ø. It's All about Transparency

Welcome to Wafer. Before diving into the entire set of articles forming this Privacy Policy, we feel it is important for You to understand how Wafer manages Your data. This will allow You to be fully informed about what happens with Your data at any time:

 

ø.1 First time access and registration

1 - You download the Wafer app and You launch it for the first time; You are asked to select Your phone Country Code and insert Your phone number, before tapping on "Next";

2 - Wafer uses Your phone number to send You a code via SMS (the Wafer Code) and asks You to input it at the second page of the in-app registration; this is done to ensure that You are the true owner of the phone number You are using to register onto Wafer. Additionally, on that same registration page, You are asked to grant Your explicit consent to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, as well as to willingly state that You are at least 16 years old. Should all the above pieces of information be properly provided, You shall proceed to the third registration page, by tapping on "Join Wafer!". When tapping on "Join Wafer!", Your Wafer Account will begin to be created.

3 - The third registration page is necessary for You to provide Your Wafer Name (it does not need to be unique, it does not need to be Your real name, and can certainly be a nickname or a pseudonym) while Your profile photo is optional. Additionally You shall be asked to grant Wafer access to Your phone address book; Wafer is a messaging application and cannot function without having access to Your phone number and Your contacts' phone numbers. After having provided Your Wafer Name, You shall be able to tap on "Start" and access Wafer. You will not be prompted to go through the registration for any other subsequent access to the Wafer app.

Data policy: Wafer permanently archives Your phone number, the phone numbers contained into Your address book, Your Wafer Name and, if provided, Your profile picture on our encrypted servers in Europe. All the above information shall be promptly deleted, should You choose to delete Your Wafer Account directly from the Wafer app settings.

 

ø.2 Sending a message to any other Wafer user

1 - In Wafer You have the possibility to send free messages containing multimedia files to other Wafer users at any time.

Data policy: When You send a message to any Wafer user, the message is uploaded from Your device to our encrypted server and it is then transferred to the device of Your contact on Wafer. As soon as the message is received by Your contact, the message path is instantly deleted. Should Your message contain any multimedia file, that file will be archived on encrypted servers for a period of 30 days, in order to allow You to retrieve it and re-download it within that timeframe should You accidentally lose access to it. After 30 days,  the file shall be permanently deleted from the servers and will only exist on Your personal device and on Your contact's device. The same applies for a group where all participants are Wafer users.

 

ø.3 Sending a message to any contact who is not on Wafer

1 - In Wafer You have the possibility to send free messages containing multimedia files to Your contacts who are not on Wafer at any time.

Data policy: When You send a message to any contact who is not on Wafer, the message is uploaded from Your device to our encrypted server and it is ready to be accessed by Your contact who is not on Wafer from any web browser. In order to allow Your contact who is not on Wafer to access the history of the conversation with You, Wafer archives on encrypted servers up to 10 messages; as soon as the 11th message is sent, the first one is marked for deletion, so that only the last 10 messages will be readable at any time by Your contact who is not on Wafer. Should You message contain any multimedia file, that file would be archived on encrypted servers for a period of 30 days, in order to allow You to retrieve it and re-download it within that timeframe should You accidentally lose access to it. After 30 days,  the file shall be permanently deleted from the servers and will only exist on Your personal device and Your contact who is not on Wafer shall no longer be able to access it. The same applies for a group where not all participants are Wafer users.

 

ø.4 Deleting a message 

1 - When using Wafer You have the possibility to delete messages at any time, by simply tapping and holding on a message and selecting the option "Delete this Message".

Data policy: When the command "Delete this Message" is given by You, You being the sender of said message, Wafer immediately deletes the message and all associated multimedia files from Your device, as well as from the recipient's device, as well as from all encrypted servers. Following this command, nobody will ever be able to retrieve the message. Alternatively, when the command "Delete this Message" is given by You, You being the recipient of said message, Wafer immediately deletes the message and all associated multimedia files from Your device, thus preserving it on the sender's device as well as on all the encrypted servers.

 

ø.5 Initiating a free call with any other Wafer user as well as non-Wafer user

1 - In Wafer You have the possibility to initiate free calls with other Wafer users as well as with non-Wafer users at any time.

Data policy: All voice data transferred during a free call on Wafer are end-to-end encrypted.

 

ø.6 Sharing a message on Facebook and/or Twitter 

1 - In Wafer You have the possibility to share messages on Facebook and/or Twitter at any time.

Data policy: When sharing a message on Facebook and/or Twitter, either through direct sharing or through a sharable link, Wafer permanently archives on encrypted servers the shared content, so that said content can be always available on Facebook and/or Twitter.

