Privacy Policy
We respect and value your privacy. WhatsYum Ltd and its affiliates (“WhatsYum”, “we” or the “Company”) offer community-based services and GPS-based location services to users of https://whatsyum.com (the “Website”) and/or users of 'WhatsYum' mobile applications (the “Application”, or “App”) (collectively the “Service” or “Services”). When you use our Services, you agree to entrust us with certain information, and we undertake to protect your information and keep you in control.
This Privacy Policy sets out what information we collect, why we collect it, and how you can update, manage and/or delete your information. This Privacy Policy is incorporated as part of the WhatsYum Terms of Use (“Terms of Use” or “Terms”). If you use the Services, then you are consenting to the Terms of Use, including this Privacy Policy.
Preliminary requirements and comments
To use the Services you must be 16 years of age or older. If you are under 16, you may not download or use the Services.
If you wish to register for an account, then you must provide us with your name and email address, or sign up with one of the third party account options provided. If you register with your email address, then we will message you to ask you to verify your account and login. If you choose not to set up an account, or if you do set up an account but do not log in, then you should be aware that certain features of the App and/or site may not be available to you, as detailed below.
In this Privacy Policy, the terms “personal information” and, alternatively, “personal data” mean information which you provide to us which personally identifies you, such as your name, email address or billing information, and, in certain circumstances, your location or other data which can be reasonably linked to such information by WhatsYum.
You can adjust your privacy settings in the WhatsYum app and choose which personal information we may collect about you, where such options are available. Where we only collect name and email address, then you may amend these or delete your account. If there are options as to how the data is to be used, then these can be selected from the Settings menu, but if you would prefer us not to use your personal information, then we recommend that you either delete your account, or do not create one. It should be noted that certain classes of data are required to be processed by WhatsYum if full access to the Services is required, as detailed below.
Contacting us and vice versa
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or if you believe that your privacy has been compromised while using the Services, then please contact us at privacy@WhatsYum.app. You may send us communications on any other matters to support@WhatsYum.app. We may contact you using your email address, whether supplied directly or via any linked third party account, or directly via the App, and your usage of the App constitutes your consent to us communicating with you in such fashion. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or if you believe that your privacy has been compromised while using the Services, then please contact us at privacy@WhatsYum.app. You may send us communications on any other matters to support@WhatsYum.app. We may contact you using your email address, whether supplied directly or via any linked third party account, or directly via the App, and your usage of the App constitutes your consent to us communicating with you in such fashion.
User accounts and accessing the Services
When you install the App on your mobile device and accept the Terms, WhatsYum may collect and record your location data, if you have allowed access to your location, and use your information, including meta-data (as described below), in accordance with this Privacy Policy. This use may include linking your information with your account if you set one up. WhatsYum will also collect usage data via third party services like Google Analytics and MixPanel.
If you do not set up an account with WhatsYum, then you may use the WhatsYum App, but we may restrict access to various features, including but not limited to, either partially or completely, access to the ‘Rate a Dish’ feature, and the ability to link your usage of the App to any other account linked with your mobile device in any way. If you do set up a WhatsYum account:
WhatsYum will link all of your information with your account. This includes information received from all mobile devices running the App on which you have chosen to sign in; Your account and information associated with your account will be visible only to WhatsYum; When posting ratings, your name may be associated with the rating if this feature is enabled and is selected by you, but WhatsYum will retain a record of your ratings and other content posted by you (such as comments and photos, the “Content”) against your account, even where you have chosen to be anonymous in public, in order to monitor for and prevent abuse; WhatsYum may also establish and require from time to time additional or different means of identification and authentication for logging in and accessing the Services or for accessing certain areas of the Services; and Your login details are your responsibility. You are fully accountable for any use or misuse of your account and personal details as a result of making your login details available to someone else. It is up to you to keep your login details confidential and to avoid disclosing them to anyone else. We recommend that you change your password frequently and at least once every six months. Information that is being collected and processed Understanding the types of information we collect and use WhatsYum collects information to provide better services to all its users - from working out where you are and recommending local places, to learning what your tastes are so that we can make better recommendations for you. We may also use your data to show you relevant ads while using the Application. The information WhatsYum collects, and how that information is used, depends on how you choose to use our services and how you manage your privacy controls.
