Privacy Policy

This policy explains what personal information Home Cuisine Market collects, how we use it, and your choices. We follow Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

If you're browsing

• You don't need an account to browse. We don't use advertising trackers or sell your information.
• “Near me” and postal codes. If you share your location or enter a postal code, it's used to find cooks nearby for that search. We don't save it to an account.
• Visit counts. We count profile views and WhatsApp button taps so cooks can see how their listing is doing. These are stored as totals per cook, not linked to you. Your browser keeps a small note so the same visit isn't counted twice in a day.
• Site statistics. We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count page views, which pages are visited and roughly where visitors come from, so we can improve the site. It uses no cookies and doesn't identify or follow individual visitors.
• Error reports. When something breaks, technical details of the error (the page, browser and what failed) are sent to Sentry so we can fix it. We don't send your IP address, cookies or what you typed.
• Maps. Map images are loaded from OpenStreetMap, which receives your IP address like any website you visit.
• WhatsApp. When you tap a WhatsApp button you leave our site, and your conversation with the cook is handled by WhatsApp (Meta) under its own privacy policy.

If you write a review

We collect your email address (to sign you in), your name, and optionally your phone number. Your review and a short form of your name (such as “Priya S.”) are shown publicly. Your email and phone number are never shown publicly; only our team can see them, to deal with fake or abusive reviews.

If you list a kitchen

• Shown publicly: your kitchen name, photos, bio, cuisines, menus, area (such as “Near Square One”), the cities you serve, your WhatsApp number, and other details you add to your profile.
• Kept private: your email address, your exact location (used only to work out approximate distances for customers; the map shows an area, not your address), pickup spot pins, address notes, your food handler certificate, and any payment records.
• If you pay a listing fee, payment is made through Stripe; we don't see or store your card details.
• AI Assistant for cooks (optional): if you use it, the messages and photos you send, with your kitchen name, menus, meal plans and pickup spot names, are sent to an AI model through OpenRouter to draft your menu. We ask for providers that don't keep or train on this information. We don't save your chats on our servers, only how much you used the assistant. Today's chat is kept in your browser on your device so you can come back to it, and is cleared the next day.

If you're a delivery partner

• Shown publicly: your name or business name, photo, bio, vehicles, the area you're based in, the cities and distance you cover, your days, rates and languages.
• Kept private: your email address, your WhatsApp number (customers reach you through a button), your exact base location (used only for approximate distances), and your ID document, which only our team can see and uses only to verify you.

Who processes your information

We use trusted service providers to run the site: Supabase (database, sign-in and file storage), Vercel (hosting) and Cloudflare (domain and security), Stripe (any listing fee payments), OpenRouter and the AI providers it uses (the optional AI Assistant for cooks), Resend (the emails we send), and email delivery for sign-in links. They may store information on servers outside Canada, such as in the United States, where it is subject to local law. We don't sell personal information or share it for advertising.

Emails we send

We email you only about your account and listing: sign-in codes, welcome and invite notes, when your listing goes live, and when someone reviews your listing or replies to your review. Links in these emails may first pass through our email provider, Resend, so we can see whether and when a link was clicked. We use this only to know whether our emails are reaching people and when to follow up, never for advertising. We don't track whether you open an email.

Cookies and storage

We use cookies only to keep you signed in. Your browser's local storage holds the visit-count note above. We don't use advertising or analytics cookies (our site statistics work without them).

How long we keep it

We keep account, listing and review information while your account or listing is active, and for a reasonable time afterwards for records and to prevent abuse, unless the law requires otherwise.

Your choices

You can see and edit most of your information in your dashboard or review page. To get a copy of your information, correct it, or ask us to delete your account, listing or reviews, email hello@homecuisinemarkets.com. We'll reply within 30 days.

Changes

We may update this policy; the date at the top shows the latest version. See also our Terms of Use.