Curata

Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 12, 2026

The short version

Curata helps you find great coffee, and it collects as little about you as it can while doing that. We never sell your personal information. A few established services help us run Curata, and they can only use your data to do that work for us. You can browse without an account, rate shops without giving us your email, and ask us to delete everything tied to you at any time.

Curata is run by Joyride Ventures Group LLC, a Colorado company ("we" and "us" below). Questions about any of this go to hello@curata.coffee.

If you're just browsing

Browsing doesn't create an account or a Curator ID.

If you rate, write notes, flag, or tell us about a shop

The first time you rate a shop, write a note, flag a listing, or report a missing shop, Curata creates an anonymous Curator ID and saves it in your browser. It isn't tied to your name or email unless you sign in.

Ratings. A rating is a thumbs up or down on "Would you recommend this shop to a friend?" plus three 1-to-5 sliders: roast quality (how good the beans were), preparation (how well the drink was made), and vibe (the place and staff). You can change a rating for 24 hours. After that it's locked in. Ratings feed each shop's public score. We do not publish individual ratings, and would not do so without your permission. Everyone sees one overall score per shop.

Notes. You can keep notes about shops, whether or not you're signed in. Until you sign in, your notes are kept with the anonymous Curator ID in this browser, like your ratings, and when you sign in they move to your account. Other Curators can't currently browse your notes, but we may use your notes to personalize Curata for you, to improve the accuracy of our scores, and to summarize or quote them publicly in "What coffee lovers say" on shop pages. You can edit or delete your notes any time. To stop floods, we also keep the time of each save and the same scrambled network code for a day.

Flags and missing-shop reports. When you tell us something's wrong with a listing (closed, not a specialty shop, wrong info), we store what you picked and the optional one-line note. For a missing shop, we store the name and city you gave us. The Curata team reviews these weekly.

Feedback. If you send us feedback through the feedback link, we store what you write, the page you sent it from, and, to stop floods, a scrambled network code. If you have a Curator ID, we attach it. Sending feedback doesn't create a Curator ID.

City requests. If you tell us where you'd like Curata next, from the bottom of the city list, we store the city you typed, the date, and, to stop floods, the same scrambled network code. If you have a Curator ID, we attach it so we count you once however often you ask. Requesting a city doesn't create a Curator ID and doesn't need an email or a sign-in. We look at how many people asked for each city.

Hearing back from us. The missing-shop form and the city request form each have a box: "Let me know when this shop (or city) is added to Curata, and keep me posted on future shops and news I might be interested in." When you tick it, we email you about the shop or city you asked about, and add you to Curata news, which you can unsubscribe from any time. On the feedback page you can ask us to reply, and we reply to the address you give us; if you're not signed in, you can also tick a box for Curata news there. If you're signed in, we use the address you sign in with and don't copy it anywhere. If you're not, we keep the address you give us with your request, apart from the request itself, and delete it once we've written to you, replied to your feedback, or decided not to add the shop, and in any case 30 days after you asked. If you ask us to bring Curata to your city and request to be notified when we do, we'll keep your email address until that city launches so we can let you know, which may be longer than 30 days. When you ask for a reply, your message, the page you sent it from and your address are emailed to our own mailbox so we can answer.

Keeping ratings honest. With each rating, we store a scrambled, one-way code made from the network it came from. It can't be turned back into your IP address, and we don't keep IP addresses with ratings. We use it only to spot fake or coordinated ratings and to stop floods of submissions. If a shop suddenly gets a burst of ratings, we may hold them out of its score until a person has looked at them.

If you sign in

You can sign in two ways: with a link we email you, or with your Google account. Either way, Curata never sees or stores a password. We store your email address and use it to sign you in and to tell you about important changes to this policy or our terms. We won't send you marketing email without asking first. We may send you service emails needed to run Curata, such as sign-in links and important notices about your account or these policies.

