Privacy policy

Signing in is your phone number and a one-time code we text you. The number is how we recognise you on the next visit, so we store it. It is also how the code gets to you: it is sent as an SMS through the messaging provider that delivers our sign-in codes.

When you set up your account we ask for your first name, your date of birth and your sex. Your last name is asked later, the first time you book a table. The date of birth is what we check against the minimum age of 14, and it is shown back to you on your Mesita passport.

A profile photo and an Instagram handle are optional. The handle is there because connecting it unlocks rewards in the app; if you never connect one, nothing else changes.

Finding places near you needs your location, so the app asks your browser or your phone for it. Your device decides: if you say no, or never answer, the app keeps working and simply cannot sort by distance. You can take the permission back at any time in your browser or phone settings.

We use the position to answer the request you just made — what is around you, what is close to a search. We do not follow you in the background.

Card numbers are typed on Stripe's own hosted page and are held by Stripe. Mesita never receives or stores a card number; what the app shows you is the brand and the last digits, which is what Stripe hands back.

The first time you pay a particular place through Mesita, that payment creates a customer record for you inside that place's own Stripe account — the same thing that would happen if you checked out on their website. The app tells you before that first charge.

When a place opens a ticket for you, that record holds which place it was, the member of their staff who opened it, when it was opened and when it was paid, the check subtotal, tip and total, the currency, the reward percentage applied and the amount that earned you.

It is the receipt of the visit: it is what makes your rewards add up, what the place sees on its own side, and what you see in your history.

Your account has two visibility switches, in Settings under Privacy. You can make the account private, and you can turn off whether other guests see your Mesita stories. Both are yours to change whenever you want.

Mesita does not sell your information. A handful of companies are part of making the app work, and what reaches each of them is limited to what it does: our hosting and database provider runs the accounts and the app's data, a messaging provider delivers your sign-in code, Stripe handles cards and payments, and public places data is what the catalog of restaurants, cafés and bars is built from.

A place you actually transact with sees what that transaction needs — your name, the ticket, and the customer record their own Stripe account holds.

You can edit or clear most of your profile from inside the app. To ask for a copy of your data, write to privacy@mesita.ai.

Deleting the account is in the app, in Settings, with your data. You type DELETE to confirm and the account is deleted; the same address above is the way to do it if you can no longer sign in.

It does not say how long anything is kept. We have not settled that yet, and a number written here before it is decided would be a promise we could not stand behind. It is one of the things legal review is for, and it will be written down here when it exists.

Anything on this page: privacy@mesita.ai.