Privacy Policy: What's for Dinner?
Last updated: October 9, 2026
What's for Dinner? ("the app", by Spooled Up Studios) picks a random restaurant, recipe or thing to do for you. This policy explains what information the app uses, where it goes, and the choices you have.
On your phone only
These stay on your device and are never sent to us: places you've been, favorites, hidden places, your recipes, recipe ratings, cooking history, weekly meal plan, spin history, settings, and what the app learns about your taste. The one exception is what you choose to put on a public profile (see Public profiles and friends below); with the profile off, none of it leaves your phone. Deleting the app deletes the copies on your phone.
Your location
The app asks for your location only while you're using it. It's used to:
- Find places near you. Your approximate location is sent to Apple Maps to search for nearby restaurants and things to do. Apple handles this under its own privacy policy (apple.com/legal/privacy).
- More things to do. In "What's to Do?", your approximate location (rounded to about 100 m) is also sent to OpenStreetMap's public Overpass service to find parks, trails and similar places, to Wikipedia to find landmarks and museums, and, when turned on, to Ticketmaster to find events near you in the next two days, to Recreation.gov to find campgrounds and trailheads on federal land, and to a town's public event calendar when you are near it (a calendar only receives a request for its public file, not your location). No name, account or ID is sent with these requests. They handle them under their own policies (wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy, foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Privacy_policy, ticketmaster.com/privacy and recreation.gov/privacy).
- Check you in. When you mark a place as "been," your phone compares your location with the place's location to confirm you're there. This check happens on your phone; your location isn't sent anywhere for it.
- Leaderboards (only if you join). See below; only a rounded area of about 10 km is shared.
- Show ratings near you. Your approximate location is used to read other users' ratings of nearby places from the app's iCloud database. It isn't stored.
The app never tracks your location in the background.
Optional features that use other services
Place ratings from app users (on by default; you can turn it off)
When you rate a place you checked in at (stars, a price guess, and up to three "good for" and three "not so good" tags; a written note, if you add one, stays on your phone and is never shared), the rating is added to the app's public iCloud database with the place's name and location. Other users see only totals for each place (average stars, number of ratings, typical price, common tags), never who rated. Your rating is stored under a code derived from your anonymous iCloud identifier and the place (so a reinstall finds the same record), not your name; like all iCloud records it's tied to an anonymous iCloud identifier that only Apple and we, as the developer, can see. Ratings of places you didn't check in at stay on your phone. Turn sharing off in Settings › Leaderboards & sharing and your ratings are removed from the database. We use these totals only to show ratings and to skip low-rated places when you ask the app to.
Extra places, ratings, hours and translations (Google)
The map in the app is always Apple Maps. Google is used only as a backup, and only when the app has a Google key set up:
- When Apple Maps finds very few places near you, your approximate search area and the kinds of places you picked are sent to Google Places to find more.
- When you tap "Google rating & hours" (or turn on "Also check Google"), the name and location of that place, not your own location, are sent to Google Places.
- Place names in other languages may be sent to Google Translate.
No information about you (no name, account or ID) is included. Google's details are kept only while the app is open, never stored with your data or ours. Google handles these requests under its own privacy policy (policies.google.com/privacy). If you choose Google Maps or Waze for directions, the place's location is passed to that app when you tap Directions.
Shared dinners and Pick together (iCloud)
If you invite people to a dinner or send a Pick together link, the dinner is stored in your own iCloud account and shared only with people who have the link. It holds the name and emoji you enter, the dinner or place details, and each person's replies (whether they're coming, what they're bringing, votes, food picks and ratings). We can't see this information. The host can delete a dinner for everyone, and guests can leave at any time. If you send a dinner invite to a friend inside the app, a small record (your nickname and emoji, the dinner's title, emoji and date, and its link) is saved in the app's public iCloud database so it appears under their Dinners; the app deletes it about 12 hours after the dinner.
Public profiles and friends (off unless you turn it on)
If you turn on "Public profile," the app saves a profile in its public iCloud database, so anyone using the app can find you by username, follow you and see it. It holds:
- the nickname, emoji, username and short note (up to 100 characters) you type;
- only the lists you leave switched on: your favorite recipes, the names of your own recipes, your favorite places to eat and things to do (with their addresses), and up to 10 of your recent verified visits with the date;
- a user code derived from your anonymous iCloud identifier, never your Apple ID, email or real name.
Please don't put anything in your nickname or note that you wouldn't want strangers to read. Names and notes are filtered for objectionable words. Your friend code (the QR code on your profile) contains only that user code.
Following someone, or adding someone as a friend, saves a small record of the two anonymous user codes (and, for friends, your nickname and emoji so they can see who added them). Turning "Public profile" off deletes your profile from the database. You can also stop following people or remove friends at any time. Other users can report or block a profile; reports are stored privately and reviewed as described under Leaderboards.
Leaderboards (off unless you turn them on)
- Top cooks and Adventurous: if you join, these are stored in the app's public iCloud database and shown to other app users: the nickname and emoji you choose, your cooking ratings, how many dinners you've hosted, how many places you've checked in at, how many kinds of food you've tried, and your area rounded to about 10 km. It's linked to an anonymous iCloud identifier, never your Apple ID, email or real name.
- Top places: if you turn this on, places you've checked in at are added (the place's name, address and location, and whether it's a favorite). Other users see only the places and how many people checked in, never who. The records are stored under a code derived from your anonymous iCloud identifier and the place, not your name; like all iCloud records they're tied to an anonymous iCloud identifier that only Apple and we, as the developer, can see.
- Turning either one off removes your entries.
- Reports: if you report someone, the report (who reported, who was reported, the reason) is stored privately so we can review it. Other users can't see reports.
- Bans: if we remove someone from the leaderboards for breaking the rules, a small record of that (their anonymous iCloud identifier, the nickname at the time and the reason) is kept so the app can stop them from re-joining. We review reports and act on them within a day.
Tips
Tips are handled entirely by Apple through the App Store. We never see your payment details.
Camera, Calendar, Reminders and notifications
The camera is used only when you tap Scan code to add a friend; nothing it sees is saved or sent. "My day" is a plan you build on your phone. It's stored only on your phone and isn't sent to us or anyone else. If you choose, the app can add a stop to Apple Calendar (the app only gets permission to add events; it can't read your calendar) and to Apple Reminders (the app asks for access to Reminders so it can add a reminder; it adds only what you ask for). It can also send you a notification on your phone before a stop. All of this stays on your phone and in your Apple apps. Recipe timers use iOS alarms or notifications on your phone. You can turn any of these off in your iPhone's Settings.
Usage statistics (on by default; you can turn it off)
To see which parts of the app get used and which don't, the app sends a short summary of each visit to its iCloud database: which buttons and screens were used and for how long, how many spins, how long the visit lasted, the app version, and a random install code made on your phone. It does not include your location, the places you were shown, or anything you typed. Like all iCloud records it is tied to an anonymous iCloud identifier, never your Apple ID, email or real name. We use it only to decide what to improve or cut. Turn it off in Settings › Privacy › "Share usage stats".
Unless you turn off "Send search checks" (on by default), the app sends a record of each search so we can check result accuracy: your search settings, how many places were found, the names and distances of nearby places the search considered, and the one it showed. Turn it off in the same place.
Visit counts for restaurants (on by default; you can turn it off)
Unless you turn off Settings › Visit counts, the app sends, about once a week, a list of the places you picked or visited since the last send: each place's name, address and map position, and how many times you picked it or went. You can also choose an age range, which is sent too. It never sends your name, email, any ID, exact times, or where you are. It goes to a small server we run (on Cloudflare), which keeps it for up to 400 days, not tied to you, and uses it only to show restaurants how many people the app sent them. Turn it off any time in the same place.
What we don't do
- No ads, no third-party analytics or tracking tools, no data brokers. (The app's own anonymous usage summaries are described above and can be turned off.)
- We don't sell or rent any information.
- We don't build profiles about you or track you across other apps or websites.
Children
The app isn't directed at children under 13 and doesn't knowingly collect information from them.
Your choices
- Turn leaderboards, Top places, shared ratings and your public profile on or off any time in the app's Settings (leaderboards, ratings and Top places under Leaderboards & sharing).
- Delete or leave shared dinners in the app.
- Turn off usage statistics and search checks in the app's Settings › Privacy, and visit counts in Settings › Visit counts.
- Remove everything you've shared online with one button in Settings › Privacy: your profile, leaderboard entries, place check-ins and ratings, friend links, follows, in-app invites, reports and usage stats.
- Change location and camera access any time in your iPhone's Settings.
- To ask about or remove anything stored in the app's iCloud database, contact us below.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new date.