Privacy Policy

Last updated 4 November 2026

Sudo Menu provides free digital menus and table ordering to cafes and restaurants in Ethiopia. This policy explains what information we handle when you visit this website, view a venue's menu, order from a table, or use the staff console as a member of a venue's team, and the choices you have. We have written it to follow Ethiopia's Personal Data Protection Proclamation No. 1321/2024.

Who is responsible

Sudo Menu is operated from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. You can reach us at seudsahm1@gmail.com.

Each venue decides what is on its menu and runs its own orders, staff and payments. For order and payment records kept for a venue, the venue is responsible for its own business records and we look after them on its behalf.

Information we collect

When you read a menu or the guide

You do not need an account. Like most websites, our hosting providers record technical information with each request, such as your IP address, browser type, the page requested and the time. This is used to keep the service running, find faults and protect against abuse.

To show venues how their menu is used, the menu page tells us, when you leave it, that it was viewed and which dishes you opened. We keep only daily totals per venue and per dish, for example "Macchiato opened 40 times today". No cookie, device identifier or IP address is stored with these counts, and they cannot be linked to you.

When you order at a table

• The items, sizes, options and notes you choose, the table and venue, and the time and status of the order.
• Requests such as Call waiter or Request bill.
• A table session that links the orders placed from that table during one visit.
• To stop fake and prank orders, a scrambled (hashed) form of a random device identifier and of your IP address. We cannot turn these back into the original values; they only let us notice many orders from one phone or network, and let a venue block a phone that sent fake orders.
• If the venue has turned it on, your phone may ask to share its location when you send an order. It is used once to check whether you are at the venue; we keep only the result ("nearby" or "far away"), never the location. If you say no, you can still order. A venue can also note that an order came over its own internet connection; again only that result is kept.
• If you tap Tell me on Telegram, we keep your Telegram chat number, linked only to that visit, so our bot can tell you when your order is ready. It is deleted after a day. We do not see your phone number or messages, and we never message you about anything else.

We do not ask for your name, phone number or email to order. Please do not type personal information into order notes.

When you ask to reserve a table

Your name, phone number, the number of people, the time and any note. They are shared only with that venue's staff, who use them to confirm your reservation. The confirmation page shows no name or phone number. Ask us at any time to delete a request.

When you work for a venue (staff console)

• Your email address, the name shown to your team, your role and the venue you work for.
• If you use a PIN on a shared tablet, the PIN is stored only in scrambled (hashed) form, so nobody, including us, can read it.
• A record of actions such as accepting an order, marking it ready or taking a payment, with the name of the staff member who did it. Venues use this for their own accountability and reports.
• Payments recorded by staff: the amount, the method (for example cash or Telebirr) and who recorded it. We do not process payments, and we never see card numbers, mobile money PINs or bank passwords.

Cookies and storage on your device

• Table session (sm_ts): a necessary cookie set only when you open a table's menu, so the orders you send are linked to that table. It cannot be read by page scripts and expires after a few hours.
• Device identifier (sm_dev): a necessary cookie with a random number, set when you open a menu that takes orders. It is used only to limit spam and fake orders, and lasts up to a year unless you delete it.
• Your order basket: the dishes you have chosen but not yet sent are kept in your browser's local storage, on your own device, so they are not lost if the page reloads.
• Staff device setting (sm_staff): marks a venue's own devices so that staff do not see ads.
• Advertising cookies: described below.

You can delete cookies and stored data at any time in your browser settings. If you block the table session cookie, you can still read the menu, but ordering from your phone will not work.

Advertising

Sudo Menu is free for venues because some public pages, such as menus and guide articles, may show advertising. Ads are never shown on ordering, payment or order status screens, or in the staff console. We never give points, discounts or rewards for viewing or clicking ads.

Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this site and/or other sites on the Internet.

You may opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings. You can also opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalised advertising at www.aboutads.info. To learn more, see how Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services. Where the law requires your consent before personalised ads are shown, for example for visitors from the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you will be asked first.

How we use information

• To show menus and deliver your orders and requests to the venue's staff and kitchen.
• To calculate prices and bills correctly from the venue's published menu.
• To give venues reports such as sales by day, payment method and staff member, and best-selling dishes.
• To keep the service secure and prevent fake orders, spam and misuse.
• To show and measure advertising that keeps the service free.

We rely on what is necessary to provide the service you ask for, on our legitimate interest in running it securely, and, where required, on your consent. We do not sell personal information.

Who we share it with

• The venue you order from, which sees your orders and requests.
• Service providers who run parts of the service for us: Supabase (database and sign-in) and Render (website hosting), with servers in Frankfurt, Germany.
• Google, as an advertising partner, as described above.
• Authorities, when the law requires it.

Because our servers are in Germany, information is stored outside Ethiopia. Our providers protect it with encryption in transit and strict access controls.

How long we keep it

• Table sessions close after a few hours without activity.
• Reservation requests (name, phone number and note) are deleted 90 days after the reserved date.
• The scrambled device and network codes used against spam are removed from orders after 90 days.
• Game nicknames, game results, prizes and waiter calls are deleted after 90 days.
• What you put in a shared table cart is deleted within a day.
• Comments you leave as feedback are deleted after one year; the star rating is kept, with nothing to identify you.
• Order and payment records are kept as the venue's business records for as long as the venue uses Sudo Menu, and longer only where the law requires.
• Staff account details are kept while the person is part of a venue's team and deleted on request after they leave, except where a venue's records must show who carried out an action.
• Technical logs are kept for a short time by our hosting providers.

Security

All connections use encryption (HTTPS). Each venue can only see its own data, prices and order changes are checked on our servers, and PINs are stored only in hashed form. No system is perfectly secure, so please tell us at once if you notice a problem.

Your rights

You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, object to how it is used, or withdraw consent you have given. Email seudsahm1@gmail.com and we will reply within 30 days. If a request is about a particular venue's records, we may pass it to that venue. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you may complain to Ethiopia's data protection authority.

Children

Sudo Menu is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information.

Changes to this policy

When we add features, such as optional sign-in or online payment, or change how we use information, we will update this page and the date at the top before the change takes effect.