When it comes to protecting personal data, credit card information is the biggest concern for those who shop online. “People often question what we do to prevent fraud and incidents involving credit card data”, agrees Camila Nagano, lawyer and DPO (in charge of the privacy program) at iFood.
As card data is registered in the app, many people think that iFood stores this personal information. In reality, the foodtech does not store or have access to people's card numbers, but to data that is anonymized before being used. “iFood processes this information in a tokenized way so that people’s payment data is protected and treated securely, in line with the General Data Protection Law (LGPD)”, explains Camila.
It works like this: when the customer registers the card in the application, iFood creates an identification for that card in the form of a token, a sequence of random numbers. “Every time the customer makes a purchase, the transaction is made using this sequence of random numbers, and not the card numbers”, adds the expert.
During transactions, iFood uses this token to validate payments with credit card issuers — see how this happens in the infographic. And it only works with companies that are certified to carry out this tokenization, following all data protection measures.
How to keep data secure
Furthermore, iFood adopts other measures to ensure the protection of its customers' personal data, such as carrying out periodic security tests and adopting measures to prevent access, deletion or inappropriate or illicit use of user data.
To complete the protection, it is never too much to remember: never provide data or images of your card to other people and, if you are paying at the time of delivery, check your card statement at the time to avoid machine scam.
Finally, if you receive a phone call, email or message asking for personal information in exchange for promotions or support, do not report it as it could be a new scam to hack your account on the app. iFood never asks for personal data from its customers by phone or message.
