Privacy Policy

Information collected automatically:

When you use Coffee Meets Bagel, we automatically collect and store certain information about your computer or mobile device and your activities.  We may use this and other information described in this Privacy Policy to infer information, such as your interests. This information includes:

• Mobile Device ID. Your mobile device’s unique ID number (e.g., IMEI, AD ID).

• Geolocation. With your permission, your mobile device’s geographic location (GPS) when you first register for Coffee Meets Bagel through our mobile app or when you enable location services within the app.

• Device Information/Specifications. Technical information about your computer or mobile device (e.g., type of device, web browser or operating system, IP address) to analyze trends, administer the site, prevent fraud, track visitor movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information.

• Usage Information. How long and in what manner you use Coffee Meets Bagel, which services and features you use and any content that you generate through and post on Coffee Meets Bagel.  This includes browsing and search history (including profiles you have viewed). We link your subscriber information with your activity on Coffee Meets Bagel across all your devices using your email, phone number or similar information.

• Cookies: We and our service providers and business partners use “cookies” to keep track of some types of information while you are visiting Coffee Meets Bagel or using our services. “Cookies” are very small files placed on your computer, and they allow us to count the number of visitors to our Website and distinguish repeat visitors from new visitors. They also allow us and third parties we work with to save user preferences, track user trends, and advertise to you. We use both session and persistent cookies on our Website; session cookies expire at the end of a particular visit to our Website, while persistent cookies (also called stored cookies) remain active until you disable them through your browser settings, or until a pre-set expiration date. We rely on cookies for the proper operation of Coffee Meets Bagel; therefore if your browser is set to reject all cookies, Coffee Meets Bagel may not function properly. Without this information, we will not be able to provide you with all of the requested services, and any differences in services are related to your information.

• Web Beacons: “Web beacons” (also known as “clear gifs” and “pixel tags”) are small transparent graphic images that are often used in conjunction with cookies in order to further personalize Coffee Meets Bagel for our users, collect a limited set of information about our visitors, and advertise to our users. We may also use web beacons in email communications in order to understand the behavior of our customers, such as whether an email has been opened or acted upon.

Information we obtain from other sources:

• Facebook. In order to register with certain Coffee Meets Bagel apps, you may be asked to sign in using your Facebook login. If you do so, you are authorizing us to access and process certain Facebook account information, including information about you and your Facebook friends who might be common Facebook friends with other Coffee Meets Bagel users. By allowing us to access your Facebook account, you understand that we may obtain and process certain information from your Facebook account, including your name, email address, birthday, work history, education history, current city, pictures stored on Facebook, and the names, profile pictures, relationship status, and information about your Facebook friends. We only obtain information from your Facebook account that you specifically authorize and grant us permission to obtain.

• Third-Party Services:  We may receive the information described in this Privacy Policy from  third party services, such as analytics providers and advertising partners.

• Other users.  Users of Coffee Meets Bagel may provide us with information about you, including through customer support inquiries.

Information you choose to provide:

• Information You Provide to Us. When you register with certain Coffee Meets Bagel apps, you must provide certain information, including your username and password, email address, zip code, birthday, gender, and gender preference. We will also ask you to upload photos for your profile and may collect any information (including location metadata and inferred characterizations or data) contained in these files. You may provide additional information about yourself (such as your school, occupation, current city, etc.) in order to build your Coffee Meets Bagel profile. You may also provide “special categories of personal data” under applicable law, such as your race, ethnicity, religion, philosophical or political views, and information relating to your sex life or sexual orientation. By affirmatively providing Coffee Meets Bagel with this information, you explicitly consent to our use of it for the purpose of fine tuning your match criteria with other bagels. Any information that you provide in the non-personally identifiable section of your profile will be viewable by your match. When using Coffee Meets Bagel, you may also provide payment information (where required for the purpose of payment). We collect and process your messages with other users as part of the operation of Coffee Meets Bagel.

• Referring Your Friends:  We encourage you to refer your friends to Coffee Meets Bagel by sending us your friends’ email addresses or phone numbers. We will keep this information in our database, and enable you to send these friends a one-time email or text message from your device containing your name and inviting them to visit our site. This email will also include instructions on how to opt out and unsubscribe from our email list. You agree that you will not abuse this feature by entering the email addresses or phone numbers of those individuals who would not be interested in Coffee Meets Bagel.

