Privacy Policy
Last updated 13 August 2026
Yum Rank is made by Infectious Byte Inc. This policy describes exactly what the app stores, where it goes, and who can read it. It is written against what the app actually does — not a template.
The short version. We store your name, email, the restaurants you rank and whatever you write about them. We don't sell it, don't show ads, and don't track you across other apps. Your list is meant to be read by people — anyone who can see your profile can see every place on it, in order, with your notes. If your account is public, that means any signed-in user.
What we collect
Account
When you sign in with Apple we receive your name and email address. If you use Apple's Hide My Email, we only ever see the relay address Apple gives us. We store your name, email, the handle you pick, your bio, your profile photo, whether your account is private, and your notification preferences.
Your list
Everything you enter in the app:
- Rankings — which restaurant, which bucket (Loved it, It was fine, Not for me), where it sits relative to everything else you've ranked, the date you say you visited, and any note you write.
- Want to try — places you've saved for later, and whose ranking made you save one.
- Who you follow and who follows you, plus the activity list that records new followers, follow requests, and rankings by people you follow.
Your score and your position in a list are never stored — they are worked out from the order of your list each time something needs them.
Profile photo
If you set one, the image you choose is uploaded and stored so other people can see it next to your name. The app opens Apple's photo picker, which hands back only the picture you selected — it never has access to the rest of your library. The camera is used only if you take the picture there and then.
Location
Only when you open the nearby search, and only while the app is open. Your coordinates are sent — through our server, never straight from your phone — to the Google Places API so it can return restaurants around you instead of restaurants everywhere. We don't store your location, and we don't keep any history of where you've been. Denying the permission costs you nothing but that one screen; you can still search by name.
Device
If you turn notifications on, we store a push notification token for that device so we can send them. It's removed when you sign out or turn notifications off.
Crash reports
When the app crashes, we receive a report through Firebase Crashlytics: the error, your device model, OS version, and your account identifier so we can tell whether a bug is affecting one person or everyone. Crash reports contain no rankings and no notes.
What we don't collect
- No background location. The app asks for location while in use, gets a single fix when you open the nearby search, and doesn't ask again until you do.
- No photo library scanning, no contacts, no microphone, no calendar.
- No advertising identifiers, and no third-party ad or analytics SDKs.
- No tracking of you across other companies' apps or websites.
Who can see your data
Read this part. A ranked list is meant to be read. Anyone who can see your profile can see every place on it, in the order you put them, with your notes and your visit dates — including the ones at the bottom. Your want-to-try list, your followers and the people you follow are visible to them too.
If your account is public, "anyone" means any signed-in user of the app. If you make it private in Settings, it means only the followers you've approved. Your handle, display name, photo and bio stay findable either way — that's how people find you to ask.
When you rank somewhere, the people who follow you see it in their feed with your name, your photo and your note, and may get a push notification about it. Nothing you write is anonymous.
Who can read which list is enforced on the server, not in the app, so a private list stays private even to a modified copy of the app.
Restaurant information
Restaurants themselves come from the Google Places API. What you type into search, and your coordinates on the nearby screen, are sent to Google through our server to get results back — Google's key never reaches your phone.
The details we cache about a restaurant (name, address, photo, Google's own rating) are stored once and shared by everyone, because they are facts about a restaurant rather than anything about you. That cache is refetched at least every 25 days. Google's privacy policy.
Who processes it for us
We use Google Firebase to run the service — authentication, the database, server functions, file storage, push notifications and crash reporting. Your data is stored on Google Cloud servers in the United States. Google processes it on our instructions and does not use it for its own purposes. Firebase privacy information.
Apple handles sign-in and delivers notifications to your device.
We don't share your data with anyone else, and we never sell it.
How long we keep it
Until you delete it. You can delete an individual ranking or note at any time, remove a follower, make your account private, or delete your account entirely.
Deleting your account
In the app: Settings → Delete account. This permanently removes your profile, your name and email, every ranking and note you've written, your want-to-try list, your profile photo, your notification tokens, and your sign-in credential. Your follows are removed from the other person's side as well, and the activity rows you caused in other people's inboxes go with them. Your handle goes back into the pool for someone else to take.
Cached restaurant information stays. Those documents describe a restaurant, not you — nothing in them identifies anyone, and deleting them would only make the next person pay Google to fetch the same thing again.
Deletion is immediate and cannot be undone.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export or delete your personal data, and to object to how it's processed. Most of this is available directly in the app; for anything else, email us and we'll action it within 30 days.
We don't sell personal information, and we don't share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, as those terms are used under California law.
Children
Yum Rank isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their data. If you believe a child has given us information, email us and we'll delete it.
Changes
If this policy changes materially, we'll update the date at the top and note the change in the app before it takes effect.
Contact
Infectious Byte Inc.
jesus.ed.sanchez@gmail.com