1. Who We Are
DishNear ("we," "us") operates the DishNear mobile application, a platform connecting home cooks with nearby customers. This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, and your rights regarding it.
2. Information We Collect
Account information: name, and the email address you use to sign in.
Location information: your approximate location, used to show you nearby cooks or customers within your selected search radius.
- Cook location is deliberately made less precise, by up to 1km, before being stored — we never store or display your precise address.
- Customer location is not stored as a location. It is used only in-session, on your device, to filter search results by distance. Only an approximate location area is recorded on analytics events, as described below.
Profile and listing content: your profile photo, cook bio, dish photos, descriptions, ingredients, allergen and dietary information you provide, and your kitchen's specialties.
Order and transaction information: orders placed, order status, order history, and (for Cooks) your platform credit balance and transaction history.
Messages: chat messages sent between Cooks and Customers, scoped to a specific order. Messages are retained for approximately 3 years after an order is completed or cancelled, as a working retention policy that may be revised as the Platform grows. Messages may contain personal information you choose to share directly with the other party — such as your address, phone number, or social media details — that goes beyond what DishNear itself collects or requires. This is disclosed entirely at your own discretion; DishNear does not monitor, control, filter, or take responsibility for information voluntarily shared between users within chat, and recommends you do not share more personal information than is necessary to arrange your order. The standard security measures described in Section 5 apply to message content in the same way as any other information we store, but DishNear takes on no additional monitoring or safeguarding obligation specifically because of what a user chooses to include in a message.
Ratings and reviews: star ratings and written feedback you give or receive.
Payment information: credit purchases are made through the app store you use to install DishNear, using that store's own in-app purchase system — DishNear does not process payment directly. We store only the resulting purchase and transaction identifiers (such as a transaction or subscription reference and the product purchased) needed to confirm a purchase and apply the correct credits to your account. We do not receive, process, or store your card number, bank details, or any other payment instrument — that information is held entirely by the app store and, where applicable, your device's own payment system.
Device and push notification information: a device push token (used to send you order and message notifications via standard mobile push notification services), and basic device information needed to deliver notifications reliably.
Usage and analytics information: app usage events (such as searches, dish views, and orders placed), which may include an approximate location area, recorded without any address or suburb name. Used to understand demand and improve the Platform. Event-level data is retained for approximately 12 months; aggregated, non-personal demand trends may be retained longer.
3. How We Use Your Information
We use the information above to:
- operate the core functionality of the Platform (search, listings, orders, chat, ratings, notifications);
- process platform fees and, for Cooks, manage credit balances and top-ups;
- send you order-related and account-related notifications;
- maintain the safety and integrity of the Platform, including detecting abuse;
- understand aggregate demand patterns to help Cooks and improve the Platform (e.g. which dishes are searched for in an area);
- comply with our legal obligations.
We do not sell your personal information to third parties.
4. Who We Share Information With
Other users: your profile name, cook name (if applicable), ratings, dish listings, and approximate (not exact) location are visible to other users of the Platform as part of normal operation. Messages are visible only to the Cook and Customer on that specific order.
Service providers, who process data on our behalf to help operate the Platform — including database hosting and storage, payment processing, and push notification delivery. Some of these providers host or process data outside Australia, including in Japan and the United States.
Legal requirements: we may disclose information if required by law, or to protect the rights, safety, or property of DishNear, our users, or the public.
5. Data Storage and Security
Your information is stored on servers hosted in Japan. Purchase and transaction information relating to in-app purchases is also processed in the United States, by the app store's own systems. This means your information is transferred to, and in some cases stored in, jurisdictions outside Australia.
We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including database access controls (Row Level Security) and encrypted connections. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
6. Your Rights and Choices
Subject to applicable law, you may:
- access and correct the personal information we hold about you, primarily through your in-app profile settings;
- request deletion of your account and associated data, subject to information we are required to retain for legal, safety, or transaction record-keeping purposes (such as past order and rating history, which benefits other users);
- opt out of push notifications via your device settings;
- contact us with any privacy question or complaint at contact@dishnear.com.
7. Location Data — Specific Notes
We treat location data with particular care given its sensitivity:
- Cook location is made less precise at the point of storage, not merely at display time — the precise address is never written to our database in the first place.
- Precision below approximately 1km has no functional purpose in DishNear, since pickup logistics are arranged via in-app chat, not GPS navigation.
- Customer location is not stored as a location on our servers, only used in-session to filter search results. An approximate location area is recorded on analytics events, subject to the 12-month retention in Section 2.
8. Children's Privacy
DishNear is not intended for use by children under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under this age.
9. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be notified in-app. Continued use of the Platform after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
10. Contact Us
Questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, or requests regarding your personal information, can be directed to contact@dishnear.com.