Account information — email address, username, display name, and password (hashed)
Profile data — bio, profile photo, city preferences
Contact details — phone number, delivery address and delivery notes when you place a food order
Activity data — check-ins, trail completions, reviews, photos you upload, debate comments, PlatePoints and badges
Precise location — your GPS coordinates when you start a check-in, used to confirm you are at the restaurant, and to show nearby trails and restaurants when you open the map or search. When you run a "near me" search we also store the coordinates you searched from alongside that search, at whatever precision your device reports
Order history — the items you order, order totals, delivery status, and the last four digits and card brand returned by our payment processor (we never receive or store your full card number)
Search and usage events — the words you type into search and how many results came back, which results you tapped, when you opened directions, and what you shared or saved. Each event carries a random session identifier we generate and keep on your device; taps, shares and saves also carry your account ID while you are signed in, and searches are recorded against the session identifier only
Device data — browser type, IP address, app version, and general usage patterns
Push notification tokens — a device identifier issued by Apple or Google so we can send you notifications; removed when you disable notifications
Support correspondence — the contents of support tickets, bug reports and feedback you send us
Advertising interaction — which sponsored and affiliate placements you were shown and which you tapped, recorded against your account
How We Use Your Data
To operate the PlateWalk platform and provide our services
To personalize your trail and restaurant recommendations
To calculate and award PlatePoints and badges
To send transactional emails (check-in confirmations, badge awards, weekly digests)
To measure how the platform is used, and to see which searches came back empty so we know which food and which cities to add next
To detect and prevent fraud or abuse
What We Don't Do
We do not sell your personal data to third parties
We do not share your individual data with restaurants without your consent
We do not track your location in the background — location is read only while you are using the app, when you start a check-in or open the map or search
We do not send unsolicited marketing emails (you can control email preferences in settings)
Data Sharing
We share data only in these limited circumstances:
Service providers — these process data only as directed by us:
Stripe — payment processing for food orders and subscriptions
Uber Direct and DoorDash — delivery dispatch; they receive your name, phone number and delivery address for orders you place for delivery
Resend — transactional email delivery
Amazon Web Services — hosting and photo storage
Expo — push notification delivery and app updates
Google — maps, place data, and Google sign-in if you use it
Anthropic — powers the AI Food Concierge and AI-written restaurant summaries; the questions you ask the concierge are sent to Anthropic to generate a reply
TripAdvisor and Unsplash — restaurant information and photography we display; these receive no personal data about you
Sentry — crash and error reporting, which may include your user ID and the screen you were on when an error occurred, plus session replay on the website as described under Cookies and Analytics below
PostHog and Metricool — product analytics and web audience measurement, described under Cookies and Analytics below
Affiliate partners — when you tap a sponsored or affiliate link (including Orbitz, Hotels.com, Expedia, Booking.com, Viator, GetYourGuide, OpenTable, Resy, Uber, Lyft and Airbnb Experiences), that partner receives the click and may set its own identifiers. We record the impression and click against your account so we can be paid a commission. See Your California Privacy Rights below, as this may count as "sharing" under California law.
Public profile data — your username, display name, trail completions, and badges are visible to other PlateWalk users by default.
Legal requirements — we may disclose data if required by law or to protect the safety of our users.
Data Retention
We retain your account data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we anonymise it immediately — your display name becomes "Deleted User", your email is replaced, and the text of your comments is removed — and we delete your remaining personal data within 30 days, except where required to retain it for legal or accounting purposes (typically 7 years for billing and tax records). Advertising impression and click records are retained for 24 months for commission reconciliation. Location coordinates attached to a check-in are retained for as long as the check-in exists, because they are what proves the check-in was genuine. Search and usage events are kept for 180 days and then deleted by a weekly job; they age out on that schedule only, so deleting your account does not remove them early.
Cookies and Analytics
We use a single authentication token stored in your browser's local storage to keep you logged in. We do not use third-party advertising cookies and we do not share your data with ad networks for retargeting.
Analytics are on by default. On the website, a banner asks you to accept or decline the first time you visit, but analytics run unless and until you decline — so anything you do before you answer the banner is collected. Switching them off stops PostHog capturing immediately and stops the tap, directions, share and save events immediately. Metricool is the exception: its script has already loaded by the time you switch off and offers no way to stop it, so it keeps running until you reload or leave the page, and does not load again after that.