Information you create or provide to us: Account Information: information required when setting up an account, including your name and email address, or contact details linked with a selected third party account. Any false, incorrect, or out-dated information may impair WhatsYum’ ability to provide you with the Services or to contact you when necessary. All fields must be completed, unless otherwise indicated. Failure to complete all required fields may result in restricted access to the Services as noted elsewhere herein with regard to choosing not to set up an account; Information that you choose to share with WhatsYum: information that you choose to share with WhatsYum from time to time and as the Application permits, including ratings associated with your account, phone number, “home” or “work”, other “favourites”, including place and dish types, search queries, calendar information, and files that you choose to upload to or via the Service, such as photographs of dishes. In the event that WhatsYum offers services requiring payment, then you may also choose to add payment information to your account. Even if you have no account, you may provide us with personal information from time to time, such as an email address in order to receive updates, should such opportunities be offered; Information from your social networks which you choose to connect to your WhatsYum account: if you so wish, and if you are able, then you may connect your WhatsYum account to one or more social network account(s) and, if you choose to do so, you can share information from your profile with WhatsYum, such as photographs, personal information, friends lists, likes and other information; and/or Communication conducted through the WhatsYum Services: if you choose to use WhatsYum to communicate with others through any third party apps via the Services. We shall also keep information provided when you contact WhatsYum for whatever reason. You may provide other information that will be used to personalise the Services, such as “home” and “work” information, or calendar information so that we may forward suggestions to you adapted to your location and tastes if these have been established, for example.
Information we collect as you use our services We may collect information, such as information about your preferences, including dining times, preferred locations and pricing, and places that you have visited or shown an interest in, when you use the Services, and we may use this information to provide you with the Services. As we continue to improve the user experience, this will help us to personalise your experience. This information may include:
Location and time of day information. Location and time information generated and recorded by the device on which your account is active. This includes GPS data, Wi-Fi triangulation data, and time stamp, as well as any other information pertaining to time and location. This data helps us to know which places (we use the terms ‘places’ and ‘restaurateurs’ herein to mean establishments selling menu items that can be rated and the owners or managers of such establishments, respectively) you have visited, and may be recorded even when the App is running in the background. We use this data when you search for local places, dishes or deals, and we may use this data to remind you to rate dishes in a place that you visited, for example, or to determine the effectiveness of any ads; Terms or places that you searched; How you interact with content and adverts; How you choose to interact with the App, such as by voice (e.g. Alexa); Communications and their content transmitted using the Services; and/or Information and data on third party sites and apps that you have linked to your account or that you interact with via the Services Meta-data (software and hardware usage and details): The WhatsYum App collects information about your usage of the Services and the device it is installed on, including:
Information on frequency of use of the App, device type, unique identifiers, OS type & version, battery usage, sites, url’s or apps you visit, use or interact with through the App, information that you viewed on our Services, ads shown to you or that you view or click on, any communications via the Services or via third parties via WhatsYum, the IP address and the domain you are on when you access the Services, and the geographic location of your device when the App is running; Information about third party apps on your device that the App can link with, such as social media sites; and/or Information about the interaction of your devices with our Services, including system crashes, system activity, and the date, time, and the url referring your request. Information we collect about you from our partners We may work with advertising partners to customise which ads you are shown to try to make them more relevant to you, based on your WhatsYum usage and information associated with your device’s identifier (advertising identifiers or similar technologies) as shared with us by our advertising partners. Your device’s identifier can be managed in your device’s settings to opt out of interest-based ads, if you prefer.
It should be noted that disabling Ads personalisation does not disable ads altogether, but prevents advertisers using your information to personalise which ads you receive, and will affect all ads on your device.
