1. This policy

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about a person from which that person can be identified.

We’ve tried to keep this privacy policy as simple as possible but if you have any questions, please contact us at info@themealplanners.com

2. Who are we?

We’re Themealplanners.com Ltd (company number 13982952).  Our mission is to help people eat healthy, home cooked meals whilst taking the pain out of food shopping. Our website is a platform which will allow you to select from a range of meals and complete your grocery shop in as little time as possible.

We operate our website at themealplanners.com. This policy applies to our website and may also apply to future mobile applications launched by us from time to time. Please refer to section 12 of this policy, for further details on when this policy applies (and when it does not).

Our registered office is: 83 Ducie Street, Manchester, England, M1 2JQ.

3. What information do we collect, when and how?

When you sign up for our service

  • Identity data – Personal details like your name and birth date. You may also be able to create profiles for individual members of your household, choosing a nickname and profile image.
  • Contact data – Contact details like your delivery address, billing address, email and phone number.
  • Profile and behavioural data – your username and password, information about your preferences, optionally including any dietary preferences and food goals you choose to tell us about.
  • Financial data – Payment details (including payment card numbers and expiry date – please note, sensitive payment details will be stored securely by our third-party payment services provider).
  • Marketing and communications data – your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.

When you use our app or website

  • Profile and behavioural data – Details of how you interact with our website.
  • Technical data – Details of your device hardware including model, operating system, unique device identifiers, IP addresses, device event information mobile network information and local storage information (i.e. information collected locally on your device using mechanisms such as browser web storage (including HTML 5) and application data caches).
  • Usage data – Details about how you use our app including recipes you select.
  • Transaction data – details about payments to and from you, details of products and services you have purchased
  • Photography Data – personal data that may be present in user-uploaded photography

From cookies and similar technologies:

Cookies and similar technologies collect and store information when you visit our website. You can set your browser to block all cookies, including cookies associated with this website, but the website may not operate correctly. You can also use it to indicate when a cookie is being set by us. Please see our Cookie Policy (set out at the end of this policy) for further details.

When you contact us for technical support or customer services

If you use our app to contact us for support, we will collect device information to better diagnose your issue. If you use other methods, we may collect further information, such as:

  • the phone number you’re calling from and information you give us during the call (we’ll inform you in advance if we are going to record your call);  
  • your email address and contents of your email (and attachments); and/or
  • public details from your social media profile (like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter), if you reach out to us via these platforms, and the contents of your messages or posts to us.

If you contact us for other purposes we may collect further information that is relevant to and reasonably required in order to resolve or address your query. 

When you sign up for customer research

As part of our product development process we like to speak to current and prospective customers. All participants sign a consent form that informs them about how the research will be conducted and how their data will be used and shared.

4. How we use your personal information

We use personal information to manage and operate our business, including to run our website and mobile applications to carry out our obligations arising from our contract with you, as well as to conduct customer research and recruit staff. Where necessary, we may also use personal information to protect the interests of Themealplanners.com, our employees and affiliates (for example in the event of a legal claim).

When you contact us, we keep a record of your communication to help us know who we’ve spoken to and why. We may use your email address to inform you about our business, such as letting you know about upcoming events or changes to our business.

We may use your information to deliver marketing to you (see section 8) provided we have your consent to do so.

We use the information we collect from our website to provide, maintain, protect and improve it and to protect our users. We may use information collected from cookies and other technologies to improve your user experience and the overall quality of our website.

We may also collect, use and share aggregated data. Aggregated data may be derived from personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data cannot directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate usage data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature or taking up a particular offer. However, if ever we combine aggregated data with your personal data so that it could identify you, we will treat it as personal data.

We also use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help you import and access a wider range of recipes. This processing does not actively process your Personal Data and, in any case, is not used to solely make decisions which may have a significant or legal effect upon your rights and freedoms.

5. Our legal bases for processing your personal information

Your privacy is protected by law. We are only allowed to use personal information about you if we have a legal basis to do so, and we are required to tell you what that legal basis is.  

In some circumstances we can use your personal information if it is in our legitimate interest to do so, provided that we have told you what that legitimate interest is.  A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information which, when balanced against your rights, is justifiable (you will see there are some examples in the table below).

