Privacy Policy
Effective date: August 12, 2026
This policy describes what Fog Hour collects, why, and what your choices are. The short version: we collect very little, we don't sell any of it, precise location never leaves your device except as a rounded, short-lived cookie you opt into, and anonymous contribution is a first-class path — you can browse, submit, and verify deals without an account.
What we collect
| Category | What | Where it lives | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Device identifier | A randomly generated ID (not derived from your hardware or browser characteristics) | Your browser's localStorage; sent with submissions and verifications | Rate limiting and abuse prevention for anonymous contributions |
| Account | Firebase user ID; email; phone number (only if you sign in by SMS) | Firebase Authentication | Sign-in, cross-device sync, submission credit |
| Submissions | Deal descriptions you type; menu photos you upload (embedded photo metadata such as EXIF location is stripped before storage); optional contact email | Firebase Storage / Firestore | Building the deal catalog; follow-up if you provided contact |
| Location — coarse | Approximate location inferred from your network address at request time | Not stored | Ranking the feed by proximity |
| Location — precise | Browser geolocation, only if you tap "Near me" and grant the browser prompt; coordinates are rounded (~100 m) and kept in a cookie for 1 hour | fh_loc cookie on your device | Distance-sorted feed and map |
| Saved deals | Deals you heart | Your browser's localStorage only | Your saved list; it does not leave your device |
| Usage analytics | Page views and product events (e.g. deal viewed, submission completed) | Google Analytics for Firebase | Understanding what's used; no advertising use |
| Errors | Stack traces and request context when something breaks | Sentry | Fixing bugs; personal data scrubbed where detected |
We do not collect payment information, contacts, precise persistent location history, or advertising identifiers, and we do not run third-party advertising of any kind.
AI processing
Deal submissions are parsed by AI to extract structured facts (items, prices, schedules):
- Your submissions (menu photos and typed descriptions) are processed by Google Gemini models via Firebase AI Logic and Google Cloud Vertex AI. Under Google Cloud's terms, this data is not used to train Google's models.
- Editorial ingestion (published articles we process for deal facts, which contain no Fog Hour user data) uses Anthropic Claude models and Voyage AI embeddings.
Service providers
| Provider | Role | What they process |
|---|---|---|
| Google Firebase / Google Cloud | Hosting, database, authentication, file storage, analytics, AI processing | App data, auth identifiers, uploads, analytics events |
| Google reCAPTCHA (App Check) | Abuse prevention on submissions | Interaction signals and network address, per Google's privacy policy |
| Resend | Transactional email | Email address and message content |
| Sentry | Error monitoring | Error reports (scrubbed of personal data where detected) |
| Anthropic / Voyage AI | Editorial content processing | Published article text — no user personal data |
| OpenFreeMap | Map tiles | Standard web request data (network address, requested map area) when the map loads |
We do not sell or share personal information for advertising, and no provider is authorized to use your data for its own purposes beyond providing the service.
Cookies and local storage
| Item | Kind | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
__session | Cookie (HTTP-only, signed) | Keeps you signed in | 24 h rolling |
fh_loc | Cookie | Rounded coordinates after you tap "Near me" | 1 hour, or until you turn "Near me" off |
Google Analytics (_ga*) | Cookies | First-party usage measurement | Per GA4 defaults |
foghour:device-id | localStorage | The random anonymous-contribution ID | Until you clear site data |
foghour:saved-deals | localStorage | Your saved list | Until you clear site data |
| Theme + sign-in-in-progress email | localStorage | Dark/light preference; completing magic-link sign-in | Until you clear site data |
No third-party advertising cookies, ever.
Your rights and choices
- Access / deletion: email privacy@foghour.app from the address associated with your account or submission, and we will verify the request (typically by a confirmation link to that address) and fulfill it within 45 days. Deletion removes your email, phone, and account record, and disconnects your identity from past submissions and verifications — the anonymized catalog facts themselves (e.g. "this venue's happy hour was confirmed on this date") remain part of the shared history.
- California residents (CCPA/CPRA): you have the rights to know, delete, correct, and to opt out of sale or sharing. Fog Hour does not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined in the CCPA, so there is nothing to opt out of; the know / delete / correct rights are honored via the email above, and we will not discriminate against you for exercising them.
- Do Not Track / Global Privacy Control: because we do not sell or share personal information or run cross-site tracking, these signals do not change how the site behaves.
- EU/UK residents: we process catalog contributions under legitimate interest, precise location under consent, and account data under contract performance. You have the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection via the email above. Data is hosted in the United States on Google Cloud; standard contractual clauses apply where required.
Retention
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Catalog records (venues, deals, verifications) | Indefinitely — they are the product's shared history |
| Your email / phone / account record | Until you delete your account (plus a 30-day recovery window), or 30 days after a verified deletion request |
| Contact details attached to anonymous submissions | Purged on verified request; otherwise retained while the related submission is under review |
| Uploaded photos | While the related deal is listed; removed on verified deletion request or takedown |
| Error reports (Sentry) | 90 days |
| Analytics events | Per GA4 retention settings (≤ 14 months) |
Children
Fog Hour is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has provided us personal information, email privacy@foghour.app and we will delete it.
Changes and contact
Material changes to this policy will be announced on the site before they take effect, with the effective date updated above. Questions: privacy@foghour.app.