International Privacy Policy

Effective Date: March 1, 2024

Your privacy is important to us. Dine Brands Global, Inc. understand your concerns regarding how information about you is used and shared, and we appreciate your trust that we will use and share information about you carefully and sensibly.

This Privacy Policy describes what information Dine Brands Global, Inc. and its affiliates, including International House of Pancakes, LLC (“IHOP”), Applebee’s International, Inc. (“Applebee’s”), and Fuzzy’s Taco Opportunities, LLC (“Fuzzy’s”) (collectively “Dine,” “us,” “our,” and “we”) collect about you, how we collect it, how we use it, with whom we may share it, and what choices you have regarding it. This Privacy Policy applies to your use of our International Franchising websites available at https://franchise.ihop.com, https://franchise.applebees.com/en, and https://franchise.ihop.com/en/applebees-co-branded-franchising (the “Sites”) and in connection with applying to become a franchisee.

We encourage you to become familiar with this Privacy Policy. By accessing and using the Sites, you agree that you have read and understand this Privacy Policy and that you accept and consent to the privacy practices (and any uses and disclosures of information about you) that are described in this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to any websites operated by third parties. We are not responsible for, and this Privacy Policy does not apply to, the privacy practices of other companies or other websites. We encourage you to seek out and read the privacy policy of each website that you visit.

How Do We Collect Your Personal Information?

Dine collects personal information relating to you and your use of the Sites to provide services and features that are responsive to your needs. Dine collects personal information in the following ways:

  • Directly from you. We collect personal information from you when you request information, provide us with information through our Request for Consideration form or otherwise apply to become a franchisee, send us email, send us postal mail, speak with us on the telephone, or otherwise interact with us.
  • From other third-party sources. We may receive personal information about you from our third-party service providers who help us provide services to you, including our Sites and social media providers. We also collect personal information about you from third party sources such as background check providers, as further detailed below in the section titled “Personal Information We Collect From Third Party Sources.”
  • Automatically as you navigate the Sites. Information collected automatically may include usage details, email address, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies and other tracking technologies. See below for more information about our use of these technologies.

What Personal Information Do We Collect?

Personal Information You Provide Directly to Us

We collect personal information that you directly provide to us, including but not limited to:

  • First and last name
  • Company name
  • Postal address and/or zip code
  • Email address
  • Phone number
  • Date of birth
  • Information related to your business entity:
    • Background information regarding your partner and business entity finances
    • Requested region for franchise information
    • Operations management experience

Personal Information We Collect From Third Party Sources

When you apply to become a franchisee, we will obtain your consent to collect personal information about you from third parties including individuals you provide as references, financial and other institutions, schools, credit reporting agencies, professional and academic certification organizations, law enforcement agencies, former employers, and the military for purposes of evaluating your application to become a franchisee. Such personal information may include information about your financial, educational, and criminal histories, as well as information concerning your character and reputation. Dine does not share this information with any third parties except its service providers and retains it for as long as necessary to evaluate your application. You may withdraw your consent at any time. To exercise any of privacy rights that may be afforded to you under applicable data protection laws, including withdrawing your consent, please see the section below titled “Your Privacy Rights.” For more information about Dine’s practices with respect to retention of your personal information, please see the section below titled “How Long Do We Retain Your Personal Information?”

Information We and Our Third-Party Service Providers Automatically Collect on our Sites

When you use our Sites, we and our third-party service providers automatically collect information about how you access and use the Sites and information about the device you use to access the Sites. We typically collect this information through a variety of tools including cookies, web beacons, pixels, social media widgets, other tools to enable data recording and indexing, and similar technology. We and our third-party partners may automatically collect such information as:

  • IP or MAC address
  • Device type
  • Unique device identifier (UDID)/other device identifier (IMEI)
  • Browser type
  • Operating system or platform
  • Name of Internet Service Provider (ISP)
  • Referring website
  • Exiting website
  • Clickstream data
  • Search terms entered on the Sites
  • Pages visited on the Sites
  • Time, date, and duration of visit to the Sites
  • Whether you open emails from us
  • Links you click on in our emails and on our Sites, including ads
  • Whether you access our Sites from multiple devices
  • Other interactions you may have on our Sites
  • Location/geo-location (latitude/longitude, Wi-Fi/cell tower location, etc.)

How Do We Use Your Personal Information?