Aggregated, non-personally identifiable information and analysis from third parties measurement services help us understand how WhatsYum users interact with our ads.
The technologies we use to collect and store information include; cookies, Advertising ID, local storage, browser caches, application data caches, databases and server logs.
Why we collect data
WhatsYum may use information collected from or provided by you for the following purposes:
To provide our services We use your information to deliver our services. For example:
We use your location to provide recommendations in your vicinity; We may use your history to assist in providing dining recommendations; We may use your information to assist in providing you with recommendations for interaction with third party apps; We may use your information and location history to prompt you to post a rating; and/or We may use your information to allow the provision of personalised ads. To maintain/improve the Services We use your information to assist us in monitoring and maintaining the Services, and to assist us in improving existing features and to develop new ones. Your location data may confirm where you decided to visit after consulting the App, even when you choose to post no rating, thereby helping us to know whether our recommendation was useful to you. And keeping a record of your usage and outage history can help us to be of greater assistance should you require support. To measure performance We use your data for analytics and metrics, because we want to understand how the Services are used, to help us optimise product design. We may use third parties to help us in this regard, including Google Analytics and MixPanel, for example. Data collected regarding how you interact with ads is aggregated into anonymous reports to help advertisers understand the performance of their ad campaigns. To communicate with you We may use your contact information for communication purposes, such as updates and notices, or to request information of you, including in the form of questionnaires; If you contact us, then WhatsYum may keep a record of your request in order to help solve any issues you might be facing; and If you have provided your email address or have registered with us using a third party account, then we may use these details to send promotional and/or marketing materials. You may choose to opt out of receiving such materials at any time by clicking the “Unsubscribe” link in our emails. WhatsYum will never share your contact details with a third party without your permission, or unless required by law. Other, including legal We may also use your data and other information to which we have access to:
Enforce the Terms; Comply with any applicable law and assist law enforcement agencies as required by law; Detect and, where possible, remedy abuse and inappropriate language; Detect and prevent illegal activity, including identity theft and any other illegal use of the Services; Provide information on system or App crashes and programming problems; Compile aggregated and/or anonymous data; and/or otherwise to comply with this Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. If there is any purpose not covered by this Privacy Policy for which we require access to your data, then we shall ask your permission first.
Sharing your information The Services are based on a community of users sharing observations, with WhatsYum serving to assist access to that information and to provide recommendations based on your location, search terms and, in future versions, your data history, as appropriate. Restaurateurs may be provided with certain aggregated or depersonalised data in order to inform their business decisions. The level and type of access may be determined by a paywall, but data shared will not be personally identifiable, by which we mean that we will not share information like your name, email address or phone number without your permission.
Any information you post with unrestricted access, whether in a rating or via WhatsYum on a third party app, becomes public. At your request, any personal information posted by you on our site or App can be removed, subject to this policy and the conditions set out in our Terms of Use, but the appearance on other sites and apps will be controlled by the policies of those sites and apps, and WhatsYum cannot accept any responsibility for either the initial posting of the information or its removal from those sites, apps or any other public locations on which the information subsequently occurs. Accordingly, care should be exercised when sharing such information, as WhatsYum cannot accept responsibility for information, including data, which you intentionally or inadvertently allow to become public. As noted elsewhere, we retain the right to use all Content in perpetuity, but depersonalise the Content on request, so that it is no longer associated with you in any way.
Circumstances when we share your information WhatsYum will not sell, rent or lease your personal information to third parties.
