Privacy Policy

FOODSlot ("FOODSlot", "we", "us") is a reservation service for local food vendors, operated as a sole proprietorship by Christopher Nelson. This policy explains what we collect when you use foodslot.app and how we use it.

What we collect

• Phone number, name and email. You sign in with your phone number; we check it with a one-time code by text. After your first sign in we ask for a name for your order and an email for your receipt. Once you confirm that email with a code, it can also sign you in.
• Sign in with Google. Where we offer it, you can sign in with your Google account instead. Google then gives us your name, your email address, whether Google has confirmed that email, and an ID number for your Google account. We keep that number so the same Google account opens the same FOODSlot account. We do not get your Google password, your contacts or anything else in your Google account. If your Google email is one you already confirmed on a FOODSlot account, we sign you in to that account. An account made this way has no phone number until you add one; we ask for it only when you want texts, and texts still need the consent box.
• Order details. The slots you claim, the items you order, pickup times, order codes, and payment status, plus the waiting lists and Next in line places you join.
• Payment information. Card details are entered directly into Stripe and never touch our servers. We store only Stripe's reference identifiers. Stripe keeps the card you pay with on your account for next time; remove it on your profile under Saved cards.
• Health reports, if you send one. When you tell us you got sick from an order (Report a problem, then I got sick), we keep the illness you picked, when you ate the food, the day you got sick, whether you saw a doctor, whether a doctor or lab confirmed it, and your note. It is a food safety report, not a refund. We are not a health care provider and this is not a medical record, but we treat it as private health information.
• Messages to support and reports. When you email support@foodslot.app, report a problem or rate an order, we keep the message, our reply and the outcome, so we can help you and see patterns at one vendor.
• Chats and pictures. When you write in a chat (with a vendor or with FOODSlot) or send a picture in a chat or a report, we keep the words, the picture and when they were sent. The first time you send a picture we ask you to agree to how pictures are used, and we keep your answer and when you gave it. A picture tied to a food safety report is kept up to two and a half years; any other chat picture about 7 months, and longer while a card dispute about its order is open. A chat with FOODSlot that is not about an order, a report or a safety concern, and that no person at FOODSlot is helping with, is deleted shortly after its last message, with its pictures. Please do not send pictures of people, faces or anything private.
• Optional details. An Instagram handle and an address, if you add them on your profile.
• Your place, if you turn on Drops near me. When you tick the box for emails about drops near you, you pick a place on your profile: where your phone is when you tap Use where I am now, or your address. We keep only a point rounded to about 1 km, how many miles you picked, the words you agreed to and when. The point is sent only on that tap.
• Technical data. Five cookies, all for running the site, none for ads: fs_sid keeps your hold attached to this browser (up to a year); fs_cid keeps you signed in (up to 90 days); fs_src notes how you first found us (up to 90 days); fs_pass is your pass for the waiting line (6 hours); fs_line is your place in that line (an hour). Standard server logs, which include your network address. With each hold we keep a scrambled code made from your network address. We never keep the address. The code stops one network from holding too many slots. Your browser keeps a few settings on your device, such as the theme you picked; they are not sent to us. Use my location sorts vendors by distance on your phone only; your location is never sent to us.
• Where you tap I'm here. When you tap I'm here at a pickup, your phone sends where it is, once. We check you are near the pickup spot, and we keep that point, how far it was from the spot and how exact your phone said it was. It shows you were there, or were not, if there is a problem or a card dispute. Only FOODSlot sees the point; the vendor sees only how far. We delete the point 130 days after the pickup day and keep only the distance. Nothing else ever records where you are.
• A picture of your order. The vendor may take a picture of your order when they pack it. It is kept in private storage, never at a public address. You see it on your order after the vendor scans it; the vendor and FOODSlot can see it too, and we may show it to the others named under Who else sees your data, such as your bank in a card dispute. We delete it 130 days after the pickup day.
• How you found us. When you make an account we keep how you first found FOODSlot, such as Instagram, a flyer, a vendor's link or a search, and the page you first opened. We keep only the name of the site or the tag on the link, never what you searched for or any other site you visited. We use it to learn which outreach works.

