Dish beta participation & privacy

Share real experiences

Review only dishes or restaurants you personally tried. Choose your honest 0–10 rating. Do not copy someone else's review, invent visits, post private information about others, harass people or manipulate rankings. Declare restaurant relationships to Matt; connected reviews must not masquerade as independent recommendations.

Join with your own email

Registration is open to everyone; no invitation code is needed. Verify your email with a one-time code, then sign in with your password. No phone number or SMS is required. New contributors' reviews await moderation. Registration does not grant administrator, restaurant-management or approved-contributor privileges.

What other people can see

Anyone can browse Dish. Your display name, published review text, photos, rating and meal timing appear with reviews. Your email, phone, password and private account details do not. Published reviews are public and can be screenshotted. Withdraw a review from My Reviews to remove its public display. Revision and moderation history are retained internally.

How account information is used

Email supports verification and password recovery; sign-in uses your password. Previously supplied phone details remain private and are not used for authentication or texting. Administrators access account details for support and moderation. When activated, hosting and email services process the information necessary to operate those features. Dish uses session/security cookies. It does not currently enable advertising analytics, contacts imports or background location tracking.

Review photos and drafts

Add photos you took or have permission to share. Avoid personal information and photos of other people without their permission. Photos belong to the diner’s review; they are not official restaurant images. Uploading grants no transfer of your ownership. New contributors’ photos await moderation. Use Report to send a review or photo concern to administrators; reports do not automatically remove content. Supported native versions also let signed-in diners block another diner’s reviews.

Dish removes location metadata and re-encodes uploads into display images and thumbnails. Raw uploads are removed after processing. Optional local drafts last up to seven days and are removed on successful submission, explicit discard or sign-out. Browser restrictions can require you to reselect images. Native drafts stay in app-private storage for the signed-in account; device backup settings may also govern your app data.

Staged server photos expire after seven days. Removed or hidden photos lose public access immediately; withdrawn reviews also stop serving photos publicly. Historical image files become eligible for manual cleanup after a 30-day private recovery window, except photos still used by a current published or pending review. Cleanup is not yet scheduled, so deletion may occur later; administrators must verify a complete backup before cleanup. Backup copies require separate controlled deletion. Revision text and moderation records remain internal. Images already downloaded or screenshotted by others cannot be recalled.

Account removal and support

Withdrawing a review is not account deletion. Supported native versions offer account deletion from Account after current-password confirmation. Deletion disables access, anonymizes the account, withdraws public reviews and revokes review photos. Immutable anonymized integrity, audit and moderation records remain private. Backup copies require separate retention and deletion handling. A dedicated public support channel and final age/access policy are still being established.

Public beta update, September 20, 2026. This describes the current implementation and remaining policy work; it is not a claim of legal compliance or a finalized privacy policy.