Privacy, plainly.

PlateTell is run by Digital Dreamsmiths LLC in Georgia, USA. Privacy questions and requests, including a request to see or delete your data, go to hello@platetell.com. PlateTell does not sell personal information, show ads, or use advertising trackers. To see how many people visit, PlateTell uses Vercel Web Analytics, which counts page views without cookies and without following anyone across other sites; gathering and invite addresses are blanked out before a visit is counted.

PlateTell stores the gathering details and dish information people choose to share. A guest’s name, dish, ingredients, and dietary labels are visible to anyone who has that gathering’s link.

An organizer account is an email address and a password. Private cookies keep organizers signed in and let email links finish signing in; PlateTell sets no tracking cookies. Guests have no account: the right to edit a dish or an RSVP is a private key kept in the guest’s own browser, and in the edit link a guest can choose to copy. To slow down abuse, PlateTell counts recent submissions against a hashed form of the visitor’s network address; the raw address is not stored, and the counts are deleted within a few hours.

Anyone with a gathering’s link can see who has said they are coming and how many people they are bringing, the same way they can see who is bringing which dish, unless the organizer has turned the guest list off, in which case guests see only the total. Potluck gatherings show the list unless the organizer changes that; menu gatherings hide it unless the organizer turns it on. Give the organizer only the name you are happy for other guests to see.

On a menu-style gathering, guests can send the organizer a note about an allergy, a dietary need, or a question. That note is health information: it may describe an allergy, a pregnancy, a medical diet, or anything else a guest decides the cook should know, together with the name the guest gives and, if they choose to add it, an email address or phone number. A note marked private is shown only to the organizer and to anyone the organizer has added as a co-organizer of that gathering. A note marked visible is shown to anyone with the gathering’s link, but contact details are never shown to other guests. The email that tells an organizer a note has arrived names the guest and nothing else; the note itself is read on PlateTell. Notes are deleted 30 days after the gathering’s date, once nothing has been added or edited for that long, and in any case 90 days after they were sent, and sooner if the organizer removes them or deletes the gathering. PlateTell does not use notes for anything except showing them to that gathering’s organizers.

An organizer can add a co-organizer to help run a gathering. A co-organizer can read and remove everything on that gathering, including guest notes and any contact details left with them. Only the organizer who created a gathering can add or remove a co-organizer, and removing one ends their access immediately.

An organizer or co-organizer can download a spreadsheet of a gathering’s dishes or of its RSVPs. Guest notes and contact details are never included. A downloaded copy is kept by the organizer, outside PlateTell, so the deletion schedules on this page do not reach it.

Photos that organizers or guests add, including a gathering’s cover photo, are stored with the gathering and shown to anyone with its link. They are deleted 60 days after the gathering’s date, or 180 days after the gathering was created when it has no date, once nothing has been added or edited for 60 days, and as soon as the dish or gathering that showed them is removed. Before a photo is stored, the details a camera writes into the file, such as where and when it was taken and on what device, are removed; only which way up it goes is kept. A photo uploaded but never attached to a dish or gathering is deleted within hours.

To see whether the Plus pass is worth offering, PlateTell records when a signed-in organizer is shown the pass, tries a printable it unlocks, or starts checkout. Guests are never recorded.

The organization plan form sends what you type to PlateTell’s inbox as one email, with your address as the reply-to. It is not stored anywhere else.

An organization on the annual plan is a list of its members’ account emails, kept so PlateTell knows which gatherings the plan covers. Guests of those gatherings are not told which organization it is.

A logo an organizer adds is a photo like any other: stored with the gathering, shown on its pages, and deleted on the same schedule.

Who handles the data. PlateTell uses a few service providers, each only for its part: Supabase (database, sign-in and photo storage), Vercel (hosting and visit counts), Resend (sending account and organizer notification emails), and Stripe (payments for the Plus pass). Card details go straight to Stripe; PlateTell never sees or stores them, and keeps only a record of which gathering was paid for. These providers are in the United States.

How long it is kept. A gathering, with its dishes and RSVPs, stays until its organizer deletes it or deletes their account. Notes and photos are deleted sooner, on the schedule above. An organizer can delete their account at any time from their dashboard: that deletes the account, every gathering it created with everything in them, and its place on other people’s gatherings, straight away. Copies in the database’s backups are overwritten on their own soon after. Payment records are kept by Stripe as the law requires. A guest who wants a dish, RSVP or note removed can remove it themselves, ask the organizer, or write to hello@platetell.com.

PlateTell is not meant for children under 13 and does not knowingly collect their information.

Share only what the organizer needs to keep you safe, and do not enter payment information. Organizers can remove contributions from their table. Guests can edit or remove their own contribution from the browser they used to add it, or with its edit link.

PlateTell does not treat dietary labels, ingredient lists, or guest notes as medical advice. Always confirm allergy concerns directly with the cook or organizer.