Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

The organisation responsible for your personal information (the “controller” under the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation, and the “organization” under Canadian privacy law) is:

British Columbia incorporation number: BC1493728
E-mail: info@merozellabistro.com
Telephone: +1 604 738 5296

We have designated a Privacy Officer who is responsible for our compliance with this policy and with applicable privacy laws. You can reach the Privacy Officer at the e-mail address or telephone number above, or by post at our registered address.

2. Scope of this policy

This policy applies to personal information that we collect through this website and through the communications that start on it, such as reservation requests and enquiries sent by e-mail or made by telephone. It does not cover information handled on websites or services operated by other organisations, such as the e-mail service you use to write to us.

We handle personal information in accordance with British Columbia’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) and, where applicable, Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). If you are located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, we also respect the rights you have under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and equivalent laws.

3. Personal information we collect

We collect only the information that is needed to respond to you and to run our website safely.

Reservation requests and enquiries

Our contact page contains a reservation form. When you complete it, the form prepares an e-mail in the e-mail application on your device, which you then send to us. The e-mail contains the information you entered:

your full name;
your e-mail address;
your telephone number, if you choose to provide it;
your message, which may include the preferred date, time and number of guests, the occasion, seating wishes, dietary preferences or food allergies you decide to tell us about;
confirmation that you agreed to the processing of your data as described in this policy.

E-mail and telephone contact

If you write to us or call us directly, we receive your name, contact details, the content of your message or conversation and the date and time of the contact. We use this information only to deal with your request.

Technical information

When you visit any website, your browser automatically sends certain technical information to the server that hosts it. Our hosting provider’s servers may record this information in standard server logs: your IP address, the date and time of the request, the page or file requested, the referring page, your browser type and version, and your operating system. These logs are used only to deliver the website, to keep it secure and to investigate technical problems. We do not use them to identify visitors or to build profiles.

Information we do not collect

This website does not use cookies, analytics or advertising tools, tracking pixels, social media buttons or embedded third-party content such as maps or videos. All fonts, images and scripts are served from our own website, so your visit does not send data to font libraries, content delivery networks or similar services. We do not ask for, and ask you not to send us, payment card details or government identification numbers through the website or by e-mail.

4. How and why we use your information

We use personal information for the following purposes:

to receive, review and answer reservation requests and enquiries, and to confirm, change or cancel reservations;
to plan your visit, for example to prepare a table for a special occasion or to let our kitchen know about dietary preferences or food allergies you have shared with us;
to organise private dining and events that you ask us about;
to respond to questions, feedback and complaints;
to operate, maintain and protect our website, including preventing misuse and investigating security incidents;
to keep records that we are required to keep by law, for example accounting and tax records relating to paid events;
to establish, exercise or defend legal claims where necessary.

We do not use your information for automated decision-making or profiling, we do not sell or rent it, and we do not send marketing e-mails unless you have separately asked us to.

5. Legal basis and consent

Under Canadian privacy law we collect, use and disclose personal information with your consent and only for purposes that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in the circumstances. When you send us a reservation request or contact us, you consent to our use of your information for the purpose of answering you. You may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us, subject to legal or contractual restrictions; we will explain the likely consequences, for example that we may no longer be able to hold a reservation.

Where the GDPR applies, we rely on the following legal bases:

Steps prior to entering into a contract and performance of a contract (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR) – to handle reservation requests, reservations and event bookings;
Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR) – to answer general enquiries, to keep our website secure and to defend legal claims. Our interests are running our restaurant and website properly; we have balanced them against your rights and freedoms;
Legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c) GDPR) – to keep accounting and tax records;
Consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR and, where relevant, Article 9(2)(a) GDPR) – for information about food allergies or dietary requirements that you choose to share with us. You may withdraw this consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal.

6. How the reservation form works

The reservation form does not store anything on our website and does not send data to any server by itself. When you press “Submit Inquiry”, your browser opens your own e-mail application with a message addressed to us that contains the details you entered. The message is only sent when you press “Send” in your e-mail application.

