This Privacy & Cookie Policy explains how Vatar ("Vatar", "we", "us" or "our") collects, uses, shares and protects personal information when you visit vatar.com or contact us.
It covers the vatar.com website and your communications with Vatar, including messages to our @vatar.com email addresses. Lagos Life and our other worlds have their own policies: for Lagos Life, see the Lagos Life Privacy & Cookie Policy.
1. Who we are
Vatar is a social worlds company based in Nigeria and the operator of Lagos Life. For the purposes of applicable data protection law, including the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023, Vatar decides how and why personal information described in this Policy is processed.
2. Information we collect
Information you send us. When you email us (for example at info@, press@, careers@, accounts@, founders@ or our partnerships address), we receive what you choose to share, such as:
- your name and email address;
- your organisation, role and contact details;
- the content of your message and any attachments, such as a CV, portfolio, proposal or press enquiry; and
- any other information you include.
Information collected automatically. When you visit vatar.com, our hosting and security provider processes technical information needed to deliver the site and keep it secure, such as:
- IP address and approximate location derived from it (for example, country);
- browser type, device type and operating system;
- the pages requested, the referring website and the date and time of the visit; and
- security signals used to detect and block abusive traffic.
Website analytics. We may use privacy-focused analytics (such as Cloudflare Web Analytics) to understand how the site is used in aggregate: for example, which pages are visited, which countries visitors come from, which sites refer them and what kinds of devices they use. This analytics does not use cookies to track you across other websites.
We do not sell personal information, and we do not run advertising trackers on vatar.com.
3. How emails to Vatar are handled
Emails sent to @vatar.com addresses are received by our email provider, Cloudflare (Email Routing and Workers). To deliver them reliably and to support operational needs, a copy of each incoming message may be stored in our private Cloudflare account for up to 7 days, after which it is deleted automatically.
Messages are then forwarded to the inboxes of the relevant Vatar team members, which are provided by Google (Gmail). Copies held in those inboxes are kept for as long as needed for the purpose of your message, as described in section 8.
4. Why we use your information
We use personal information to:
- respond to your messages and requests;
- discuss partnerships, advertising, live experiences and other commercial opportunities;
- handle press and media enquiries;
- consider job applications and manage recruitment;
- communicate with investors, advisers and prospective investors;
- operate, maintain, secure and improve vatar.com;
- detect, prevent and investigate fraud, abuse and security incidents;
- comply with legal, regulatory, accounting and tax obligations; and
- establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
5. Legal bases
Depending on the circumstances, we rely on one or more of the lawful bases recognised by Nigerian data protection law and, where it applies, other data protection laws:
- Consent: for example, where you choose to send us your CV or other information;
- Contract: where processing is needed to enter into or perform an agreement with you or your organisation;
- Legitimate interests: such as responding to enquiries, running our business, securing our website and preventing abuse, where those interests are not overridden by your rights; and
- Legal obligation: where we must process information to comply with the law.
6. Cookies and similar technologies
vatar.com does not set its own advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.
Our infrastructure provider may use strictly necessary cookies or similar technologies for security, for example to distinguish genuine visitors from automated or abusive traffic. These are needed for the site to work safely and cannot be switched off in our systems.
The site loads fonts from Google Fonts, which means your browser connects to Google's servers and Google receives your IP address. Links to social networks such as X, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and Facebook take you to those services, which have their own privacy policies.
If we ever introduce non-essential cookies, we will update this Policy and ask for your consent where the law requires it.
7. Who we share information with
We share personal information only where reasonably necessary, with:
- Cloudflare: website hosting, content delivery, security, analytics, DNS and email routing;
- Google: email inboxes (Gmail) and web fonts;
- professional advisers, such as lawyers, accountants and auditors, under duties of confidentiality;
- authorities, courts or other parties where required by law or reasonably necessary to protect rights, safety and security; and
- a buyer, investor or successor in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing or reorganisation, subject to appropriate safeguards.
These providers may process information outside Nigeria. Where personal information is transferred internationally, we take the steps required by applicable Nigerian data protection law to protect it.
8. How long we keep information
We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose it was collected for, and for legitimate legal, accounting, security and dispute-related needs. As a guide:
- incoming email copies held by our email provider: up to 7 days;
- general, press and partnership correspondence: for as long as the conversation or relationship is active, and a reasonable period afterwards;
- job applications: up to 12 months after the recruitment process ends, unless you ask us to delete them sooner or agree to a longer period; and
- technical and security logs: for the periods set by our infrastructure providers.
9. Your rights
Subject to applicable law, you may have the right to:
- be informed about how your personal information is processed;
- access the personal information we hold about you;
- correct inaccurate information;
- request deletion of your information;
- restrict or object to certain processing;
- request a portable copy of your information;
- withdraw consent where processing relies on consent; and
- lodge a complaint with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission or, if you live elsewhere, your local data protection authority.
To make a request, email info@vatar.com. We may need to verify your identity before responding.
10. Security
We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information, including access controls, encrypted connections (HTTPS) and reputable infrastructure providers. No internet service can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
11. Children
vatar.com is intended for adults and businesses. Lagos Life is only for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children through this website.
12. Changes to this Policy
We may update this Policy from time to time. The effective date at the top shows when it was last changed. Material changes will be highlighted on this page.
13. Contact
Vatar
Nigeria
Website: vatar.com
Privacy questions and requests: info@vatar.com