1. Information We Collect
We collect information you provide when creating your account and profile, including: • Name, date of birth, and email address • Profile photos and bio • Dining preferences, cuisine interests, and dining style • City, profession, education, and other optional profile details • Phone number (if you choose to verify) We also automatically collect: • Device location (when permitted) for nearby restaurant and plan discovery • Chat messages between matched users • Dining plan details you create • Dining reflections, ratings, and voice notes you submit • Plan view data when you view another user's dining plan • Usage data and app interaction patterns to improve the service • Device token for push notifications • Photos you upload are reviewed by our AI content moderation service (Anthropic) to ensure they meet our community guidelines before being published to your profile • If you joined our waitlist, we collected your first name, email, city, state/province, country, and optionally how you heard about us
2. How We Use Your Information
Your information is used to: • Create and display your profile to potential dining companions • Match you with relevant dining plans based on location and preferences • Enable messaging between matched users • Generate AI-powered profile suggestions and dining reflections • Send push notifications about join requests, matches, and messages • Show plan creators who has viewed their dining plans (Plus and Concierge subscribers only) • Process your self-reported meetup confirmations to unlock Dining Reflections • Show nearby restaurants using your device location • Calculate compatibility scores between users (Plus and Concierge subscribers) • Improve app functionality and user experience • Enforce our Terms & Conditions and protect user safety
3. Location Data
LoneDiner may request access to your device location for the following purposes: • Showing nearby dining plans and restaurants relevant to your location • Enabling the Nearby tab to discover restaurants close to you • Providing location-based discovery features in the Explore tab Your exact location is never shared with other users. Only general proximity context (such as city or distance range) is shown on your profile and plans. We do not use location data to verify meetups, track your real-time movement, or share your precise live location with other users. Meetup confirmation is entirely self-reported — LoneDiner does not use GPS proximity to confirm in-person meetings. Your location data is never used for advertising purposes or shared with advertising networks. You may disable location services at any time through your device settings. Disabling location will limit discovery features but will not affect your ability to use other parts of the app. Location-related data is retained only as described in the Data Retention section of this policy.
4. Plan Views & Viewer Data
When you view another user's dining plan, a record of that view may be stored and associated with your profile. This data is used to power the Plan Insights feature available to Plus and Concierge subscribers. • Free users: Plan creators see only the total view count • Plus subscribers: Plan creators see the first 10 viewers' profiles • Concierge subscribers: Plan creators see all viewers' profiles Viewer data is only shared with the plan creator and is not sold or disclosed to any third parties.
5. Dining Reflections & AI Processing
When you use the Dining Reflections feature, any text input, voice notes, or ratings you provide are processed to generate your personalized reflection. This content may be sent to third-party AI services solely for the purpose of generating your reflection. • Your reflection content is not used to train AI models • Your reflection content is not shared with other users or third parties beyond what is necessary to operate the feature • Voice recordings are transcribed and then discarded — raw audio is not stored permanently • Generated reflections are stored privately in your account and are only visible to you
6. Phone Verification
If you choose to verify your phone number, we collect and store your phone number securely. It is used solely to: • Send a one-time SMS verification code for account verification • Display a Phone Verified badge on your profile • Maintain the uniqueness of verified accounts Your phone number is never displayed publicly, sold, or shared with other users or third parties. Phone Number Data Retention: When you verify your identity with a phone number, we store that number to maintain the uniqueness of verified accounts. If you delete your account, your phone number is removed from our systems and may be used to create a new account in the future. In cases where an account is suspended for violations of our community guidelines, we retain the associated phone number to prevent circumvention of our safety systems. This retained data is used solely for platform security purposes and is not shared with third parties.
6a. Identity Verification
During optional identity verification (Gold Verified badge), you may be asked to photograph a government-issued ID document. This image is transmitted to our AI verification service (Anthropic) solely to verify document authenticity. We aim to delete verification images after analysis is complete, unless limited retention is necessary for security, fraud prevention, legal compliance, or troubleshooting, as described in our data retention practices. We do not collect, store, or analyze biometric identifiers such as facial geometry, fingerprints, or retina scans. We store only the verification result (verified/not verified), your name, and date of birth as confirmed by the document. We do not sell or share your identity document image or verification data with any third party except Anthropic, which processes the image solely to return a verification result.
7. Data Sharing
We do not sell your personal data. We share data only with: • Other LoneDiner users — your public profile information as you have set it • Service providers — Firebase, Google Places, Overture Maps, and RevenueCat for app functionality • OpenAI — to power AI-assisted features including profile bio suggestions, dining reflection generation, and in-app assistance • Anthropic — for identity document verification and photo content moderation. Anthropic processes uploaded photos and identity documents solely to return a verification or moderation result • Law enforcement — when required by applicable law or valid legal process Your exact location is never shared with other users.