Switching analytics off also stops the search record. That record — the words you searched for, the result count, the city, the coordinates if you searched near you, and the random session identifier — is written by our own server, but only when the search request carries that session identifier; switching analytics off stops your browser and the apps sending it, so there is nothing for the server to record against. Searches you ran before you switched it off are already stored.
Your answer is stored in your browser, not on our servers, so it applies to this browser only and you will need to set it again on another browser or device. The banner only appears while no answer is stored, but you can change your mind at any time — the switch below is the same setting, and if you have an account it is also in Settings → Privacy (that page requires you to be signed in; this one does not). Switching analytics off does not delete what was already collected: email support@platewalk.com and we will delete the usage data we hold for you.
Usage analytics
When this is on, PlateWalk records what you search for, which result you tapped, and when you open directions, share or save; PostHog records page views and clicks; and Metricool measures site audience. Turning it off stops all three.
What each one receives:
PostHog — product analytics: page views, page exits, and clicks on buttons and links captured automatically. Tied to your user ID when you are signed in, so we can understand behaviour across sessions. Text you type is masked in any session replay.
Metricool — web audience measurement, loaded on every page of platewalk.com unless analytics are off. It is loaded or skipped when a page loads, so switching analytics off does not unload it from the page you are on, and switching them back on does not load it until your next page view.
Sentry — crash and error reporting. On the website Sentry also records a replay of the session for roughly 5% of visits, and for every visit in which an error occurs. Text is masked in those replays; images and video on the page are not.
PlateWalk — the search and usage events described under What We Collect are sent to our own servers and stored in our own database. They are not shared with any of the companies above.
The mobile apps have the same switch, under Settings → Privacy. It is on by default and there is no consent prompt at first launch, so the usage events described above are sent whenever you search, tap a result, open directions, share or save until you turn it off. Turning it off stops all of them immediately and nothing survives the switch, because PostHog, Metricool and Sentry are not running in the mobile apps at all — that first-party usage data is the only analytics a phone sends. The setting is stored on the device, so it is per-device and it is not carried over from the website. It is available whether or not you are signed in. To have events already collected deleted, email support@platewalk.com.
Affiliate Links
PlateWalk participates in affiliate programs and may earn commissions from purchases made through links on this site, at no additional cost to you. Affiliate links are labeled where they appear.
Your Rights
You have the right to:
Access — request a copy of the data we hold about you
Correction — update your data via account settings at any time
Deletion — delete your account and associated data
Portability — request an export of your activity data
Opt-out — unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time
To exercise these rights, contact us, email support@platewalk.com, or use the options in your account settings. You can delete your account yourself at any time from Settings in the PlateWalk app — no request to us is required.
Your California Privacy Rights
If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA) gives you the following rights, which we honour for every user regardless of where you live:
Right to know — what personal information we collect, why, and who we disclose it to. That is set out in What We Collect and Data Sharing above.
Right to delete — delete your account and personal information, from Settings in the app or by contacting us.
Right to correct — fix inaccurate personal information from your account settings.
Right to opt out of sale or sharing — see below.
Right to non-discrimination — we will not degrade your service or charge you differently for exercising any of these rights.
We do not sell your personal information, and we never have. However, when you tap a sponsored or affiliate link, the partner receives that click and may set its own identifiers — under California law this can count as "sharing for cross-context behavioural advertising", and our product analytics may fall under the same definition.
To opt out, email support@platewalk.com with the subject line "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information", or switch analytics off — in the cookie banner when it appears, using the switch under Cookies and Analytics above (no account needed), or, if you have an account, in Settings → Privacy on the website and in the apps. Opting out does not remove sponsored placements — it stops your interactions with them being recorded against your account. We do not require an account to submit this request, and we will confirm it within 15 business days.
Children's Privacy
PlateWalk is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.
Security
We use industry-standard security measures including HTTPS encryption, bcrypt password hashing, and JWT-based authentication with short-lived tokens. No method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
Changes to This Policy
We will notify you of material changes to this policy via email or in-app notice at least 14 days before the changes take effect.