Questions and answers: faces, privacy and security

At an event, you can take a photo of the room, or choose one you already have. Who2Meet tells you who in it is worth meeting, and why. To do that it recognises the people in the photo who have signed up and agreed to be recognised.

No. "Recognise me in photos" is a separate choice, and it is not ticked unless you tick it. If you say no, you still get all your introductions. People simply can't find you by photographing the room.

It is a list of numbers that describes the shape of your face, worked out from the two selfies you take when you sign up. It is not a photo: nobody looking at it could see your face. The law treats it as biometric data, which needs your explicit agreement and extra care. That is why we ask you separately.

On the phone or computer of the person using the app. The photo is checked there, and it is never sent to us or to anyone else. All that reaches us is a record that a photo was checked, who was recognised in it, and what you then did: whose details you opened, and any message you sent or meeting you logged, each with the time. This shows how useful the app was, and helps us improve the introductions it suggests.

Yes, and only while you agree. To recognise you in a photo, other members' phones need your face template. It is sent to the phones of people signed up to the same event, and used only to recognise you in that event's photos. It goes nowhere else.

It is kept there only in encrypted form. The key that unlocks it is made on each phone and locked inside the browser: the Who2Meet app can use it, but nobody can copy it out. Your template is unlocked only inside the app, to match faces in a photo, and it is removed when that person signs out. This stops anyone reading it from the phone's stored files, its backups or other apps. Copying, downloading or extracting anyone's Face Template or photo, other than by using the app as intended, is also forbidden by our Terms of Use.

Who2Meet does not store or cache analysed photos. Select the photo again to analyse it.

Yes. Search by name, organisation, role or key words on the home screen. Nobody has to be recognised, or to photograph anyone, to use Who2Meet.

Only people who have signed up to that event and agreed to "Recognise me in photos". Anyone else in the photo, such as staff or someone who never signed up, is not recognised and nothing about them is kept, because we hold nothing about them. An organiser's photos of its guests are never used to recognise anyone. The only exception is the Heroes Summit demonstration, whose guests are invented historical figures.

Yes, at any time, under Menu → My account. When you withdraw, your selfies and your face template are deleted, and you keep all your introductions.

No. It only checks whether a face in a photo matches a member who agreed to be recognised. It doesn't guess anything else about you.

It works best in good light with faces clearly visible, and it shows a name only when the match is clear. If it isn't sure, it says nothing rather than guess. Always check the name before you walk over.

Tarsh Ltd, which runs Who2Meet (company number 04242106, registered in England and Wales). The organiser of each event also sees what you give for their event, so they can run it and make introductions.

• Your name, email address and password. The password is scrambled, so even we can't read it.
• Who you would like to meet, your job and organisation, and your CV or biography if you add one.
• A short description of you, once you approve it.
• A display photo and, only if you agree, two selfies and a face template.
• The agreements you have given.
• Your meeting record: whom you met, your star ratings and private notes, and the people you set aside, with any reason you gave.
• How you use the app: the photos you check (never the photos themselves), who was recognised, whose details you opened, and the messages and meetings that followed, with the time.

The Privacy Policy lists everything.

Other members of the event see your name, job title, organisation, display photo and approved description. They see your email address, mobile number, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and other social media only if you agreed to share each one. Your email address, mobile and WhatsApp are given one person at a time, when someone opens your details.

Only with your agreement, and one person at a time: nobody can collect everyone's details at once. Each time someone opens your details, it is recorded and the event's organisers can see it. There is also a limit on how many people anyone can look up in an hour.

Yes. "Message via Who2Meet" sends their message to you without showing them your address. They see it only if you reply. There is a limit on how many messages anyone can send, and on how many you can receive from the same person each day.

What you give for their event, so they can run it and introduce you to the right people. They see whom you met or set aside, but never your private notes. Who2Meet also gives them a variety of management reports about the event; those about how delegates networked are mostly totals; person by person they show only counts of your own activity (such as how many introductions you opened), never whose details you looked at, and your star ratings reach them only anonymised (see the next question).

Only anonymised, never with names. An organiser's report can show how meetings at the event were rated: how many got five stars, four stars and so on, and averages across the whole event or across a group, such as the introductions at the top of everyone's list. It never shows a rating beside your name, or beside the name of the person you rated. An average is shown only where it combines ratings given by at least three different people about at least three different people, so nobody can work out who gave a rating or who received it. Your notes are different: they are private, and never appear in any report, anonymised or not.

Only you, in the app, on any phone or computer you sign in on. Your phone scrambles each note before sending it to us, with a key of your own, so we hold only scrambled text. Other delegates and the event's organisers can't read your notes, and they never appear in any report. Who2Meet keeps the keys so that it can learn from notes and improve the introductions it suggests. The one exception is the Heroes Summit: as a product demonstration rather than a real event, meeting notes made there by real and fictitious delegates can be seen.

Your name and email address are kept from the first screen, because that is when your account is made, and so is how far you have got. Everything else you enter is kept only on your own phone or computer until you give your agreements at the last step. There are two exceptions. The steps that use artificial intelligence (the conversation about who you'd like to meet, checking what you wrote, the search for your LinkedIn profile, and drafting and tidying your description) send the text that step needs, through our server, to the AI service for its answer; we do not keep that text. And if you choose to carry your sign-up from your phone to a computer (LinkedIn's PDF can be saved only on a computer), what you have entered so far is kept for you alone until you finish on the computer, and deleted as soon as you do. If you never finish, the account is deleted after the event. At the Heroes Summit demonstration, it is deleted after 8 working days without any change.

