Privacy Policy

Inspect My Chef™ is a product of SimTech Affiliates LLC, a North Carolina limited liability company (“we”, “us”). This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have when you use our website at inspectmychef.comor the Inspect My Chef mobile application (together, the “Service”). The short version: the app works without an account, most of your data never leaves your phone, we don’t run ads, and we don’t sell your information.

Information we collect in the app

Anonymous identifier. When you first open the app we create an anonymous account with a random identifier (through Google Firebase). It contains no name, email address, or contact details. We use it to keep the content you choose to share tied to you, to apply abuse limits and, once subscriptions launch, to hold your subscription status.

Location.With your permission, the app uses your device’s location to show distances, sort restaurants near you, and centre the map. Your location is processed on your device and is never saved to our servers. To show what is nearby, the app downloads the public restaurant data for the area of the map you are viewing.

Directions.When you tap a Directions button or a restaurant’s address, the app opens the navigation app you choose — Google Maps, Apple Maps (on iPhone), Waze, Citymapper or Moovit — and hands it the restaurant’s location (its map coordinates and, for some apps, its name and address) so that app can plan the route. The link may identify Inspect My Chef as the app it came from. We do not send your location, your identifier, or anything else about you to the navigation app, and we never learn which route you take. Once it opens, the navigation app works under its own privacy policy, including its own use of your location. Your choice of navigation app is stored only on your device; you can change or clear it in Settings → Directions open in.

On-device data. Your favorites and lists, Dining Diary entries and photos, trips, recently viewed restaurants, score-alert history, saved offline results, the authors you have blocked, and your app settings are stored locally on your device. They are not uploaded to our servers. Diary photos are never shared.

Score-change alerts. After each data refresh we publish a public list of restaurants whose score or grade changed. Your phone downloads that list and compares it with your Favorites, Diary and Trips on the device. What you have saved is never uploaded to make an alert work.

Community Notes (opt-in).If you turn on sharing, the rating and note you write for a restaurant, your chosen display name, and your anonymous identifier are stored in our database (Google Firebase) and shown publicly in the app’s Community Notes feed. You can edit a shared note for 24 hours after posting, un-share notes at any time, and turning sharing off removes your shared notes. If you report a note, we store the report — the note concerned, the reason you chose, and your anonymous identifier — so we can review it.

Beta feedback.If you send feedback from the app, we store what you write, the category you pick, the optional “where in the app” and contact fields if you fill them in, your anonymous identifier, and your build details (the app update, channel and runtime version, and your phone’s operating system and version). No location is attached. If the form cannot reach our server it offers to open your email app instead, in which case the message reaches us from your email address.

Purchases.The beta has nothing to buy. When subscriptions launch they will be processed by Apple’s App Store or Google Play — we never see or store your payment card details. We will receive subscription status (for example, “Premium active”) through RevenueCat, our subscription-management provider, tied to your anonymous identifier.

Restaurant owner accounts (not yet available). When Verified listings open, a restaurant owner who creates an owner account will give us an email address and password (managed by Google Firebase Authentication) and the information submitted in an ownership claim (name, an optional phone number, a short statement, and an optional supporting link). We will use this solely to review and manage the claim and the Verified listing.

Maps. The map inside the Android app is provided by Google Maps, and on iPhone by Apple Maps. Showing a map means your device requests map imagery directly from Google or Apple, which handle those requests under the Google Privacy Policy and Apple’s Privacy Policy.

App updates.The app checks Expo’s update service for new versions of its code. That request carries technical details such as the app version, the platform and a random installation ID — not your identity.

Information we collect on this website

Earlier waitlist (closed). Until September 2026 this website had waitlist forms. They are closed, and the site no longer collects email addresses. Anything that was collected through them is deleted on request at any time, and in any case once the app has launched.

Video language.To pick the language of the home-page video we read the country your request appears to come from, as supplied by our host (it is not stored), and we remember the language you choose in your browser’s local storage.

Server logs. Our host keeps standard server logs (IP address, user agent, referrer) that are used to keep the site secure. We do not use advertising or analytics cookies.

How we use information

We use the information above to provide the Service, to show the content you chose to share, to keep the Service safe (abuse limits and moderation of Community Notes), to answer feedback and support requests, and to comply with the law. We do not use it for advertising or to build a profile of you.

What we don’t do

We do not sell, rent, or share your personal information for advertising. We do not run third-party advertising or cross-app tracking. We do not use third-party analytics trackers on this site or in the app today; if that changes, we will update this policy first.

Restaurant inspection data

The inspection scores and grades shown in the app are public records published by government food-safety authorities. They are information about restaurants, not about our users. Every listing credits the issuing authority, which is always the source of truth; our Sources page lists each dataset and its licence.

Service providers

We use Google Firebase (anonymous sign-in and database), Google Maps and Apple Maps (map display), Expo (delivery of app updates), RevenueCat (subscription status, once subscriptions launch), Apple and Google (app distribution and, later, billing), and Vercel (website hosting). Each processes data only as needed to provide its service to us. These providers process data in the United States.

Delete my data

You can delete your data yourself, without asking us. In the app, open Settings → Your data → Delete my shared Community Notesto turn sharing off and remove everything you have published, immediately. Everything else you save lives only on your phone and disappears when you remove it in the app, clear the app’s storage, or uninstall it. For anything we hold that you cannot remove yourself — beta feedback, reports, an address from the earlier waitlist — email Simtechaffiliate@simtaff.com and we will complete verified requests within 30 days. Step-by-step instructions are on our Delete my data page.

Retention

On-device data stays on your device until you delete it or uninstall the app. Shared Community Notes remain until you un-share or delete them, or turn sharing off. Reports and beta feedback are kept while they are useful for running and improving the Service, and are deleted on request. Addresses from the earlier waitlist are deleted on request within 30 days, and in any case once the app has launched.

Security

Data we store is protected by access rules that limit reads and writes to what each feature needs (for example, only you can edit your own shared notes). No system is perfectly secure, but we design features to collect the minimum data necessary in the first place.

Children’s privacy

The Service is not directed to children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (including the U.K., the EU, and certain U.S. states), you may have rights to access, correct, or delete personal information we hold about you. Because the app is designed around an anonymous identifier and on-device storage, the fastest path for most requests is the deletion route above — we honor these requests regardless of where you live. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined under California law.

If you are in the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area.SimTech Affiliates LLC is the controller of the personal data described in this policy. We rely on your consent for location access and for publishing Community Notes (you can withdraw it at any time in your phone’s settings or the app’s Settings); on our legitimate interests in running, securing and improving the Service for the anonymous identifier, reports, beta feedback and server logs; and on performance of a contract for subscriptions once they launch. Our service providers process data in the United States; where the law requires it, those transfers rely on the safeguards in our providers’ data-processing terms, such as standard contractual clauses. You have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to the use of your personal data, the right to data portability, and the right to complain to your local data-protection authority — in the U.K., the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk).

Changes

We will post any changes to this policy on this page and update the effective date above.

Contact

SimTech Affiliates LLC · Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. Questions about this policy? Email Simtechaffiliate@simtaff.com or see our Support page.