Privacy Policy
What this is
Vancouver Sommelier AI is a free, non-commercial engineering demo operated by an individual developer in Vancouver, British Columbia. Nothing is sold here and no account is required. This policy explains what the demo collects when you use it, how long it is kept, and which third parties process it. Personal information is handled in line with British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA).
What we collect
- Your messages — everything you type into the chat.
- Images you attach — wine labels, wine lists, or food menus you upload for analysis.
- Your IP address — used as the key for per-visitor rate limiting so one user cannot exhaust the demo for everyone.
- Conversation state — the thread of the current chat, so follow-up questions like "the second one" resolve correctly.
We do not ask for your name, email, or any account details, and we have no advertising or analytics trackers on this site.
How long it is kept
Conversation threads are stored in a managed Postgres database and are automatically deleted after 7 days. Closing the chat window also discards the thread immediately — each time you reopen the chat you start a fresh session with no memory of previous ones. Uploaded images are held only for the duration of the turn that analyses them; after extraction the image is replaced in the conversation by its text description and the image data is not retained.
Who processes it
Google (Gemini on Vertex AI) — Your messages and any images you attach are sent to Google Cloud for processing by the Gemini models that power the agent. This is subject to Google's Privacy Policy and the Google Cloud terms for Vertex AI. Some answers also use Google Search grounding, which sends a search query to Google.
Cloudflare — The site is served through Cloudflare, which acts as a reverse proxy and processes all traffic including IP addresses and request headers, under its own Privacy Policy.
Google Cloud Run and Cloud SQL — The backend and the conversation database run on Google Cloud infrastructure.
Retailer websites — When you ask about availability, the agent queries the public product-search endpoints of Vancouver liquor retailers. Your identity is never sent to them; only the search terms derived from your question.
Where it is processed
The providers above process data on servers outside Canada, primarily in the United States. Information stored outside Canada may be accessible to foreign courts and law enforcement under the laws of that country.
Please don't share sensitive information
This is a demo, not a secure system. Do not type confidential, personal, or sensitive information into the chat, and check photos before uploading them — a picture of a restaurant wine list or menu may capture things you did not intend to share.
Your rights
Under PIPA you may request access to personal information we hold about you, ask how it has been used, request a correction, or ask us to delete it. Because threads are keyed to a random session identifier and expire after 7 days, in practice the fastest deletion is simply to close the chat. For anything else, email [email protected] and we will respond within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia at oipc.bc.ca.
Changes
We may update this policy. The "Last updated" date above reflects the most recent change.
Contact
Questions about this policy: [email protected]