Privacy policy

Dine219 helps people in Northwest Indiana find, follow, and review local restaurants, and helps restaurants share their menus, specials, and news. This policy explains what we collect, why, who can see it, and the choices you have. In short: we collect what the site needs to work, we don't sell your information, and we don't use advertising trackers.

What we collect

When you create an account

• Your email address and a password (stored by our sign-in provider in a protected, one-way form).
• If you sign in with Google: your email address and the name on your Google account, which we use as your display name. We don't receive your Google password or access to your other Google data.
• A display name, which you can change.

What you add while using Dine219

• Reviews: your ratings, comments, and other review details. Published reviews show your display name.
• Private notes to a restaurant: optional notes attached to a review. These are never published; only that restaurant's team and Dine219 staff can read them.
• Favorites: restaurants you save. Only you can see them.
• Friends: friend requests you send (by email address) and accept. We use the email only to find the matching account.
• Check-ins: the restaurant, time, and optional note when you tap “I'm here.” Only you and your accepted friends can see your check-ins. Restaurants see only total counts, never who checked in.

For restaurant owners and staff

• Listing details, menus, specials, hours, photos, logos, and replies to reviews. These are published on the restaurant's public page.
• Team membership. Your name and email are visible to the other members of your restaurant's team and to Dine219 staff.

Collected automatically

• Sign-in cookies that keep you signed in. We don't use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.
• Specials views: a daily count of how many times each special was shown, so restaurants can see what's working. These counts aren't linked to you.
• Server logs kept by our hosting provider, such as IP address, browser type, and pages requested, used for security and to keep the site running.

We don't collect your precise location. Restaurant pages show a Google map, which loads from Google and is covered by Google's privacy policy.

How we use it

• To run your account and show you your favorites, friends, and check-ins.
• To publish reviews, after our team checks reviews that include written comments.
• To let restaurants manage their listings, reply to reviews, and see simple counts about their specials.
• To send account emails, such as password resets.
• To keep Dine219 secure and prevent abuse.

We don't sell your personal information, and we don't share it with advertisers.

Who else handles your data

We use a small number of service providers to run Dine219. They process data only to provide their service to us:

• Supabase: our database, sign-in, and photo storage.
• Vercel: hosts the website.
• Google: “Sign in with Google” (if you choose it) and the maps on restaurant pages.

We may also share information if the law requires it, or to protect the safety of our users or the public.

Who can see what

• Everyone: published reviews with your display name, and restaurant listings.
• Your friends: your check-ins and their notes.
• A restaurant's team: reviews of their restaurant (including ones waiting for approval), private notes left for them, and check-in totals.
• Only you: your favorites and your email address.
• Dine219 staff: what's needed to moderate reviews, support restaurants, and run the site.

Your choices and rights

• Change your display name, remove friends, and delete your check-ins at any time.
• Ask us for a copy of your data, to correct it, or to delete your account and the data tied to it by emailing privacy@dine219.com. We'll confirm the request comes from you and respond within 30 days.
• Depending on where you live, privacy laws such as Indiana's Consumer Data Protection Act may give you additional rights. Contact us to use them; we won't treat you differently for doing so.

Deleting your data

To delete your Dine219 account and its data, including data that came from signing in with Google, email privacy@dine219.com from the address on your account. We delete your account, favorites, friends, check-ins, and private notes. Your published reviews are deleted too, unless you ask us to keep them under an anonymous name.

How long we keep data

We keep your information while your account is open. When you delete your account, we remove your data within 30 days, except where we need to keep something to meet a legal obligation or resolve a dispute. Backups age out on their normal schedule.

Security

Data is encrypted in transit, and access is restricted by account so people see only what they're allowed to. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a strong, unique password.

Children

Dine219 isn't meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we'll delete it.

Changes to this policy

We'll update this page when our practices change and change the date at the top. If a change is significant, we'll let account holders know before it takes effect.

Contact

Questions or requests: privacy@dine219.com. See also our terms of service.