Your e-mail provider handles the message under its own terms and privacy policy. Please review what you send before sending it and include only the information we need to answer your request.

Your request is not a confirmed reservation. A reservation is confirmed only when our team replies to you by e-mail or telephone.

We share personal information only when it is necessary and only to the extent required:

Our team – staff who need the information to prepare your visit, such as front-of-house staff and, for dietary preferences or allergies, our kitchen team;
Service providers – the company that hosts our website and the provider of our business e-mail service. They process information on our behalf, under contracts that require them to protect it and to use it only to provide their services to us;
Professional advisers – such as accountants, insurers and lawyers, where needed and under a duty of confidentiality;
Authorities – law enforcement, regulators or courts, where we are required or permitted to do so by law;
Business transfers – a purchaser or successor if our business or its assets are sold or reorganised, subject to equivalent privacy protections.

We do not share personal information with advertisers, data brokers or social networks.

8. Where your information is stored

We are based in British Columbia, Canada, and we aim to keep personal information in Canada. Some of our service providers, such as our e-mail provider, may store or process information in other countries, including the United States. In that case your information may be accessible to courts and authorities of those countries under their laws.

The European Commission recognises Canada as providing an adequate level of protection for personal information handled by commercial organisations. Where information about individuals in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland is transferred to a country without such recognition, we use appropriate safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission.

9. How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes described in this policy, or as long as the law requires:

Reservation requests and reservations – up to 12 months after the date of the reservation or of our last correspondence with you;
General enquiries, feedback and complaints – up to 24 months after the matter has been closed;
Information about food allergies or dietary requirements – only until your visit has taken place, unless you ask us to remember it for future visits;
Private dining and event bookings with payments – for the period required by tax law, generally six years from the end of the tax year to which the records relate;
Server logs – normally no longer than 30 days, unless they are needed to investigate a specific security incident.

Under British Columbia law, if we use your personal information to make a decision that directly affects you, we keep that information for at least one year after using it so that you have a reasonable opportunity to obtain access to it. When information is no longer needed, we delete it securely or anonymise it.

10. How we protect information

We use reasonable physical, organisational and technical safeguards to protect personal information against loss, theft and unauthorised access, use, disclosure, copying or modification. These include access to our e-mail account and records only for authorised staff, strong passwords and multi-factor authentication where available, encrypted connections for our website and e-mail service, and staff training on confidentiality.

No method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure. Standard e-mail is not always encrypted end-to-end, so please do not send us highly sensitive information by e-mail. If a privacy breach creates a real risk of significant harm to you, we will notify you and the relevant authorities as required by law.

11. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you have some or all of the following rights:

to ask whether we hold personal information about you and to receive a copy of it (right of access);
to ask us to correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete;
to ask us to delete information we no longer have a valid reason to keep;
to ask us to restrict how we use your information, or to object to processing based on our legitimate interests;
to receive information you provided to us in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format (data portability);
to withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent;
to make a complaint to a privacy regulator.

To exercise your rights, please contact our Privacy Officer using the details below. We may need to verify your identity before responding. We will answer within 30 days, or within the time allowed by the law that applies to your request; if we need more time, or cannot fulfil a request, we will tell you why. Exercising your rights is free of charge, although we may charge a reasonable fee for repetitive or excessive requests where the law allows.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia or the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. If you live in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you can also complain to the data protection authority in your country of residence.

12. Children’s privacy

Our website is intended for adults planning a visit to our restaurant. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16 through the website. Reservations for families should be made by a parent or guardian. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

13. Cookies and similar technologies

This website does not place cookies on your device and does not use similar tracking technologies. For details, please read our Cookie Policy.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when our practices change, for example if we introduce new features on our website, or when the law requires it. The date at the top of this page shows when the policy was last updated. If we make significant changes, we will highlight them on this page. We encourage you to review this policy from time to time.

15. Contact us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or about how we handle your personal information, or if you wish to exercise your rights, please contact our Privacy Officer: