Privacy Policy

Who we are

PairPal is made by Chuk's Hut, LLC ("PairPal", "we", "us"). This policy explains what PairPal collects when you use the app and pairpal.me, why, who helps us run it, how long we keep it, and the choices you have.

The short version: we use your information to read menus and recommend wine. We don't sell it, we don't use it for ads, and we don't track you across other apps or websites.

What we collect

• Account: your email address, your name (what you type, or what Sign in with Apple shares), and an account ID we create. If you hide your email with Sign in with Apple, we only see Apple's relay address.
• Taste profile and library: your budget, the wine styles you like, saved pairings, the wines you pick, star ratings and any notes you write.
• Menu scans: what the AI reads from your menu (dishes, wines, prices and the restaurant's name), dishes you type into Quick Pair, and the restaurant you were at.
• Photo location: if "Use photo location" is on (Profile → Privacy) and a menu photo you choose has a location saved in it, we read those coordinates to recognize the restaurant and save them with the scan. They're sent to our mapping provider for the lookup and to Apple's maps service for the street address, never to our AI service providers. Photos taken with PairPal's camera don't include a location, and PairPal never asks for your device's location.
• Menu photos: sent through our server to our AI service providers to be read. PairPal doesn't store your photos.
• AI request records: for each AI request, the time, the kind (menu, pairing or wine research), the model, its size and whether it worked, plus a text copy of the request and the answer (never the photos), which we keep for 30 days.
• App usage and diagnostics: events such as app opens, sign-up and onboarding steps, errors (for example "scan failed: timeout"), your answers on permission screens (such as notifications), and how you found PairPal if you tell us. They come with a random install ID created when you install PairPal, the app version, device model, iOS version, and language, region and time zone settings. Before you sign in they're tied only to the install ID; after that, to your account. They never include the dishes, wines or notes you enter.
• Push token: after you finish setup, PairPal turns on quiet notifications (they appear only in Notification Center until you keep them or turn them off). Apple gives us a token to deliver them, and we store it with your notification setting and whether you asked for occasional tips.
• IP address: when the app talks to our servers, your IP address is used to stop abuse (rate limits whose counters are deleted within 2 days), and our hosting providers keep it briefly in their logs.

We don't collect your contacts, browsing history, health, financial or payment information, or advertising identifiers.

How we use it

• To run PairPal: read menus, recommend wines, research unfamiliar wines, recognize restaurants, sync your library across devices, and send account emails such as confirmations and password resets.
• To personalize: your picks, ratings and taste profile shape future recommendations, like "Picked for You" and "Welcome back" at restaurants you've scanned before.
• To keep it working: find and fix bugs, check the quality of AI answers, see which features get used, apply fair-use limits, and prevent abuse.
• To talk to you: service notifications and reminders (tips only if you ask for them), emails about your account, and replies when you contact us. Occasionally the founder may email you personally to help with a problem or ask for feedback; just reply if you'd rather not hear from us.

We don't sell your personal information, share it for advertising, or use it to track you.

AI services

PairPal uses outside AI service providers to read your menus, suggest wines and research wines, and a mapping provider to recognize restaurants. The providers we use may change over time.

• Our AI service providers receive your menu photos, the dish you pick or type, the wine list, the restaurant's name and address, and your taste profile: budget, preferred styles, and wines you've picked or rated, including past picks at the same restaurant. They may keep these requests for a limited time (up to 30 days) for security and abuse monitoring, then delete them.
• Our mapping provider receives the restaurant's name and, when available, the coordinates from your photo, to recognize the restaurant.
• Requests go through PairPal's server, so these providers don't receive your name, email address or account ID.

AI recommendations can be wrong. Please check with the restaurant about allergies, ingredients and what's actually available, and drink responsibly.

Still on PairPal 1.1? That version sends menu photos and pairing requests from your phone directly to an AI service provider instead of through our server. When "Use photo location" is on and a library photo has a location saved in it, 1.1 also sends those coordinates to that provider for wine research. What this page says about requests going through our server and photo locations never reaching our AI service providers applies from PairPal 1.2 on. Please update to the latest version.

Who can see your data

• You, in the app.
• The PairPal team. PairPal is run by its founder, who can see account, scan and usage information in a private admin console to give support, fix problems, check AI quality and understand how PairPal is used.
• Our service providers (listed below), only to run PairPal for us.
• Other PairPal users can't see your account data. Everyone does share a wine and restaurant database: the wines, prices and dishes read from a restaurant's menu, the restaurant's name, address and approximate location (rounded to about 100 meters), and what we learned researching a wine. It doesn't show who contributed, and it never includes your name, email, ratings or notes. Internally, we record which account added each menu update; that link is removed if the account is deleted.
• We may disclose information if the law requires it or to protect the rights and safety of our users or others. If PairPal is sold or merged, information may transfer to the new owner under this policy.

Service providers

• A hosting and database provider: sign-in, database and server functions (hosted in the United States).
• AI service providers: menu reading, pairings and wine research.
• A mapping provider: recognizing restaurants.
• Apple: Sign in with Apple, push notifications, App Store distribution, and turning a photo's location into a street address (Apple's maps service).
• An email provider: delivers our emails to you, such as confirmations, password resets and replies.
• A web hosting provider: hosts pairpal.me and our private admin console.
• A team messaging service: receives operator alerts that contain no personal information.

The providers we use may change over time. They process data in the United States and may process it in other countries under their own safeguards.

How long we keep it

• Your account, profile, library, scans and restaurants: until you delete your account. Pairings you remove from your library are hidden everywhere and deleted from our servers with your account.
• Menu photos: not stored by PairPal. Our AI service providers may keep them for up to 30 days for security and abuse monitoring.
• Text copies of AI requests and answers: 30 days.
• AI request records (time, kind, model, size, result; no content): until you delete your account.
• App usage and diagnostic events: about 13 months. If you delete your account, they stay linked only to the random install ID.
• Our internal activity feed (for example "a user saved a pick"): 12 months. When you delete your account, your email, name and notes are removed from it.
• Push token: until it stops working (for example, after you uninstall PairPal) or you delete your account. If you sign out, it stays with this install but is no longer linked to your account.
• Abuse-prevention counters keyed by IP address: 2 days.
• The shared wine and restaurant database: kept while it's useful. It isn't linked to you once your account is deleted.

Copies may remain in our providers' backups and logs for a limited time before they're overwritten.

Your choices and rights

• Photo location: turn off "Use photo location" in Profile → Privacy.
• Notifications: turn them off, or switch quiet notifications to alerts, in iOS Settings → PairPal → Notifications.
• Tips: turn "Send me the occasional tip" on or off in Profile → Privacy.
• Your profile and library: edit your profile anytime and remove pairings from your library.
• Delete your account: Profile → Delete Account. This immediately deletes your account and everything linked to it on our servers, including your profile, library, ratings, notes, scans, restaurants, AI request records and push token. It also removes your library, profile and cached menus from this phone. Signing in to a different account on this phone removes the previous account's data from it.
• Access, correction, a copy of your data, or anything else: email us at support@chukshut.com. Depending on where you live (for example the EU, the UK or California), you may have more rights, such as objecting to some uses or complaining to your data protection authority. We'll respond as the law requires.

Security

Data travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS). In our database, your personal data can be read only by your account (and by the PairPal team, as described above); the shared wine and restaurant database is readable by every signed-in user. No system is perfectly secure, so we can't promise absolute security.

Children

PairPal is about wine and is meant for adults of legal drinking age where they live. It isn't directed at children, and we don't knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you think a child has given us information, email us and we'll delete it.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top.

Contact

Chuk's Hut, LLC
support@chukshut.com