• Emails: We require an email address from you when you register with certain Coffee Meets Bagel apps. We use your email for both “administrative” (e.g., confirming your registration, notifying of matches) and “promotional” (e.g., newsletters, new product offerings, special discounts, event notifications, special third-party offers) purposes. Email messages we send you may contain code that enables our database to track your usage of the e-mails, including whether the e-mail was opened and what links (if any) were clicked. You may opt-out of receiving promotional emails and other promotional communications from us at any time via the opt-out links provided in such communications, or by e-mailing [email protected] with your specific request. However, we reserve the right to send you certain communications relating to Coffee Meets Bagel such as service announcements, security alerts, update notices, or other administrative messages) without affording you the opportunity to opt out of receiving such communications.

• SMS Messages: By providing your phone number to Coffee Meets Bagel, you consent to Coffee Meets Bagel sending you SMS messages with security codes.

• Online Survey Data: We may periodically conduct voluntary member surveys. We encourage our members to participate in such surveys because they provide us with important information regarding the improvement of Coffee Meets Bagel.

• Photo Verification and Biometrics: In certain circumstances, Coffee Meets Bagel may require you to verify your profile photo to prevent identity fraud and to improve Coffee Meets Bagel’s platform as a safe place to meet online. To do so, we provide your data to a third-party, Persona, an identity verification company, who may use your information in accordance with its privacy policy, which you can review at https://withpersona.com/legal/privacy-policy. During this process, Persona may collect, capture, use, and store scans of your facial geometry extracted from photos you upload during the verification process, and retain any photos of identity documents you upload, photos of your face that you upload, or scans of facial geometry or related biometric information extracted from the photos during the verification process. We require Persona to destroy such data when these purposes have been satisfied, within no more than 3 years of your last interaction with Persona, unless otherwise required by law or legal process to retain the data.

How we use the information:

Pursuant to the terms of this Privacy Policy, we may use the information we collect from you for the following business purposes:
1. facilitate matches with other Coffee Meets Bagel users;
2. respond to your comments and questions and provide customer service;
3. to tailor and provide communications to you about Coffee Meets Bagel and related offers, promotions, advertising, news, upcoming events, and other information we think will be of interest to you;
4. monitor and analyze trends, usage and activities;
5. investigate and prevent fraud and other illegal activities;
6. provide, maintain, and improve Coffee Meets Bagel and our overall business;
7. where we otherwise have a legitimate interest in doing so, for example, direct marketing, research (including marketing research), network and information security, fraud prevention, and enforcing our terms, conditions and policies or defending against legal claims; and
8. for any purposes disclosed to you at the time we collect your information or pursuant to your consent.

Use for Research. In addition to the uses outlined above, by using Coffee Meets Bagel, you agree to allow us to anonymously use the information from you and your experiences to continue our research into successful relationships, including how to create and foster these relationships, so that we may continue to improve the Coffee Meets Bagel experience. This research may be published in our blogs or interviews. However, all of your responses will be kept anonymous, and we assure you that no personal information will be published.

Sharing Your Information:

The information we collect is used to provide and improve the content and the quality of Coffee Meets Bagel, and without your consent we will not otherwise share your personal information to/with any other parties except: (a) to provide Coffee Meets Bagel, (b) when we have your permission, or (c) or under the following instances:

Other Users. We may share your profile information with other Coffee Meets Bagel users to facilitate matches in accordance with the functionality of our services. In addition, you may choose to share additional information with users of Coffee Meets Bagel once you have matched with them.

Service Providers and Business Partners. We may share your information with our third-party service providers and business partners that help us to accomplish certain business purposes (e.g., marketing and analytics providers, security and technology providers, advertising partners, and payment processors).

Legal Disclosures and Business Transfers. We may disclose any information without notice or consent from you: (a) in response to a legal request, such as a subpoena, court order, or government demand; (b) to investigate or report illegal activity; or (c) to enforce our rights or defend claims. We may also transfer your information to (a) any affiliate of our corporate group or (b) another company in connection with a merger, financing due diligence, corporate restructuring, sale of any or all of our assets, or in the event of bankruptcy.

Third-Party Services You Interact With. If you access third-party services, such as Facebook to login to Coffee Meets Bagel, these third-party services may be able to collect information about you, including information about your activity on Coffee Meets Bagel, and they may notify your connections on the third-party services about your use of Coffee Meets Bagel, in accordance with their privacy policies.

Aggregate Data. We may aggregate or de-identify the information described in this Privacy Policy.  Aggregated or de-identified data is not subject to this Privacy Policy.

Unless otherwise stated in this Privacy Policy, Coffee Meets Bagel does not sell personal information to third parties. Coffee Meets Bagel does permit third parties to collect the personal information described above through our service and shares personal information with third parties for business purposes as described in this Privacy Policy, including but not limited to providing advertising outside of our service based on users’ online activities over time and across different sites, services, and devices (so-called “interest-based advertising”). The information practices of these third parties are not covered by this Policy.

