Privacy Policy

LocalChef values your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your personal information when you use our platform to book private chef experiences across Rhode Island.

LocalChef is a service operated by LocalChef LLC, a Rhode Island limited liability company registered with the Rhode Island Secretary of State. LocalChef LLC is the controller of the personal data described in this policy, and in this policy “LocalChef”, “we”, “us”, and “our” mean LocalChef LLC.

By using LocalChef, you agree to the practices described in this policy.

We may collect the following types of information:

• Name, email address, and phone number
• Payment information (processed securely via third-party providers)
• Location data (to facilitate booking services in your area)
• Messages exchanged on the platform between users and chefs
• Profile information (photos, bio, cuisine specialties for chefs; dietary preferences for customers)

From chefs applying to cook on LocalChefRI, we additionally collect:

• Legal name, which may differ from the name shown on a public profile, because the chef agreement needs a contracting party
• Date of birth, used only to confirm that a chef is 18 or over
• Home address, used for legal notices and to check it against the service areas a chef says they cover
• Work history and food safety certification, and where a chef chooses to provide it, a certificate of insurance

We use your data to:

• Facilitate bookings between customers and private chefs
• Process payments securely
• Enable communication between users and chefs
• Improve platform functionality and user experience
• Provide customer support
• Prevent fraud and enforce platform rules
• Review and monitor messages sent on the platform, to keep users safe, investigate suspected fraud or harassment, resolve disputes about what was agreed, and comply with the law

All payments are handled by secure third-party providers (e.g. Stripe). LocalChef does not store your full credit card number or payment details on our servers. Your financial information is encrypted and processed in compliance with PCI-DSS standards.

We do not sell your personal data.

We may share limited information in these situations:

• Between customers and chefs to fulfill bookings (e.g. name, event details, dietary needs)
• With payment processors to complete transactions
• With Mapbox, to suggest addresses as you type one. What you have typed so far is sent to Mapbox to return matching Rhode Island addresses. Nothing is sent until you have typed at least three characters, and we do not send your name, email, or any booking details with it. You can ignore the suggestions and type the address yourself; the field works either way.
• When required by law or to respond to legal requests
• To protect the rights, safety, or property of LocalChef, our users, or the public

Screening and payment providers

Background screening and identity checks for chefs run through Checkr, our screening provider, in Checkr’s own hosted environment. Depending on the services enabled, Checkr may process your government-issued ID and its number, a live selfie, biometric and liveness signals, device and network signals, and background-screening information, under Checkr’s own privacy policy. LocalChef receives and retains only provider reference identifiers, verification and screening status, package information, lifecycle timestamps, audit records, and the named administrator decision. LocalChef does not request, store, or log your raw identification document, license number, selfie, or biometric data, and does not store raw payment-card data. Authorized LocalChef administrators can view completed screening results inside Checkr’s dashboard for review and adverse-action purposes; those results stay in Checkr’s system.

Payments and chef payouts run through Stripe, which separately processes banking, tax, payment-card, identity, and payout information under its own privacy policy. LocalChef retains Stripe account identifiers, payment status, snapshotted amounts, and timestamps. Screening and payment records are kept while your account is active and for as long as law or dispute-resolution obligations require, then deleted or de-identified with the rest of your data as described in section 9.

The opening-notification list

Before bookings open, you can ask us to email you when they do. For that opening list we store only your email address, the time you joined, where on our site you joined from, your browser’s user-agent string, and the delivery and unsubscribe status of the messages we owe you. Joining the list does not create an account or a password. We use the list for exactly two things: a confirmation that your address was received, and the announcement, with any essential launch updates, when bookings open. We do not use it for other marketing and we do not sell or share it. Our emails are delivered by Resend, which processes your address as our service provider. Every announcement carries an unsubscribe link that works without signing in; unsubscribing stops all opening-list email, and we keep the suppressed address only to honor that choice. You can also ask us to remove your address entirely as described in section 8.

We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your personal information, including encryption, secure hosting, and access controls. However, no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

If there is a breach. Rhode Island’s Identity Theft Protection Act of 2015 governs what we do if personal information is exposed, and we follow it. If we confirm a breach that puts your personal information at significant risk, we will tell you as quickly as we reasonably can and no later than 45 calendar days after confirming it.

That notice will describe what happened, the kind of information involved, roughly when it happened, what we have done in response, and how to reach us about it. If 500 or more Rhode Island residents are affected we also notify the Rhode Island Attorney General and the major credit reporting agencies, and doing so will not delay telling you. Notice may be delayed only if law enforcement tells us it would impede a criminal investigation.

As a user, you have the right to:

• Request access to the personal data we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate information
• Request deletion of your account and associated data
• Update your profile information at any time through your account settings

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at support@localchefri.com.

We use essential cookies only to keep the platform functioning properly, such as maintaining your login session. We do not use advertising or third party tracking cookies.

You can manage cookie preferences through your browser settings. Disabling cookies may affect some platform functionality.

We keep personal data only as long as we need it for the purposes described in this policy, or as long as the law requires.

• Account and profile data: for as long as your account is open. Delete your account and we remove it, apart from anything we are required to keep.
• Booking and payment records: for at least seven years after the booking, because tax and accounting rules require it.
• Platform messages: for the life of the account, and longer where a message is evidence in an open dispute or investigation.
• Records of agreement to these policies: permanently, and they cannot be edited or deleted. They are the record of what you accepted and when, and deleting them would defeat their purpose.

Backups are overwritten on a rolling basis, so a copy of deleted data may persist in a backup for a short period after removal from the live system.

LocalChef is for adults. You must be at least 18 to hold an account, as set out in section 3 of our Terms of Service. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18.

If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete the account and the data.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for legal, operational, or regulatory reasons. We will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. Continued use of the platform after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.