Ask Bob: Tableside · Last updated 6 November 2026
Ask Bob: Tableside reads a restaurant menu, puts it in your language, and recommends dishes and wine that suit your taste. This policy explains exactly what data the app handles, why, and who processes it. The rule is the same as its partner app, Ask Bob: no ads, no tracking, no profiling for advertising, and no selling of your data — ever. What you eat stays yours.
Ask Bob: Tableside is operated by Ultimate Apps Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company no. 17536893), registered office 71-75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ, United Kingdom ("we", "us"), the controller of your personal data. We are registered with the UK Information Commissioner's Office, registration no. ZC283265. For any privacy question, contact us at info@askbob.guide.
| Data | Why | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The photo you take of a menu | To read the menu and put it in your language | Uploaded through the app to a private store that only our own backend can read, used to produce that one menu, and deleted automatically with the session it belongs to — within 24 hours, by a job that runs every hour. There is no way for anyone else to reach the image, and we never use it for anything but your menu. |
| The menu itself, once read | So you can go back to it during the meal, and offline | The dishes, sections and prices we extracted are kept with that same session and deleted on the same 24-hour clock. We also keep one copy of the restaurant's own menu — its sections, dishes and prices, with your account, your session and your photo removed — so that the next person to scan that menu gets it straight away instead of waiting. That copy is the restaurant's information, not yours: it is not linked to you, it is not part of your data export, and deleting your account does not remove it, because there is nothing of you in it. |
| Your taste profile | To recommend dishes and wine that suit you rather than a stranger | Your answers to the short palate setup, and what we infer from them. This is the part of the app that makes it worth having. You can change it any time, and deleting your account deletes it. |
| Your meal log | So next month's recommendations are better than this month's | What you ordered, where, and your thumbs up or down. Kept until you delete it or your account. |
| Places you've eaten | So the app can say "you've been here before, and you had this" | The venue attached to a meal you logged. Never shared with the venue, and never used to advertise to you. |
| Your sign-in | So your profile, log and subscription stay yours, on this phone and the next | On iPhone you sign in with Apple. We ask Apple for no name and no email, and we store neither. On Android you sign in with Google. Google gives us your email address, and sometimes your name, and we keep them with your account until you delete it. |
| An account ID | To keep your profile, log and subscription attached to you | A random ID that stands for you in our systems. |
| Purchase history | To unlock the features you've paid for, and any month you've been given | Handled through the app stores and RevenueCat. We never see your card details. |
| A count of your requests | To run your plan's allowances and stop abuse | We record that a request happened, when, and what it cost us to serve — never what you asked. Without this we can't keep the service honest for everyone. |
We do not collect your health or financial details. Telling the app about a dietary preference or an allergy so it can write your question out for the waiter is your choice, it stays with your profile, and it is never shared with anyone. There is no advertising identifier and no App Tracking Transparency prompt, because we don't track you.
Tableside will never tell you a dish is safe to eat — not for an allergy, not for a medical condition, in any language, at any price. A menu line cannot tell us what is in the stock, the sauce or the fryer. What the app does instead is write your question out in the venue's language so you can ask the one person who can answer it.
Ask Bob: Tableside is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect data from children.
If this policy changes we'll update the date above and, for material changes, note it in the app.
Change of controller, 23 October 2026. Ask Bob: Tableside was previously operated by another company. From 23 October 2026 it is operated by Ultimate Apps Ltd, named under “Who we are” above, which is now the controller of your personal data. What we collect, why we collect it and your rights are unchanged.