NoshGrid Privacy Policy

1. Overview

This Privacy Policy describes how NoshGrid LLC, an Illinois limited liability company ("NoshGrid," "we," "us," or "our"), collects, uses, and shares information when you use the NoshGrid website at noshgrid.com, the NoshGrid mobile and web applications, and related services (collectively, the "Service").

By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information as described in this Policy. This Policy is part of, and should be read together with, our Terms & Conditions.

2. Information You Provide

• Account information. When you create an account we collect your email address, a password (stored only as a cryptographic hash by our authentication provider — we never see or store your plain-text password), and a public username that you choose. You may also enable optional email two-factor authentication, which we record as a preference.
• Content you submit. Deals, business listings, comments, votes, expired-deal marks, reports, restaurants you follow, and deals you save or hide are stored with your account.
• Invitations. Your account includes a personal invite code you can share with friends. If someone creates an account using your code, we record the connection between the two accounts so we can award invite rewards; the inviter can see the public username of each person who joins with their code. We never access your device's contact list — invitations are shared through your device's own sharing tools.
• Payment information. If you purchase a paid feature (such as a featured deal slot), payment is handled by a third-party payment processor. We receive confirmation of the transaction and subscription status, but never your full card number.
• Communications. If you contact us, we keep the correspondence and the information in it.

3. Information Collected Automatically

Like most online services, our infrastructure providers automatically log technical information when you use the Service, such as your IP address, device and browser type, operating system, timestamps, and the actions you take. We use browser local storage (or on-device storage in the app) to keep you signed in and to remember settings such as a manually chosen location. This strictly necessary storage is always active because the Service cannot function without it.

Analytics. To understand how the Service is used and to improve it, we use both our own first-party analytics and a small number of third-party analytics and product-analytics providers that process this information as our service providers, under our instructions. This analytics pairs a random identifier stored on your device with the actions you take (for example, opening a deal, running a search, or sharing one) and technical information such as your device type and approximate location. One of these providers also records session replays — a play-back of the pages you view and the taps, clicks, and scrolling you perform on them — configured to mask what you type, so the contents of fields such as passwords and search boxes are not captured. We do not sell this information, and we do not use it for third-party advertising or to track you across other companies' websites. The analytics providers we currently use are listed at the end of this section; where a provider is configured to honor a browser "Do Not Track" signal, we respect it.

Actions without an account. Some actions do not require an account — for example, on the website you can upvote a deal while signed out. When you do, we store a random device identifier together with the deal you voted on, so each device's vote is counted once. This identifier is not linked to your name or email.

Consent and your choices. Where required by law — including for visitors in the United Kingdom, the European Economic Area, and Switzerland — we ask for your consent before any analytics (first- or third-party) is enabled, and it stays off unless you accept. Elsewhere it is on by default. On the website you can change or withdraw your choice at any time under Account → Cookie preferences; withdrawing consent stops future analytics collection.

If you follow a link from the Service to a third-party website (including an affiliate link), that site may collect information about you and set its own cookies under its own privacy policy; we do not control third-party sites.

Analytics providers we currently use:

• Google Analytics (Google LLC), for aggregate usage measurement — https://policies.google.com/privacy.
• PostHog, for product analytics and session replay — https://posthog.com/privacy.

4. Location Information

Finding nearby deals is the core of the Service, and it uses your location in one of two ways:

• Device location. With your permission, we read your device's location to find deals near you. You can decline or revoke this permission at any time in your device or browser settings.
• Manual location. You may instead type a location; it is saved on your device so the app remembers it.
• Approximate location from your IP address. When you first visit the website and have not granted device-location permission, we may estimate your city from your IP address (through our hosting provider) so we can show nearby deals right away, and to determine whether we are required to ask for your analytics consent. This estimate is approximate and is used for that visit; we do not keep a server-side history of it.

Your coordinates are sent with each nearby-deals request so distances can be computed. We do not maintain a server-side history of your locations.

5. How We Use Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide and operate the Service — showing deals near you, posting your content, counting votes, awarding points and badges, and managing subscriptions.
• Secure the Service — authenticating you, sending login and password-reset codes, detecting fraud, spam, and vote manipulation, and enforcing our Terms & Conditions.
• Communicate with you — service messages such as verification codes, security notices, and responses to your inquiries. With your consent, we may also send you optional marketing communications such as deal alerts and newsletters; every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link.
• Improve the Service — understanding usage, fixing errors, and developing features.
• Comply with legal obligations.

6. What Is Public

NoshGrid is a community platform, and some information is visible to everyone, including people without accounts: your username, the deals and business listings you post, your comments, and aggregate community activity (such as vote totals) on content.

Your email address is never displayed publicly, and usernames cannot be email addresses. Please do not include personal information you want kept private in deals, comments, or other public content.

7. How We Share Information

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with third parties for their advertising. We share information only:

• With service providers who process it to run the Service on our behalf — database, authentication, and email-delivery infrastructure; web hosting; payment processing; and map tile providers (loading a map shares your IP address and the map area you view with the tile provider).
• For legal reasons — when we believe disclosure is required by law or legal process, or is necessary to protect the rights, safety, or property of NoshGrid, our users, or the public.
• In a business transfer — if NoshGrid is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction.
• With your consent or at your direction.

8. Data Retention

We keep your information for as long as your account exists. If your account is deleted, your profile and personal identifiers are removed. Public contributions may remain in the Service in a form disassociated from your identity (for example, a posted deal whose author account no longer exists), and residual copies may persist in backups for a limited period before being purged.

9. Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational safeguards to protect your information, including encryption in transit, hashed passwords, optional two-factor authentication, and database access rules that limit each account to its own private data. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, however, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

10. Your Choices and Rights

• Location. You can revoke location permission at any time in your device or browser settings and use a manually entered location instead.
• Two-factor authentication. You can enable or disable email 2FA on your Account screen.
• Marketing emails. You can opt out of any marketing email via its unsubscribe link at any time. Service messages (such as login codes and security notices) are sent regardless, because they are required to operate your account.
• Account deletion. You can permanently delete your account and associated personal information at any time from the Account screen ("Delete account"). Deletion is immediate and cannot be undone; deals you posted remain as community content but are no longer linked to you. You may also request deletion by contacting us at the address below.
• Access and correction. You may contact us to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you or to correct it (including your username).

Depending on where you live, you may have additional legal rights regarding your personal information, such as access, correction, deletion, portability, or objection to certain processing. To exercise them, contact us at the address below. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any privacy right.

11. Children's Privacy

The Service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If we learn that a child under 13 has created an account, we will delete it and the associated information. If you believe a child has provided us personal information, please contact us.

12. International Users

The Service is operated from the United States, and information is processed and stored on servers in the United States. If you use the Service from outside the United States, you understand that your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States, where data protection laws may differ from those in your jurisdiction.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will post the updated version with a new effective date, and for material changes we may provide additional notice in the app. Your continued use of the Service after an updated Policy takes effect means the updated Policy applies to you.

14. Contact

Questions or requests about this Privacy Policy or your personal information should be sent to: legal@noshgrid.com.