We, at Vawchoo (also referred to as “Vawchoo”, “we”, “us” and “our”), are deeply committed to protecting the privacy of our users. If you are in Oman, we are the data controller unless otherwise stated. In this privacy policy, we explain how we collect, manage, and protect your personal information.

This is the Privacy (and Cookies) Notice (“Notice”) for the website www.vawchoo.com, and all Vawchoo affiliate sites (“Sites”), or our applications (“Apps”) (together “Services”).

Contacting us:
If you have any questions, comments, or requests regarding this Notice, you can contact us via our Contact page, or email us at [email protected].

What information do we collect, and how do we use it?

This Privacy Notice applies to you if:

• You visit and browse our Sites and Apps.
• You order products from or book appointments with our Partners through us (we’ll refer to you as a “Client”).
• You are self-employed and/or you work for a business on the Vawchoo platform (we’ll refer to you and/or the business as a “Partner”).

We only use the information we collect about you if there is a reason for doing so, and if that reason is permitted under data protection law. We explain each reason under ‘What do each of these legal reasons mean?’ in each section below.

If you visit our services:

We use your information to provide you with our Services. If you visit any of our Services, whether browsing or having an account, we will automatically collect information from you each time you use our Sites. This includes technical information, information about your visit, and (if you opt-in) location data.

Technical information

Technical information may include your phone number, IP address, login details, browser info, device IDs, social media log in, time zone & language settings, OS & platform, file & software names, battery & signal strength, and ISP details.

Information about your visit

During your visit, we may collect various information including the complete Uniform Resource Locators (URL), clickstream data to, through, and from our Site (including the date and time), pages and services you viewed or searched for, demographic data such as age and gender, page response times, download errors, duration of visits to specific pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), trackable campaign links (for instance in emails or via tracking URLs), methods used to leave the page, and any phone number used to call our customer service number or social media handle used to connect with our customer service team, and our social media accounts.

Location data

Our system collects location data, which comprises your country location based on your IP address or Google Analytics information. The information collected is used to offer location-based services only when you permit us to do so. We use this information to deliver content, advertising or other services that are dependent on knowing where you are, such as identifying fraudulent transactions. Our system may collect location data along with your device ID to recognize your mobile browser or device when you return to the service.

We need to check a few things in order to provide you with location services.

This may include checking any of the following:

• The coordinates (latitude/longitude) of your location.
• Your current country or region by referencing your current IP address against public sources.
• Your Identifier for Advertisers (IFA) code for your Apple device, the Android ID for your Android device, or a similar device identifier.

If you want to enable or disable location sharing, adjust your device settings.

We gather this information automatically to better comprehend how people utilize our Site, and to determine how we can enhance it. Our objective is to present content from our site in the best possible manner for your devices and your preferences. Additionally, we use this data to provide you with the information, products, and services you ask for or believe may interest you.

If you contact or engage with us

If you contact us, we will collect your contact and communication information.

Contact information includes the basic contact information you provide:

• email address,

and anything else you include, for example:

• first and last name,
• phone number(s),
• social media handle (for example, if you engage with us on social media).

Communications information includes your correspondence with us, for example, if you contact our Customer Service team about an order or booking or report a problem with our Site. This includes:

• emails,
• texts, in-app messaging & other digital messaging,
• calls,
• letters,
• any in-person conversations you have with us.

We use this contact and communications information to

• Contact you if you have asked us to respond to your queries, troubleshoot problems, and help with any issues you may have with our Services.
• Provide you with information you might request about our Services.
• Put you in touch with the Partners you ask us to share your information with.
• Provide you with technical and other service updates (for example, if we update our Terms & Service

When you use our services to book an appointment, we may collect certain personal information from you. This includes your first and last name, date of birth, gender, email address, address, and mobile phone number(s).

In case you choose to sign in to your Vawchoo account using your Google, Facebook, or Apple account, we will obtain an access token that enables the sign-in process. This grants us access to your first and last name, email, user ID, and profile photo (except for Apple).

We assign unique user IDs or other account-level IDs to your Vawchoo account for identification purposes. As you use your account, we may collect information about your:

• purchase history, including product orders or appointment bookings, or voucher purchase and use;
• favourites (e.g. your favourite salon or gym);
• account settings;
• social login information;
• securely saved payment methods.

