Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

• •Identity & Contact Data: name, phone, email, account details, optional date of birth.
• •Payment Data: billing info, payment method (processed securely by our payment providers — Tap Payments in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and Stripe in all other supported countries), Chef payout details.
• •Booking Data: event details, menu selections, guest counts, prices, and transaction history.
• •Location Data: service addresses, Chef travel radius, and city information.
• •Profile Data (Chefs): photos, menus, availability, ratings, reviews, and biographies.
• •Verification Data (Chefs): In every country we operate in, chefs submit a government-issued identity document and either a culinary certificate or a letter evidencing professional experience, which our team reviews before approving the account. Chefs in Stripe-served countries additionally complete Stripe Connect onboarding, where Stripe collects and verifies identity documents under its own policies and returns only the result to us.
• •Marketing & Communication Data: preferences and history of communications with us.
• •Operational Data: call/chat transcripts for support and service quality.
• •Technical & Usage Data: IP address, device details, browser type, access times, and usage activity.
• •Cookies & Similar Technologies: see Section 8 for details.

2. How We Use Your Information

• •Operate and provide the Platform.
• •Process bookings and payments securely.
• •Match Customers with Chefs and personalize recommendations.
• •Improve and develop our services.
• •Send marketing (with opt-out options).
• •Detect, prevent, and address fraud or misuse.
• •Comply with legal and regulatory obligations.
• •Our Legal Bases: We rely on: performance of our contract with you, to create your account and to take, deliver and pay for bookings; our legitimate interests, to keep the Platform safe, prevent fraud and abuse, moderate messages and improve the service; legal obligation, to keep tax and accounting records and to answer lawful requests from authorities; and your consent, for marketing email, device location and push notifications, each of which you can withdraw at any time.

3. How We Share Your Information

• •With Other Users: Customers and Chefs share information necessary to complete bookings.
• •With Service Providers: We use a small number of processors, each only for the purpose named: Stripe (payments and chef payouts outside Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and identity verification); Tap Payments (payments in Saudi Arabia and the UAE); Supabase (database, authentication and file storage); Resend (transactional email); Expo, with Apple Push Notification service and Firebase Cloud Messaging (push notifications); Twilio (one-time codes by SMS); Google and Apple (sign-in, and maps in the app); and Cloudflare (website hosting and delivery). We do not sell your data and we do not share it for advertising.
• •With Authorities: if required by law or to protect rights and safety.
• •Business Transfers: in case of merger, sale, or reorganization.

We do not sell personal data.

4. Marketing & Personalization

We send marketing only to people who have asked to receive it. Operational messages about your bookings, payments and account security are part of the service and are not marketing. Every marketing email carries an unsubscribe link, and you can change your preferences in account settings at any time.

5. Chef Content & Images

Chefs grant UpChef the right to use their name, menus, photos, and content for promotion, marketing, and publicity purposes.

6. Data Storage & Transfers

Your data is stored securely with our cloud infrastructure providers and may be processed in data centres located in different countries. Wherever your data is processed, we apply appropriate safeguards (such as contractual protections) to keep it protected.

7. Data Retention

• •Account data: kept while your account exists. When you delete your account we erase your name, email, phone, profile photo and verification documents.
• •Verification documents: deleted 90 days after we approve or reject a chef. We keep only the fact that verification happened and its date.
• •Booking, payment and refund records: kept for as long as tax and accounting law requires (currently six years in the UK), with the person removed after erasure.

8. Cookies

Our website sets no cookies and runs no analytics or advertising trackers. The mobile app stores a sign-in token on your device so you stay logged in, and your language and notification preferences. Nothing here follows you across other websites.

9. Your Rights

• •Access, correct or erase your data. Deleting your account in the app erases your name, email, phone, profile photo and verification documents; booking and payment records are kept without a person attached, because tax law requires them.
• •Restrict or object to processing.
• •Request portability of your data.
• •Withdraw consent at any time.
• •Opt out of marketing communications.

To request account deletion or exercise your rights, email support@upchef.app. We respond within one month (up to 90 days in some cases for full deletion, e.g., backups).

10. Children

The Platform is not intended for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect data from minors.

11. Security

We use organizational and technical measures to protect your data, but no system is 100% secure.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy. If changes are material, we will notify you via the Platform or email. Continued use after the effective date means you accept the updated Policy.