 

ø.7 Deleting Your Wafer Account 

1 - In Wafer You have the possibility to delete Your Wafer Account at any time, by accessing the settings and selecting the option "Delete Your Wafer Account".

Data policy: When the command "Delete Your Wafer Account" is given by You, Wafer immediately deletes all data associated to You, including phone numbers, address book data, recent files, profile photo, and any other information related to You. Once deleted, said data is not retrievable by anybody.

 

ø.8 Usage analytics

1 - In Wafer we monitor aggregated user statistics, such as number of registered users, retention rates, total number of exchanged messages, total number of links created, in order to improve the user experience on both the client side and the server side. 

Data policy: Aggregated user statistics are collected by Wafer as well by third party tools, in order to gather and validate the most useful parameters for service optimization. 

 

ø.9 Commercial data mining

1 - In Wafer You can rest assured that no commercial data mining is performed on any of Your data or content.

Data policy: N/A

 

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1. Your Acceptance

Before You start You should be advised that by using Wafer Messenger (“Wafer”),  www.wafermessenger.com (the “Company Website”) and www.wafer.me (the “Service Website”) You fully understand, acknowledge  and consent to the terms of this privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”) and  Wafer Terms of Service, as may be amended from time to time. Wafer Inc. (the “Company”) is the owner and operator of Wafer, the Company Website and the Service Website, and you (“You”), are considered as a user of one or many of the features of Wafer and/or the Company Website and/or the Service Website (collectively referred as the “Service”).

This Privacy Policy will explain to You how the Company collects, uses and shares information received from You. It is important for You to understand how this happens and how You may control it, therefore please read this Privacy Policy attentively.

“Personal Information” shall mean information or combination of information that relates to You, and which can be used to identify You. Personal Information shall include the following:

 

1 - the information that You make available to the Company when You open Your user account such as Your Wafer Name, Your profile photo, and Your telephone number,

 

2 - the information which is submitted or made available by You as You use the Service; this includes Your Submissions, Your Log Data, Your Shared Information, as well the information You make available about others with which You communicate through the Service,

 

3 - as well as other non-public information that is associated with your Personal Information.

 

“Shared Information” shall mean information about You or relating to You that is voluntarily shared through using the Service, including Submissions that You submit through the Service, any Submissions from others that You re-submit, including Log Data associated with these Submissions and the information about You (including Log Data) that others who are using the Services share about You.

“Submissions” shall mean Your nickname that You use to access the Service (the “Wafer Name”), profile photos and multiple other communications in the form of sketches, photos, stickers, texts, audio messages, videos, and/or any combinations of the above, in addition to like instances, as well as the automatic submission of user’s “last seen” status and “current activity” status. These Submissions may be hosted, and/or published as part of the Service, and may be visible to other users of the Service; in addition, the Submissions may be seen by non-users of the Service, should the Submissions be shared.

“Log Data” shall mean any technical information which is collected by the Company automatically as You use the Service; such Log Data can be collected through log files, cookies or any other means as further explained in the “Automatically Collected Data” section below.

 

2. How Does the Company Collects, Uses and Shares Information about You

You hereby understand, acknowledge and agree that You will be solely responsible for the Personal Information and any other content You share through the Service and should be aware that when You voluntarily disclose Personal Information using the Service such information may be generally accessible, and may be seen, collected and used by anyone who uses the Service. This may result in unsolicited messages from third parties, and such messages are beyond Company’s control.

The Company shall collect and use information about You exclusively for improving Your experience when using the Service, however the Company does not perform any form of commercial data mining on the content of your Submissions and shall not disclose Your Personal Information or any other content which You disclose through the Service. You are however encouraged to exercise discretion when disclosing Personal Information about Yourself through the Service.

In addition, it is important to note that the ubiquitous nature of the communications made by You using the Service may put a portion of Your Personal Information in the hands of third parties that the Company cannot control. Once Your Personal Information entered into a public domain, such information is no longer considered as private. This means that even after You instruct the Company to terminate Your user account, or Your choose to do so directly through the app Wafer, Your Personal Information and other content You shared through the Service might still be publicly available.

The Company archives permanently only the Personal information and those Submissions that the users deliberately choose to share on Facebook or Twitter. Other Submissions are never archived permanently and are solely archived in their encrypted form for a period of 30 days; this is done in order to allow You to retrieve them should You wish to do so within a reasonable timeframe. In addition, Submissions only exist on the devices of the users. In any case, no archived information is ever subject to any commercial analysis. Fact, the Company has no means to extract any commercial information from archived data.

