As companies across the EU prepare for the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into effect tomorrow (May 25, 2018) , we would like to provide you with information on how we handle your data. The new set of regulations will “harmonize data privacy laws across Europe, to protect all EU citizens data privacy and to reshape the way organizations across the region approach data privacy”.
In honour of the promise we made on the day of our inception, 13 September 2017, we will give you a full overview of what happens to your data when you use Wafer. Moreover, as we believe that all of our users are equal, we have decided that we will not be limiting GDPR standards to the EU. Instead, we will provide full transparency and absolute privacy to the whole world.
Before we go further, we would like to remind you that we will never screen your messages, never use your data for commercial purposes, and never push ads.
Text Messages: When you send or receive a Wafer message which only contains text, it is immediately deleted from the servers. The message will only be stored on your and your recipient’s device.
Messages Containing Files: If a message contains a multimedia file, a picture or a video for example, we store it on encrypted servers for 30 days so that you can retrieve it if you would want to download it again, forward it to friends or missed it due to poor connection. After those 30 days, these media files are automatically deleted and no longer retrievable.
Deleting a Message: If you do not want your multimedia messages stored on the servers, you can choose to delete the messages you sent. When you do so, it will be immediately removed from your phone, your recipient’s phone as well as the servers. From that moment on, you will not be able to retrieve the message.
Deleting your Account: Should you want to delete your account, you can do so instantly. The moment you delete your account, all your data (phone number, address book, conversations, messages) will be gone in its entirety and henceforth unretrievable.
While we go much further than the required GDPR minimum, we did not want that our non-EU user base felt discriminated against. This is why, we will be extending our GDPR compliance efforts to the rest of the world. This means, among other things, that all new users, will be asked to read our Privacy Policy, our Terms and Conditions and confirm that they are older than 16 years of age.
By doing so we hope to set an example for our industry, which has recently come under heavy scrutiny for the way user data is handled. We sincerely hope that by leading the way in terms of transparency and privacy other mobile applications will follow suit.
Please read carefully our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
As always, if you have any queries please contact support@wafer.me
Team Wafer