Signing in with Google. If you choose Google, Google asks you to share your name, email address and profile picture with Curata, and nothing else from your Google account. We use your email address exactly as we would if you'd signed in by email link, and if you've signed in by email link before with the same address, you land in the same account. Our sign-in provider also stores the name, profile picture link and Google account ID that Google sends. We don't currently show your name or picture in Curata. If we add features that do, such as a profile you choose to set up, we'll update this policy first. The "Continue with Google" button comes from Google, so when you open Curata's sign-in screen, or the Want to Try prompt that asks you to sign in, your browser loads it from Google. Google receives your IP address and can tell you opened that screen or prompt, even if you sign in by email. Google also knows when you sign in to Curata with Google, as it does for any site you sign in to with Google. Google's privacy policy covers what Google does with all of this.

Any ratings and notes you made anonymously in that browser move over to your account. If you don't have a Curator ID yet, signing in creates one. Signed in, your ratings and notes stay with you across devices, and you can save shops you want to try and see your favorites.

Your shops. Signed-in Curators can save shops they want to try, and remove them from that list at any time. Rating a shop takes it off that list. Your favorites are the shops you've recommended in your own ratings; they come from those ratings and aren't saved separately. Only you can see these lists, unless you choose to share them. We may show totals across Curators, like how many want to try a shop, without showing who.

Curata news

You can sign up to get Curata news, like new cities, shops and features, at the bottom of any page, when you ask to hear back about a shop or a city, when you ask for a reply to feedback, or when you sign in to Curata by opting into the box that says "Send me occasional shop recommendations and news." On the sign-in screens, the missing-shop form, the city request form and the feedback page, the box starts unticked if you are in the EU, the UK or Canada. Everywhere else, including the US or when we can't tell where you are, it starts ticked. Signing up is optional; you can use everything else on Curata without opting into news.

If you sign up, we store your email address, the exact wording you agreed to and its version, the date and time, where you signed up (and, from the city request form, the city you asked for; at sign-in and on the missing-shop, city request and feedback forms, whether the box started ticked), and, to stop floods, the same scrambled network code. If you have a Curator ID, we attach it. Signing up doesn't create a Curator ID or sign you in.

We haven't started sending news yet. Before we do, we'll name the company that sends it in this policy. Every email will include a way to unsubscribe. To come off the list before then, or any time, email hello@curata.coffee and we'll remove your address.

Giveaways

Sometimes we run a giveaway. While one is running, signing in or signing up for Curata news enters you, as its official rules explain. We use entry email addresses only to run the draw and contact winners. Winners give us a mailing address, which we use only to ship the prize. We delete entries and winners' mailing addresses within 60 days after the giveaway ends.

Analytics

We use an analytics service, hosted in the US, to understand how people use Curata: which pages get used and where people get stuck. That includes session replay, a reconstruction of the clicks, scrolls and page views in a visit, which shows us where the design confuses people. Replays hide what you type into forms, and notes are hidden from recordings.

Our analytics provider gives each browser its own anonymous ID. Once you have a Curator ID, we link the two so we can see how people go from browsing to rating. We also use it to run small tests, such as showing some people one version of a screen and others another, to see which one users prefer. We use analytics to make Curata better, and we never share it in a form that identifies you.

If you'd rather not be included, a content blocker that blocks analytics will do it, and Curata will still work.

If you're in the EU, the European Economic Area or the UK, analytics works differently: it sets no cookies, stores nothing in your browser, and records no sessions. We still see rough counts of page views. See "If you're in the EU, the EEA or the UK" below.

Cookies and browser storage

Curata saves a few things in your browser (in cookies and similar storage): your settings, your Curator ID and sign-in session, whether we've already asked you to sign in after you saved a note, and our analytics provider's anonymous ID. If you're in the EU, the European Economic Area or the UK, our analytics provider stores nothing in your browser. The sign-in session is still saved, because signing in can't work without it.

If you clear your browser storage, you'll be signed out. If you never signed in, clearing it also disconnects you from your anonymous ratings and notes for good. Your ratings will still count toward shop scores, and your notes may still be used as described above, but neither you nor we will be able to tell which ones were yours.

Who helps us run Curata

We use a small number of established companies for the things every website needs. They handle your data only to provide their service to us.

Want to know which companies these are? Email us and we'll tell you.

If you email us, your message and email address pass through our email provider, and we reply from our own mailbox.

