Privacy policy

Effective 28 September 2026

This policy covers the Chicago Restaurants: Ranked app for iPhone and iPad (shown on your home screen as “Chi Ranked”) and this website, chicago.eatsranked.com, including the web version of the app. Both are published by Nicholas Soderstrom, a sole proprietor in Illinois, USA (“we”, “us”).

What the app collects

Nothing. The app has no account or sign-in, no analytics or crash-reporting service, no advertising, and no third-party tracking code. We do not receive, store, sell or share any information about you. The restaurant data is on your device, built into the app and refreshed by the data updates described below, so browsing, searching and filtering happen on your device.

Location

Location is optional. If you allow it (“While Using the App”), the app uses your location on your device to show you on the map and to sort places by distance. It is never sent to us or to anyone else, and it is not stored after you close the app. You can say no and use everything else, or change your choice at any time in Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services › Chi Ranked.

Data updates

The app checks this website for newer restaurant data when you open it: at most once a day, or again an hour later if a check didn’t get through. It also checks when you tap “Check for new data” in About. Each check downloads one small file that says whether newer data is available. About once a week it is, and the app then downloads the new data files, so new inspections and new places arrive without an app update. It downloads only data files (JSON, the same kind of public records that are built into the app), never code. If a download fails or the data doesn’t check out, the app keeps the data it already has.

These requests carry no location, no device or advertising identifier, no account, no cookies, and nothing about which places you view, search for or save. Like any web request, they do include standard technical details: your IP address and the app’s name and version. This website is hosted on GitHub Pages, and like any web host, GitHub receives those details, as it does for any visit to this site. That is covered by the GitHub General Privacy Statement. We don’t receive them. The app still collects nothing.

Saved places

Places you save are stored only on your device. They are removed when you unsave them or delete the app. Like other app data, they can be part of your own iCloud or computer backup if you use one; that backup is handled by Apple under your settings.

The web version

The web version at chicago.eatsranked.com/explore/ runs in your browser and collects nothing either.

• Saved places are kept only in this browser on your device, in its local storage (localStorage). Unsave them, or clear this site’s data in your browser, to remove them.
• Location is used only when you tap Near me or the map’s Show my location button, and only with your browser’s permission. It sorts places and centers the map in your browser, and it is never stored or sent anywhere.
• No cookies, no analytics, no ads and no tracking.
• The map is drawn in your browser from outline files on this site. No map service is used and no map tiles are loaded.
• Only files from this site: the page loads its own code and the same public data files the app downloads, and nothing from other companies, so no fonts, maps or scripts from third parties. Directions and other links open another site only when you tap them.

Apple services you choose to use

In the app, the map is provided by Apple Maps, which loads map tiles from Apple. Tapping Directions opens the address in Apple Maps, tapping a website opens it in your browser, and Share uses the iOS share sheet. Links to the City of Chicago’s inspection records and to our GitHub pages open in your browser. Those services are covered by Apple’s privacy policy or the website’s own policy, not by us. If you have chosen to share analytics with app developers in your device settings, Apple may give us anonymous crash reports and usage statistics under Apple’s privacy policy; the app itself sends no analytics or crash reports.

The data in the app

The app shows public information about businesses, not about you: City of Chicago food inspection and business license records, Cook County Assessor property values, Michelin Guide and James Beard Foundation honors, published sales figures and opening years that we verified by hand, and Overture Maps places data. The app shows business names only, never a licensee’s personal name. The same data files are published on this website. If you think something shown about a business is wrong, use “Report a problem with this listing” on its page in the app, or see fixing wrong information on the support page.

This website

This site uses no cookies, no analytics and no third-party scripts or fonts. It is hosted on GitHub Pages; GitHub may log basic technical information such as IP addresses to run and secure its service, as described in the GitHub General Privacy Statement.

Contacting us

Email work-with-nick@gmail.com. We use what you send only to answer you and fix the app, and we don’t share it. We keep support emails only as long as that takes, and we delete them sooner if you ask. If you choose to open a public issue on GitHub instead, it is visible to anyone and handled by GitHub under its own privacy statement, so leave out personal information.

Children

The app is a general-audience reference app. It collects no information from anyone, including children under 13.

Your rights

Apart from emails you choose to send us, we hold no personal information about you, so there is nothing else for us to access, correct, export or delete. To have your emails deleted, ask at the address above. Deleting the app removes everything it stored on your device.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new effective date. If the app ever starts collecting data, this page and the App Store privacy details will say so before it happens.

Related: Terms of use · Help & support