We collect and use personal information for a variety of purposes. For example, we use your personal information to:

  • Evaluate and communicate with you regarding the prospects of becoming a franchisee, including conducting interviews and performing background and reference checks.
  • Provide our Sites and their functionalities to you.
  • Conduct data analytics to support our Sites and business.
  • Manage our business needs, such as monitoring, analyzing, and improving the services and the Sites’ performance and functionality. For example, we analyze website user behavior and conduct research and analysis about the way you and other users use our Sites.
  • Manage risk and protect the Sites. We use data to better protect our services, our Sites, and you by helping to detect and prevent fraud and abuse of the Sites and our services.
  • Operate and improve our business.
  • Maintain our records.
  • Conduct internal monitoring and training.
  • Conduct processing necessary to fulfill other contractual obligations for you.
  • Comply with our legal and regulatory obligations. We will use your information as necessary to enforce the terms of our Sites and services to comply with all applicable laws and regulations.
  • For other purposes for which you provide your consent.

Do We Disclose Any Personal Information to Outside Parties?

We do not sell your personal information to third parties, except we may share your personal information in the circumstances described below.

  • Our affiliates. We may share your personal information with our affiliates and between all Dine brands (including Applebee’s, IHOP, and Fuzzy’s) for the activities listed above.
  • Our franchisees. We may share your personal information with Applebee’s, IHOP, and Fuzzy’s franchisees.
  • Third-party service providers. We may disclose your personal information to our vendors and other third-party service providers, such as credit card processors and website hosts, that help us provide services, support features on the Sites or in franchise restaurants, or otherwise market our brands. We may also disclose aggregated, de-identified information, and analyses and reports derived from such information, to service providers, advertisers, merchants, consumer and market research companies, and other organizations. These service providers are responsible for their own compliance with data protection laws.
  • Legal requirements and business transfers. We may disclose personal information: (i) if we are required to do so by law, legal process, statute, rule, regulation, or professional standard, or to respond to a subpoena, search warrant, or other government official requests; (ii) when we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to prevent physical harm or financial loss; (iii) in connection with an investigation of a complaint, security threat, or suspected or actual illegal activity; (iv) in connection with an internal audit; or (v) in the event that Dine is subject to mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, sales of assets, reorganizations, divestitures, dissolutions, bankruptcies, liquidations, or other types of business transactions. In these types of transactions, personal information may be shared, sold, or transferred, and it may be used subsequently by a third party.

What Choices Do You Have About Your Personal Information?

We offer certain choices about how we communicate with you and what personal information we obtain about you and share with others.

  • E-mail. If you no longer wish to receive emails from us, you may opt-out from receiving future emails from us by following the instructions for unsubscribing included in the email.
  • Cookies. We provide a variety of services on our Sites using cookies. Subject to obtaining your prior consent where required by applicable law, we place cookies on your device in order to provide you with personalized access to essential services, enhance functionality, and show you offers and services tailored to your interests. A cookie is a small piece of data that a website can send to your browser, which may then be stored on your hard drive as a “tag” that identifies your computer. Cookies help to navigate from page to page on a website, provide secure connections, gather statistics about the usage and effectiveness of our Sites, and remember preferences from a previous visit, when you return. As further discussed below, we use third-party services for analytics and interest-based advertising purposes. These service providers and ad partners may use cookies alone or in conjunction with unique identifiers, beacons, and other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use our Sites, open our emails, or interact with our ads. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can change your browser’s settings to disable all or certain cookies if you wish. You can also manage your preferences with respect to these technologies through the Cookie Preferences link in the footer of our Sites. Please note that by disabling or deleting cookies, you may not be able to access the full functionality of our Sites. Disabling or clearing cookies also may affect cookie-based opt-outs by either preventing you from using such cookie-based opt-outs or clearing opt-outs that you previously set.
  • Do Not Track. Because there currently is not an industry or legal standard for recognizing or honoring Do Not Track (“DNT”) signals, we do not respond to them at this time.
  • Location Data. You may opt-out of having your location data collected by Dine at any time by editing the appropriate setting on your mobile device (which is usually located in the settings of your device) or by emailing us at [email protected].

Data Automatically Collected

Dine uses Google Analytics to process personal information about your use of our Sites. Google sets cookies on your browser or device, and then your web browser will automatically send information to Google. Google uses this information to provide us with reports that we use to better understand and measure how users interact with our Sites.

To learn more about how Google uses data, visit Google’s Privacy Policy and Google’s page on “How Google Uses Data When You Use Our Partners’ Sites or Apps.” You may download the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On for each web browser you use, but this does not prevent the use of other analytics tools. To learn more about Google Analytics cookies, visit Google Analytics Cookie Usage on Websites.

We use third parties and/or service providers to provide interest-based advertising services. These services may serve advertisements on our behalf that are customized based on predictions about your interests generated from your visits to websites (including our Sites) over time and across different websites. The data collected may be associated with your personal information. These advertisements may appear on our Sites and on other websites and may be sent to you via email.

We use Google Ads to serve ads across various websites. Google uses cookies to collect data about your visits to our Sites to generate targeted advertisements to you on other websites that you visit. To opt out of this type of advertising by Google, customize your ad preferences, or limit Google’s collection or use of such data, visit Google’s Safety Center and Google’s Ad Settings and follow Google’s Personalized Ad Opt-Out Instructions. Opting out will not affect your use of our Sites.