We may also collect information, if you provide it, about your preferences, referrals, or how you found out about our Services, or other user-generated content (e.g. profile photo, reviews).

We use this account and related information to manage your account with us, including to

• maintain your Vawchoo account;
• provide customer support;
• enable you to contact, order from, and make bookings with our Partners;
• enable you to make and pay for orders and bookings with your account;
• if a Partner offers home services and you select the option, to enable you to book appointments at the address you provide;
• provide you with a personalized experience, including recommending features, services, products, and Partners we think you may be interested in.

If you order any products from a Partner’s shop

When you order any products from a Partner’s shop, we may collect your:

• order details and purchase records, including any related correspondence via our Services;
• cancellation, return, and refund records;
• securely saved payment methods; and
• your product reviews or ratings.

We use your account and order information to enable our Partners to fulfill and manage your orders, including to

• enable you to contact and purchase products from our Partners, including making payments,
• share your contact and order information with the Partner you ordered from, so the Partner can fulfill and manage your order (including processing any cancellations, returns or refunds), and communicate with you about your order.
• store your order, cancellation, return, and refund records.

If you work for a Partner

If you work for our Partner (e.g. as an employee, contractor, or worker), we may collect contact and company information from you:

Contact information may include:

• first and last name,
• role title,
• company name,
• email address,
• contact number,
• log-in details,
• KYC and ID verification results (we do not keep any underlying documents).

Company information may include:

• company address,
• business type (e.g. salon, spa, gym),
• consultation form content,
• historical and future appointments,
• point of sale data,
• payment processing data (we don’t see this, only our payment processors do),
• reporting and analytics,
• Client data and promotions;
• pictures and marketing materials.

We also process other information on behalf of your company that is not personal data (for example, financial data and product inventory).

We use this contact and company information to manage the Partner’s account with us, including to

• maintain the Partner’s account,
• provide Partner customer support, including technical support for our suite of business tools,
• enable the Partner to use our suite of business tools, including managing staff and appointment scheduling,
• enable the Partner to make transactions and manage payments,
• enable the Partner to collect Vawchoo’s marketplace
• enable the Partner to manage inventory and use point-of-sale devices,
• may contact Partner staff to enable them to create a Partner-specific account with appropriate authorizations, and to manage those accounts.

If we send you offers, updates, or other marketing material from us

We may collect contact information (as explained above), like your name and email address.

We may also collect marketing preferences, which are our records of what information you would or would not like to receive from us, and if you have opted out of any direct marketing.

We use this contact and marketing preference information to

• send you offers, updates, promotions, newsletter(s), insights, and other marketing material.
• send you personalized marketing, including offers, features, services, products, and Partners you may be interested in.
• If you work for a company we are interested in partnering with, we may contact you about our Services and opportunities with Vawchoo
• Contact you to ask for feedback, including through surveys and other marketing research.

You can opt out of further marketing at any time by selecting the “unsubscribe” link at the end of all our promotional updates.

What does each of these legal reasons mean?

We must have a relevant legal justification, called a ‘lawful basis’ for each way in which we use your personal information.

Lawful bases may include consent, a contract with you (as a data subject), compliance with our legal obligations, and our specified legitimate interests.

Consent
We’ll use your personal information to send you promotional or marketing content (for example, our insight updates or newsletters), if you have given us consent to do so, where required by law. We may also send direct marketing based on our legitimate interests (see below).

You can opt out of further marketing at any time by selecting the “unsubscribe” link at the end of all our promotional updates and marketing to you.

Contract

We collect, store, and process your personal information if it is necessary for performing a contract you have with us (for example, our Terms of Use and Terms of Service), or where you have asked us to take specific steps before entering into that contract. This includes notifying you about changes to our Services. This does not include any agreement we have with a Partner, whether you are a Booker or Partner staff – this is based on our legitimate interests (see below).

Legal obligation
We may need to process any of your personal information to comply with our legal obligations, including under applicable Oman law, and/or any court orders. This may include compliance with know-your-client and anti-money laundering rules.

