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Privacy Policy

What we keep, and why.

Last updated October 10, 2026

What KitchenSpot collects, how it’s used and the choices you have.

  1. 1. What we collect

    • Account: your name, email address and password (stored only as a one-way hash). If you sign in with Google, we receive only your name, email address and whether Google has verified it. We don’t receive your Google password, contacts or other Google data, and we don’t keep Google access tokens.
    • What you post: reviews, star and dish ratings, photos, favorites and the dishes you mark as eaten. Your account name shows publicly with your reviews. We remove location data hidden in photos when you upload them.
    • Receipt photos: private. Only our staff see them, to check that a review comes from a real visit.
    • Orders and bookings: the items, pickup or booking time, party size, notes, and the name, mobile number and email you give. Card details go straight to the payment provider; we never see or store card numbers.
    • Restaurant owners: business details, the mobile number for order alerts, what you send to prove you run the restaurant (a phone code, an email at its website domain or a business document), and billing records from Stripe. Stripe collects the identity and bank details it needs for payouts directly; we don’t store them.
    • Usage: pages viewed, searches, clicks on listings and ads, the city you picked, and where a visit came from. Our servers and Cloudflare also see your IP address and browser type.
    • Location: only when you tap “near me”, your device’s location is used to sort results by distance. It’s sent in the page address and isn’t saved with your account.
    • App: if you use the KitchenSpot app and allow notifications, a device token so we can send them, and whether you turned on “Tonight near you”.

  2. 2. Cookies and analytics

    We set cookies of our own, and we use Google Analytics to count visits and see which pages and dishes people look at. It reaches the site through Google Tag Manager, which is how we add or remove a measurement tool without shipping a new version of KitchenSpot. We don’t run advertising trackers.

    Our own cookies:

    • ks_session, which keeps you signed in (up to 30 days);
    • ks_vid, a random visitor ID (one year), and ks_src, where a visit came from (six hours), so restaurants can see how many people found them and ad clicks are counted fairly. They don’t contain your name or email, and owners only see totals;
    • your city, theme and view choices;
    • short-lived security cookies while you sign in with Google or connect a point-of-sale system.

    Google Analytics sets its own cookies, _ga and _ga_<ID>, which tell visits from the same browser apart and last up to two years. Google receives the page you are on, the page that sent you, your browser and device type, and your IP address, which it uses to estimate your approximate location. We don’t send it your name, your email address, your reviews or your order details, and it doesn’t run on our own staff pages. Google handles this under the Google Privacy Policy.

    Maps are drawn in your browser with tiles from OpenFreeMap, which sees your IP address when it sends them.

  3. 3. How we use it

    • to run KitchenSpot: accounts, reviews, rankings, awards, orders, bookings and owner tools;
    • to send the restaurant your order or booking, and to send you order, booking and account messages;
    • to keep reviews honest, check receipts and ownership, and stop fraud and abuse;
    • to show owners totals about their listing (views, searches, clicks, diners sent), never who you are;
    • to count and bill ad clicks;
    • to send newsletters, only if you subscribe;
    • to meet legal, tax and accounting duties.

  4. 4. Text messages

    We send a few text messages, all about something you asked for. We never send marketing texts.

    • Diners: when you place a pickup order, we text the mobile number you give at checkout about that order, such as when it’s ready or if it’s cancelled and refunded.
    • Restaurants: if an owner adds a mobile number for order alerts, we text it when a new order arrives and may call it with an automated voice message if an order isn’t accepted within 3 minutes.
    • Ownership checks: when someone claims a listing, we may place one automated call to the restaurant’s listed phone number that reads a verification code.

    Message frequency depends on your orders. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to stop texts or HELP for help, or email [email protected]. Texts and calls are sent through our provider, Telnyx.

    No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Text messaging originator opt-in data and consent will not be shared with any third parties. We share mobile numbers only with the restaurant you order from and with the service providers that deliver the messages.

  5. 5. Emails

    We email you about your account, orders and bookings. Newsletters go only to people who subscribe, and every newsletter has an unsubscribe link. Restaurant owners get weekly and monthly reports about their listing; ask us at [email protected] to stop them. We keep a copy of each email we send, to help with questions and support.

  6. 6. Who we share it with

    We don’t sell your personal information, and we don’t share it for targeted advertising. We share it only as needed to provide KitchenSpot:

    • The restaurant you order from, book or review (your name on public reviews; your name, phone, email and order or booking details for orders and bookings).
    • Payment providers Stripe, Square and Clover, to take payments for restaurants, send orders to their point-of-sale and bill owners.
    • Telnyx, to send texts and make the automated calls described above.
    • Resend and Google Workspace, to deliver email.
    • Google, if you choose to sign in with Google.
    • Google Analytics, which receives the pages you view on KitchenSpot and your IP address, as described under Cookies and analytics. It never receives your name, email address, reviews or orders.
    • OpenRouter and the AI model provider behind it (such as Google), to read menus from websites and owners’ menu photos, to check stock photos, and to summarize public review text into highlights and owner insights. We don’t send account details or receipt photos for this.
    • Hosting and network providers: our servers in the US, Cloudflare in front of them, and OpenFreeMap for map tiles.
    • Lawyers, accountants and authorities, when needed to protect our rights or when the law requires it.
    • A buyer or successor, if KitchenSpot or Lumoras LLC is sold or merged; this policy would still apply to your data.

    Google user data is used only to sign you in, and never for advertising.

  7. 7. How long we keep it

    Account data stays while your account is open. Reviews stay public until you or we remove them. Receipt photos stay with the review until it, or your account, is deleted. Order, booking and billing records are kept as long as tax and accounting rules require. Backups are kept in the US and roll off within 90 days, so deleted data leaves them by then.

  8. 8. Your choices and rights

    Email [email protected] from your account’s email address to get a copy of your data, correct it, remove a review or photo, or delete your account. There’s no delete button yet, so requests go by email. We may ask you to confirm it’s you, and we’ll answer within 30 days. If we can’t do what you asked, we’ll say why, and you can reply to appeal.

    Deleting your account removes your profile, reviews, ratings, photos and favorites. We keep order and billing records the law requires, without using them for anything else.

    Depending on where you live, you may have further rights under local privacy law; we honor these requests for everyone. You can unsubscribe from newsletters in any email, stop texts by replying STOP, and turn off app notifications in your settings.

    KitchenSpot isn’t for children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their information. If you think a child has given us information, tell us and we’ll delete it.

  9. 9. Security

    Data is encrypted in transit, passwords are hashed, payment card data never touches our servers, private uploads such as receipts and ownership documents are visible only to our staff, and access is limited to people who need it.

  10. 10. Changes and contact

    We’ll post changes here and update the date above; for material changes we’ll email account holders first. KitchenSpot is operated by Lumoras LLC. Questions or requests: [email protected]. See also our Terms of Service.