For the purpose of providing the Service, the Company may collect and use within its architecture the following information about You for the purposes described herein:

 

2.1 Information about Your Contacts

Wafer is a messaging platform. The most powerful and versatile one, but a messaging platform nonetheless. This entails that it cannot function without accessing Your contacts on Your address book on Your device. Consequently to You granting Wafer access to Your address book, a copy of the phone numbers saved therein (but not names, emails, notes or any other Personal Information in Your address book) will be stored on Company’s servers and will only be used to:

 

1 - notify You when Your contacts become active on Wafer,

 

2 - indicate which of Your contacts is already a Wafer user,

 

3 - correctly display the name of each contact as it appears in Your address book when a call is received (Wafer Free Call),

 

4 - sync Your contacts with Wafer running on any device,

 

5 - perform basic numeric analytics to count the Wafer users and their potential reach.

 

You hereby acknowledge and agree that Your Wafer Number, Wafer Name and Wafer Profile Photo shall be considered as public information, since Wafer and non-Wafer users may add Your Wafer Number, Wafer Name and Wafer Profile Photo to their address book and see that You registered to Wafer.

 

2.2 Log File Information

You should be advised that while You use the Service, the Company’s servers shall automatically record certain information that Your web browser sends whenever You access the Service. Such server logs may include information such as Your platform type, browser type, browser language, referring page, exit page, URL, pages viewed, how much time You have spent on any of the pages, which pages have followed one another, Your cookies, Your phone number, as well as Your Submissions (the “Log File Information”). During Your use of the Service, the Company’s servers log certain general information that our application sends whenever a message is sent or received, or if You update or request any status information, including time and date stamps and the mobile phone numbers the messages were sent from and to. Log File Information can not be disabled since they are needed for the backend infrastructure of the Service to properly function and connect You with Your friends and contacts.

 

2.3 Online Status and Seen Status

Every time You access Wafer, other users may see Your connection status (whether You are online or not – and if not, when was the last time You were connected to Wafer, as well as whether You saw messages they sent to You and / or whether You are in the process of creating any content). Should You not want to be seen by any of Your contacts, Wafer allows You to block any contact or to make Yourself invisible to that contact, directly through toggle controls available from the profile page of that specific contact.

 

2.4 Out of Wafer Communications

Wafer allows You to reach Your friends even if they do not have their Wafer User Account. This means that the information and content that You share through the Service can be broadly and instantly shared publicly with all Wafer users, as well as with any third parties which do not have their Wafer User Account (the “Out of Wafer Communications”). The information and content that You deliberately share through Wafer may thus become public immediately when You share it with a contact who does not have a Wafer User Account, and could be seen by a wider public. In addition, any information and/or content can be shared on external social platforms and/or external online tools and thus may be publicly visible to any third party according to Your settings on those social platforms and/or external online tools.

Out of Wafer Communications cannot be disabled, therefore the Company advises You to consider carefully what You submit and communicate through Wafer, when establishing a conversation with a non-Wafer user.

 

2.5 Automatically Collected Data

The Company may use cookies on the Service Website and/or the Company Website, this is of course only if necessary and if You haven’t deleted them from Your computer or from Your mobile device. A cookie is a piece of text that is stored by Your browser on Your computer or on Your mobile device, through which the website can remember things about Your previous visits and online activities. The Company uses the cookies in order to improve the layout, functionality, and content of the Service, and for other purposes of improving Your experience of using the Service (the “Automatically Collected Data”). You should be aware that cookies and similar technology may enable the Company to relate Your use of the Service to other information about You, including your Personal Information. For Your knowledge, all modern browsers allow You to change Your cookies settings. These settings are typically found in the “options” or “preferences” menu of Your browser.

The Company also uses basic Fabric Analytics, Facebook Analytics, and Adjust Tracking systems to help us understand users’ standard log information to the Service Website and/or the Company Website and the Wafer App. This information include the management of the database, the storage of the data, the IP addresses, maintenance services, etc., and serves the Company to asses how the Wafer App and the Service Website and/or the Company Website are used as part of Company’s ongoing efforts to improve the Service. In any case, neither Wafer itself nor any third party service is given the ability to perform any commercial data mining on the content of any of your Submissions. Fabric Analytics, Google, Apple, Adjust, and Facebook Analytics may have access to Your aggregate information only, for the purposes of calculating numeric parameters such as crash instances and users' retention rate and to handle the push notifications (for the case of Google and Apple). These third party services act on behalf of Wafer and under obligations similar in those in this Privacy Policy. For more information about their terms, please visit their company pages.

 

3. Transfer of Your Personal Information to Other Jurisdictions 

The Company runs its operations on the Amazon servers in Germany and Ireland, so the server on which Your Personal Information is used and stored may not be in Your jurisdiction. Please be advised that through Your continued use of the Service You hereby acknowledge and consent to the transfer of Your Personal Information (both inside and outside of Your jurisdiction) for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and/or in the Wafer Terms of Service, to countries where laws regarding processing of personal information may be less stringent than the processing of Personal Information in Your country. In order to protect Your identity and Personal Information, The Company never requires that You share Your real full name, nor age, gender, belief, or anything else besides Your real phone number in order for You to access the Service. 