Legitimate interests

We may process your personal information if it is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party, provided those interests are not outweighed by your rights and interests.

Our legitimate interests include:

1. Administering, improving, and expanding our Site and services

• Keeping our records updated.
• Gaining insights on how you use our Services.
• Gaining your feedback and reviews,
• Delivering, developing, and improving our Services.
• Enhancing, customizing, or modifying our Services and communications.
• Implementing and improving our security measures
• Growing our business and informing our marketing strategy.

·2. Marketing

• Marketing and promoting our Services to a company you work for or provide services to.
• measuring or understanding the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others and deliver relevant advertising to you (including when you visit other websites).

·
3. Fulfilling agreements with another organization

• Complying with or enforcing any agreement Vawchoo has (or that you may have, or for example any extra Partner-specific terms) with a Partner you have purchased goods or services from as a Client.
• Complying with or enforcing any agreement we may have with a company you work for or provide services to (for example, if you work at a Partner).
• In each case, these legitimate interests are only valid if they are not outweighed by your rights and interests. If you would like further information about how we assess our legitimate interests, please contact us at [email protected]

Who do we share your information with?

If you are a Client

We will share your information with our Partners if you have asked us to (for example, if you want to connect with, order from, or make a booking with one of our Partners). We may share your contact and account information, and they will receive any other information you provide through Fresha (for example, completing a Partner’s consultation form). Partners may use this information to manage your communications, orders, and bookings with them.

If you leave a public review for a Partner (or any of their products in their shop on our Services), your rating, review, review date, and first name and last initial will be published on Vawchoo. Other Vawchoo users and members of the public may be able to see your reviews. Reviews may be published or syndicated on third-party websites. Public reviews will survive the termination or expiry of the Vawchoo Terms of Service.

If you work for a Partner

Vawchoo users may rate the Partner you work at or for, and may rate you as an individual. Your individual ratings may be shared with the relevant Partner and may be publicly available on our Services.

We may publish limited Partner information (including individual and business public reviews and ratings) to other websites, for example, so it can be included in search results or advertising (including online and offline advertising and promotional media, including, but not limited to Google, Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, Tiktok, Thread, email distribution lists, and third-party business partners and affiliates).

If Vawchoo processes your information as a Client, Partner staff, or otherwise

We may also share your information with:

• any member of our company group, which means our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries, and/or our subsidiaries who may support our processing of personal information under this Notice.
• our service providers, organizations who process your data on our behalf and in accordance with our instructions and the data protection law.

This includes supporting the services we offer through the Site, in particular, those providing website and data hosting services, distributing communications we send, supporting or updating marketing lists, customer support, facilitating feedback on our services, digital invoicing and payment processing providers who provide secure payment processing services, and providing IT support services from time to time.

• These organizations (which may include third-party suppliers, agents, sub-contractors, and/or other companies in our group) will only use your information to the extent necessary to perform their support functions.

If you create a Partner Account with us by using a Referral Link the Partner to whom the Referral Link relates may view the progression of your Partner Account

If we run surveys, competitions, promotional campaigns, offers, or other occasional activities and you opt-in, we may share certain information with our commercial partners (for example, if you chose to enter into a prize draw we run with a third party). We will provide more detailed privacy information at the time.

• our auditors, legal advisers, and other professional advisers;
• if we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we will disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer.
• any person to whom disclosure is necessary to enable us to protect our rights, property, or safety, our clients, or other third parties, and to enforce our rights under this Notice or under any agreement (for example, our Terms of Use and Terms of Service) with you. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of detecting and preventing fraud and cyber-crime.
• if required to do so by court order or if we are under a duty to disclose your information in order to comply with (and/or where we believe we are under a duty to comply with) any legal obligation. This includes exchanging information with law enforcement agencies, regulators, or other similar government bodies.

Where do we store your information?
Vawchoo operates in Oman, and we might share your information outside the country

• in order to enable us to provide our Services to you;
• in order to facilitate the operation of our businesses, where it is in our legitimate interests and we have concluded these are not overridden by your rights; and
• where we are legally required to do so.

