Privacy Policy

From chefs:

• Account details: your email address and password (or your Google account, if you sign in with Google).
• Profile details: your name, your business or brand name if you add one (shown publicly), phone number, city, the areas you cover, your bio, specialities (including any you type in yourself), services, experience and work history, and any training you list (school, course and year).
• Photos: your profile photo and portfolio photos.
• Verification documents, only if you choose to get verified: a photo of your culinary certificate and of a government-issued ID, with the name on that ID.
• Business details you add for invoices: the bank account you want clients to pay into, plus the client names and contact details you put on invoices and receipts.
• Payment records: the amount, date and Paystack reference of your membership payment.
• If we ever take your profile down: the reason we gave you, and any appeal you send us with our decision on it.

From clients:

• Account details: your name, email address and password (or your Google account).
• Payment records for access passes: the amount, date and payment reference.
• A record each time you reveal a chef's contact details or start a conversation with a chef — which chef, and when.
• The chefs you save to your list, and when.
• Whether you've confirmed your email address, and when. If you sign up with an email and password, we email you a link to confirm it; your account works either way.

From everyone with an account: when you agreed to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which versions, and how (the tick box, or continuing with Google).

Hire requests, jobs, quotes and reviews:

• Hire requests a hirer sends a chef: what kind of work it is (a one-off job, regular cooking, a job offer or something else, in their own words), the dates, number of guests, area, budget and the note, and how the chef replied (accepted, declined with any reason given, or sent a quote).
• Jobs confirmed on Chefmark, including ones agreed elsewhere: the kind of job, the date, a short description, who confirmed it and when it ended.
• Quotes a chef makes: the client's name or company, any email or phone number the chef adds, the job details, items and prices. A quote sent in a conversation can only be opened by that chef and that hirer.
• Reviews after a job: the stars and comment each side gives, a chef's reply, and any private note either side sends us. We also keep reports about reviews.

How you found Chefmark: on your first visit we note where you came from (for example a Google search, a social network, another website, typing our address, or the campaign tags in a link) and the first page you saw. This is kept in a cookie on your device with no personal information in it. If you then create an account or pay, we attach it to that account or payment so we can see which ways of finding Chefmark work. We don't use any outside analytics or advertising company for this.

Messages between chefs and people hiring:

• The messages you send through Chefmark, who sent them and when, and when each of you last read the conversation.
• Messages are private to the two people in the conversation. They are never shown on public pages or to search engines.
• Chefmark staff do not read conversations. The one exception is when a person in a conversation reports it to us: staff may then read that conversation to look into the report, and each time they do is recorded.
• If you have unread messages, we may send you an email saying who has written to you. The email never contains the message itself.

From anyone who reports a profile: what you tell us in the report, your email address if you choose to give it, and a scrambled, one-way version of your internet address that we use only to stop the same person sending many reports. We never store the address itself.

From anyone viewing a chef's profile: a code that changes every day and can't be traced back to you, so the chef can see how many people looked at their profile. We don't keep your internet address or device details for this, and we don't count the chef's own visits, our staff, or search-engine robots.

When something on the site goes wrong: what failed, on which page, and when. We remove email addresses, phone and account numbers, account ids and passwords or tokens from these records before storing them.

We do not collect your card number or bank login. Payments are handled entirely by Paystack.

• To run your account and show your profile to clients — this is the service you signed up for (performance of a contract).
• To check verification documents and add the blue tick, when you ask us to (your consent, which you can withdraw).
• To take payments, keep accounts and handle refunds (contract, and our legal duty to keep financial records).
• To show a client a chef's contact details once they have a valid access pass, and to apply our refund rules (contract).
• To investigate reports, prevent fraud and keep Chefmark trustworthy, and to review appeals when a profile has been taken down (our legitimate interest in a safe directory).
• To show chefs, privately, how many people viewed their profile and how many hirers contacted them (our legitimate interest in helping chefs see what Chefmark does for them). Hirers' names aren't part of these counts.
• To pass hire requests, quotes and job confirmations between a chef and a hirer, and to invite both to review a job when it ends (contract).
• To publish reviews so hirers can choose chefs with confidence, and to let chefs see how other chefs found a hirer (our legitimate interest in a trustworthy directory). Reviewing is always optional.
• To record that you agreed to our Terms and Privacy Policy (our legal duty to be able to show consent).
• To understand how people find Chefmark, using the first-visit note described above (our legitimate interest in knowing which ways of reaching chefs and hirers work).
• To find and fix problems with the website (our legitimate interest in a working service).
• To send you emails about your account — for example when your verification is decided, when your pass is about to end, or to confirm your email address. We don't send marketing emails.

