Dialed privacy policy
Last updated 3 November 2026
The short version
- Dialed works without an account. Your coffees, settings and ratings stay on your phone.
- Community is optional. If you use it, you sign in with Apple (on iPhone) or Google, and what you choose to do there is stored on Dialed's server: your posts, café reviews (with any photos), the recipes you save, the reviews you mark "Helpful" and your answers about cafés. "Only me" posts and "Only me" café reviews are not shown to anyone else. A public post can be shared as a link that anyone can open in a web browser.
- When you scan a coffee bag, the photos (of the bag, and sometimes a few loose beans) are sent to Google's Gemini AI to read the label, through Dialed's own server. The app asks you before the first scan. The server does not keep them.
- When you use Discover, your location (rounded to about 100 metres) or what you type in the search box is sent to Google to find cafes. Dialed does not keep it.
- Dialed has no adverts and no analytics, and it does not sell or share your data.
What stays on your phone
Your name (if you enter one), your grinder and espresso machine, your grinder calibration (where your burrs touch and your sweet spot), your saved coffees, recipes, ratings, tasting notes, brew settings, the cafes you save in Discover, your language, and your light or dark choice are saved only on your phone. A coffee you save from a Community post also keeps the post's number and its author's display name, so the app can show where it came from.
If your phone backs up app data (for example Android's backup to your Google account, or iCloud on iPhone), that backup can include Dialed's data. It is handled by Google or Apple, not by Dialed.
If you choose "Export" in your profile, Dialed saves your data to a file, and you choose where to keep it. That file contains your coffees (including which Community post a coffee came from, and its author's display name), your settings and grinder calibration, and the cafes you saved. It contains nothing secret. Restoring from a file reads it on your phone.
What is sent off your phone, and why
| When | What is sent | Who receives it |
|---|---|---|
| You scan a coffee bag | The photos you take or choose: the bag, and sometimes a photo of a few loose beans from it. The app makes each photo smaller and saves it again as a new image first, which leaves out hidden details such as where the photo was taken. | Dialed's server passes them to Google (Gemini API) to read the label. Nothing else from your phone is included, and Dialed does not keep the photos. |
| You search in Discover | Your location, rounded to about 100 metres, when you search near you; the middle of the map when you tap "Search this area"; or the words you type in the search box. Suggestions start after three letters, and they use your rounded location so nearer places come first. When you review a cafe, the name you type to find it. | Dialed's server passes it to Google (Places API) to find cafes. Dialed does not keep it. The map itself is drawn by Google Maps, which also shows where you are on the map if you allow location. |
| Discover shows Dialed reviews of cafes | Google's ids for the cafes on your screen. If you are signed in to Community, also your sign-in token, so people you blocked are left out. | Dialed's server answers with how many public Dialed reviews each cafe has, their average ratings (only once three people have reviewed it), and how many Dialed users answered yes or no about it. It does not keep which cafes you looked at. |
| Discover checks whether a cafe is specialty | The cafe's Google id, name, address, web address, and the summary and reviews Google lists for it. Nothing about you. | Dialed's server reads the first page of the cafe's website itself, so the cafe's site does not see your phone. It passes a short piece of that page, with Google's text, to Google's Gemini AI to judge whether the cafe is specialty. The server keeps the answer for each cafe (which criteria were met, a short note, the roaster's name if one was found, and quotes from the cafe's own website) and reuses it for the next person for 30 days, or 90 days if the cafe was confirmed. It does not keep Google's review text. If enough Dialed users have answered questions about a cafe (see Community below), their answers are counted too. |
| You sign in to Community | A sign-in token from Apple or Google, which proves which account you are. Dialed keeps the account's ID. Your first name becomes your display name, which other Community users can see, until you change it. If there is no usable first name you get a name like "Brewer1234". Google's token also contains your email address and profile photo, but Dialed does not read or keep them. With Sign in with Apple, Dialed asks only for your name, not your email. | Apple or Google, then Dialed's server. |
| You use Community | What you post (coffee name, recipe, grind, rating, note, and whether it is public); your café reviews and their photos; which posts you save to your coffees; which café reviews you mark "Helpful"; your yes, no or not sure answers about a cafe you reviewed; the share links made for posts; and any reports or blocks you make. | Dialed's server, which stores it in a database hosted by Cloudflare. |
| The app hits an error | A short technical report: the error message and where in the app's code it happened, the app version and update, your phone's model and system (Android or iOS) version, and which screen you were on. Never your coffees, name, photos or location. Anything that looks like an email address or a key is hidden first. | Dialed's server, which stores it in a database hosted by Cloudflare. You can switch this off in Profile, under Crash reports. |
| The app opens | A check for a newer version of the app: the app version, your phone's system, and a random code made by the update system. | Expo (EAS Update), the service that delivers Dialed's updates, under its own privacy policy. |
Photos and locations are only sent when you use those features, and only the ones you choose.
What Dialed's server keeps
The server exists so that the secret keys for Google's services are not inside the app. It does not store your bag photos, your location, your searches, or your coffees (unless you post one to Community).
To stop abuse and control costs, it keeps a daily count of requests. The counts are kept against a random code made by the app (it is not linked to your name or phone) and against your internet address (IP address). For a few Community actions (saving, sharing and "Helpful"), they are also kept against your Community account. These counts are deleted automatically within two days. The server's host, Cloudflare, may process technical connection data under its own privacy policy.