WhatsYum does not share your personal information with others without your permission, with the following exceptions:
If WhatsYum has reason to believe through any act, or act of omission, by you, or is given reason to believe, that you have acted in a way punishable by law or prosecutable in a civil court, then we may share your information in these cases with law enforcement agencies and/or other competent authorities and with any third party as may be required to handle any result of your malfeasance; If we are obliged, or reasonably believe that we are obliged, by law to share or disclose your information; Where there is any dispute, including legal proceeding of any kind, between you and WhatsYum and/or other users and the Services are referred to in, or form a part of, any such dispute; Where any imminent criminal act is reasonably suspected; Fraud detection and prevention, including security threats; In circumstances where WhatsYum works with third parties to provide the Services, including contractors to process information (“Processors”), or in the event of a merger or creating a wholly or partly-owned subsidiary, or in the event of bankruptcy, provided that any such entities agree to be bound by the provisions of this Privacy Policy, mutatis mutandis, and if any such third party is outside of the EU, then we take care to ensure that the third party complies with the EU GDPR requirements for third countries; Some information, such as your device’s Advertising ID, may be shared with advertisers in order to personalise the ads you see, as described above; and/or In measuring services regarding how our users interact with our ads and to rate our marketing we may use your device’s identifier. Visibility of your data Your personal information will not be visible on the site or the App unless you choose to make it public in any feature that so permits, such as when posting a rating. From time to time, if we allow your information to be made public, then the option to do so will either occur in the main menu or within the feature that allows information to be made public.
Integration with social networks If you link with or access a social media account via the Services, then you should be aware that you may be making personal information available to that site, and beyond the control of WhatsYum. Such interaction may, for example, be limited to posting a rating and the personal information would be any that might appear on the App, although the social media site may also collect other data, such as metadata and time and geographical data. WhatsYum may collect personal data from your social media account, and may include your friends lists, diary information and profile photo, for example. You will be asked before WhatsYum seeks to collect any of your personal data from a third party App.
If you choose to login to WhatsYum account using a third party account, such as your Google account, then you are agreeing to share information (including personal information) between WhatsYum and such accounts/social networks, for the purposes provided under this Privacy Policy.
As noted above, if you allow a social network or other third party account (“social network” and “third party account” are used interchangeably herein, and where only one is used, the other is also assumed unless otherwise apparent from the context) to access information made available by WhatsYum, then such use is governed by that social network’s privacy policy and is controlled by the social network, not by WhatsYum or by this Privacy Policy.
Any data collected from a social media account may be accessed, made available and stored so as to be available for and through your WhatsYum account, until the account is deleted or you request amendment.
Any data collected from a third party account will be treated entirely in accordance with this Privacy Policy and not with any reference to the conditions of the concomitant policy of the social media account from which it was obtained.
Sharing with third party apps/services When WhatsYum detects a third party app or service that it can share data with, you will first be asked whether you wish to grant permission to share data with that app or service. You should remember that any data that is shared with the third party app or service will be subject to control by that app or service, and WhatsYum will have no ability to recall, delete, or otherwise control data shared with the third party app or service, and we can accept no responsibility for how the third party app or service will use your data. If a connection with the third party app or service is established, then this can be disconnected at any time in order to cease sharing data.
Controlling your information Your information and any other personalised settings available from time to time can be edited from the main menu. We recommend that you change your password at least once every 6 months, for example. From here you can also request that your account be deleted. This can also be requested by sending an email to privacy@WhatsYum.app. Verification of your personal details may be required in order to prevent deletion by third parties.
Privacy controls Apart from using the option in the main menu, you may also manage certain settings by logging into your account online, typically using your email address and password, or any other means that may be made available from time to time. You may also manage settings on your device that are independent of the App in order to affect data that WhatsYum collects, such as GPS tracking or Advertising ID.
Deleting your personal information You can request that we delete your account, either from the main menu in the App or on the WhatsYum website. On receiving your request, we will discontinue any access granted exclusively to account holders as soon as reasonably possible, and initiate the deletion process. For active servers, this process normally takes no more than two working days. However, you will understand that removing data from back-up servers can take some time, but all data are aimed to be removed as soon as is practically possible, and generally within two months. This timeframe may shift if there any system errors, outages, protocol failures or human errors, for example, but we have systems in place to minimise and learn from any such experiences.
