Privacy Policy

1. Overview

Food4Foodies ("F4F", "we", "us", "our") operates a mobile marketplace app that connects independent home chefs ("Chefs") with people who want home-cooked and traditional food ("Foodies"). This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect through our app and services, how we use it, and the choices you have. By creating an account or using the app, you agree to the practices described here.

2. Information We Collect

When you create and use an F4F account, we collect:

• Account information: name, email address, phone number, date of birth, and a profile photo you choose to upload.
• Address and location: a Chef's kitchen/pickup address, and location information used to show nearby Chefs to Foodies or to resolve a Chef@Home service address.
• Content you provide: dish and bundle listings, photos of food, bios/taglines, reviews and ratings you leave for others.
• Order and transaction history: what was ordered, from whom, delivery/pickup details, and order status.
• Order communications: messages (and any photos attached) that a Chef and Foodie send each other about an order, including evidence photos submitted if either party files a complaint. These stay on F4F's own systems. They are not sent to Stripe or any other third party.
• Verification status: whether your identity has been verified (see Section 4), not the underlying documents themselves.
• Usage information: app interactions, device information, and crash/error reports, used to keep the app reliable.

3. How We Use Your Information

• To operate the marketplace: creating accounts, listing and discovering food, processing orders, and enabling communication between Chefs and Foodies about an order.
• To review and resolve a complaint about an order, including evidence photos either party submits, and to determine whether a refund is due.
• To show Foodies relevant, nearby Chefs and services, including ranking verified Chefs higher in search results.
• To process payments and payouts (via Stripe, see Section 5).
• To verify identity for Chefs and Foodies who choose to (or, for Chef@Home, need to) verify (via Stripe Identity, see Section 4).
• To provide customer support, respond to inquiries, and enforce our Terms of Service.
• To improve the app's reliability and safety, including fraud prevention and abuse detection.

4. Identity Verification

F4F offers identity verification for both Chefs and Foodies, powered by Stripe Identity. Verification is optional for ordinary use of the app, but required for a Chef to offer, or a Foodie to book, a Chef@Home visit, where a Chef travels to a Foodie's home to cook in person.

Verified accounts are shown a verification badge, and Foodies can choose to filter search results to verified Chefs only.

5. Payments

All payments on F4F are processed by Stripe, a PCI-DSS-compliant payment processor. When you add a payment method or complete an order, your card details are sent directly to Stripe. They pass through F4F's systems only as a reference token, never as raw card data.

Chefs pay F4F a commission on completed orders; Foodies are never charged an additional platform fee. See our Terms of Service for details on fees. If a complaint results in a full or partial refund, that refund is also processed by Stripe back to the Foodie's original payment method. See our Terms of Service for how complaints and refunds work.

6. What We Don't Store

To be direct about the things people most often ask about:

• We do not store your credit or debit card number, CVV, or full card details: these are handled entirely by Stripe.
• We do not store government ID images, selfies, or biometric verification data: these are handled entirely by Stripe Identity; F4F only stores a verification status.
• We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

7. How Information Is Shared

We share information only as needed to operate the marketplace:

• Between Chefs and Foodies: a Foodie's name and delivery/service details are shared with the Chef fulfilling their order (and vice versa), the same way any marketplace connects two sides of a transaction.
• With service providers: Stripe (payments and identity verification), and infrastructure providers that host our app and backend, each of whom is only given the information necessary to perform their function.
• For legal reasons: if required by law, subpoena, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of F4F, our users, or the public.

8. Location Information

With your permission, we use your device's location (or an address you enter) to show nearby Chefs and services, and to resolve distances for delivery/commute-radius checks. A Chef's kitchen location is used to determine which Foodies can discover their listings.

9. Data Retention & Deletion

We retain your account information for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, it is immediately deactivated and enters a 30-day grace period during which it can still be recovered if you contact us; after that period, your account and associated data are permanently deleted from our systems.

An account may also be disabled by F4F for a Terms of Service violation, which can be reversed by F4F upon review.

Order messages and complaint evidence (including photos) are retained as part of the order's record, so both a Chef and Foodie can refer back to them and so F4F can review a complaint if one is filed.

10. Your Rights & Choices

• Access & correction: you can view and update most of your account information directly in the app at any time.
• Deletion: you can request account deletion from within the app.
• Location: you can disable location permissions in your device settings at any time; some features (like "nearby Chefs") won't work as well without it.
• Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under applicable law (such as the right to request a copy of your data). Contact us using the details in Section 15 to exercise these rights.

11. Security

We use industry-standard measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections (HTTPS) between the app and our servers, encrypted storage of sensitive account fields, and access controls that limit who inside F4F can view account data. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, but we work to protect your information using practices appropriate to the sensitivity of the data involved.

12. Cookies & Tracking

This website uses only minimal, functional storage necessary for the site to work (such as remembering that you dismissed a notice). We do not use third-party advertising trackers on this website. The F4F mobile app does not use cookies; it may use standard mobile analytics/crash-reporting tools to help us keep the app reliable.

13. Children's Privacy

Food4Foodies is not directed to, and may not be used by, anyone under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us so we can delete it.

14. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we'll notify you through the app or by other reasonable means before the change takes effect. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision.

15. Contact Us

Questions about this Privacy Policy or your information? Reach us at privacy@food4foodies.com.