Updating or Removing Account Information:

You may review or edit your profile as you wish, by logging into your Coffee Meets Bagel account using the information supplied during the registration process. If you would like to have us delete your account information, we may do so by deactivating your account first and then permanently deleting your account. Notwithstanding the foregoing, we may continue to contact you for the purpose of communicating information relating to your request for Coffee Meets Bagel services, or to respond to any inquiry or request made by you, as applicable. To opt out of receiving messages concerning Coffee Meets Bagel, you must cease requesting and/or utilizing services from Coffee Meets Bagel, and cease submitting inquiries to Coffee Meets Bagel, as applicable.

Your Privacy Rights

In accordance with applicable law, you may have the right to:

• Access Personal Information about you, including: (i) confirming whether we are processing your personal information; (ii) obtaining access to or a copy of your personal information; or (iii) receiving an electronic copy of personal information that you have provided to us, or asking us to send that information to another company (aka the right of data portability);

• Request Correction of your personal information where it is inaccurate or incomplete. In some cases, we may provide self-service tools that enable you to update your personal information;

• Request Deletion of your personal information;

• Request Restriction of or Object to our processing of your personal information; and

• Withdraw Your Consent to our processing of your personal information.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us as set forth below. We will process such requests in accordance with applicable laws.

Third Party Sites

Coffee Meets Bagel may contain links to other websites and services. If you choose to click on a third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s website or service. The fact that we link to a website or service is not an endorsement, authorization or representation of our affiliation with that third party, nor is it an endorsement of their privacy or information security policies or practices. We do not exercise control over third party websites or services. These third parties may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, collect data or solicit personal information from you. Other websites and services follow different rules regarding the use or disclosure of the personal information you submit to them. We encourage you to read the privacy policies or statements of the other websites and services you visit.

Data Retention

Coffee Meets Bagel retains the personal information we receive as described in this Privacy Policy for as long as you use our services or as necessary to fulfill the purpose(s) for which it was collected, provide our services, resolve disputes, establish legal defenses, conduct audits, pursue legitimate business purposes, enforce our agreements, and comply with applicable laws. As outlined above, Coffee Meets Bagel works with a third-party identity verification company, Persona, to use biometric identifiers and associated information for photo verification.  Biometric data will be destroyed when the verification purposes have been satisfied, within no more than 3 years of your last interaction with Persona, unless otherwise required by law or legal process to retain the data. 

Securing Your Personal Information

We take steps to ensure that your information is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Unfortunately, the Internet cannot be guaranteed to be 100% secure, and we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you provide to us. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we do not accept liability for unintentional disclosure.By providing personal information to us, you agree that we may communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy, and administrative issues relating to your use of Coffee Meets Bagel. If we learn of a security system’s breach, we may attempt to notify you electronically by posting a notice on the Site or sending an e-mail to you. You may have a legal right to receive this notice in writing.

Your Choices

Cookies. You may be able to refuse or disable cookies by adjusting your browser settings. Because each browser is different, please consult the instructions provided by your browser. If you choose to refuse, disable, or delete cookies, some of the functionality of Coffee Meets Bagel may no longer be available to you. Without this information, we are not able to provide you with all the requested services, and any differences in services are related to your information.

You can manage third-party advertising preferences for some of the third parties we work with to serve advertising across the Internet by clicking here and by utilizing the choices available at http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp and www.aboutads.info/choices.

SMS Messages.  You may opt out of receiving SMS messages from us by following the instructions in the SMS message or by otherwise contacting us.

Mobile Devices. We may send you push notifications through our mobile application. You may opt out from receiving these push notifications by changing the settings on your mobile device. Your mobile device may include a feature that allows you to opt out of some types of targeted advertising (“Limit Ad Tracking” on iOS and “Opt out of Interest-Based Ads” on Android). You can switch off GPS location information functionality on your mobile device if you do not wish to share GPS information.

“Do Not Track.” Some browsers transmit “do-not-track” signals to websites. Because of differences in how browsers incorporate and activate this feature, it is not always clear whether users intend for these signals to be transmitted, or whether they even are aware of them. We currently do not take action in response to these signals.

Supplemental Notice for California Residents

This Supplemental California Privacy Notice only applies to our processing of personal information that is subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”). The CCPA provides California residents with the right to know what categories of personal information Coffee Meets Bagel has collected about them and whether Coffee Meets Bagel disclosed that personal information for a business purpose (e.g., to a service provider) in the preceding twelve months. California residents can find this information below: