Zomato Introduces Consent-Based Customer Phone Number Sharing With Restaurant Partners

Zomato will soon implement a new feature allowing customers to share their phone numbers with restaurant partners after providing explicit consent. This initiative addresses a longstanding request from the restaurant industry.

On Thursday, CEO Aditya Mangla announced via LinkedIn that the company is in the early stages of rolling out this feature. When customers place orders through the Zomato app, they'll receive a pop-up asking if they want to share their phone number with restaurants they order from. This would enable them to receive offers directly from these establishments.

The pop-up will clearly state that once customers consent to sharing their phone number, this decision cannot be reversed, and by agreeing, customers accept the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

"We at Zomato are in the early stages of launching a feature on the app which gives customers the option to opt-in to receive marketing and promotional updates directly from restaurants. If and when consent is provided, only the phone number will be shared with the restaurant. No other information will be shared," Mangla explained.

Sources indicate that Swiggy is also engaged in discussions with the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) regarding customer data sharing protocols.

While the NRAI did not provide comments for this story, the association has consistently advocated for access to customer data from food delivery platforms in the past.

Anshoo Sharma, CEO & Co-founder of magicpin, the third-largest food delivery service, told PTI: "Being part of ONDC, we do share customer data with our merchant partners, in line with industry protocols and customers' privacy standards.

Merchants already have access to comprehensive dashboards that offer insights on new customers, competitive comparisons, rankings and detailed performance charts - tools many partners find intuitive and motivating. Any data sharing on our platform is governed by established protocols with user trust and privacy at the core".