1. Who we are
This privacy policy explains how Ember handles your personal data when you visit our website, book a table or contact us in any other way. We process your data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Belgian Act of 30 July 2018.
The data controller is:
- Ember BV
- Registered office: Guldenstraat 9, 2800 Mechelen, Belgium
- Company number: BE 0783.363.090
- Email: hello@embermechelen.be
For any question about your data, you can reach us at the email address above.
2. What data we process and why
We only collect the data we need to welcome you properly. We never sell your data to third parties.
| Purpose | Data | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Managing and confirming your booking | Name, email, phone number, date, time, number of guests, remarks | Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR) |
| Collecting and refunding deposits | Payment details, processed by the payment provider (we never see full card numbers) | Performance of a contract |
| Taking allergies and dietary needs into account | Allergies, intolerances and dietary preferences you provide | Your explicit consent (Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR) |
| Remembering guest preferences for a next visit | Visit history, preferences, special occasions | Legitimate interest: personal hospitality |
| Answering questions, private dining and event requests | Name, contact details, content of your message | Pre-contractual steps or legitimate interest |
| Sending our newsletter and invitations | Name, email address | Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
| Accounting and invoicing | Invoice details, company details | Legal obligation |
| Securing and improving the website | IP address, browser data | Legitimate interest |
| Measuring website visits (statistics) | Cookie IDs, pages visited, device and browser data, approximate location (see section 5) | Your consent |
| Measuring advertising and making it more relevant | Cookie IDs, pages visited, bookings as conversions (see section 5) | Your consent |
If you tell us about an allergy, we use that information only to prepare your meal safely. Only the staff who prepare or serve your meal have access to it.
3. Who we share data with
Bookings on our website are handled by Zenchef, our reservation and guest management system. Zenchef processes your data on our behalf as a processor, under a data processing agreement that complies with Article 28 GDPR. Zenchef may also send you its own messages if you separately agree to this when booking; Zenchef’s own privacy policy applies to those.
Otherwise we only share your data with:
- Payment providers, to process deposits and payments
- IT and hosting providers: Cloudflare (website hosting), Combell (email) and Resend (sending messages from the contact form)
- Google (Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Google Ads) and Meta (Meta Pixel), for statistics and advertising; Google Analytics, Google Ads and Meta Pixel only if you have given consent (see section 5)
- Our accountants, for our statutory bookkeeping
- Public authorities, where the law requires us to
All these parties may use your data only for the task we give them. For Meta Pixel, Ember and Meta are joint controllers for collecting and transmitting the data; what Meta does with the data afterwards is governed by Meta’s privacy policy. Google and Meta may process data in the United States. Such transfers rely on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or, where that does not apply, on the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses.
4. How long we keep data and how we protect it
We do not keep your data longer than necessary.
| Data | Retention period |
|---|---|
| Booking data and guest profile | Up to 3 years after your last visit |
| Allergies and dietary needs | As long as your guest profile exists, or until you withdraw consent |
| Correspondence and requests | Up to 2 years after the last contact |
| Newsletter data | Until you unsubscribe |
| Invoices and accounting records | 10 years, as required by law |
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data against loss, misuse and unauthorised access. Access is limited to staff who need the data for their work.
5. Cookies
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies. On your first visit, you choose which cookies you accept through the cookie banner. You can change or withdraw that choice at any time via the “Cookie settings” link at the bottom of the website.
Google Tag Manager. We manage the scripts on our website with Google Tag Manager, a service of Google Ireland Limited. Tag Manager loads on every visit. It does not set cookies itself, but Google does receive technical data such as your IP address and browser data. Through Tag Manager we load Google Analytics, Google Ads and Meta Pixel, and only after you have given consent. Without consent, those tags are not activated.
| Tool | Provider | Purpose | Cookies and retention | Consent required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Necessary cookies | Ember, Zenchef | Making the website and booking module work, remembering your cookie choice | Session to 12 months | No |
| Umami | Umami | Counting visits anonymously and in aggregate | No cookies, no personal data | No |
| Google Tag Manager | Google Ireland Limited | Managing and loading scripts on the website | No cookies | No |
| Google Analytics 4 | Google Ireland Limited | Measuring how visitors use the website | _ga, _ga* (up to 2 years) | Yes |
| Google Ads | Google Ireland Limited | Measuring ad results and showing ads to previous visitors | _gcl_au (3 months) and cookies on Google domains | Yes |
| Meta Pixel | Meta Platforms Ireland Limited | Measuring ads on Facebook and Instagram and making them more relevant | _fbp (3 months) and cookies on Meta domains | Yes |
If you refuse analytics or marketing cookies, the website remains fully usable. Zenchef’s booking module may set its own necessary cookies. If you accept the module, Zenchef may also load its own Google and Meta analytics and advertising tags; Zenchef’s privacy policy applies to those.
To learn how Google and Meta handle data, see Google’s privacy policy and Meta’s privacy policy.
6. Your rights
You have the right at any time to:
- access your data and receive a copy;
- have inaccurate data corrected;
- have your data erased, unless we are legally required to keep it;
- have processing restricted;
- object to processing based on our legitimate interest;
- receive your data in a common format (data portability);
- withdraw your consent, without affecting the lawfulness of earlier processing.
Send your request to hello@embermechelen.be. We reply within one month. To prevent misuse, we may ask you to confirm your identity.
If you are not satisfied with how we handle your data, you can lodge a complaint with the Belgian Data Protection Authority, Rue de la Presse 35, 1000 Brussels, www.dataprotectionauthority.be.
7. Changes
We may update this privacy policy, for example when our services or the law change. The latest version is always available on our website. In case of discrepancy, the Dutch version prevails.
Last updated: 9 October 2026