Privacy Policy

Chowdar is a Houston restaurant and food-event app made by TTI One, LLC, a Texas limited liability company ("we," "us"). This policy explains what the Chowdar iPhone app (the "App") collects, what stays on your phone and in your own iCloud, and the choices you have.

1. What stays on your iPhone and in your iCloud

The following is kept in the App's storage on your iPhone and, if iCloud is on, in your own private iCloud storage, which Apple keeps for your Apple ID and syncs to your other devices signed in to it. It's private to your Apple ID. We can't see it:

• Restaurants and events you save, and the lists you make, including award lists you save
• Your Logbook: places you've visited, with the dates, ratings, notes, and photos you add
• Articles you've opened
• Places you've hidden and events you've passed on
• Event reminders you set
• Your last 10 searches typed in the App's search
• The name you choose to be greeted by (optional)
• Your settings and preferences, such as nearby-event alerts, your maps app, how search results are shown, and the cuisines you use most
• When your free Premium trial started, so reinstalling the App doesn't restart it

Deleting the App removes the copy on your phone. The copy in your iCloud stays until you delete it in iPhone Settings › your name › iCloud, where Chowdar is listed among the apps storing data in iCloud. You can also turn off iCloud for Chowdar there; the App then keeps your data on your phone only.

2. Location

If you allow it, the App uses your location to show nearby spots and distances, to pick what's open around you right now, and, if you turn on nearby-event alerts, to tell you when a food event is happening close by. All of this happens on your phone. The App does not send your location to our servers, and we don't store or share it.

You can choose "While Using the App," "Always" (needed only for nearby-event alerts while the App is closed), or "Never," and change it any time in iPhone Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services › Chowdar. The App works without location; you just won't see distances.

3. Notifications

Chowdar's notifications (event reminders, nearby-event alerts, and a reminder the day before your free Premium trial ends) are created on your phone. We don't run a push-notification service and don't collect a push token. You can turn notifications off in iPhone Settings.

4. Talking to our servers

To keep its restaurant and event listings current, the App downloads them from our servers. Those requests ask for listings only. They contain no account, no name, no location, and no advertising or device identifier. Like any internet service, our hosting providers receive your IP address and basic request details (time, what was requested) in standard server logs, which we use only to keep the service running and secure.

Photos in the App are loaded from where they're hosted, which may include restaurant websites and other image hosts. As with any web image, those hosts see your IP address when the photo loads.

5. Chowdar Premium

Subscriptions are sold and billed by Apple through your Apple ID. We never receive your name, email, or payment details. The App checks your subscription on your device using Apple's signed purchase records, and Apple handles purchase data under Apple's Privacy Policy. Because your subscription belongs to your Apple ID, it carries over to a new iPhone without an account.

New users get Chowdar Premium free for their first 7 days. The trial is run by the App: no purchase, payment details, or sign-up is involved, and nothing is charged when it ends. The App keeps the trial's start date with your other data (section 1).

6. Crash reports and statistics

If you've chosen to share analytics with app developers in iPhone Settings, Apple may give us crash reports and aggregate usage statistics. These don't identify you. The App contains no third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking code.

7. When you leave the App

Some taps open other apps and websites: Maps for directions, a restaurant's website, Instagram, a reservation or ticketing service, or a news article. Sharing a spot uses the iPhone share sheet, and we don't see what you share or with whom. Once you leave Chowdar, that service's own privacy policy applies.

8. Restaurant and event information

The listings in Chowdar (hours, ratings, photos, news coverage, events) are about businesses, not about you. We gather them from publicly available sources such as map listings, restaurant websites, local news and food publications, public social media posts, and event listings. Information only flows in; we don't send anything about you to those sources.

9. Sharing and selling

We don't sell or rent personal information, and we don't share it for advertising. We'd disclose information only if the law requires it or to protect the safety, rights, or property of our users, the public, or us. Since we hold almost nothing about you, there is very little to disclose.

10. Keeping and deleting data

Your Chowdar data lives on your phone and in your own iCloud, so you control it: change it in the App, delete the App to remove it from your phone, and delete it from iCloud in iPhone Settings (section 1). There is no account to close. Server logs are kept only as long as needed to run and secure the service and are then deleted.

11. Your choices and rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask what personal information we hold about you, or to ask us to delete it. Email us at the address below and we'll answer. In most cases the honest answer will be that we don't hold any.

12. Children

Chowdar is not directed to children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from them.

13. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If a change is significant, for example if we ever start collecting something new, we'll tell you in the App before it takes effect.

14. Contact

TTI One, LLC
701 Tillery St, Ste 12 #B290
Austin, TX 78702
ilovetoeat@chowdar.com