 

4. Updates to Your Personal Information

Subject to applicable laws and regulations, You may have the right to request to receive a copy of and make any corrections to Your Personal Information which are held by the Company. You may also choose at any time to deactivate Your User account, directly from the Wafer app settings.

Should Your User Account be terminated by You or by the Company for any reason, the Company will take steps to ensure, to the extent possible, that Your Personal Information is no longer available through the Service within a reasonable period of time (currently estimated to be 12 hours, subject to technical limitations) after such account termination.

 

5. Third-Party Sites and Platforms 

You may choose to share content on, or login to the Service through another website or social media platform. In addition, the Service may contain links that will let You access another website or social media platforms. Websites and/or social media platforms linked to or from the Service are not under the control of the Company and it is possible that these websites and/or social media platforms have a different privacy policy. This Privacy Policy only applies to any content and information collected by the Company and does not apply to any services offered by or information practices of any third parties, and the Company does not bear any liability for any third party use of any content and information provided by You to them.

 

6. Sharing and Disclosure of Personal Information with Third-Parties

The Company does not rent, sell, or share your Personal Information with any third-parties, except as specifically described herein. The Company may disclose Your Personal Information to third-parties if the Company believes such action is necessary:

 

1 - to comply with national security or other issues of public importance,

 

2 - to comply with the governmental subpoenas, warrants, orders, or Company’s bankruptcy procedures,

 

3 - to protect and defend Company’s rights or property (including the enforcement of Company’s agreements),

 

4 - to protect the Company against potential liability,

 

5 - to enforce the provisions of this Privacy Policy and/or of the Terms of Service,

 

6 - to act in urgent circumstances to protect the rights and/or personal safety of users of the Service or members of the public,

 

7 - to properly provide, maintain or improve the Service.

 

In order to provide, maintain and/or improve the Service, the Company may sometimes, if necessary, share Your Personal Information with third-party service providers and/or agents. The Company will always require these third-parties to take appropriate organizational and technical measures to protect Your Personal Information and to observe the relevant legislation and the terms of this Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. Please be advised that the third-party service providers may be located, and use and store Your Personal Information, outside of Your jurisdiction for the purpose of providing the Service. Consequentially, You consent to the third-party use, sharing and transfer of Your Personal Information (both inside and outside of Your jurisdiction).

The Company may from time to time ask You to provide information about your experiences, which will be used to measure and improve quality. You are at no time under any obligation to provide any of such data. Any and all information which is voluntarily submitted in feedback forms or any survey that You accept to take part in is exclusively used for the purposes of reviewing this feedback and improving the Service.

The Company may contact You to send You messages about faults and service issues. The Company reserves the right to use email, Company Website and/or Service Website, Wafer or SMS to notify You of any eventual claims related to the use of our software, websites and/or products, including without limitation claims of violation of third party rights.

The Company may send You alerts/notifications via Wafer to notify You when someone has tried to contact You, or when there is any relevant piece of information that requires your attention. 

 

7. Children’s Privacy

The Service is not designated and does not attend to attract anyone under the age of 16 and the Company does not intentionally or knowingly collect Personal Information through the Service from anyone under the age of 16 (or older in some jurisdictions). If your age is less than 16, You should not use Wafer. The Company encourages parents to be involved in the online activities of their children to ensure that no Personal Information is collected from a child without parental permission.

 

8. Security of Your Personal Information

The Company takes reasonable precaution to protect Personal Information from misuse, loss and unauthorized access. For the purpose of providing the Service, the Company uses encryption technology to protect Your Personal Information. Please be aware that despite Company’s efforts, no data security measures can guarantee 100% security at all times. Company’s systems and communications networks through which You access the Services may be subject to security breaches and failures which are due to circumstances beyond Company’s reasonable control. If You have any questions regarding the security of your Personal Information, please contact via e-mail the Company, by using the contact form on wafermessenger.com.

 

9. Changes to the Privacy Policy

The Company may modify the Privacy Policy at any time. If You think that the updated Privacy Policy affects Your rights with respect to Your use of the Service, You may terminate Your use by directly deleting Your Wafer Account. Your continued use after the effective date of changes to the Privacy Policy will be deemed to be Your agreement to the modified Privacy Policy. If You are concerned about how Your personal information is used, You should check back this page periodically.

 

10. Contact Information

Please direct all questions and requests in connection with this Privacy Policy via e-mail to the Company, by using the contact form on this website.