Privacy Policy

Effective date: September 30, 2026

Palate helps people discover food, understand their tastes, and plan meals together. This policy explains how Palate LLC ("Palate," "we," or "us") handles information when you use our iOS apps and website at palate.you. Contact us at requests@palate.you.

Information we collect

Account information. We collect your account identifier, email address, and the profile information you provide, such as your name, handle, and profile picture. Our sign-in provider, Clerk, processes authentication information, including information supplied by a sign-in service you choose.

Food and dining information. We collect your dish ratings and any feedback or reasons you give about dishes, saved preferences, meal and scan history, notes, restaurant choices, and dining plans. We use this information to understand your tastes and explain recommendations. Recommendations and what we infer from your activity, such as your tastes, usual meal times, and the general area where you tend to eat, become part of your account data.

Dietary and health answers. You may choose to provide allergies, dietary restrictions, intolerances, conditions, or medications where those features are available. We use those answers to apply food exclusions or warnings and personalize relevant experiences. These answers can be sensitive. You can review and change the answers in your profile; avoid putting information you do not want processed into free-text notes or Assistant messages.

Photos and Assistant content. When you scan a menu or upload an image, we receive the selected image and the information extracted from it. When you use Palate Assistant, we receive your messages, attachments, conversation history, and the actions you ask it to perform. Camera and photo access are requested when you use those features.

Social and shared activity. We collect group membership, invitations, follows, shared dining plans, and votes or messages you contribute to shared experiences. Information you share with other diners is visible according to that feature's audience. Dietary exclusions and warnings may appear in a shared dining experience; private health answers are handled separately from those shared summaries.

Technical and usage information. We collect account and installation identifiers, app and operating-system versions, release channel, synchronization state, interaction events, and diagnostic or performance information. Hosting and service providers may also process network information, such as IP addresses and request logs. If you enable notifications, Apple and Palate process the device token needed to deliver them. Our web app uses session cookies or similar storage for sign-in and Vercel Speed Insights for performance measurement.

How we use information

We use information to provide sign-in and account features; synchronize your information across your devices; process menu scans; build and explain food recommendations; respond to Assistant requests; support groups and shared plans; send enabled notifications; answer support requests; and investigate errors, abuse, and security problems. We also use interaction and performance information to understand how Palate works and improve it.

Service providers and other sharing

We use service providers to operate Palate, including Clerk for sign-in, Convex for backend data and file storage, Vercel for the website, performance measurement and AI Gateway, and providers supporting the Assistant runtime. AI features send the content needed for the request, which may include messages, images, and relevant food or preference context, through our AI infrastructure to model providers such as OpenAI. Restaurant and health research also send search queries to web search providers through that infrastructure. Provider processing and retention depend on the service and our account configuration; we do not promise that all AI requests have zero retention or are excluded from every provider's training unless that has been confirmed for the deployed feature.

Apple processes TestFlight participation and feedback, sign-in features you choose, and push delivery. TestFlight's own privacy terms apply to Apple's processing. GitHub holds encrypted production backup artifacts. We may disclose information when required by law, to protect people's rights or the security of the service, or as part of a change in the operator of Palate, subject to applicable protections.

Your choices

You can update the profile and dietary information available in the app, choose what you contribute to shared experiences, and control camera, photo, and notification permissions in your device settings. You can contact requests@palate.you to request access, correction, a copy of your information, or deletion. Where enabled, "Export my data" provides an account archive; generated download files expire after approximately seven days.

You can request account deletion through the account controls or contact us for help. Palate's current deletion process provides a seven-day recovery window and blocks ordinary access while deletion is scheduled. After that window, we erase or redact the account's owned content through a process that may finish in batches. Already shared dining history may remain in an anonymous form for other diners. We retain limited redacted identity and deletion records to enforce deletion and prevent old clients from recreating the erased account. Deleting an app from your phone does not itself delete your account.

Retention and security

We keep account content while needed to provide the service, unless you delete it or request account deletion. Current raw product interaction and scan-search events generally have a 90-day retention period; compact Assistant activity audit records have a 180-day period. Aggregate statistics may be kept longer. Encrypted production backup artifacts are retained for up to 30 days, so deleted information may remain in a protected backup until that backup expires. Provider logs and processing may have their own retention periods.

We use encrypted network connections, authenticated access controls, and encryption for production backup artifacts. No service can guarantee perfect security. Your device also keeps some account information locally to support offline use; use your device's security controls and keep it updated.

Where information is processed

Palate and its providers may process information in the United States and other locations where they operate. Applicable privacy protections can differ by location.

Age and audience

Palate is intended for people aged 13 and older. The initial invited Beta is limited to testers in the United States. Contact us at requests@palate.you if you believe a child under 13 has supplied personal information so we can investigate and address it.

Changes and contact

We will post updates on this page with a revised effective date. For a material change, we will provide any notice required by applicable law. Send privacy questions or requests to requests@palate.you.