8. Data Storage & Security
Your data is stored securely using Firebase (Google Cloud Platform) with industry-standard encryption. Photos are stored in Firebase Storage. Device tokens for push notifications are stored in Firestore and deleted when you sign out. We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your data, though no system is completely secure. We encourage you to use a strong password and to report any suspicious activity through the in-app reporting tools.
9. Your Rights
You have the right to: • Access your personal data through your profile • Correct your information via the Edit Profile feature • Delete your account and associated data at any time through Settings • Withdraw consent for location services through your device settings • Opt out of push notifications through your device settings • Request a copy of your data or exercise any other privacy rights by contacting support@lonediners.com • Unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time via the unsubscribe link in any email or at lonediners.com/unsubscribe • Withdraw consent for data processing where consent is the legal basis for processing
10. Data Retention
Active account data is retained while your account exists. Chat messages and dining plan details are retained while your account is active and for 30 days after account deletion to allow for dispute resolution. Dining reflections are retained while your account is active and deleted immediately upon account deletion. When you delete your account: • Your profile is removed from discovery immediately • Your personal data is deleted in accordance with this policy • Your account is marked as deleted to prevent re-registration abuse • All identity verification audit records linked to your account are permanently deleted Your email address is retained in an anonymized blocklist solely to prevent re-registration abuse. Chat messages in existing matches are not retroactively deleted from other users' devices. Plan view records associated with your account are removed when your account is deleted.
11. Push Notifications
LoneDiner uses push notifications to alert you about join requests, accepted requests, and new messages. Your device token is stored securely and used only to deliver notifications to your device. You can disable push notifications at any time through your device settings or through the Notifications section in the app's Settings. Your device token is deleted from our servers when you sign out of the app.
12. Third-Party Services
LoneDiner uses the following third-party services, each with their own privacy policies: • Firebase (Authentication, Firestore, Storage) — Google Privacy Policy • Google Places API — Google Privacy Policy • Overture Maps — Overture Maps Privacy Policy • RevenueCat — RevenueCat Privacy Policy • Apple Sign In — Apple Privacy Policy • Google Sign In — Google Privacy Policy • OpenAI — Used to power AI-assisted features including dining reflection generation, profile bio suggestions, and in-app assistance. Your content is processed by OpenAI's API to provide these features. OpenAI does not retain your data for training purposes. See OpenAI's privacy policy at openai.com/privacy. • Anthropic — Used for identity document verification and photo content moderation. See Anthropic's privacy policy at anthropic.com/privacy. We recommend reviewing the privacy policies of these services as they govern how those services handle your data.
13. Children's Privacy
LoneDiner is not intended for users under 18 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we become aware that a user is under 18, we will take steps to remove their account and data promptly.
14. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for legal, operational, or regulatory reasons. We will notify you of significant changes through the app or via email. Continued use of LoneDiner after changes become effective constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
15. Contact
LoneDiner is operated by Cobta Technologies LLC, a Texas limited liability company. For privacy inquiries, data requests, or to exercise any of your rights under this policy, please contact us: Cobta Technologies LLC 500 Westinghouse Rd Georgetown, TX 78626 Email: support@lonediners.com We will respond to privacy requests within 30 days.
16. Promotional & Waitlist Data
We collect and process the following data for our launch promotional program and waitlist: DATA COLLECTED AT WAITLIST SIGNUP: • First name and email address • City and country (US or CA only) • State or province • How you heard about us (optional) • Referral code used if any • Waitlist position and promo code assigned • Timestamp of signup DATA COLLECTED DURING APP USE RELATED TO PROMOTIONS: • Promo code usage and redemption date • Referral relationships between users • Number of qualified referrals per user • Referral bonus grant status and dates • Trial start and end dates HOW THIS DATA IS USED: • To administer the promotional program • To send promo codes and trial confirmations • To track referral eligibility and grant bonuses • To generate aggregate statistics such as city counts and leaderboard rankings shown as first name and last initial only • Never sold or shared with third parties RETENTION: Waitlist data is retained for 12 months after the promotional window closes. You may request deletion by emailing support@lonediners.com.
17. Geographic Restrictions
LoneDiner is currently available to users in the United States and Canada only. We detect your region using your device locale settings. We do not share your location data with third parties. Your city is collected at waitlist signup solely to determine launch priority and notify you when your city becomes active.
18. Email Communications
We send the following types of emails: ALWAYS SENT (CANNOT OPT OUT): • Waitlist confirmation and promo code delivery • Welcome email after promo activation • Account security and verification emails • Billing receipts • Legal and policy notices • Launch day announcement PREFERENCE-BASED (MANAGE IN SETTINGS → NOTIFICATIONS & EMAILS): • Trial ending reminders • Referral bonus notifications • City critical mass notifications • Marketing and feature announcements UNSUBSCRIBE: You may unsubscribe from preference-based marketing emails at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any email or visiting lonediners.com/unsubscribe. Unsubscribing will not affect delivery of transactional emails listed above under 'Always Sent.'
Last updated: July 7, 2026