What FoodFindr does

FoodFindr helps people discover nearby live street food vendors and other local informal sellers. Users can browse listings, follow sellers, receive alerts, share posts, message vendors, submit safety reports, and block accounts. Sellers can publish a profile and menu and go live with photos or videos and listing details.

Information we collect

• account and anonymous guest identifiers
• approximate or precise device location
• push notification tokens
• photos and videos added to posts, messages, profiles, menus, and live listings
• post captions, menu items and prices, vendor profile details, and direct-message content
• menu photos submitted for automated text extraction and the menu information extracted from them
• community reports like Still here, Moved, Closed, Long line, Cash only, and Sold out
• product activity such as vendor cards shown, listing opens, engaged viewing time, map selections, filters, shares, follows, directions taps, likely arrival, and likely dwell
• device diagnostics and crash information

Posts, messages, menus, and safety

Posts and vendor profiles are visible to other FoodFindr users. Direct messages and their attachments are available only to conversation participants and authorized service providers that operate FoodFindr. Menu photos may be processed to suggest item names, categories, descriptions, and prices; vendors review those suggestions before publishing.

When you report a post, message, listing, photo, or account, we store the reported item, reason, reporter identifier, and review status so the FoodFindr team can investigate. Blocking an account hides its posts and prevents direct messaging between the two accounts.

How we use location

We use location to show nearby vendors during an active live session, calculate live-only distance, keep a seller's live pin current in the background while that seller is actively live, support directions and likely arrival analytics, and give more weight to some community reports when the reporter is physically near an active listing.

When a seller starts a live session, the location they choose is shown to other FoodFindr users as an exact map pin only while that session remains actively live. When the vendor is not live, FoodFindr does not show a public pin or distance for that vendor. Sellers should only go live at a location where they are comfortable being found by shoppers.

If a seller enables background live updates, FoodFindr collects precise location while the app is in the background or not visible solely to keep that seller-started live pin current. Background collection is not started for shoppers or inactive vendors. While stationary, FoodFindr normally sends a keepalive about every five minutes; movement may produce an earlier update. If FoodFindr cannot verify a successful live-location signal for 15 minutes, the public pin, distance, and directions are hidden. This is a safety timeout, not a recurring notification to the seller.

Background collection stops when the seller ends the live session, the required end time is reached, location permission is removed, the seller signs out, the listing or account is deleted, or the app can no longer verify the same active live session. Force-quitting the app, loss of network access, power-saving behavior, or other platform restrictions may also stop or delay updates. FoodFindr does not use background location for advertising.

Shared FoodFindr links contain a listing identifier rather than map coordinates. The app checks the current live state before showing a pin or directions.

Product activity and personalization

We use product activity to understand how FoodFindr works and which vendors or food categories may be useful to you. We may use per-user vendor and category interest summaries to personalize ordering and recommendations inside FoodFindr.

FoodFindr does not put raw search text, arbitrary taps, advertising identifiers, or a history of precise coordinates in the product analytics log. We do not use this activity for cross-app advertising tracking.

Retention and service providers

Raw product activity is retained for up to 13 months. Posts, messages, profiles, menus, reports, and uploaded media remain while needed to provide the service, address safety issues, or meet legal obligations. Derived vendor and food-category interest summaries remain until the account is deleted or they are no longer needed. We may disclose data to service providers that process hosting, media storage, menu-photo extraction, notifications, crash monitoring, and support for FoodFindr.

Your choices

You can control location and notification permissions in your phone settings. You can delete your account and associated content from Settings in the app, or request access, correction, deletion, or privacy help through privacy@getfoodfindr.com.