What we use your personal information for

Types of personal information collected

Our legal grounds for processing

When you sign up for our service

Identity data, contact data, profile and behavioural data, financial data, marketing and communications data

Necessary for the performance of a contract with you (identity data, contact data, financial data)

Legitimate Interest: to ensure we are able to operate our business effectively and efficiently (profile and behavioural data)

Consent (marketing and communications data)

When you use our app or website

Identity data, contact data, profile and behavioural data technical data, usage data, financial data, transaction data

Necessary for the performance of a contract with you (identity data, contact data, financial data, transaction data)

Legitimate Interest: to ensure we are able to operate our business effectively and efficiently (profile and behavioural data, technical data, usage data, transaction data)

To manage payments or collect and recover money owed to us

Contact data, financial data, transactional data

Necessary for the performance/enforcement of a contract with you

To manage our relationship with you, including notifying you about changes to our terms or policies

Identity data, contact data, profile and behavioural data, marketing and communications data

Necessary for the performance of a contract with you (all types, where applicable)

Legitimate Interest: To ensure our terms and policies are kept up-to-date and that those updates are communicated to all customers in order to ensure such policies are enforceable and uniformly applicable across our business (all types, where applicable).

Consent: where communication could amount to a marketing communication.

When you contact us for technical support or customer services 

Identity data, contact data, profile and behavioural data technical data, usage data, financial data, transaction data, marketing and communications data (as applicable depending on your query)

Necessary for the performance of a contract with you – where relevant to query.

Legitimate Interest: to ensure we are able to operate our business effectively and efficiently – where relevant to query.

To notify you of new products and services that may be of interest to you, to enable you to partake in a prize draw, competition or to complete a survey

Identity data, contact data, profile and behavioural data, marketing and communications data

Consent

To administer and protect our business and our website

Technical data, profile and behavioural data, usage data

Legitimate Interest: to operate our business, to protect our customers’ personal data and to ensure our storage locations and website are secure and can be trusted by our customers

To deliver relevant website content and online advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you

Technical data, profile and behavioural data, usage data

Consent (to cookies and/or to marketing)

Legitimate Interest: to improve our commercial offering, to be able to better serve our customers’ needs

To use data analytics to improve our website, products / services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences

Technical data, profile and behavioural data, usage data

Legitimate Interest: to improve our commercial offering, to be able to better serve our customers’ needs, to improve order conversion rates by doing so

When you upload a photograph that may contain Personal Data

Identity data (and/or Photography Data)

Legitimate Interest: to provide a more engaging and visual customer experience, to be able to better serve our customers

  1. 6. Will we transfer personal information?

Themealplanners.com is headquartered in the UK but intends to work with partners across the globe.  Consequently, information we collect may be transferred to, and stored in, the US and other countries where the data protection laws may offer a lower standard of protection than in your country of residence. Where personal information is transferred outside the UK and the EEA, we will take all steps necessary to ensure that it is subject to appropriate safeguards, that your rights are not affected and that it is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

We may use the following third-party service providers named below to process and store your data:

  • Amazon: through using Amazon Web Services (AWS) to host our services
  • Heroku: used to host our services
  • Google: through using Google Analytics to analyse traffic flows, and G-Suite to send email
  • Segment: used to analyse traffic flows and customer behaviour
  • Klaviyo: used to collect and manage email signups and to send marketing emails such as newsletters
  • Twilio: using their Sendgrid platform to send you emails and to send technical alerts via SMS if there is a problem with our systems
  • Notion: used as a productivity tool to track customer journeys
  • Slack: used for team communication and customer support

You can find details of how the third parties named use your personal information by looking at their privacy policies, all of which should be available on the relevant websites, or on request.

We require all organisations who we share your data with to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow any of our service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

In the future we may use third parties for example to lookup addresses to improve the accuracy of our address data and to store payment details.

  1. Will we share your information with independent third parties?

In addition to the third-party service providers listed at section 6 above, we may from time to time share personal information with further companies, organisations and individuals outside of Themealplanners.com in the following circumstances:

With your consent

We may share personal information with companies, organisations or individuals outside Themealplanners.com when we have your consent to do so.

