Privacy, plainly
SipStir is Andy Beach's small, invite-only bar. Here is what it keeps and why.
What we keep
- Your name and email, how you know Andy, and any allergies or things you avoid, so we can let you in and keep those out of your drinks.
- What you ask the bar for, the drinks it suggests to you, the ones you save to your menu, and the notes and ratings you give on the ones you make.
- What the bar learns about your taste from those notes and ratings, so it can suggest drinks you'll like. Saving a drink doesn't count: only the ones you tell it you made.
- Tastes you tell the bar about ("bourbon and ginger is my thing"), only when you say Yes to keeping them, and whether you ordered a drink it suggested while you were out. You can see, change or remove what it knows about you on My menu.
- If you answer "Tell me who you are" or the bar's occasional "Quick one" questions: your answers (your coffee, the plate you'd order, a film you loved, and so on). Food and coffee answers shape your drinks; the rest only colors how the bar talks to you. Andy can see them. They stay in SipStir, and you can change, clear or retake them anytime under Who you are on My menu.
- If you make friends at the bar: who your friends are, and what you chose to share with each (your taste, who you are, your avoid list). Sharing is off by default and per friend; a friend's bar can use only what you share (if you share your avoid list, a friend hosting you sees it, so they can make your drinks without it), never your answers, ratings, notes, history, photos, shelf or messages. You can turn any of it off, or unfriend, anytime on My menu, and it stops from their next drink. Andy sees only counts, never who borrowed what. What you share with a friend applies wherever they use SipStir, including the AI assistant they connect to it (Claude or ChatGPT); what a friend shares with you applies wherever you use it, including yours.
- A daily count of your messages, so the bar stays affordable to run.
- If you turn on Keep my chats on My menu (it's off unless you do): your conversations from then on, what you asked and what the bar said, so you can read them again. Only you can see them, not Andy and not your friends; Andy sees only how many guests keep their chats. They never count as the bar's events or toward the taste index, and never leave SipStir. They stay until you delete them, one chat or all of them, on My menu; turning it off asks whether to delete what was kept. Chats from before you turned it on were never kept.
- If you use My shelf: the bottles you add, with your ratings and notes on them. They're private to you.
- Drink photos you add to a drink's card are stored, and shown only to you unless Andy features one. You can delete them anytime.
What we don't keep
Unless you turn on Keep my chats, we don't store your full conversations: only what you asked for and the drinks that came out of it.
Photos you add to My shelf are read to list the bottles in them and are not kept.
If Andy turns on Menu read for you: the menu photos or text you send are read to rank their drinks for you, and neither they, the full menu nor the ranking are kept. Menu read keeps only the drinks you choose to note with "I had it out": the drink's name, the menu's description of it, the bar (if you gave one) and your note. They're private to you, teach the bar your taste like any other note, and you can remove them on My menu.
If you ask for a home riff on one ("Save a riff to my menu"), the bar drafts it from the drink's name and the menu's description, and the riff you save is kept as your own recipe on My menu, like any drink of yours: you and Andy can see it, it's labeled an off-menu riff and never the bar's recipe, and Andy may make it a house drink.
Menu read also keeps your answer when you tap "Good pick?" on a result: the drink's name, the bar (if you gave one), where it was ranked, its score and how sure the bar was, and whether it was right for you. Never the photos or the menu. It's private to you and helps Andy see how well Menu read ranks.
If you scan a bottle's barcode, it's read on your phone; only its digits are sent to public barcode databases (Open Food Facts, and sometimes UPCitemdb) to look the bottle up.
How it's used
To suggest drinks you'll like, and, in time, to learn which of Andy's drinks land with people. Your notes help Andy, but they never become his own views. Andy can see what you asked for, your drinks and notes, and what the bar has learned about your taste. We don't sell or share your information. Answers come from an AI model, so your messages are sent to the AI provider to produce a reply.
If you connect your own AI assistant (Claude or ChatGPT) with your key, it gets the same personal bar you get here: your taste, who you are, your avoids, your shelf and your friends' shares shape its answers. Those answers are built from that information and sent to that assistant's provider (Anthropic or OpenAI) to show them to you. You can turn this off anytime under Connect SipStir to Claude or ChatGPT on My menu; your avoid list always applies, on or off.
SipStir's taste index
The bar also notes what happens at it as simple events: what you ask for, the drinks you're poured, save, make and rate, the bottles you add to or take off your shelf (with their barcode, if you scanned it), and when you come by. They're kept under a random code, not your name, and never include your notes or messages. Andy sees them only as totals, to know how the bar is doing. If Andy turns on Claude or ChatGPT access for you, each call from it is noted too (which tool, when, whether it worked): Andy sees those counts by name, never what you asked, and they never count toward the index.
Contributing to SipStir's taste index is off unless you turn it on, when you ask to join or anytime on My menu. While it's on, your activity counts toward the index, anonymized. Turn it off anytime: nothing you do after that counts.
Nothing leaves the bar today. In the future, only aggregates may leave: totals across many guests (and, later, many bars), large enough that no one can be picked out, such as how often a drink gets made again.
What never leaves: your name, your email or anything else that identifies you; which bar or venue you drink at; and any single event, rating, note or message of yours.
Leaving
Removing a drink on My menu hides it from your list. To erase everything, reply to any SipStir email, or email Andy, and ask to be removed. We'll delete your account, drinks, notes, kept chats and activity.
Drink responsibly
SipStir is for people of legal drinking age where they live (21 in the US, 18 in most other countries). Know your limits, and never drink and drive.