this policy. When we do, we will change the effective date above and, for material changes, note it on the Site.

13. Contact

Privacy questions and requests: privacy@tryrestaurantsnear.me. Other legal matters: legal@tryrestaurantsnear.me. You can also use our contact form.