How we use it

• To run your reservation: holding your slot, building your order, taking payment, and letting the vendor prepare and hand off your food.
• To text you about your own order: the sign in code, a notice when a sign in code is emailed for your account, your paid confirmation and pickup details, a text if the vendor cancels your order, a text if your payment came in after your hold ended, a text when a slot opens for you when you are next in line, a text before a window you asked about unlocks, and one reminder ten minutes before your pickup window.
• To text you announcements about upcoming drops from vendors whose waiting list you joined (the Text me the next drop button), only if you ticked the consent box on the sign-in form, and one drop text per vendor a day (a vendor may pay for one more a day), sent 8 AM to 6 PM Eastern. Ticking the box sends one text that confirms it. You can withdraw that consent at any time by replying STOP.
• To share the name on your order, the last four digits of your phone number, your order and your pickup window with the vendor you ordered from, so they can prepare and hand off your order. The vendor sees how many people joined their waiting list, never who.
• To email you when a vendor near you opens a new drop, only if you ticked the box for it (Drops near me on your profile): at most one email a day, sent 8 AM to 6 PM Eastern. Every one has a link to stop them.
• To email you a receipt when you pay, a code to confirm your email, a sign in code when you ask for one by email, and a note if your payment came in after your hold ended and is refunded.
• To keep your credit (money off a later order): each balance, every change to it, and the order it came from or was used on. To email you about it when you get one, once a month while you have one, and before it starts to lose value; and to text you about it only if you ticked the consent box on the sign-in form.
• To answer your chats and reports. The FOODSlot helper, an AI, answers chats with FOODSlot first, on its own and at any hour; a person at FOODSlot can read every chat and takes over when needed. When you ask, the helper can also act on your own account (file a report, change your name, email or address, remove your saved card, or cancel a hold you have not paid for), only after you tap Yes. Each step is kept in a log a person at FOODSlot can read.
• To settle reports, refunds, disputes and chargebacks; to find and stop fraud, false reports and misuse of the site; to keep people safe; to protect FOODSlot, our vendors and our customers in a claim; and as the law requires.

FOODSlot is not social media or a personal messenger. Chats and pictures here are part of the record of your orders, and we use them for the reasons above.

SMS opt-in data

We do not sell or share your SMS opt-in data or personal information with third parties for marketing purposes. Your consent status is used only by FOODSlot. Your phone number is used by FOODSlot to send the messages described above; the vendor you ordered from sees only its last four digits. Text messages are delivered through Twilio, our messaging provider, which processes your number solely to deliver those messages.

Who else sees your data

We share your data with the people and companies below, for the reasons in How we use it.

• People at FOODSlot, including support staff, see what they need to help you and to run the site.
• The vendor you ordered from sees the name on your order, the last four digits of your phone number, your order, your pickup window and when you tap I'm here. The vendor may keep short notes about your orders with them, and we may keep our own. Each side reads only its own notes, and they are deleted if you ask us to erase your account. If you rate an order, the vendor sees your stars inside their average, and your note with its stars and the drop's name. They never see who you are. If you send a health report, the vendor sees what you ate, the drop and pickup window, about when it was handed over, when you ate it, how you feel and since when, your answers and your note, so they can find the cause, never your name, phone or order code. The vendor may write to you in a chat on the report, and neither of you sees the other's phone. Health reports are never shown on the site. We may share a health report, and what you told us about it, with a health department to keep people safe or when the law requires it. In a chat, the vendor sees the words and pictures sent in that chat; pictures and words from a report may be shown to the vendor to settle it.
• Stripe processes your payment and keeps the card you saved, under its own privacy policy. Stripe's script runs on our board pages to help stop fraud, and Stripe may collect information about your device and visit there under that policy.
• Twilio delivers our text messages.
• Resend sends our emails: your receipt, the codes to confirm your email and sign in, the refund note if your payment came in late, and the emails about drops near you if you turn them on.
• Fly.io runs our server, in the United States.
• Supabase keeps our database, in the United States.
• Cloudflare sits in front of the site, protects it and keeps copies of public pictures. It also keeps the vendors' pictures of packed orders and the pictures sent in chats and reports, in private storage only we can read. If you grab a slot before you sign in, its bot check (Turnstile) may look at your browser to tell a person from a script. Cloudflare's Turnstile privacy terms cover that check.
• Anthropic (Claude) runs the FOODSlot helper, the AI that answers chats with FOODSlot on its own. It reads the words in that chat, the pictures sent in it, your first name and your recent orders and reports. We do not give it your phone number, your full email address, your street address or your card number. It may see a short hint, like the last 4 numbers of your saved card. It also looks up a vendor's local health department.
• Amazon Web Services (Rekognition) checks pictures for unsafe content: the pictures vendors upload, and the pictures anyone sends in a chat or a report.
• Sightengine checks the pictures sent in a chat or a report for signs that they were made by an AI.
• Payment companies and banks (Stripe, the card networks and your bank) may see your order, its chats and pictures, and the record of the pickup when there is a refund or a card dispute.
• Our insurers, lawyers and advisers, and the authorities (such as a health department or the police), when we need them to settle a claim, to keep people safe, or when the law requires it.
• The US Census Bureau's geocoder turns a vendor's pickup place into a point on the map. It sees no customer data.
• Google signs you in when you choose Continue with Google, under its own privacy policy. When the sign in shows, your browser loads Google's sign in script, and Google sees your network address.
• Nobody serves our fonts. The letters you see come from foodslot.app itself, not from Google Fonts or any other outside site. No other company sees your network address for them.

