Privacy Policy

PlatePost turns a restaurant's menu into a video menu that guests can watch on a table QR code, a TV, a tablet, or a link in bio. This policy explains what we collect, why, and what you can ask us to do about it.

Two different people read this page. A restaurant is someone who signs up, pays for a plan, and manages a menu. A guest is someone who scans a QR code at a table and looks at a menu without ever making an account. Each section below says which one it applies to.

What we collect from restaurants

When you create an account or subscribe to a plan, we collect:

• Account details — your name, email address, restaurant name, and locations.
• Menu content you send us — PDFs, photos, links, dish names, descriptions, prices, and dietary tags.
• Billing details — handled by Stripe. Card numbers never reach PlatePost's servers; we store only the subscription status, plan, and the last four digits Stripe reports back.
• Support correspondence — emails and messages you send us.

If you connect Instagram (PlatePost Cut)

PlatePost Cut lets a restaurant connect its own Instagram business or creator account, through Instagram's own login, so we can use the restaurant's videos as footage for the reels we edit for it. Connecting is optional; you can send clips instead.

• What we read: your Instagram username and account ID, and your own posts' videos and their dates. We copy those videos into your private PlatePost Cut studio so our editors can work from them.
• What we keep: an access token from Instagram, stored on our servers and never shown in the browser, so we can pull new videos when you ask. Instagram tokens expire after about 60 days.
• What we never do: post, comment, message or change anything on your account without your say-so, or read anyone else's account.
• Removing it: disconnect PlatePost from your Instagram settings (Settings → Apps and websites) at any time. When Instagram tells us, we delete the token and account link right away. To have the copied videos deleted too, email us.

What we collect from guests

You do not need an account, an app, or a login to look at a PlatePost menu. We deliberately keep this list short:

• Anonymous menu activity: which dishes were opened and for how long, whether a dish's video played, which dietary or allergen filters were switched on, which menu section was jumped to, what was typed into the menu's search box, which language the menu was read in, and taps on order, share, and directions buttons. If you start an order and pay through the restaurant's own checkout, we also note whether that order was completed and its total — not your name, phone number, or card. This is what powers the analytics a restaurant sees, including an anonymous step-by-step view of a visit. A random ID is kept in your browser so a return visit to the same menu counts as the same guest rather than a new one; it is not a cookie, is not tied to a name or an email, and is never shared with advertisers.
• On some restaurants' menus, a recording of how the menu was used — the scrolls, the taps, and what was on the screen — so the restaurant can see where guests get stuck and improve its menu. Anything you type is always hidden before it leaves your phone, checkout and payment pages are never recorded, recordings are kept in our own systems (no outside recording service), only that restaurant and PlatePost can view them, and they are deleted after 30 days. Nothing is recorded if your browser sends the Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal.
• Basic request data your browser sends to any website — IP address, browser type, and referring page — used to serve the page, and for security and abuse prevention.
• Messages you type into the on-menu AI assistant, so it can answer you and so we can improve its answers. Please don't type anything sensitive into it.
• If you order through a menu that takes orders directly, the name, phone number, and optional email you give so the restaurant can fulfil the order; and if you enter a menu's games or rewards, the email you choose to leave. These are shared with that restaurant and no one else.
• Aggregate traffic measurement via Vercel Analytics, which does not use cookies and does not build a cross-site profile of you.
• On PlatePost's own website (not restaurant menus), our own visit measurement: which pages were viewed, roughly how far down they were read, which buttons were pressed, the site that sent you, and your country and device type. A random ID is kept in your browser so a return visit counts as the same visitor rather than a new one. It is not a cookie, is not tied to a name or an email, and is never shared with advertisers. Clearing your browser's site data removes it.
• On PlatePost Cut's pages (platepost.io/cut), which is where our own ads send people, we also use Meta's advertising pixel. It tells Meta that a visit came from one of our ads and whether it led to starting a free reel or paying, so we can see which ads work and Meta can show them to similar businesses. Meta may use a cookie for this and links it to your Meta account if you have one. It is not used on restaurant menus or anywhere else on PlatePost, and it never runs if your browser sends the Global Privacy Control signal. We also remember which ad or tagged link first brought a restaurant to PlatePost Cut, in our own records only.

We do not sell guest data, we do not share it with advertising networks, and we do not use it to build cross-site advertising profiles. We may publish or share statistics that are aggregated across many restaurants and many thousands of visits — for example, how often diners across a city filter a menu for gluten-free dishes — and those statistics never identify a guest, a visit, or a restaurant.

Allergen and dietary information

Dietary tags and allergen labels shown on a menu come from the restaurant, and the restaurant is responsible for keeping them accurate. PlatePost's AI features can help draft them, but a tag is not a medical guarantee.

If you have a food allergy, always tell the restaurant's staff directly. Do not rely on a menu screen alone.

Who we share data with

We use a small set of vendors to run the product. They only receive what they need to do their job, and they are not permitted to use it for their own purposes:

• Vercel — website and application hosting, plus cookieless traffic analytics.
• Convex — the database that stores accounts, menus, and menu activity.
• Stripe — payment processing and subscription billing.
• UploadThing — storage and delivery of menu photos and videos.
• Resend — transactional email, such as sign-in codes and receipts.
• Meta (Instagram) — if a restaurant connects its Instagram to PlatePost Cut, and the advertising pixel on PlatePost Cut's pages; see above.
• Google — place search and business details when you look up your restaurant.
• Mapbox — the maps shown on discovery and directions features.
• Anthropic — the AI models behind the guest assistant and the owner assistant.
• UserWay — an accessibility widget offered on some restaurant menus.
• Cal.com — scheduling, if you book a call with us.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect the safety, rights, or property of PlatePost, our customers, or the public. If PlatePost is ever acquired or merges with another company, account data may transfer as part of that transaction; we would notify restaurant accounts before it took effect.

How long we keep things

Account and menu content is kept for as long as your account is active, and for a reasonable period afterwards so a menu can be restored if you come back. Billing records are kept as long as tax and accounting rules require.

Anonymous menu activity is summarised into daily totals per restaurant. The individual event records behind those totals are deleted after 400 days; the totals, which cannot be traced back to a visit, are kept so a restaurant can compare year to year.

Visit recordings, on the menus that have them, are deleted automatically 30 days after the visit.

Your choices

Restaurants can view, correct, export, or delete their account and menu content at any time from the dashboard, or by emailing us.

Guests can ask what we hold about them and ask us to delete it, though in most cases guest activity is already anonymous and cannot be traced back to a person. Email support@platepost.io either way.

Depending on where you live — California, the wider United States, the UK, or the EU — you may have additional rights to access, correct, delete, or restrict the use of your personal information, and to complain to a data protection regulator. We honour these requests regardless of where you live, rather than checking your jurisdiction first.

We do not sell personal information. The Meta pixel on PlatePost Cut's pages may count as "sharing" for advertising under California law; to opt out, turn on the Global Privacy Control signal in your browser, and that pixel will not run. With that signal on, restaurant menus also record no activity from your visit at all. You can also email us to opt out.

Security

Data is encrypted in transit, access to production systems is limited to people who need it, and payment card details are handled entirely by Stripe and never stored on our servers. No system is perfectly secure, and we won't claim otherwise — if a breach ever affects your information, we will tell you.

Children

PlatePost is a product sold to restaurants and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Changes to this policy

If we make a material change we will update the date at the top of this page and, for changes that affect restaurant accounts, email the account owner. Continuing to use PlatePost after a change means you accept the updated policy.

Contact us

Questions about this policy, or a request about your data: support@platepost.io.