To change your preferences with respect to certain online ads or obtain more information about ad networks and online behavioral advertising, visit your Google advertising settings, the National Advertising Initiative Consumer Opt-Out Page or the Digital Advertising Alliance Self-Regulatory Program. Changing your settings with individual browsers or ad networks will not necessarily carry over to other browsers or ad networks. As a result, depending on the opt-outs you request, you may still see our ads. Opting out of targeted advertising does not opt you out of all ads, just those targeted to you.

Google Maps. Our Sites contain maps provided by third parties and/or service providers for your convenience. Dine and such other parties may collect data about how you interact with the maps. For example, Google may collect usage data on maps embedded on the Sites. Even if you do not interact with the maps, Google may still collect certain information about your interactions with our Sites if you are signed into your Google account when accessing our Sites. Please see Google's Privacy Policy for more information.

Individuals in the European Union, European Economic Area, Switzerland, and United Kingdom

This section provides additional information regarding Dine’s processing of Personal Data of people located in the European Union (“EU”), European Economic Area (“EEA”), Switzerland, and the United Kingdom (“UK”) in accordance with the EU Data Protection Regulation, UK Data Protection Regulation, and the Swiss Federal Data Protection Act. For purposes of this section, “Personal Data” has the definition set forth in the foregoing data protection laws.

Legal Basis for Processing

Our legal basis for processing the Personal Data described in this Privacy Policy will depend on the Personal Data concerned and the context in which we process it. We process Personal Data from you where the processing is in our legitimate interests (including the purposes described, above, in How Do We Use Your Personal Information?) or if we otherwise have your consent.

Special Category Data

Dine does not intend to collect any Special Category Data, which is any data that reveals your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious, moral, or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetics, biometric identifiers, and health or sex life and/or sexual orientation. Please refrain from sending us any Special Category Data.

Automated Decision Making

Dine does not make any automated decisions on your behalf or about you without first obtaining your express, opt-in consent. In the event we secure your consent to do so, you have the right to object to the processing of Personal Data via automated decision making at any time by contacting us at [email protected].

Transfers to Third Parties and Countries

Personal Data that we collect or receive may be transferred to and/or processed by third parties that are located outside of the EU, EEA, Switzerland, or the UK, some of which applicable authorities may not consider to have an adequate level of protection for Personal Data. Dine will only transfer Personal Data to third parties located outside of the EU, EEA, Switzerland, and the UK when it has ensured appropriate safeguards for such Personal Data through use of the standard contractual clauses or other lawful and approved methods.

Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the following rights with respect to your Personal Data under applicable data protection laws:

  • Request access to information about what Personal Data we have collected about you.
  • Request a copy of your Personal Data in a portable and readily usable format.
  • Request correction of your Personal Data.
  • Request erasure of your Personal Data, subject to certain exceptions.
  • Object to processing of your Personal Data in certain circumstances.
  • Request restriction of processing of your Personal Data in certain circumstances.
  • Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal information.
  • Lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority or other regulatory agency if you believe that we have violated any of the rights concerning your personal information. We encourage you to first reach out to us, so we have an opportunity to address your concerns directly before you do so.

To exercise any of the privacy rights afforded to you under applicable data protection laws, please email [email protected].

How Long Do We Retain Your Personal Information?

We will keep your personal information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy unless a longer retention period is permitted or required by law. Criteria we will use to determine how long we will retain your personal information include whether we need your personal information to consider your franchisee application; we continue to have a franchising relationship with you; you have requested information from us; we have a legal right or obligation to continue to retain your personal information; we have an obligation to a third party that involves your personal information; our retention or recordkeeping policies and obligations dictate that we retain your personal information; or we have another business purpose for retaining your personal information.

Third-Party Links

Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third-party products or services on our apps. These third-party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We, therefore, have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. We urge you to read the privacy policies of other websites before submitting any information to those websites.

How Do We Protect Your Personal Information?

Dine has implemented reasonable physical, technical, and administrative security standards to protect personal information from loss, misuse, alteration, or destruction. We strive to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, use, or disclosure, using security technologies and procedures, such as encryption and limited access. Only authorized individuals access your personal information, and they receive training about the importance of protecting personal information.

Children’s Information

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If you are under 18, do not use or provide any information on the Sites or on or through any of its features. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 18 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 18, please contact us at [email protected].

Contacting Us

For any questions, or to request further information regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at [email protected].

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

It is our policy to post any changes we make to our Privacy Policy on this page. If we make material changes to how we treat personal information, we will notify you via e-mail or through a notice on our Sites’ home page. The date the Privacy Policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page.