Privacy policy

What we collect

Account: your email address, password (stored only as a secure hash by our authentication provider), display name, username, bio, and your privacy settings (who can see your profile and whether you appear in search).

What you post: reviews (the place, visit date, scores, comments, whether you'd go back, and—only if you choose—what you paid and how many people), photos, dishes or drinks you suggest, places you add from Google Maps, places you save, people you follow, receipts you mark useful or not useful, and reports and blocks you make.

Photos are resized and re-encoded on your device before upload, which removes hidden metadata such as GPS location and camera details.

What we work out: points, levels, badges and statistics calculated from your activity.

Device and technical: IP address and request logs kept by our hosting providers for security; if you turn on notifications in the app, your device's push token, platform and app language; drafts of reviews, which stay on your device until you publish them.

Location: Explore asks your phone or browser for your location to show places nearby. It is used for that search only and is not stored with your account. You can say no and still use the guide.

What we don't do

We don't sell your data, show ads, or use advertising or third-party tracking cookies. We store only what the site needs to work (for example, keeping you signed in and remembering your theme and language).

Why we use it (lawful bases)

To provide the guide you signed up for—your account, publishing and showing reviews, followers, notifications you asked for (contract).

To keep the community honest and safe—spam limits, reports, moderation, security and fixing errors (legitimate interests). Error reports from the app, which can include technical details of what you were doing, go to our development platform.

Push notifications and location only with your permission, which you can withdraw at any time in your phone's settings or in Settings → Preferences (consent).

To meet legal obligations, such as responding to lawful requests.

Who can see your information

Your reviews, profile and badges are shown according to your visibility setting: public (everyone), members (signed-in members) or private (only you—your reviews still count towards a place's score but appear without your name).

Photos on reviews are only visible to signed-in members who can see the review. Reports are private: the person reported is never told who reported them. Blocking hides your receipts and theirs from each other; they are not told.

Our administrators can see content and reports in order to moderate the guide.

Service providers

We use trusted providers who process data on our behalf: Lovable (our development and hosting platform, including Lovable Cloud for the database, sign-in, file storage and account emails), Cloudflare (website hosting and delivery), Google (Maps and Places to find and show places, and Firebase Cloud Messaging to deliver notifications on Android) and Apple (Sign in with Apple on iOS and Apple Push Notification service on iPhone).

Some of them process data outside the UK, including in the European Economic Area and the United States. Where that happens, transfers are covered by UK adequacy regulations or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum.

How long we keep it

We keep your data while your account exists. You can delete your account at any time in Settings → Delete account: this removes your profile, reviews, photos, follows, votes, blocks and devices straight away. Places you added to the guide stay listed without your name, and reports you made stay with the moderators without your name. Copies may remain in encrypted backups for a short time before they are overwritten.

Your rights

You can ask for a copy of your data, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to how we use it, and receive it in a portable format. You can edit most things yourself in Settings. For anything else, email privacy@theunbiasedguide.com; we reply within one month.

If you're unhappy with how we handle your data you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk), though we'd appreciate the chance to put it right first.

Age

TheUnbiasedGuide is for people aged 18 or over. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone younger; if you believe someone under 18 has an account, tell us and we'll remove it.

Security

Connections are encrypted, access to data is limited by strict database rules, photos are stored privately and shown through short-lived links, and passwords can only be changed with your current password or a recent emailed link.

Changes

If we change this policy we'll update the date below, and tell you in the app or by email before significant changes take effect.