Pictures and faces. We never use face recognition, and we never scan faces or other body features in pictures. No service we use is asked to.

If you sell on FOODSlot

We keep your business name, phone, email, Instagram, website, category, pickup area, street address, the pictures you upload, your menu and your drops, and may keep short notes about your account that only we read. We text your phone your desk sign in code and notices about your payouts. Your street address is never shown: customers see a point about 1 km from it for Near me, and a point from your pickup area to about 110 m. To place it on the map we send the address to the US Census Bureau's geocoder. Pictures you upload are checked by Amazon Rekognition before they show. Payouts run through your own Stripe account; Stripe collects what it needs to verify you under its own policy. If you ask us to call you with Rather talk first?, we keep your request with the network address it came from, to stop spam, and email it to ourselves through Resend.

Keeping and erasing data

Order records (order codes, items, amounts, windows, times, statuses, refunds and credits) are kept as the record of each sale and as evidence in a dispute. Stripe, Twilio and Resend keep their own records of payments and messages under their own policies. Health reports are kept for two and a half years, so a pattern at one vendor can be seen, then deleted. Chats about an order, a report or a safety concern, and chats a person at FOODSlot helped with, are kept as part of the record of your orders. Any other chat with FOODSlot is deleted shortly after it ends; a record that the FOODSlot helper made a change on your account (what and when, without the chat) is kept with your account. Chat pictures are kept as What we collect says, then deleted. We may keep what we need longer while a report, a dispute or a claim is open, or when the law requires it.

You can ask us to erase your account at any time: write to support@foodslot.app from the email on your account, or tell us the phone number on it. We may ask you to confirm the request, and we answer within 30 days. Erasing clears your name, phone number, email, Instagram handle, address, the card saved at Stripe, your text consent, your Drops near me choices and place, your places on every waiting list and Next in line, the unlock texts you asked for, every health report you sent, and every note about you. It also signs you out on every browser. We keep the order records above without your details, and the count of texts we sent without your number. We may keep chats, pictures and reports for their keep times above while they are needed to settle a report, a dispute or a claim, or to stop fraud. If you reply STOP, your number goes on our do not text list and gets no more texts from us, until you reply START to have them back. We cannot erase an account while it has a hold in progress or an order still to pick up; we do it right after the pick up by time. If you sign in again later with the same phone, you get a new, empty account.

Your choices

• On your profile (tap your account at the top of the page) you can change your name, email, Instagram and address, remove a saved card under Saved cards, and sign out every browser with Sign out everywhere.
• Reply STOP to any text to stop all texts from FOODSlot, sign in codes and order texts included. Reply START to turn them back on; you need to do this before you can sign in with your phone again. Reply HELP for help.
• Untick Drops near me on your profile, or tap the link in any of those emails, to stop them.
• If the phone company tells us your number is a landline or no longer works, we stop texting it and note why. Sign in with that number again to turn texts back on.
• Email us to see the details we hold about you, or to erase your account.

18 and older

FOODSlot is for people 18 and older, to order and to sell. It is not meant for children, and it is not for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If we learn that someone under 18 has an account, we close it and erase their information.

Keeping your data safe

We keep your data on the services listed above and limit who can reach it. If someone gets into personal information about you without permission, we tell you as the law requires.

Contact

FOODSlot, 1657 The Fairway #1139, Jenkintown, PA 19046. support@foodslot.app. Changes to this policy are posted on this page with a new date, and apply from that date. If a change would use data we already hold in a new way that matters, we ask you first. For pictures, the picture consent you gave before your first one applies.