Crash reports
When the app hits an error, it can send a short report so the problem can be fixed (what is in it is listed in the table above). The report is tied to the random code made when the app was first opened, not to your name or your Apple or Google account. Reports are deleted after about 30 days. You can turn this off at any time in Profile, under Crash reports. Nothing waiting to be sent is kept once you do.
Community accounts and posts
If you sign in to Community, Dialed's server stores: your Apple or Google account's ID, your display name, and when you joined; the posts you made (including "Only me" posts) and any share links made for them; the café reviews you wrote (including "Only me" ones), with the café's name and address, your ratings, your words and any photos you added; the posts you saved to your coffees; the café reviews you marked "Helpful"; your answers about cafés you reviewed; reports you made and reports made about your posts and reviews; and the people you blocked.
- Who can see it: public posts are shown to other signed-in Community users, with your display name and how many people saved them. "Only me" posts are not shown to anyone else, but they are stored on the server, and the person who runs Dialed could see them if needed to investigate abuse.
- Share links: anyone in Community can make a link to a public post and send it to others. Anyone who opens the link in a web browser sees the coffee, the recipe, the note and your display name, without signing in. Share pages ask search engines not to list them. If you make the post "Only me" or delete it, the link stops working within about a minute, but previews already shown in chat apps may stay there.
- Saved recipes: other people can save your public post's recipe to their own coffees. That copy, with your display name, is kept on their phone (and in their backups), and Dialed cannot remove it later.
- "Helpful" and café answers: other people see how many people marked a review "Helpful", not who. After you post a public café review, you can answer three questions about the café (does it sell beans, does it serve single-origin or filter coffee, does it roast its own). Only totals are shown, in Discover and on the café's page, to everyone who uses Discover, including people who are not signed in (for example "Confirmed by 4 Dialed users"). Your answers count only while your public review is up. Deleting the review deletes them. Discover also shows everyone how many public Dialed reviews a café has and, from three reviews up, their average ratings.
- Café review photos: the app shrinks each photo before sending it. Photos are stored on Dialed's server and shown to other signed-in Community users with your review. They are not shared outside Community. They are deleted when you delete the review or your account. A photo can show more than you mean to (people, places), so only share photos you are happy for others to see.
- Display name: you can change it at any time. It is shown publicly, so do not use your full name unless you want to.
- How long: until you delete a post or your account. Deleting your account removes your account, your posts and their share links, your café reviews and photos, your saved recipes, your "Helpful" marks, your café answers, your reports and your blocks.
- On your phone: Community keeps a sign-in token in the phone's secure, encrypted storage. Signing out or deleting your account removes it.
Dialed uses the paid version of Google's Gemini API. Under Google's terms for paid services, Google does not use the photos or text sent to it to improve its products or train its models. Google does keep a log of requests for a limited time, only to detect and prevent misuse. See the Gemini API Additional Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy (policies.google.com/privacy).
Location searches and search suggestions go to Google's Places API under Google's own terms. Google Maps draws the map in Discover; it shows your position on the map if you allow location, and may also collect technical information, such as your device and IP address.
Permissions the app asks for
- Camera: to photograph coffee bags (and a few beans, if you like). Only used when you open the scanner.
- Photos: only when you choose "pick from gallery". Dialed sees only the photos you select.
- Accounts: Community asks you to sign in with Apple (on iPhone) or to pick a Google account on your phone. Dialed never sees your Apple or Google password.
- Location: only while the app is open, and only to find cafes near you in Discover. Your phone may give Dialed an exact position. Dialed rounds it to about 100 metres before anything leaves your phone. You can search by place name instead.
You can turn any of these off in your phone's settings. The rest of the app still works.
Your choices
- To delete the data on your phone, clear the app's storage in your phone's settings or uninstall the app.
- To delete your Community account and everything you posted, open Community, then Your account, then Delete my account. This takes effect straight away. If you can't open the app, email the contact address below and we will delete it for you.
- Files you exported are yours; delete them where you saved them.
- "Send feedback" in the app opens your own email app with a short note of the app version. Nothing is sent unless you send the email yourself.
Deleting your account and data
You can delete your Dialed Community account and everything linked to it at any time. You don't need to keep the app installed to ask.
- In the app: open Community, then Your account, then Delete my account. It takes effect straight away.
- Without the app: email support@dialedcoffee.net with the subject "Delete my Dialed account", and say your Community display name and whether you signed in with Google or Apple. You can write from any email address. The account and its data are deleted within 30 days, and you get a reply when it is done.
What is deleted: your account (its Apple or Google ID and display name); all your posts and café reviews (including "Only me" ones) and their photos; the share links for your posts (they stop working); the recipes you saved and the saves on your posts; your "Helpful" marks and the "Helpful" marks on your reviews; your answers about cafés; the reports you made and reports about your posts and reviews; and the people you blocked.
What may be kept: copies of your public recipes that other people saved to their own coffees stay on their phones, with your display name, because Dialed cannot reach them. Link previews already shown in chat apps may also stay. Crash reports are not linked to your account and are deleted after about 30 days; daily request counts are deleted within two days.
Your coffees and settings are only on your phone: delete them by clearing the app's storage or uninstalling it.
Children
Dialed is a coffee tool for general use and is not aimed at children under 13. Community requires you to be at least 13. Dialed does not knowingly collect information from children.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted at this address with a new date.
Contact
Questions about this policy: support@dialedcoffee.net