Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

ZaWi HuB is an online marketplace for Ethiopia: buy and sell, rent and lease, trucks and cargo, jobs and workers, and public tender notices. It runs on the website zawihub.com, in the Android app, which is published on Google Play as "ZaWi HuB Ethio", and in the ZaWi HuB Telegram Mini App. This policy covers all of them. ZaWi HuB is developed and operated by Frew Endalew Leggessew, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, who is responsible for the personal data described here. Privacy questions and requests: support@zawihub.com (see section 12).

2. What we collect

• Account data. A phone number or an e-mail address (a phone number is verified by SMS code where SMS is available), a password if you set one (stored only in hashed form), your name, optional profile photo and bio, and the optional WhatsApp/Telegram contact details you choose to show on listings.
• Business profile. If you add one: your company details and trade licence image. The licence image is stored privately and shown only to admins through short-lived links.
• Telegram. If you sign in with Telegram, link Telegram or use the Mini App, we store your Telegram id, display name, username and profile photo link so we can recognise you and send your alerts (see section 5).
• Precise location. The app reads your device's GPS only when you tap "Near me" or add a location to a listing. A Near me position is sent to our servers only to find and sort results by distance, and is remembered on your device for your next search. It is not saved to your account, but like every request it can appear, together with your IP address, in our server logs, which are kept only for a short time. A listing's exact coordinates are stored privately. Other people only see an approximate location, about 1 km, and every distance shown is approximate.
• Listings, clips and comments. The listings, photos and videos, short clips, clip comments, reviews and reports you post, and the members you block.
• Messages. Your chat messages and offers with other members.
• Payment claims. For paid promotions and any other fee the app shows before you pay: the 7-digit payment reference, the amount, the payment provider, the provider's transaction id, the payer name, phone and transfer note if you enter them, and an optional receipt screenshot, which is stored privately and shown only to admins through short-lived links. We never see or store your PIN or account password.
• Verification documents. If you request a verified badge: your ID or trade licence. They are stored privately, reviewed by admins only, and deleted 90 days after the review decision.
• App activity. Contact taps and contact reveals (a reveal or chat start on a listing promoted with pay-per-click is also counted and billed to that seller's promotion), favorites, follows, likes, saved searches, tender alerts and your My Tenders tracking, and in-app call records.
• Device and session data. IP address, device or browser type, app version and your sign-in sessions (visible to you under Account → Security).

3. How we use it

To run the marketplace: showing your listings, clips and profile, letting members contact each other, checking payments and billing promotions, sending the notifications you asked for (in the app, on Telegram, and by SMS for tender alerts if you switch that on), reviewing reports and moderating content, preventing fraud, spam and abuse, keeping accounts secure, and meeting legal obligations. We do not sell your personal data, we do not run third-party advertising or analytics trackers, and the app does not use the advertising ID.

4. What other people see

Your listings, seller name, profile photo, ratings and reviews, and your clips and clip comments are public. The contact details you chose to publish are shown only to signed-in members; phone numbers are hidden from guests. Listing locations are shown only approximately (about 1 km). Chat messages are visible only to the participants. We do not read them, except where needed to investigate a report of abuse or where the law requires it.

5. Telegram

Telegram is used for signing in (with Telegram or through the Mini App) and for alerts to accounts that have Telegram linked. Alerts are generic, for example "New message on ZaWi HuB. Open the app to read it.", and never contain message text, other people's names or phone numbers. Telegram's own privacy policy applies to your Telegram account.

6. Service providers, storage and transfers

• Render hosts the website, the API and the database on servers in the European Union (Frankfurt, Germany).
• Cloudflare stores uploaded photos, videos and documents and our nightly database backups, delivers the media, and routes e-mail sent to support@zawihub.com.
• Google Fonts: the app loads its fonts from Google's servers, which receive your IP address and device type as part of that download.
• Telegram, when you use it (section 5). If SMS or e-mail codes or SMS tender alerts are switched on, the SMS gateway or e-mail provider that delivers them receives the phone number or address and the message.

Videos and clips are played only from ZaWi HuB's own storage. Because our providers are outside Ethiopia, we apply the safeguards required by the Personal Data Protection Proclamation (No. 1321/2024). Everything travels over HTTPS.

7. How long we keep data

• Your profile, listings, clips, comments and messages are kept while your account exists. When you (or a moderator) delete or close a listing, clip or comment, it is hidden from everyone at once, but its record stays in our database until your account is deleted. Chat messages cannot be deleted one by one; they are removed when your account is deleted (section 8).
• Verification documents are deleted 90 days after the review decision by a daily job.
• After you delete your account we keep an anonymised payment ledger (amount, currency, purpose, reference number, status and dates, plus the transaction reference from the payment provider, used to detect duplicate or replayed payments, with no name, phone number, e-mail, transfer note, screenshot or other personal data) for 2 years, and security and audit log entries about the account for 6 months.
• Database backups are stored with Cloudflare, encrypted at rest, and roll off within about 5 weeks, so deleted data disappears from backups within that time.

8. Deleting your account

You can delete your account at any time:

• in the app: Profile → Delete account;
• on the website: Account → Security;
• without logging in: follow the steps at zawihub.com/delete-account, or e-mail support@zawihub.com with the phone number or e-mail address of the account (we may ask you to confirm it is yours).

Accounts with a password confirm with it; accounts without one (for example Telegram sign-in) confirm by typing DELETE. Deletion removes your profile and business profile, verification requests and their files, your listings in every hub with their photos and videos, favorites, follows, likes and blocks, saved searches, tender alerts and tracking, your clips and comments with their media, reviews written by you or about you, notifications, sessions and sign-in tokens, device tokens, your Telegram link, call records, contact and activity records, and your chat messages, which disappear for both participants. What we keep, and for how long, is listed in section 7; the account record itself stays only as an empty placeholder with no personal data.

9. Your rights

You can see and edit your profile under Account → Settings, review active sessions and revoke them under Account → Security, and delete your account as described in section 8. You may also ask us for a copy of your data, correction of inaccurate data, or deletion of specific data, and you may object to a use of your data, by writing to support@zawihub.com. If you are not satisfied with our answer you may complain to the competent data protection authority in Ethiopia.

10. Cookies and local storage

The web app keeps your sign-in session and preferences in your browser's local storage, and the Android app keeps them on your device. We do not run third-party advertising trackers.

11. Who can use ZaWi HuB

ZaWi HuB is only for adults (18 and over). We do not knowingly collect data from children; if you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we will remove it.

12. Contact, requests and changes

Write to support@zawihub.com for any privacy question or request, including account deletion. No account or login is needed to contact us. Signed-in members can also use Contact Us (Account → Support) on this website. Developer and operator: Frew Endalew Leggessew, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We will announce material changes to this policy in the app and update the dates above.