A chef's profile is public once they finish setting it up: name, photos, bio, city, areas covered, specialities, services, experience, and the name and school of any verified certificate (never the certificate or ID document itself). Search engines can show it.

Reviews that hirers write about chefs, once published, are public on the chef's profile with the hirer's first name and initial, the kind of job and the month — never their email or surname. A chef's reply to a review is public too.

Reviews that chefs write about hirers are never public and are never shown to the hirer. Only other signed-in chefs can see them, when that hirer contacts them. Private notes to Chefmark are only seen by our staff.

Hire requests, confirmed jobs and quotes are private to the chef and hirer involved. They are never shown on public pages or to search engines.

A chef's phone number and email are never public. They are only shown to a signed-in client with an active access pass, and every time that happens we record it.

Verification documents — certificates and ID — are never shown publicly. Only Chefmark staff who check verifications can see them.

We don't sell personal information. We share it only with the companies that help us run Chefmark, and only what each needs:

• Paystack — to process payments and refunds.
• Supabase — our database and sign-in provider.
• Vercel — hosts the website.
• Cloudflare — stores photos and verification documents.
• Resend — sends our emails.
• Google — only if you choose to sign in with Google.

We may also share information where the law requires it, or to protect someone from serious harm or fraud.

Some of these providers store data outside Nigeria — our database is in the United Kingdom, and others operate in the European Union and the United States. We only use providers that protect personal data to a standard the NDPA recognises, under contracts that require them to keep it secure and use it only for Chefmark.

• Your account and profile: for as long as your account is open. When you delete your account, we delete it 14 days after you ask (you can cancel until then): your profile, photos, documents, invoices, messages and contact details.
• Verification documents: while your account is open, so we can deal with any question about your verification. You can ask us to delete them sooner — your blue tick would then be removed.
• Payment and refund records: six years, as financial records must be kept. If you delete your account, we keep these without your name or contact details attached.
• Records of contact details being revealed: one year, so refund requests can be checked.
• Messages: for as long as both accounts are open. When either account is deleted, the conversations it was part of are deleted with it. You can ask us to delete a conversation sooner.
• Hire requests, confirmed jobs and quotes: for as long as both accounts are open, like messages. They are deleted with either account.
• Reviews: while both accounts are open; a review is deleted when either account is deleted. Hidden reviews are kept for two years in case of a dispute.
• Records of agreeing to our Terms and Privacy Policy: for as long as your account is open.
• How you found Chefmark: kept with your account or payment for as long as those are kept. The cookie on your device lasts 180 days.
• Reports: two years after the report is closed.
• Takedown appeals and our decisions: while the chef's account is open.
• Saved chefs: until you remove them or delete your account.
• Records of site problems: 90 days after they're fixed, or 180 days after they last happened.
• Pre-order details, if you never pay: one year.
• Profile visit counts: a code that changes every day and can't be traced back to you (no IP address is kept), for 13 months, so chefs can see how many people view their profile.
• Records of the emails we've sent you (when, and which kind — not their content): one year, so daily limits and once-only emails work.
• We delete these automatically every night. Anything tied to an open refund, report or appeal is kept until it's closed.

Information is encrypted in transit and stored with providers that encrypt it at rest. On top of that, we encrypt the most personal details in our own database with a key held separately: phone numbers, chefs' bank account numbers, the name on a verification ID, our notes on verification decisions, and what people write in reports. Email addresses aren't encrypted this way, because they're how you sign in. Verification documents are kept privately and can only be opened through short-lived links by Chefmark staff. If a data breach puts your information at risk, we will tell you and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission as the law requires.

We use the cookies needed to keep you signed in, and one of our own that notes how you first found Chefmark and the first page you saw (described above). It holds no personal information, lasts 180 days and is never shared. We don't use advertising or tracking cookies, and we don't run analytics that follow you around the web.

Under the NDPA you can ask us to:

• Give you a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Correct anything that's wrong — chefs can also edit most of their profile themselves.
• Delete your information, where we don't need to keep it by law.
• Send your information to you in a format you can reuse.
• Stop using your information for a particular purpose, or withdraw consent you've given (for example, for verification).

You can do two of these yourself, any time: download a copy of your data, and delete your account. Chefs: Your account in the dashboard. Hirers: Settings. A deleted account is gone for good 14 days after you ask; until then you can cancel.

For anything else, message us on WhatsApp at 07070125606. We'll reply within 30 days. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, you can complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission.

Chefmark is for adults. You must be 18 or older to create an account.

If we make a meaningful change, we'll update the date at the top of this page and, for significant changes, tell account holders by email.