We will put legal protections in place to safeguard personal data transfers in compliance with data protection laws.
We may transfer your personal information outside Oman, including to the key organizations listed: (write the cloud location and server)
We update our partners and service providers as we grow, and will update this Notice regularly. For more information about how we currently transfer and protect data, please contact [email protected].

How do we protect your information?

All information you provide to us is securely stored. Our website uses secure end-to-end encryption to protect your information. All connections into our platform are secured using industry-standard security and encryption.

All data we capture is stored in secured databases and data storage systems with strict access limitations. All data access requests are logged and monitored per any threat detection policies.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. We do our best to protect your personal information, but we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to us – even if there is a special notice that a particular transmission (for example, credit card information) is encrypted. Any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we use strict procedures and security features to prevent unauthorized access.

External sites

Vawchoo may, from time to time, contain links to external sites. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies. Vawchoo does not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies or any content on external sites and does not necessarily endorse their views. Vawchoo has no control over the availability of any of these websites. Please check each site’s policies before submitting personal information to these websites.

How long is your information kept for?

We will generally process personal information:

• for as long as it is necessary for the purpose(s) for which it was initially collected (for example, holding it on behalf of a Partner, or for as long as you have an account with us), and
• for up to six years after that to identify any issues and resolve any legal proceedings.

In certain situations, we may need to keep your data for a longer period of time. This may include cases where a complaint has been made, or where we believe legal proceedings are likely. Additionally, if we are aware of pending or ongoing legal proceedings, we may need to retain your data. There may also be circumstances where applicable law requires us to keep your data for an extended period of time.

Suppose you have chosen to receive insights, newsletters, or other promotional material from us, but at a later time. In that case, if you decide to opt-out or object to any further processing of your personal information, we will respect your preferences and maintain a record of your opt-out or objection. Suppose you have chosen to receive insights, newsletters, or other promotional material from us, but at a later time. In that case, if you decide to opt-out or object to any further processing of your personal information, we will respect your preferences and maintain a record of your opt-out or objection.

We may keep aggregated, anonymized, or pseudonymized data – for example, for reporting and analytics – for extended periods.

Aggregated data
In some circumstances, we will anonymize your data (so that it can no longer be associated with you and you cannot be re-identified). This anonymized data (for example, aggregated statistics) is no longer personal data, and we may keep and use this anonymized information indefinitely without further notice to you.

We use this to help us provide, develop, and improve our services, including to:

• better understand how people use our Services,
• provide our Partners and Clients with information about our Services, including user statistics (e.g. total numbers, broad demographics statistics) and
• develop valuable insights and improvements to the Services.

What rights do you have with your personal information?

In certain circumstances, you have the following rights:

• to be provided with a copy of your personal information held by us;
• to request the correction or deletion of your data held by us;
• to request that we restrict the processing of your data (while we verify or investigate your concerns with this information, for example);
• to object to the further processing of your personal information, including the right to object to marketing;
• to request that your provided personal data be moved to a third party and
• to withdraw consent.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights about the personal information we hold about you, you can contact us at [email protected]. You can complain to a data protection supervisory authority if you have any concerns.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the supervisory authority in Oman. It can provide further information about your rights and an organization’s obligation about your personal information and deal with any complaints you may have. You can visit their website at :

Updating this Privacy Notice

This Notice was last edited on September 25, 2023
We may update this Notice from time to time and will post any changes on this page.
We will notify you through email or website pop-ups within our Site if we make any substantive changes.

Cookie notice

Our Sites use cookies and other similar technologies, such as device IDs, in-app codes, pixel tags, and web beacons, to collect and store certain information. These typically involve pieces of information or code that a website transfers to or accesses from your computer hard drive or mobile device to store and sometimes track information about you. Cookies and similar technologies enable you to be remembered when using that computer or device to interact with websites and online services. They can manage various features and content, store searches, and present personalized content.

Our Sites use cookies and similar technologies alone or in combination to create a unique device ID and distinguish you from other users. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our Sites and also allows us to improve our Sites.
Several cookies and similar technologies we use last only for your web or app session and expire when you close your browser or exit one of our Sites. Others are used to remember you when you return to one of our Sites and will last for longer.