Privacy Policy — Coffee Snobs

Last updated: 10 August 2026

Coffee Snobs is an app for finding hidden-gem cafes and rating them. This policy explains exactly what the app collects, what it doesn't, and why. It describes the app as it actually works — not a generic template.

The short version: there are no accounts, we never ask for your name or email, and we don't track you, advertise to you, or sell anything about you. Most of what you do in the app never leaves your phone at all.

1. Who we are

Coffee Snobs ("we", "us") is operated by Latitude 34 Media Group, based in Australia.

Questions, requests, or complaints: privacy@coffeesnobs.cafe

2. What stays on your phone

The following is stored only in the app's private storage on your device. We cannot see it, and it is deleted when you uninstall the app or clear its data:

Your case notes — the private notes you write about a cafe
Your approved list — the cafes you've bookmarked
Your own ratings, as shown back to you in the app
Your filter preferences
Your last known approximate location, used to show distances to cafes

3. What the app does send

Approximate location — only when you ask for it

If you tap the location button and grant permission, the app requests your approximate (coarse) location from your phone. We do not request or use precise GPS location, and we never access your location in the background — only while you are using the app and have asked us to.

Your approximate coordinates are sent to our server so it can look up cafes near you. Our server keeps a short-term cache of search results, stored against a rounded location grid of roughly one kilometre. That cache is not linked to your device, your ID, or you. To find cafes, our server passes the location to Google Places (see section 5).

You can decline the permission, or search by suburb or city name instead — the app works either way.

A pseudonymous device ID, with your ratings

The first time you open the app, it generates a random identifier (for example, f47ac10b-58cc-4372-a567-0e02b2c3d479). It is created on your device, is not derived from your phone's hardware, advertising ID, or any account, and tells us nothing about who you are.

We describe it as pseudonymous rather than anonymous, because it is stored alongside your ratings and is consistent over time. That is the correct term under the GDPR, and it is why you can ask us to delete everything filed under it (see section 7).

When you rate a cafe, we store: that random ID, which cafe, your score (1–5), and the time. We use the ID for exactly one purpose: making sure each device counts once per cafe, so ratings can't be stacked to inflate a score. If you re-rate a cafe, your earlier rating is replaced.

Ratings are combined into the public average shown as "Snobs say …". Individual ratings are never displayed to other users.

Cafes you judge from the discovery list

When you rate a cafe you found through discovery (one not yet in our catalogue), we record that cafe's public details — its name, address, and Google Place ID — so it can appear in our rankings. This is information about the cafe, not about you.

The member name you choose, if you set one

The app lets you set a display name on your Snob Card. It is optional, it defaults to empty, and it is stored on your device. When you rate a cafe that isn't yet in our catalogue, that name is sent with the cafe's details as the "suggested by" credit, so it is visible to us alongside the nomination.

Please don't put your real name, email address, or anything else identifying in that field unless you're comfortable with it leaving your phone. A nickname is very much in the spirit of the thing.

Technical information

Like any app that connects to the internet, our hosting provider and the image service automatically receive your IP address and basic connection details as part of delivering the request. We do not use these to build a profile of you.

4. What we never collect

To be explicit, the app does not collect, and has no ability to collect:

Your email address, phone number, or date of birth
Any account or login — there is no sign-up
Your contacts, photos, files, calendar, microphone, or camera
Precise GPS location, or any location while the app is closed
Your advertising ID, or any cross-app or cross-site tracking

The app contains no advertising, no analytics, and no crash-reporting or tracking SDKs. We do not sell, rent, or trade any data, ever.

5. Who else is involved

Two third parties are necessarily involved in running the app:

Supabase hosts our database and server functions, in a data centre in Sydney, Australia. They process data on our behalf as our service provider and do not use it for their own purposes.

Google Places supplies cafe information — names, addresses, opening hours, and photographs. When our server searches for cafes near you, your approximate location is included in that search. Cafe photographs load in the app directly from Google's servers, which means Google receives your IP address when a photo is displayed. Google's handling of this data is governed by the Google Privacy Policy.

We may also disclose information if required by Australian law.

6. How long we keep things

Ratings and cafe records are kept for as long as the app operates, because they form the community scores and rankings that make the app work. Cached search results and opening hours are automatically discarded within about 12 hours.

7. Your choices and rights

Stop sharing location — revoke the permission any time in your phone's settings (Android: Settings → Apps → Coffee Snobs → Permissions; iPhone: Settings → Coffee Snobs → Location). The app continues to work.
Erase everything held on your device — clear the app's storage, or uninstall it.
Ask us about your data, or ask us to delete it — email us with your device ID (shown in the app under Snob Card → About) and we will locate and delete the ratings associated with it. We'll respond within 30 days.

Australian users may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner if unsatisfied with our response. If you are in the UK or European Economic Area, you also have rights of access, correction, erasure, restriction, and objection under the GDPR; our lawful basis for the limited data we process is our legitimate interest in operating a fair, community-rated cafe guide.

8. Children

Coffee Snobs is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13. Because we collect no identifying information, we generally cannot tell a user's age; if you believe a child's data has been submitted, contact us and we will remove it.

9. Security

All communication between the app and our servers uses encrypted HTTPS connections. Our database enforces row-level security: the app can add a rating but cannot read other users' individual ratings, and our internal tables are not reachable from the app at all. API keys for third-party services are held on our server and are never included in the app.

No system is perfectly secure, but the safest data is the data never collected — which is why we collect so little.

10. Changes to this policy

If we change what the app collects, we'll update this policy and the "last updated" date above. Material changes will be highlighted in the app.

“Coffee Snobs judges cafes, not people.”