Privacy policy

Fork is an app for rating and reviewing restaurants and sharing them with the people you follow. This policy explains what information Fork collects, why, who it is shared with, and the choices you have. We have tried to keep it short and in plain language.

Who we are

Fork is currently run by an independent developer and is not yet a registered company. In this policy, “Fork”, “we” and “us” mean that developer, who is responsible for your information. If Fork becomes a company, that company will take over this responsibility and we will update this page.

Questions or requests: hello@ratefork.com.

What we collect

Your account

When you sign in with Apple, Google or an emailed code, we receive your email address, an account identifier from that provider and, if the provider shares it, your name. If you use Apple’s “Hide My Email”, we only see Apple’s relay address. We never see your Apple or Google password.

Your profile

Your username, display name, profile photo, bio, and an Instagram handle if you choose to add one. We do not connect to or read your Instagram account.

What you post and do

Ratings, reviews, photos, videos, captions, comments, likes, saves, follows and places you want to try. If you post anonymously, other people see “Someone” instead of your name, but the post is still linked to your account on our side, so you can manage it and so we can act on reports.

Receipts

If you add a receipt to verify a visit, we keep the photo and the details read from it (the restaurant name, total and items). The text is read on your phone. The photo is also sent to TypeSafe (see below) to check that it is a real bill from that restaurant. We also keep a one-way fingerprint of the receipt so the same receipt cannot be used twice.

The bill photo shows on your post by default.Before anyone else sees it, TypeSafe looks for a card number and the cardholder’s name, and we cover what it finds with solid black on a copy. Other people see that copy; you always see the original. While the check runs, nobody else sees the bill, and if it finds something it cannot cover, the bill stays hidden from others. The check can miss things, and if it cannot run at all, other people may see the original photo.

You decide: switch off Show the bill on my reviewwhen you post, or hide or show it later from the post’s menu. The app remembers your last choice for your next post. Bills are never shown on anonymous posts.

Location

With your permission, Fork uses your phone’s location while you use the app to show restaurants near you, centre the map, and suggest places when you post. It is sent to our servers and to Google (see below) to find nearby places. We do not keep a history of where you have been, and your location is never shown to other people.

Contacts

If you choose to find friends from your contacts, your phone turns the phone numbers into one-way codes before anything leaves the device. We use those codes only to find people already on Fork, and we do not store your address book.

Notifications

If you allow notifications, we store a push token for your device so we can tell you about likes, comments and new followers. Signing out removes it.

Reports and blocks

If you report a post, comment or account, or block someone, we keep a record of it so we can review reports and keep blocked content away from you.

Technical information

Like any online service, the companies that host Fork keep basic logs, such as IP addresses, device type and error messages, for security and to fix problems.

Fork uses PostHog, hosted in the EU, for usage analytics: which screens you open and what kind of thing you do, such as posting, liking or searching, along with your device type and app version. PostHog is set to discard your IP address. Events are linked only to an internal account number, never to your name, username, email or anything you write. The one exception is a restaurant search that finds nothing: we send that search text, so we can add missing places, unless it looks like an email address or phone number. You can turn analytics off in You → Settings → Share usage analytics.

Fork has no advertising trackers, and we do not track you across other apps or websites.

How we use it

• To run your account and show your posts to the people who can see them.
• To show restaurants, maps, feeds, search results and notifications.
• To verify receipts, cover card details on bill photos, and award points fairly.
• To understand how the app is used and improve it, unless you turn usage analytics off.
• To keep Fork safe: review reports, remove content that breaks our rules, and stop spam, fraud and abuse.
• To answer you when you contact us, and to meet legal obligations.

We do not sell your information, and we do not use it for advertising profiles.

What other people can see

Your profile (username, display name, photo, bio, Instagram handle), your posts that are not anonymous, including the bill photo unless you hide it (see Receipts), your comments, and who you follow and who follows you. Your email address, location and contacts are never shown to other people, and neither are the details read from your receipts.

Who we share it with

We share information only with companies that help run Fork, and only what each one needs:

• Clerk runs sign-in and stores your login details.
• Convex hosts our database and stores your photos, videos and receipts.
• Apple and Googlehandle “Sign in with Apple” and “Sign in with Google”.
• Google Maps Platformreceives your search text and location from our servers when you look for a restaurant, and supplies Google ratings and reviews when you tap to see them. Google’s use is covered by the Google Privacy Policy.
• TypeSafereceives your bill photos, with the restaurant’s name and the date of the post, to check that a bill is genuine and to find card details to cover before others see it.
• PostHog (EU) receives the usage analytics described above, unless you turn them off.
• Expo delivers push notifications to your device.
• OpenFreeMap supplies the map images; your phone requests them directly, which shares your IP address and the area of the map you are viewing.

When you share a review to Instagram or another app, you choose what to send and the other app’s policy applies. We may also disclose information if the law requires it, to protect someone’s safety, or to a company that takes over Fork, which would remain bound by this policy.

Where it is stored

Our service providers store data in the United States and other countries. Where the law requires it, we rely on the safeguards those providers offer for international transfers, such as standard contractual clauses.

How long we keep it

We keep your information while your account is open. You can delete your account at any time in the app: You → Settings → Delete account. That removes your profile, posts, photos, videos, receipts, comments, likes, saves and follows. Most of it is gone within minutes, and copies in our providers’ logs and backups clear within 30 days. Usage analytics are not deleted automatically; they carry only an internal account number, and we will delete them if you ask.

Two things are kept after deletion, with nothing that links them to you: receipt fingerprints, so a deleted receipt cannot be reused to verify another review, and records of reports needed to deal with abuse.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export or delete your information, to object to or restrict how we use it, and to withdraw consent. You can edit your profile and delete your account in the app. For anything else, email hello@ratefork.com and we will reply within 30 days. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.

You can turn off location, contacts and notification access at any time in your phone’s settings. Fork keeps working without them.

If you are in the UK or the EU, we rely on these legal bases: providing the service you signed up for; our legitimate interests in keeping Fork safe, preventing fraud and understanding how the app is used (you can turn usage analytics off); your consent for location, contacts and notifications; and legal obligations.

Children

Fork is not meant for anyone under 13, or under the minimum age for using online services without a parent’s consent where you live. If we learn that a child’s account exists, we will delete it.

Security

We use encrypted connections, keep sign-in tokens in your phone’s secure storage, and limit who can access data. No service is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and will tell you if a breach affects you where the law requires it.

Changes

If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top. For significant changes, we will also let you know in the app before they take effect.

Contact

hello@ratefork.com

Restaurant data in Fork comes partly from open datasets. See Open data.