Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Sahtein Eats is operated by [Company legal name], a company registered in [Emirate], United Arab Emirates, under trade licence number [number], with its address at [registered address]. We are responsible for your personal data under the UAE Personal Data Protection Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021).

You can reach us about privacy at media@sahteineats.com.

2. What we collect

Information you give us:

• Account details: your email address and password (stored only in scrambled, hashed form).
• Profile: display name, handle, photo, bio, preferred language and home region.
• Bookings: the restaurant, date, time, party size, booking code and booking status.
• Reviews, review photos, lists and the people you follow or block.
• Messages you send to support, such as a request to change your email address.

Information collected when you use the app:

• Location, only if you allow it and only while you use features like Near Me or the map. We use it to sort and filter restaurants by distance; we don't store it with your account or track you in the background.
• Device details for notifications: a push notification token and your device type.
• Technical data: IP address, app version and error reports, used to keep the service secure and working.

Payments are handled by Stripe. Your card number goes straight to Stripe and is never stored by us. We keep a record of each payment (amount, date and receipt number).

3. How we use it

• To run your account and your bookings, and to send booking confirmations, receipts and reminders.
• To show your reviews, lists and (if you choose to share them) your visits to other diners.
• To award points and tiers for your visits and reviews.
• To recommend restaurants based on where you've booked before.
• To prevent fraud, spam and abuse, for example by limiting repeated requests and removing reported content.
• To send offers and news, only if you turn on Offers in your notification settings.
• To meet our legal, tax and accounting obligations.

4. What other people can see

Your display name, handle, photo, bio, tier, reviews and public lists can be seen by other diners. If you make your profile private, you won't appear in people search and new followers need your approval; your reviews still appear on restaurant pages.

Your visits only appear in your followers' feeds if you turn on visit sharing, and then only the date, never the time.

When you book, the restaurant sees your display name, party size, booking time and booking code. Restaurants never see your email address or payment details.

5. Who we share it with

We don't sell your personal data. We share it only with:

• The restaurant you book with, as described above.
• Service providers who run parts of Sahtein Eats for us, under contracts that limit their use of your data: hosting and storage [hosting provider; Cloudflare], payments (Stripe), email delivery [email provider], push notifications (Expo, Apple and Google), and error monitoring [Sentry].
• An AI service [Anthropic] that reads the text of public reviews to list popular dishes. It receives review text only, not your name or contact details.
• Authorities, when the law requires it, or to protect the safety of our users and our rights.

6. Where your data is stored

Our servers are located in [region, e.g. the European Union]. Some of our service providers process data in other countries. When your data leaves the UAE, we use the safeguards required by UAE law.

7. How long we keep it

We keep your account data until you delete your account. When you do, we delete your profile, reviews, photos, lists, follows, points and devices. Booking and payment records are kept without your name or email for [number] years, because tax and accounting rules require it. Server logs are kept for up to [number] days.

8. Your rights and choices

• See and correct your details in the app under Profile → Edit Profile.
• Delete your account at any time from Profile → Delete Account, or by emailing us (see sahteineats.com/delete-account).
• Ask for a copy of your data, or object to how we use it, by emailing media@sahteineats.com.
• Turn notifications and offers on or off in the app's settings, and switch off location access in your phone's settings.
• Make your profile private, and block people you don't want to interact with.

If you're not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the UAE Data Office.

9. Security

We use encrypted connections (HTTPS), hashed passwords, email verification codes and limits on repeated sign-in attempts. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a strong password that you don't use elsewhere.

10. Children

Sahtein Eats is for people aged [18] and over. We don't knowingly collect data from children; if you believe a child has an account, contact us and we'll delete it.

11. Changes to this policy

We'll post any changes here and update the date above. If a change is significant, we'll also tell you in the app or by email.

12. Contact us

Email media@sahteineats.com, or write to [Company legal name], [registered address].