How long is your data kept? Different data are treated in different ways. You can change or delete details like your name, email address, and any preferences, while other data that you might enter or that are collected are kept for periods of time determined by the nature of the data. For the avoidance of doubt, if it is not clear which category any particular data fall into, then you should assume that we keep that data until you delete your account.
Information kept until you delete or amend it – any favourites, your email address and any other account related information. These are kept until you delete or update them. Information that we keep for the lifetime of your WhatsYum account - we may keep data for the life of your WhatsYum account if we believe that it will help us to serve you better. This might include retaining your visit and search history to help us learn your preferences, so as to better target your searches and provide recommendations for example. We also retain these data to help us compile a picture of how users interact with the App and to help us improve our services. When you delete your WhatsYum account, we delete personal information and depersonalise any information used in aggregated or statistical information. For example, we will keep your ratings, but delete all record of who left those ratings. Information that we have to keep for other purposes – we may need to retain information independently of the existence of your account, should there be business or legal requirements that we have to meet. For example, if WhatsYum processes a payment for you, then we must retain the associated data for tax and accounting purposes. And we may need to retain data in relation to other purposes for extended periods, such as in connection with security issues, including fraud and abuse prevention, complying with legal or regulatory requirements, and keeping records of communications between us and our users. We use aggregated information Some information generated by users is collected and stored in a way that cannot be used to identify or be associated with the user who generated it. This information may be statistical, anonymous or in an aggregated form, and might include, for example, GPS data showing how many users visited a given place over a given time period. This information is used: to monitor and improve our services; to enhance your experience; and for other internal and statistical purposes, and commercial purposes, such as advertising.
Cookies Cookies are personalised packets of information exchanged between your browser and the website server. They record information regarding your usage of the site.
We use cookies for various purposes, such as to record your login information so that you do not have to re-enter your login information every time you use the App, to facilitate use of the Services, to verify information, to collect statistics, to personalise your experience on the website, to target advertising, and for information security purposes.
Some cookies only exist for the period of time you are logged on and are deleted when you exit the browser, while others may be stored for next time you login. If you wish to block cookies, then this can be done via your browser’s menu. Please be aware that blocking cookies may limit the features available to you in the App or on the website.
Ad campaigns From time to time, WhatsYum may allow advertisers to run ad campaigns on the Services.
Unless you have opted out of personalised advertising in relation to your Advertising ID, then the advertising that you receive may be based on current activity, such as your location, search parameters and search history. If you have allowed us to collect information from third party sources, then this information may also be used to inform any advertising that you receive.
If you have opted out of personalised advertising, then you may still receive ads, but any apparent relevance to yourself will be purely coincidental.
We will not share information with advertisers if that information could be used to personally identify you, unless we have your permission. For example, if you call a place through the phone number link, then your number will be shared with the place when they receive your call.
A third party app or website accessed via WhatsYum will often use cookies, and these will be subject to the Privacy Policy of the third party, and not that of WhatsYum.
For the avoidance of doubt, we are not responsible for the content of advertisements and the products delivered or services rendered thereby by third parties and you irrevocably and unconditionally agree that WhatsYum will not be held responsible or liable for any loss, damage, cost or expense that you may suffer or incur as a result thereof or in connection therewith.
Information security Information security is of the utmost importance to us. WhatsYum services are built with strong security features to protect your information, including secured connections, firewall protection, HTTP to HTTPS redirects and hashed passwords. All of our systems are designed with information security in mind, and all aspects of our operations put information security as a top priority. We adopt procedures to minimise the possibility of theft, damage, loss of information, or unauthorised access or use of information. We keep all security measures under review, both physical and software, and we restrict access to personal information to those WhatsYum employees, contractors, and agents who need access to that information in order to process it. All such personnel are subject to contractual confidentiality obligations and failure to meet these obligations is punishable by significant penalties, including dismissal. In the event that anyone unauthorised to do so accesses your information, then we shall endeavour to contact you to inform you of any breach of security, what we are doing to fix it, and what it may mean to you. If we cannot contact you directly, or the breach is significant, we may broadcast a notice via the App or via a public service.