We don't sell or rent your personal information. We may share or license aggregated, de-identified insights, such as trends across many Curators, that can't be used to identify you. We'd disclose data if the law required it, such as a valid court order. If Curata is ever sold or merged into another company, your data would go with it, and the new owner would have to honor this policy or tell you before changing it.

Where shop information comes from

Shop listings and scores draw on public sources such as Google, reviews and the shops' own websites. That's information about businesses, not about you.

How long we keep things

We keep your ratings, notes, saved shops, feedback, email address and, if you signed in with Google, the details Google sent, for as long as Curata is running, or until you ask us to delete them. We keep a Curata news signup until you unsubscribe or ask us to remove it. We keep an email address you give us to hear back until we've written to you, replied, or decided not to add the shop, and no longer than 30 days, except a city request's, which we keep until that city launches. You can ask us to remove it sooner. Flags, missing-shop reports and city requests stay after a deletion, with anything linking them to you removed.

Deleting your data, or getting a copy

Email hello@curata.coffee from the address you sign in with and ask us to delete your data. We'll remove everything tied to you: your ratings (which come out of shop scores), notes, saved shops, feedback, any Curata news signup, your email address, the details Google sent if you signed in with Google, any anonymous IDs linked to your account, and analytics tied to your Curator ID. Summaries already written from your notes may stay until that shop's summary is next rebuilt; we won't use your notes for new summaries or quotes. Flags, missing-shop reports and city requests are about a place, not about you, so we keep them but remove anything linking them to you, along with any note you added to a flag. We keep a record that the deletion happened, without the deleted data, so we can show we did it. Deleted information may remain in our encrypted backups for up to 30 days before it's overwritten.

Deleting your data removes your Google sign-in from Curata. To also remove Curata from your Google account, go to your Google Account's "Third-party apps & services" page and remove Curata there. You can do that any time. Removing Curata there doesn't delete your Curata account, and you can still sign in by email link.

If you rated or wrote notes without signing in, we can't tell which ratings or notes are yours from an email alone. The easiest route is to sign in from the same browser you used, which links them to your email, and then ask us to delete them.

You can also ask for a copy of the data we have about you, or ask us to fix something that's wrong. We'll respond within 30 days.

Privacy rights where you live

Depending on your state, you may have legal rights to see, correct, delete or get a copy of your data, and to opt out of the sale of your data. We don't sell personal information, and we'll honor requests to see, correct or delete your data no matter where you live. Email hello@curata.coffee.

If you're in the EU, the EEA or the UK

European and UK data protection law gives you some extra rights, and asks us to explain a few more things. Joyride Ventures Group LLC decides how your data is used.

Why we're allowed to use your data. Each use described in this policy rests on one of these grounds:

Analytics. If you're in the EU, the European Economic Area or the UK, our analytics sets no cookies, stores nothing in your browser, and records no sessions. We see rough page counts and nothing that follows you from one visit to the next. If we can't tell where you are, you get the same treatment.

Your rights. You can ask us to:

Email hello@curata.coffee. We'll respond within 30 days.

You can also complain to your local data protection authority, such as the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens in the Netherlands or the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK. We'd appreciate the chance to fix things first.

Who handles your data, and where. The services we use are listed by type in "Who helps us run Curata" above, and they store data in the United States. They transfer EU data to the US under the European Commission's standard contractual clauses or the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, with the UK equivalents where they apply. Email us if you'd like to know which companies they are, or how a particular transfer is protected.

Kids

Curata is for people 18 and older. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If we learn that we have, we'll delete it.

Keeping data safe

We take reasonable steps to protect your data: connections to Curata are encrypted, access to our systems is limited, sign-in links expire, and we never handle a password. No system is perfectly secure, though, and we can't promise nothing will ever go wrong.

Where your data lives

Curata and the services it uses store data in the United States. If you use Google's sign-in button, Google handles that data under its own policy.

Changes to this policy

When we update this policy, we'll change the date at the top. For bigger changes, we'll also post a note in the app and email signed-in Curators before the changes take effect.

Contact

Joyride Ventures Group LLC, Colorado
hello@curata.coffee

Have feedback on how we can improve Curata? Please share! We review it all.