Privacy Policy

Taste Barbados operates this website. In this policy, “we,” “us,” and “our” mean Taste Barbados. You can reach us about personal information at contact@tastebarbados.app.

The information depends on the features you use:

• When you sign in or edit your account, we process your email address, username or name, profile photo, the way you signed in (Google or an emailed code), notification choices, and account and session details. If you sign in with Google, Google shares your email address and, where available, your name and profile photo with us.
• When you save a place, rate a place, or use the chat while signed in, we process your saved places, ratings, and chat prompts and replies, which are kept in your recent conversations until you delete them. Chats you have while signed out are not saved to an account.
• If you rate a place while signed out, we store the rating with a random identifier kept in a cookie in your browser and a scrambled (hashed and salted) form of your connection address, which we use only to stop one person rating the same place repeatedly. We do not store the connection address itself with the rating.
• When you apply for a business listing, we process your name, role, contact email, optional phone number, confirmation that you are authorised to apply, and the business details you submit. These include its name, type, cuisine, price range, address, parish, and any optional contact or website details.
• If you join the launch list or apply after following a campaign link, we save its source, medium, campaign and ad labels with your submission so we can count which links brought people to Taste Barbados.
• Business administrators may provide listing, location, opening hours, menu, special, photo and video details, and team details. We keep a history of changes to a listing (who changed what, and when), the devices signed in to a business account (a device name, a general location label, and when it was last active), and requests to pause, publish or close a listing.
• If a business upgrades to a paid plan, we process its billing email, plan, renewal and cancellation dates, and a record of what was charged. Card details are entered with our payment provider and are not stored by Taste Barbados.
• If you choose voice search, we process the audio you record and the resulting transcription. If you allow location access, we process your approximate or device-provided position to show nearby places or your position on the map.
• We process messages you send us by email, the emails we send you (sign-in codes, account messages, application receipts and decisions, and any updates you have switched on), and technical information needed to operate and protect the site, such as session, device, browser, and IP-related information.

We use this information to:

• provide accounts, saved places, ratings, chat history, and other features you request;
• show Food Spot listings, maps, recommendations and ratings;
• review business applications, contact applicants, publish and manage business listings, and handle plans and billing;
• send sign-in codes, account messages and, where you have asked for them, optional updates;
• respond to messages and support requests;
• provide voice search, maps, and location-based results when you choose those features; and
• secure the service, prevent abuse such as fake ratings, and maintain and improve its reliability.

Our legal grounds depend on the activity. We process account and listing information to provide the service you request, and business applications to take steps you request toward a listing. We process technical information, and the hashed connection address used to limit repeat ratings, for our legitimate interests in protecting and maintaining the service, where those interests do not outweigh your rights, and retain information where needed to meet legal obligations. Optional voice and location features are used when you choose them and grant any browser permission they need; you can revoke that permission in your browser. Optional update emails are sent only while the matching notification switch is on.

Applying does not publish a business listing. We review applications before inviting an approved business to complete and publish its listing.

Some search results, chat replies and recommendations are produced by automated systems based on what you type and on listing information. We do not use them to make decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.

We use these providers to run the service, and they may process information on our behalf or under their own privacy terms:

• Supabase provides account authentication, database storage, and file storage for items such as profile photos and listing media.
• Google provides the “Continue with Google” sign-in if you choose it.
• Resend delivers the emails we send about business applications and listings, and Supabase delivers sign-in and account emails.
• Mapbox provides maps, and may collect technical information about map use under its own terms.
• OpenAI transcribes voice searches. The recording is sent through our server, the resulting text is placed in the search field, and we do not save the recording ourselves. You can type a search instead.
• Our hosting provider (Vercel) serves the website and may keep ordinary server logs, such as IP addresses and requested pages.

Some images and icons on the site, such as the small country flags beside “Known for” entries and small website icons beside a Food Spot’s social links, are loaded from third-party image services.

We use cookies or similar browser storage to maintain sign-in sessions and keep account features working. If you rate a place while signed out, a first-party cookie stores a random rating identifier for up to one year so the same browser can see and change its rating. Business administrator sessions also use a device identifier in local storage to distinguish signed-in devices. Our map provider may also keep technical data in your browser while a map is shown.

We use Vercel Speed Insights to understand site performance. We do not currently use advertising cookies. Campaign labels may be kept in your browser’s session storage while you move between pages. You can clear cookies and local storage through your browser settings. Doing so may sign you out or prevent the site from recognising an earlier anonymous rating or device.

We keep account information and saved activity while your account is active or until you remove the activity, subject to information that must be kept for security, legal, or dispute reasons. Recent chats are kept until you delete them. We keep business applications while reviewing them and for any follow-up needed to complete the decision, then delete or anonymise them when no longer needed for those purposes or a legal obligation. If a business closes its listing, the listing is unpublished and ratings already given are kept but no longer shown. Technical records are kept for the time needed to operate and secure the service, and copies may remain in backups for a limited time after deletion.

Our application does not intentionally save voice recordings in its database after transcription. Service providers may have their own retention periods for information they process.

You can choose not to use voice or location features and can change microphone or location permissions in your browser. Signed-in users can unsave places, delete recent chats, change profile details and email address, and choose which update emails they receive from the app. Business owners can export their listing information from their business account.

Subject to applicable law, you may request access to, correction or deletion of personal information, including deletion of your account, or ask us to restrict or explain how it is used. You may also object to certain processing or raise a concern with the Barbados Data Protection Commissioner. Email contact@tastebarbados.app with your request, from the address connected to your account if you have one. You do not need an account to contact us. We may ask for information reasonably needed to verify that the data is yours before acting on a request.

Taste Barbados is not directed to young children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has given us personal information, email contact@tastebarbados.app and we will take appropriate steps to remove it.

We use reasonable safeguards designed to protect personal information. No online service can guarantee absolute security. Some service providers may process information outside Barbados; when that happens, we handle those transfers under applicable law.

We may update this policy as Taste Barbados changes. We will post the updated version here and revise the date above. For privacy questions or requests, contact contact@tastebarbados.app.