Yes, to help with five things: the short conversation about who you'd like to meet, checking what you wrote about it, drafting and tidying your description, searching public web pages for your LinkedIn profile, and choosing your introductions and writing why each is worth making. The AI is Claude, provided by Anthropic in the United States. Only the text that step needs is sent. Anything the search finds is shown to you, and used only if you confirm it is yours.

No. Anthropic does not use the text we send to train its models.

No, never, and we don't show advertising.

In a database in London, run for us by Supabase. Other companies that run parts of Who2Meet for us:

• Cloudflare: the website and app.
• Resend: emails.
• Twilio: text messages.
• Anthropic: the AI steps.

Some are based in the United States. Where information leaves the UK, it is protected by the safeguards UK law requires.

You choose when you sign up. Either we keep it for future events you attend, and delete it 24 months after the last one. Or we use it for this event only, and delete it 30 days after the event ends.

Under Menu → My account. Leaving an event deletes your details, photos and agreements for that event. Deleting your account deletes everything we hold about you. You can save copies of your photos first.

You can see, correct or delete your information, take a copy elsewhere, object to how we use it, and withdraw any agreement at any time. Most of this you can do yourself in My account. For anything else, write to [email protected]. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

The app sets no cookies. It keeps a few things on your own device so it works, such as keeping you signed in and remembering your meeting record when you are offline. There are no advertising or tracking cookies. See the Cookies Policy.

• Every record in our database is locked to the people allowed to see it, and the database itself enforces this.
• Passwords are scrambled.
• Information travels between your phone and our servers in encrypted form.
• Private events' files are encrypted, and only that event's members get the key. So are the Heroes Summit demonstration's photos, pictures and face templates.
• Other members' face templates are kept on each phone only in encrypted form, and removed when they sign out.
• Your meeting notes are scrambled on your phone, with a key of your own, before they are sent to us.

There are two kinds of password. The event password belongs to one event: its organiser sets it, and it lets you through that event's front door. Your own password goes with your email address and is the same at every event, because one email address has one Who2Meet account, whether you are a delegate at some events and an organiser at others.

Who2Meet works on one event at a time. You sign in at the event's own address, such as who2meet.com/your-event, and that sign-in is for that event only. To switch to another event, sign out and sign in again at the other event's address; if you open it while still signed in, Who2Meet asks you to.

Good practice: make your own password strong, use it nowhere else on the internet, and keep it in a password manager. Organisers: choose a different event password for each event. Who2Meet will remind you if you reuse one, but leaves the choice to you.

Yes. Turn on two-step sign-in in My account. You will then need a code from an authenticator app, such as Google or Microsoft Authenticator, as well as your password.

No. The lists everyone sees carry no email addresses or phone numbers. Details come one person at a time, with your agreement, with an hourly limit, and each look-up is recorded.

Sign in on another device and change your password under My account. Your meeting record is kept with us too, so nothing is lost. If you think someone else could use your phone, write to [email protected] and we will help.

Only the few people who run the service, and only when it's needed to run it or to help you.

If a security problem put your information at risk, we would tell you and the Information Commissioner's Office as the law requires, and explain what we are doing about it.

Yes, if you wish. Give us your invitation list with the guests' email addresses, and only people whose address is on it (or on your guest list) can sign up. Anyone else who tries is told that their address is not on the invitation list and, if you give us contact details, how to contact you to apply. You can switch it off, or send us a new list, at any time. To be sure nobody signs up with someone else's address, switch on Require email verification as well (below).

Yes, if you wish. In the app's menu, Sign-up security has a tick box, Require email verification, which is off unless you tick it. When it is on, everyone who signs up is emailed a 6-digit code and must type it in before they can join, which proves the address is really theirs. People who sign in with Google or LinkedIn have proved it already. Signing up takes a minute longer, and people who have already joined are not affected. You can switch it on or off at any time.

You can give us your guest list, with photos, so delegates get their right roles and pictures. A guest-list photo is never used to recognise anyone: people are recognised only if they sign up and agree themselves, from their own selfies.

Who2Meet creates a wide variety of management reports from the information delegates and organisers submit and from how the app is used, such as how much the app was used, how the introductions went, how sponsors' introductions did, and when the busiest networking times were. We will add to and change them over time, so any reports we name are examples only. Reports about how delegates networked are mostly totals, for the whole event and for each sponsor's staff. Person by person, they show only counts of a delegate's own activity (such as how many introductions they opened or contacts they started), never whose details they looked at; they never include anyone's notes, and include star ratings only anonymised.

No. You see whom they met and set aside, so you can follow up, but never their notes. Star ratings appear in your reports only anonymised: counts and averages across the event or a group, never beside the name of the person who gave or received them, and only where at least three people's ratings about at least three people are combined. The one exception is the Heroes Summit: as a product demonstration rather than a real event, meeting notes made there by real and fictitious delegates can be seen.

We are responsible for running Who2Meet safely. You are responsible for how you use the delegate information you see for your event. The Organiser Terms set this out.

Write to [email protected].