SparePlate · Last updated: October 16, 2026
SparePlate is designed to operate with as little personal data as possible. There are no accounts, no sign-up, no ads, and no analytics trackers, and we never sell your personal data.
SparePlate is operated by SOREN TECHNOLOGIES LLC, a Massachusetts limited liability company, which acts as the data controller responsible for the personal data described in this policy. If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your personal data, you can contact us at contact@sorentechnologies.net.
The name shown on your posts is whatever you type. We do not verify it or check it against any identity, and it does not have to be your real name — a nickname or initials work just as well.
We still treat it as personal information, because in practice it usually is. A post pairs the name with a specific building, a specific spot inside it, a time, and often a photo, and that combination can identify someone in a small office even when the name on its own would not. Everyone on the board sees all of it, so please choose what you enter with that in mind.
How your location is used. SparePlate uses your phone's location, provided by Apple's iOS location services, for three things: to find boards near you, to confirm you are at a building when you join or create a board, and to decide whether to send you a notification. These checks happen on your device. Your location is not sent to us, it is not shared with other users, and we do not store it.
What is saved. When you create a board, the building's coordinates are recorded once and saved with the board. They describe the building, not where you are over time, and, like the rest of the board information, they are stored in the shared database. The pickup spot you type into a post (for example, "kitchen, 3rd floor") is ordinary text that you write yourself, not GPS data. We do not keep any history of where you have been.
Your controls. You can turn off location access for SparePlate at any time in iOS Settings. If you do, features that depend on it, such as finding nearby boards or creating a board, may not work.
If you enable notifications, members near a building are alerted when new food is posted on that building's board. Notifications are delivered through Apple's Push Notification service, and you may disable them at any time in iOS Settings.
Shared data is stored in Apple's iCloud (CloudKit) public database and is subject to Apple's privacy protections. "Public" here means the records are readable by the app on other people's devices, which is what makes a shared board possible — so treat anything you post as visible to other app users, not private. We operate no servers of our own and use no third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking services.
A post is marked as expired approximately two (2) hours after it is created and stops appearing on the board approximately six (6) hours after it is created. These timings govern display only and do not affect storage. The underlying post record — the food description, the location text, the name you entered, and any photo — remains stored in the database after the post leaves the feed, and is retained until one of the deletion events described below occurs.
A post record is permanently deleted only when one of the following occurs:
As a result, if a board remains in regular use, expired posts may remain stored indefinitely even though they are no longer visible in the app. If you would prefer not to leave a post stored, you can delete it at any time, which removes it permanently.
Reports are retained until they are reviewed and are periodically purged thereafter.
You may delete any of your own posts within the app at any time, including posts that have already expired and left the feed; doing so permanently removes them from the server for all users. If you created a board, you may delete the entire board, which permanently erases the board and every post it contains for every member.
For any other request — for example, removal of all records associated with your device — please email contact@sorentechnologies.net and we will delete them. Because posts are not linked to your identity, kindly provide sufficient detail for us to locate the relevant records, namely the board name and the name displayed on your posts.
Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the right to request access to the personal data we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, and to object to our use of it. In practice, the only data associated with you is the content you have posted, the name you chose to display on it, and an anonymous device identifier. To exercise any of these rights, email contact@sorentechnologies.net, and we will respond within 30 days. You will not be discriminated against or otherwise treated differently for exercising these rights.
We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We have no advertising or analytics trackers. Given our size and the very limited data we collect, we believe the California Consumer Privacy Act's business-size thresholds do not currently apply to us. We also do not collect the categories of information covered by Massachusetts' data breach notification law, such as Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, or financial account numbers. If either of those changes, we will update this policy.
SparePlate is intended for adults in a workplace setting and is not directed at anyone under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has used the app, please email contact@sorentechnologies.net and we will delete the associated data.
If this policy changes materially, we will post the revised policy on this page and update the "last updated" date shown at the top.
For questions or requests, please contact us at contact@sorentechnologies.net. You may also open an issue on our GitHub page for non-private matters such as bug reports; please do not include personal information there, as GitHub issues are publicly visible.