For legal reasons

We may share personal information with companies, organisations or individuals outside Themealplanners.com if we have a belief in good faith that access, use, preservation or disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary to:

  • meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request.
  • enforce applicable terms of service, including investigation of potential violations.
  • detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues.
  • protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of Themealplanners.com, our users or the public, as required or permitted by law.

  1. Marketing

We may use your personal information to tell you about products and services that we think may be of interest to you and upcoming promotional offers.

We can only use your personal information to send you marketing messages if we have either your consent or a legitimate interest to do so.  

You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time – you just need to contact us, or use the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you.

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any company outside our group of companies for marketing purposes.

  1. How will we keep your information secure?

We work hard to protect our systems and any information that we hold from unauthorised access or unauthorised alteration, disclosure or destruction. In particular:

  • we review our information collection, storage and processing practices, including physical security measures, to guard against unauthorised access to systems;
  • we restrict access to personal information to Themealplanners.com employees, contractors, service providers and agents who need to know that information in order to process it for us and who are subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations; and
  • we will close your account on request but we may still need to retain a record of the account, for example to protect against fraud.  Data held for this reason will be deleted within 3 years of account closure.

  1. How long do we keep your personal information for?

We will keep your personal information for as long as you are our customer.

In the event you haven’t used any of our products and/or services for a period of one year, we may keep the following elements of your personal information for up to a further two years:

  • Identity, contact and profile data: to simplify the process of re-ordering our products and services in the event you choose to do so.
  • Transaction data: to maintain our records and be able to respond to any complaints or queries.
  • Marketing and communications data: to be able to provide you with details of our products and services, subject to and in accordance with your communications preferences.
  • Any other personal data: to comply with laws applicable to us from time to time.

  1. What are your rights?

If you are resident in the UK or the European Economic Area and/or your personal information is processed in the context of our UK office, you have certain legal rights in respect of the personal information about you held by us. This includes the right to obtain a copy of this information on request, and the right to correct, amend or delete such personal information or object to it being used for certain purposes (including marketing). You are also entitled to challenge any legitimate interest we are using as the basis for processing your personal information, withdraw any consent previously given and, in certain circumstances, request a transfer of the personal data we hold about you.

Please contact us using the details provided in section 14 if you would like to exercise any of your rights in connection with our collection, processing and storage of your personal data.

We may ask you to verify your identity before we can act on your request. There are circumstances in which we are required or entitled to refuse your request or to charge a reasonable fee for acting on your request (for example, we may refuse to comply with your request or charge a fee for doing so if we believe your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive). In all other circumstances, we will try to deal with your query promptly and you will not need to pay a fee.

  1. When does this Privacy Policy apply?

This privacy policy applies to all of the services offered and businesses operated by Themealplanners.com but excludes services and businesses that have their own separate privacy policies (where such policies do not incorporate this privacy policy).

This privacy policy does not apply to any services offered or businesses operated by other companies or individuals nor of the companies and organisations that advertise our services.

  1. Will this Privacy Policy change?

This privacy policy may change from time to time. We will post any changes to this privacy policy on the ‘Privacy’ section of our website.

  1. How can you find out more?

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, or should you need to raise a complaint concerning your personal information, please contact us at info@themealplanners.com.  

You are also entitled to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office if you wish to make a complaint about how we have used your personal information (although we would appreciate a chance to deal with your concerns in the first instance, where appropriate). You can find their contact details at www.ico.org.uk.

Cookie Policy

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website and to remember you either for the duration of your visit (a ‘session cookie’) or for repeat visits (a ‘persistent cookie’). This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site.

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive. They may be set by the website you are visiting or by third parties who provide content or services for that site. The third parties used in connection with our site may include, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services (see the table below for further details). Please note that, although we grant access to our website for the relevant third parties to be able to set their cookies, we do not have control over these third-party cookies.

We use the following types of cookies:

Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, place an order or make use of payment services.

Analytical or performance cookies. These allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.

Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you and remember your name and preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).

Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.

You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below (please note, the individual cookies used may change and we will update this table from time to time to reflect such changes).

You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our website.