Privacy Policy

We do not ask for an account, email address, name, or any other personal identifier. The only data automatically created on our backend is:

• Anonymous user ID: A random identifier issued by Firebase Authentication when the app starts. It is not linked to your name, email, phone, or device. It exists so we can count distinct visits without tracking you.
• Per-restaurant view records: When you open a restaurant detail page, the app writes a small record under that restaurant keyed by your anonymous user ID, containing only the timestamp and a count. We use it to show how many distinct visitors a restaurant has had, never to build a profile of you. Because the record is indexed only by a randomly-issued anonymous ID, we cannot tie it back to your name, email, or device.
• First-party usage telemetry: Firebase Analytics records the screen name as you move between Map / Settings / restaurant detail, and a small set of action events (open a restaurant, change theme or language, apply a filter). The only payloads are restaurant IDs and short route strings — never restaurant names, your search queries, or your GPS coordinates. Firebase Crashlytics records crash stack traces if the app crashes. Both are tagged with the same anonymous user ID above so we can size unique installs and triage crashes per install. Nothing in either feed identifies you personally.

• No advertising SDKs and no third-party analytics SDKs (no Google Analytics, no Facebook SDK, etc.). The first-party Firebase Analytics + Crashlytics described above are the only telemetry, and they never receive your name, email, GPS, or search queries.
• No third-party trackers, fingerprinting, or cross-app identifiers.
• No contacts, photos, microphone, or camera access.
• No purchase, payment, or financial information — the app is free and contains no in-app purchases.

If you tap the “my location” button on the map, the app asks the operating system for your current location and renders a dot on the map. Your coordinates stay on your device — they are never uploaded to our servers, written to Firestore, or shared with any third party. You can deny or revoke the permission at any time in your device settings; the rest of the app works without it.

Theme (light/dark) and language preference are stored locally using the operating system’s standard preferences storage. They never leave your device.

Restaurant entries (name, address, photos, opening hours, tags) are submitted by community contributors via our public GitHub repository, reviewed, and published. They are not personal data and they are public by design — anyone can read them on the map.

• Firebase (Google LLC): hosts the restaurant database (Cloud Firestore), issues anonymous IDs (Firebase Authentication), and processes the limited usage telemetry and crash reports described in section 1 (Firebase Analytics, Firebase Crashlytics). See Firebase’s privacy policy.
• Map providers: Google Maps on Android and Apple MapKit on iOS render the base map. They may load tiles and process the map view region locally on your device per their own privacy policies (Google, Apple).

The app is suitable for all ages and is not specifically directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from children.

The anonymous ID and view counters live in Cloud Firestore. Because they are not linked to you, we cannot “delete your data” on request — there is nothing personal to delete. Uninstalling the app discards the local anonymous ID; a fresh install issues a new one.

If we materially change how the app handles data, we will update this page and bump the “Last updated” date above. The history is also tracked in the app’s public GitHub repository.

Questions or concerns about privacy? Email info@novawerk.io or open an issue on GitHub.