New Dating Terms: Dating services have their own dedicated terms, and now they appear under “Additional Terms,” which complement the general Terms of Service.

Expanded Services Overview: We’ve clarified our main services, including Viber Dating, Business Solutions, and Viber payments. Business account chats are now end-to-end encrypted, and we’ve simplified the language around communities and channels.

Reinforced Age Restrictions: We’ve stressed that Rakuten Viber is not for children under 13. Premium services and business accounts require users to be of legal capacity in their country and, in any case, over 18. Parental consent is required for minors.

Responsible AI Use: Rakuten Viber responsibly uses AI to enhance services but reminds users that AI outcomes may not always be accurate. Private communications are never used to train AI models.

Clarified Liabilities: We’ve clarified our liability limitations and user liability for damages caused by their content or misuse of our platform services.

New Fair Usage Policy: Business accounts were always intended to be used by small businesses (fewer than 50 employees or under €10M annual turnover). A Fair Usage Policy is added, limiting business accounts to up to 10,000 messages per month. We also list examples of prohibited unfair, unlawful, fraudulent, or abusive practices.

Philippines-Specific Rules: Added compliance with local laws, including a list of banned products and services.

Emphasized Safety for Minors: Business owners must ensure their accounts are safe for minors and avoid engaging with users under 18 if marked as unsuitable.

New Obligations for AI Compliance: Developers must comply with applicable laws and Rakuten Viber’s guidelines when using AI, ensuring transparency, fairness, regular monitoring, safeguards against harmful outputs, and promptly address Rakuten Viber’s requests.

Adjusted Liability Limitation: Rakuten Viber’s liability for developers is now capped at $100 (previously $50), in line with our general Terms of Service. We clarified the instances in which developers must indemnify Rakuten Viber for non-compliance with these terms.

Transparency on Tracking: We’ve updated tables of third-party tracking technologies and cookies used on Rakuten Viber and improved their definitions.

Dating Services Data: Certain dating activity data is now included in the information we use to make ads more relevant to you.

Policy Violations: Users violating platform rules may be blocked without refunds, even for paid features.

Integrated Privacy Policy: Dating services privacy explanations are now covered under Rakuten Viber’s main privacy policies.

Subscription Management: Subscriptions auto-renew unless canceled through your app store account. Refunds and disputes are handled by Apple or Google, not Rakuten Viber.

Matching Algorithm: We’ve added explanations on how our Matching System recommends profiles and makes matches. We follow industry standards to ensure fairness and avoid biases when using automated tools in our algorithm.

Service-Specific Guidelines: Dating Community Guidelines and Business Account Terms supplement the Acceptable Use Policy and now they are explicitly mentioned under it.

Ad Policy Compliance: Strengthened adherence to Rakuten Viber’s Advertising Policy, including restrictions on prohibited content and commercial-related practices.

Clarified Data Collection: We’ve clarified the types of data we collect for payment services, business accounts, and dating services. This includes activity and usage data from these services if you use them.

Dating Services and Data Usage: We’ve updated the section about how we use your data to list the dating services-related data we collect. If you use dating services, your data is used for account authentication, personalized match recommendations, and providing you dating features. Sensitive information is excluded from any marketing and advertising uses, while other types of dating data (data you provide under your dating profile, your dating service activity data, and, with your permission, your precise location) might be used to personalize our marketing offers to you and make ads more relevant. Further, dating data is used to detect fraud and ensure user safety.

More transparency around location and payment data: We’ve clarified that subject to your permission, we use your GPS location for app analytics, technical functionality, and statistical analysis to improve the app’s performance and perform location-based search. We’ve also provided more details on payment services data.

Updated Fraud Prevention Data Usage; Policies Enforcement and User Safety: We will use information from payment services, business accounts, and dating profiles to prevent fraud and ensure user safety in Rakuten Viber. Additionally, data from trusted third parties, such as IP addresses, may be used to improve fraud detection accuracy. We’ve also clarified that Rakuten Viber may review content and data uploaded to business accounts or dating profiles to enforce its policies and keep you safe on Rakuten Viber.

Clarified what other users see about you: We clarified that certain transaction-related details are shared with recipients when you do transactions using Rakuten Viber payment services. Dating profiles and related content you share are visible to other dating services users, and we advise caution when sharing personal information.

More transparent data sharing and retention: We removed some obsolete references, clarifying certain service provider roles, and clarifying device ID definitions under the Advertising section. We also expanded the definition of CDRs, explaining that by this term we also mean any in-app activity logs.

Your Rights in the context of dating services: We clarified that you can always edit your data in your dating profile (except for non-editable categories as your name, age and gender), and delete your profile through dating settings.

Children’s Privacy: Rakuten Viber is not for children under 13. Accounts detected as underage will be deleted. Special privacy settings apply to children in the EEA and UK.

If you are in the EEA and the UK, here are the key updates on top of our general Privacy Policy updates mentioned above and mirrored in the EEA/UK notice:

Special Categories of Data in Dating: We’ve updated the “Data We Collect” section to account for our new dating services, which include collecting special categories of data.

Data Use and Legal Bases in Dating: We added a new section which explains in detail the use of data, purposes and a legal bases in our new Viber Dating service, distinguishing when the processing is based on the performance of contract, and when is subject to your consent.

Transparency improvements to our Data Use and Legal Basis table: We have updated the “Providing Our Services” category to clarify features like message translation, AI chat summaries, GPS Location Sharing (previously a standalone section), and Business Accounts data. We’ve also provided more details on what data is collected in our payment services, our usage of GPS location data for in-app analytics and to enable location-based search, and clarified the device data, activity data, and data from trusted third parties we use when contacting you with marketing and offers relating to products and services offered by Rakuten Viber and our trusted third-party partners. We have also revised the sections “Marketing Communications and Location-Based Offers,” “Advertising,” “Safety, Security & Fraud Prevention,” and “Defend our Rights & Enforce our Policies” to make it more clear to you how we use your data in the context of our different services, such as dating, business account, and payment services, for these purposes.

Profiling in the context of Dating services: We use profiling and automated tools to recommend matches based on your preferences (like gender, interests, and location). The matching algorithm adheres to user settings and excludes chat content. Further, automated tools, alongside moderators, ensure the safety and policy compliance of these services, and you can contact us anytime to exercise your rights related to profiling or automated decisions.

Children’s data protection in the EEA and UK: We strengthened our commitment to children’s data protection, reinforcing that Rakuten Viber is not for children under 13 and that we don’t knowingly collect their data. If we detect underage use, the account and data will be deleted. In the EEA and UK, special privacy settings apply to children (more info here).

If you are in the US, here are the key updates on top of our general Privacy Policy updates:

Enhanced Disclosures: We’ve updated our policies to meet the disclosure requirements of California and other US States' laws.

Harmonized Transparency updates: We’ve made adjustments to harmonize our US policies with Rakuten Viber’s general Privacy Policy and accurately reflect the products and services available in the US.

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As we implement these changes, we remain dedicated to ensuring your Rakuten Viber experience is safe, secure, and enjoyable. We appreciate your continued trust in us and look forward to serving you better in 2025 and beyond. If you have any questions or need more information, please refer to our updated policies or contact our support team. Thank you for being a valued member of the Rakuten Viber community!