Dishtrict is operated by Dishtrict LLC, a Virginia limited liability company (“Dishtrict,” “we,” “us”), which is the controller of your personal data. Dishtrict helps people find the best dishes in the cities we serve. This policy explains what we collect, how we use it, who we work with, and the choices you have. We keep it short and plain on purpose — and we try hard to make sure it matches exactly what the app actually does. It works alongside our Terms, which cover who owns the photos and content you post.
Tapping “use my location” is optional. When you do, your device gives us approximate coordinates, which we round to about a one-kilometer area. To turn those into a neighborhood name we use OpenStreetMap, and we do that lookup on our own server — so your device (and its IP address) never contacts a third-party map service directly. The coordinates are used only to read back a neighborhood name and are not saved.
Separately, on the map itself you can allow a “you are here” dot that shows your current position (the standard blue location bubble). That happens entirely on your device through your browser and Apple Maps; your position is never sent to us, and we never store it.
We use a small set of trusted providers to operate the app. They only process data to provide their service to us, and we don't sell or rent your data to anyone:
We use essential cookies (to keep you signed in and to remember your beta invite code) and one functional preference cookie that remembers your dietary filter (for example, “only gluten-free”) if you turn it on in Settings. We use no advertising or tracking cookies, and no third-party trackers.
If you set your account to private, your identity and your posts stay private: only followers you approve can see your profile, your lists, and who you are, and your photos and videos are never shown on public dish pages. Uploads are served through short-lived secure links so they can't be reached by a stray URL. You can switch between public and private any time in Settings.
One thing still counts, anonymously. Dishtrict is a crowdsourced guide — a dish's score is only as good as the number of people behind it. So even on a private account, the numeric score you give a dish still counts toward that dish's public average. It shows in the dish's recent activity as “Private account” with no name, no link, and no photos — never tied back to you. Your taste tags (the adjective bubbles) do notappear on public dish pages while your account is private — only your number counts. If you switch back to public, your taste tags start counting toward the public bubbles again. And if you don't want a rating to count at all, you can delete it.
Safety & moderation. As is standard on social platforms, a private account hides your content from other users — not from us. Dishtrict HQ and authorized moderators can access any account, including private accounts and their photos, videos, and posts, when needed to keep people safe: to review reports, investigate abuse, harmful or illegal content, enforce our Terms and Community Guidelines, take content down, and comply with the law. We limit this access to those safety and legal purposes.
We keep your account and content for as long as your account exists. When you delete your account, we remove your profile and everything you've posted — ratings, reviews, photos, videos — and the taste tags you contributed stop counting on dishes. Security records like recent IP addresses are kept only as long as needed to prevent abuse. Some records we are legally required to retain (or that live in backups) may persist for a limited time before being overwritten.
Dishtrict LLC is based in Virginia. If you're a Virginia resident, the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA)gives you the right to confirm whether we process your personal data and to access it, to correct it, to delete it, and to get a portable copy — and to appeal if we decline a request. You can exercise most of these rights in the app (see “Your rights & choices” above) or by emailing us. Dishtrict does not sell your personal data, does not use it for targeted advertising, and does notuse it for profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects — so there's nothing there to opt out of. We'll respond within the time the law allows and won't discriminate against you for exercising a right.
We may use your IP address and activity to detect and stop spam, fake ratings, and other abuse. Accounts that break our Terms may be removed and their content deleted, and abusive IP addresses may be blocked from the app. If you delete your account, your profile and content are removed.
We work hard to protect your information, but no online service is perfectly secure. If we ever discover a security breach that affects your personal data, we'll move quickly to investigate and contain it, and we'll notify you — and any regulators the law requires — without undue delay, with what we know and any steps you can take (like changing your password).
For extra account security you can turn on two-factor authentication (2FA) in Settings → Security. When it's on, signing in emails you a one-time code to enter after your password — no app or phone number needed. For everyone's security, we also ask you to sign in again periodically (about every 60 days).
You must be at least 15 to use Dishtrict. At sign-up you confirm you meet that minimum age; we don't ask for a birth date. Dishtrict isn't intended for children, and we don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 15. If you believe someone under 15 has created an account, contact us and we'll remove it.
We may update this policy as the app grows. We'll change the “last updated” date above when we do.
Questions or requests? Email us at dishtrict88@gmail.com.