Privacy notice for guests
Version 1.0 · updated 03/11/2026
How your data is used when you open a venue's menu with Garbo: no account, no advertising, no third-party scripts. Details about your table and your allergies reach the waiter only if you choose to share them.
Who processes your data
The data controller is the venue (restaurant, bar, pizzeria…) whose menu you opened: it decides why and how the data you leave in its digital menu is used. Its name is at the top of the menu.
Garbo is the service the venue uses for its digital menu. It is provided by SM SERVIZI SRLS, VAT number IT03238380590, Via Giuseppe Garibaldi 7, 04020 Itri (LT), Italy, acting as data processor on behalf of the venue (Art. 28 GDPR): it processes data only on the venue's instructions and never for its own purposes.
For any question about your data you can ask the venue's staff or write to info@garbo-menu.com: if the request concerns a venue, we forward it without delay.
What data, and when
You need no account to use the menu, and we never ask for your name, email or phone number. Here is what happens at each moment:
| When | What data | What for |
|---|---|---|
| You open and browse the menu | A random code stored in your phone's browser, the pages and dishes viewed, the language; technical connection data (IP address, browser type) | Showing you the menu, remembering language and easy mode, menu usage statistics that the venue only sees in aggregate, security and limits against abuse |
| You answer the guided questions (hunger, mood, drinks) | Your answers | Suggesting suitable dishes, right on your phone. The venue only sees anonymous daily counts, with no table, time or device |
| You enter allergies or diets | The allergens and diets you entered: this is health data | Leaving out unsuitable dishes, on your phone. The venue only receives an anonymous count (no table, time, name or contact), at most once every 30 days per device. The waiter sees them only if you tick «Share with the waiter so we can serve you better» |
| You use the table features (call the waiter, ask for the bill, prepare your order) | The table, the type of request, the dishes and quantities chosen, a random code of your phone, kept only as an unreadable fingerprint (hash) | Getting your request to the staff and recognising the same phone at the table |
| You ask «Ask Garbo» a question, if the venue has enabled it | The text of your question and, for that answer only, the needs you entered in the guided questions | Answering with the venue's dishes and prices, through an artificial intelligence provider that may be based outside the European Union and may keep the texts it receives under its own terms. Phone numbers and emails are removed before sending; Garbo does not keep the question |
| You ask the staff to send you the menu link | Your phone number, the channel (SMS or WhatsApp), date, time and delivery result | Sending you the link you asked for. Without your consent the number does not become one of the venue's contacts |
| You consent to offers or to the after-meal message | Your phone number, language and the proof of consent: date, time, channel, text and version of the notice, staff member who collected it | Receiving the venue's offers, or a single message after your meal. The two consents are separate, optional and never pre-ticked |
| You leave a private message on «How was it?» | Your rating, your text and, only if you want to be contacted and allow it, name, phone and email | Letting the venue know about your experience and, if you ask, contacting you |
Please do not write health data, names or contact details in free text (questions and messages): questions to «Ask Garbo» reach the artificial intelligence provider. If you do, it stays only as part of the text and is never extracted or used for anything else.
If you choose to leave a public review from the menu (for example on Google), the site that opens is an independent service with its own privacy notice.
Allergies and diets
The allergies and diets you enter are first of all for your phone, so that unsuitable dishes are not suggested. Garbo never decides on its own what is safe: allergen information is entered by the venue. Always tell the staff about your allergies before ordering.
- The waiter sees them only if you tick «Share with the waiter so we can serve you better», which is never pre-ticked. The consent is then recorded on the table session (time and version of the text), with no name.
- Details shared with the waiter are deleted when the table is closed, or anyway after the time set by the venue (3 hours unless changed).
- Without the tick, the venue only receives an anonymous count (for example «how many people entered gluten this month»), shown only above a minimum number of guests.
Why this is allowed (legal bases)
- Showing you the menu, sending you the link you ask for, getting your table requests to the staff: a service you request (Art. 6.1.b GDPR).
- Aggregate menu statistics and security of the service: the venue's legitimate interest in improving and protecting the service (Art. 6.1.f GDPR). The random code in your browser is a first-party technical tool: see the cookie notice.
- Offers, after-meal message, being contacted after a private message: your consent (Art. 6.1.a GDPR and Art. 130 of the Italian Privacy Code).
- Allergies and diets shared with the waiter: your explicit consent (Art. 9.2.a GDPR).
You can withdraw any consent at any time, with no effect on the service: just tell the venue or write to Garbo. Withdrawal does not affect what was done before.
How long
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Allergies and diets shared with the waiter, table requests, prepared order | Deleted when the table is closed (at the latest after the time set by the venue; alerts without a table after 12 hours) |
| Proof of consent to share allergies and diets (time and text version only, no name) | 12 months after the table is closed |
| Anonymous counts of tastes, allergies and diets | 13 months |
| Phone number in the log of sent links | 30 days, then pseudonymised: only the first 4 and last 2 digits remain visible |
| Contacts who consented to offers | Until consent is withdrawn or the venue's contract with Garbo ends |
| Questions to «Ask Garbo» | Not kept by Garbo: only the answer remains, linked to a fingerprint of the text, for as long as the venue uses Garbo. The artificial intelligence provider may keep them under its own terms |
| Menu usage statistics and private messages | For as long as the venue uses Garbo, unless the venue deletes them earlier |
| All data of a venue that leaves Garbo | 30 days for possible recovery, then Garbo deletes it permanently |
Who can see it
- The venue's staff, according to their role. No statistics concern an individual waiter.
- Garbo, only to run the service and for support requested by the venue. Every support access is logged.
- Garbo's technical providers (database, hosting, message delivery, artificial intelligence), bound by contract: see the list on the Sub-processors page (in Italian).
Your data is never sold, never used for advertising and never used to profile you. The menu pages contain no third-party scripts.
Where the data is
Garbo's database is in the European Union (Ireland). Some providers are companies based outside the European Union (for example in the United States) or use a global network: in those cases the transfer is protected by the European Commission's standard contractual clauses or by the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Details are on the Sub-processors page (in Italian).
Your rights
You can ask to access your data, correct it, delete it, restrict its use, object to its processing and receive it in a readable format (Arts. 15-22 GDPR).
Contact the venue, which is the controller, or write to info@garbo-menu.com. Since you have no account, we may ask for a few details to find your data (for example the phone number used, the venue and the day).
You can also lodge a complaint with the Italian data protection authority (Garante per la protezione dei dati personali): www.garanteprivacy.it.
Children
Anyone can browse the menu. Consent to offers and to the after-meal message cannot be given by anyone under 14.
Changes
If this notice changes, we publish the new version here with its update date. The consent you gave stays linked to the version of the text you were shown.