You will understand that it is not possible to provide an absolute guarantee that your information is secure from a threat such as hacking, regardless of the fact that we do what we can to minimise that threat. As such, WhatsYum cannot guarantee that, and you cannot reasonably expect that, WhatsYum’ databases will be immune to illegal access, tampering, malfunctions, unlawful interceptions, or other abuse and misuse.
Compliance and regulators We regularly review this Privacy Policy to ensure that it is commensurate with the extent of our services, and that we always process your information in ways that comply with it.
Data transfers We store data on servers that may be located in Europe or outside of Europe, and processing may take place in those same locations, but normally in the UK or the EU, or on Amazon servers in the US for example, and always in compliance with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements, including as they relate to third countries (countries that are not a part of the EU). Regardless of local laws, we adhere to the high standards of the GDPR, unless required differently by local law.
If we receive a formal written complaint, we first respond by contacting the person who made the complaint. If we cannot resolve any issue with the complainant directly, then we work with the appropriate regulatory authorities, particularly the local data protection authorities if there are any, to resolve any complaints regarding the transfer of your data that we cannot resolve with you directly.
Europe and GDPR All users have the rights defined and detailed under the European General Data Protection Regulation, regardless of residence, unless local laws or regulations grant further or different rights. As noted above, we provide access via the main menu of the App to update, delete and/or restrict the processing of your information and, where this not possible from within the App, to contact us to effect the changes required. If you wish to know what personal data we hold in connection with your account, then please submit a request to privacy@WhatsYum.app titled “Request for Data Archive”, or similar.
You also have the right to object to the processing of your information. However, as holding an account is conditional on being able to process your data, then any such objection will result in deletion of your account, or if the objection relates to location services, then such objection will result in your location services being disabled. If you do not accept any of the terms of this Policy, then you may not use the Services.
We process your information for the purposes described in this policy, and the legal grounds are:
Consent You give your consent for us to process your information, and you are entitled to withdraw your consent at any time via the main menu of the App or by email to privacy@WhatsYum.app. In practice, withdrawal of consent will require deletion of your account and/or disabling of the location services, and you must not login with your account if consent has been withdrawn, and as noted elsewhere herein, if you do not accept any of the terms of this Policy, then you may not use the Services;
Our legitimate interests WhatsYum processes your information both for our legitimate interests and those of third parties (including advertisers and statistics compilers) while safeguarding your privacy, meaning using your information for the likes of:
Maintaining, enhancing, and improving our services and developing new services Understanding how users interact with our services and any ads Marketing to users regarding our services and/or providing updates regarding the Services Personalising advertising to keep the core App free to use Any matter in connection with detection, prevention and addressing fraud or abuse, and other security issues Ensuring any legal protections against harm to the rights, property or safety of WhatsYum or users, or as required by law Seeking information from users to help improve our services Generating anonymised, aggregated data Enforcing any legal claims; Providing the Services We process your data to provide a better service in the App, subject to the EULA and the Agreements identified therein.
When the law requires If the law so requires, then we will process your data, such as if we are subject to legal process. Any questions should be submitted to our Data Protection Officer at: privacy@WhatsYum.app. If you have questions on the provisions of data protection law, then these should be addressed to your local or national data protection authority.
Changes to this Privacy Policy WhatsYum may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time. If there are substantial changes, these will only take effect 30 days following a general email notification or an update to the App prompting users to read and accept the new policy before proceeding, and a concomitant, prominent update to the website, the said update summarising the changes to the Privacy Policy and listing the changes.
Changes that do not adversely affect users’ rights and that are not substantial changes will take effect 7 days after their initial posting on the website, with the exception of complying with legal requirements, in which case the relevant regulation or judgement will determine the effective date.
By using the Services, you agree to be bound by the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with any of the terms in this Privacy Policy, then you do not agree to be bound by this policy and you cannot use the Services.