What we collect

Spotguide stores the information needed to run your food map: your sign-in details (your email — or, with Sign in with Apple, the name and email Apple shares, including private-relay addresses), your Instagram handle if you connect it (so we can match Reels you DM to @spotguideapp to your account), the restaurants you save, a device token if you allow push notifications, and — only if you enable nearby alerts — your location while matching against your saved places. We also record the IP address of sign-ins, signups, and content you send us, used for abuse prevention, security, and coarse location statistics; raw IP addresses are retained for up to 12 months, then deleted. If you join the beta waitlist, we store the name and contact details you provide — plus, for Android testers, the Google account email we use to add you on Google Play — so we can send your test invite. Your account also has a profile — a username (we pick a friendly one until you change it), and optionally a photo, a short bio, and social links — and, if you rate places you’ve visited, those private ratings.

Instagram & TikTok content

When you send a Reel, post, or story to @spotguideapp, share a post to Spotguide from the share sheet, or paste an Instagram or TikTok link, we process that content’s available information (caption, author, image — including any text, location stickers, or mentions visible in it) with AI to identify the restaurant(s) it features. A post that features several places may save several places. Alongside each save we keep what the AI understood about the place from the post — dishes, descriptors, and a short summary — so you can search and ask about your saves later. DMs from connected accounts are processed automatically when they arrive, and we reply in the same thread with the result. We access Instagram messaging through Meta’s official APIs and only for messages you send us; TikTok links use TikTok’s public oEmbed service.

AI features

Spotguide uses third-party AI model providers for its AI features: identifying restaurants in the content you share, and — if you use the Guide assistant — answering your questions about your own saved places. To answer a Find question, the details of your saved places (names, addresses, notes, tags, and post context), your conversation, and — if you’ve granted location — your current position (so “near me” works) are processed by the AI for that request. AI answers can be wrong — double-check details like hours and addresses. Your data is not used to train AI models, and the assistant only works with places you saved.

Voice mode

If you talk to the Guide assistant instead of typing, the microphone is used only while voice mode is active, and turning what you say into text happens on your own device using your device’s built-in speech recognition — your voice audio is never sent to or stored by Spotguide. The recognized text is handled exactly like a typed question. Spoken replies normally use your device’s built-in voice; if the premium natural-sounding voice is enabled, the Guide’s written reply (text only — never your voice) is sent to a speech-generation service to produce the audio. You can mute spoken replies or leave voice mode at any time, and the app never listens in the background.

Public profiles, shared lists & following

Your profile card — your username, photo, bio, and verified social handles — is public by default, so people can find you and follow you; one switch in your profile makes it private again, and the change takes effect immediately. Everything deeper stays private until you choose otherwise: your saved places, notes, tags, ratings, and lists are visible only to you unless you make a list public or share it. A shared or public list shows the places on it and the posts they were saved from — never your personal notes, tags, private ratings, email, or location. Public profiles show follower and following counts and who those people are (public accounts only — private accounts never appear in those lists), and you can hide either of yours. When someone follows your list, they see its places update live; they never see your private data. Private smile/frown ratings are visible only to you and are used solely to improve your own recommendations. You can report or block any profile or list; blocking means you and the blocked account no longer see each other anywhere. Usernames, bios, list names, and profile photos are screened automatically (with human review) to keep public spaces safe.

Usage analytics

To improve Spotguide we record how the app is used: screens viewed, taps, searches, saves, which restaurants and sponsored placements appear on your screen, app version, and technical performance of each save. These events are tied to your account, and we build a per-account usage summary from them (which features you use, how often, on which platform, and roughly where) that our team — including AI analysis tools we run internally — uses to understand and improve the product. If you’ve granted location for the app’s features, events include your device’s precise location at the time; we use it to see where Spotguide is being used. Raw usage events are kept for up to 24 months (then deleted, with only anonymous aggregate statistics retained), and all of it is deleted immediately when you delete your account. Our website and web app also use Google Analytics (cookies) to measure visits and feature usage. Analytics data is never sold or shared with data brokers.

Notifications

Push notifications come in categories — nearby saved spots, save & review results, product news, and promotions — and every category can be turned off in Settings. Turning one off stops those notifications at the source. Delivery goes through Apple’s and Google’s notification services via a push-delivery provider, which sees only the device token and the notification text.

Location

Location access is optional and used to show saved places near you, to trigger nearby reminders on your device, and — as described under Usage analytics — to attach your position to usage events while you use the app. We use geofencing rather than continuous background tracking, and we never sell precise location data.

Sharing

We don’t sell your personal data. We work with service providers in a few categories: restaurant data comes from Google Places and Maps; content analysis and the Guide assistant run on third-party AI model providers; premium spoken replies use a speech-generation provider, which receives only the reply text being spoken; TikTok link previews use TikTok’s public preview service; and our cloud hosting, database, and app-delivery providers store and transmit data on our behalf under contracts that limit them to providing the service. Each receives only the content needed for that request — a caption, an image, a link, a search query, or your saved-place details for a Guide question — never your sign-in identity. If you join the beta, we share your name and contact email with Apple (TestFlight) and your Google account email with Google (Play) to deliver your test invite. Usage analytics may be processed by Google Analytics on our behalf.

Deleting your data

You can delete your account and all associated data at any time — see Data Deletion.

Contact

Questions? Email support@joinspotguide.com.

Privacy Policy