Business claims: terms and privacy

These terms cover business claims and edit suggestions on WoYab. Claiming a page gives access to WoYab's management tools; it does not create, transfer, or prove legal ownership of the business itself.

You may claim a business only if you own it or are authorized to act for it. Your name, business email, supporting link, and proposed changes must be accurate, current, and not misleading. Employees and customers may suggest edits but do not receive owner access.

WoYab may send a one-time code to the submitted business email, compare the address with the existing listing, request further evidence, or refer the claim to an administrator. Verifying an email does not guarantee approval. The public claim flow does not accept a new claim while a verified owner is assigned; ownership disputes must be raised directly with WoYab for an explicit administrative decision.

You must have the right to submit any text, links, opening hours, services, or other business information. You allow WoYab to review, store, format, translate where available, and publish approved information for operating the directory. All changes remain subject to moderation.

Do not impersonate another person, submit a claim for a competitor, manipulate ratings or reviews, provide forged evidence, upload unlawful or confidential material, interfere with verification, automate abusive requests, or use the process to harass others.

You are responsible for protecting your account and reporting suspected unauthorized access. Owner access is limited to the verified account and cannot be transferred through the owner dashboard. WoYab may require a new verification if relevant ownership or security details change.

WoYab may reject, cancel, suspend, or re-review a claim or edit request when information is incomplete, unverifiable, disputed, abusive, or conflicts with these rules or applicable law. Material decisions are recorded for security and accountability.

A verified owner may hide a business from public view and restore it later. This reversible action is separate from a request to erase personal data. German law applies where permitted, while mandatory statutory rights and jurisdiction rules remain unaffected.

We process your account identifier, account email, full name, official business email, optional official website or social-media link, claim and edit contents, verification status, moderation decisions, timestamps, and limited technical and anti-abuse information. A business email may still be personal data when it identifies an individual.

Information comes from you, your WoYab account, the existing public business page, verification results, and records created by authorized moderators. We do not visit an optional supporting link to prove ownership.

Information needed to process your requested claim and owner access is handled for the requested service and pre-contractual steps under Article 6(1)(b) GDPR. Listing integrity, fraud prevention, security, dispute handling, and audit records rely on WoYab's legitimate interests under Article 6(1)(f). Where retention or disclosure is legally required, Article 6(1)(c) applies. The claim does not rely on optional marketing consent.

Your name, account email, and business email are required for an ownership claim. The official website or social-media link is optional. Without required information or a successful email verification, WoYab cannot complete the claim. Employee and customer suggestions require only the information needed to review the proposed change.

If a business has no owner and the verified non-Gmail address exactly matches the email already shown on the listing, the system may approve the claim automatically. New addresses and Gmail addresses are sent to administrator review. The public workflow blocks claims for a business with an assigned owner; you may contact WoYab directly to report an ownership dispute or request human review.

Access is limited to authorized WoYab administrators and service providers needed for hosting, database operation, authentication, security, and delivery of the verification email. Information may also be disclosed when required by law or necessary to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims. The OTP is sent only to the submitted business email.

Expired or cancelled claims are scheduled for review after 90 days. Rejected claims and closed edit requests are reviewed after 180 days. Approved claims are kept while ownership access remains active; after it ends, records needed for disputes are reviewed under the standard German limitation period. A documented legal hold must have a reason and an end date. Eligible records are then anonymized or deleted.

Raw verification codes are never stored. Only a protected hash is retained for the short verification period. Attempts, resend limits, access controls, and audit records are used to reduce account takeover, impersonation, and competing-claim abuse.

Subject to the legal conditions, you may request access, correction, erasure, restriction, portability, or object to processing based on legitimate interests. You may also complain to the competent supervisory authority. Hiding a business page is not the same as exercising a personal-data erasure right, and erasure requests are assessed separately.