Privacy Policy

1. Introduction and Scope

KwikMo Solutions (operating as "KwikMo", "we", "us", "our", or the "Company") operates a WhatsApp-based marketplace platform that connects buyers with local vendors and businesses throughout Ghana. This Privacy Policy is designed to help you understand how we collect, use, store, share, and protect your personal information when you interact with our services.

This Privacy Policy applies to all users of our platform, including customers who browse and purchase products, vendors who sell through our marketplace, affiliates who promote products, and any other individuals who interact with our services. By using KwikMo, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy and agree to the collection and use of your information as described herein.

We have developed this policy in accordance with the Ghana Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843), which establishes the framework for the protection of personal data in Ghana. We are committed to upholding the principles set forth in this legislation and ensuring that your rights as a data subject are respected.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information You Provide Directly

When you use our platform, you voluntarily provide us with certain information. For customers, this includes your name and phone number, which we use to identify you and facilitate communications regarding your orders. When you place an order, you may also provide delivery addresses or pickup preferences, which we share with the relevant vendor to ensure successful order fulfillment.

For vendors, we collect additional information necessary to operate your shop on our platform. This includes your full legal name, business name, business location, contact information, and Mobile Money number for receiving payments. We may also collect information about your delivery coverage areas and your product catalog, including product names, descriptions, prices, and images.

If you choose to participate in our vendor identity verification program, you will be asked to provide a government-issued identification document, such as a Ghana Card, Driver's License, or Passport. This information is collected solely for the purpose of verifying your identity and building trust with customers. We extract only the name from your ID document for comparison with your registered name, and the ID image is stored securely with restricted access.

When you contact our customer support team, we collect information about your inquiry, including the content of your messages and any attachments you send. This helps us resolve your issues effectively and improve our support services.

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

When you interact with our platform, certain information is collected automatically as part of the normal operation of our services. This includes transaction data such as order details, payment records, timestamps, and order statuses. We maintain records of your order history to provide you with access to past orders and to help resolve any disputes that may arise.

We also collect usage data to understand how users interact with our platform. This may include which features you use, how often you use the service, and your navigation patterns. This information helps us improve our services and develop new features that better serve our users' needs.

As our service operates through WhatsApp, certain metadata associated with WhatsApp messaging is automatically processed. This includes message delivery status and timestamps, which are necessary for the reliable operation of our ordering and notification systems.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for a variety of purposes, all aimed at providing you with the best possible marketplace experience while maintaining the security and integrity of our platform.

Our primary use of your information is to facilitate transactions between buyers and vendors. When you place an order, we use your information to process the order, communicate order details to the vendor, facilitate payment processing, and keep you informed about the status of your order through notifications and updates.

For vendors, we use your information to enable you to manage your shop, list products, receive orders, and process payments. We also use vendor information to display your shop and products to potential customers, which is essential for the operation of the marketplace.

We use identity verification information to confirm that vendors are who they claim to be. This builds trust in our marketplace and helps protect customers from potential fraud. Verified vendors receive a special badge on their store, signaling to customers that their identity has been confirmed.

We use transaction and usage data to improve our services. This includes analyzing patterns to identify areas for improvement, developing new features, and optimizing the user experience. We may also use aggregated, anonymized data for statistical purposes and business intelligence.

We use your contact information to send you important notifications about your orders, to communicate changes to our services or policies, and to respond to your inquiries and support requests. If you are a vendor, we may also send you notifications about orders, payments, and opportunities to grow your business on our platform.

We use information to protect the security and integrity of our platform. This includes detecting and preventing fraud, investigating suspicious activities, enforcing our terms of service, and complying with legal obligations.

4. Legal Basis for Processing

Under the Ghana Data Protection Act 2012, we are required to have a valid legal basis for processing your personal data. Depending on the specific processing activity, we rely on one or more of the following legal bases:

Consent: In many cases, we process your data based on your consent. By using our services and providing your information, you consent to the processing activities described in this Privacy Policy. For certain processing activities, such as identity verification, we obtain your explicit consent before collecting and processing your data. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, although this may affect your ability to use certain features of our service.

Contractual Necessity: When you place an order or register as a vendor, you enter into a contractual relationship with us. We process your data as necessary to fulfill our obligations under this contract, including processing your orders, facilitating payments, and providing you with access to our platform.

Legal Obligation: In some cases, we are required by law to process your data. This includes maintaining financial records for tax purposes, complying with anti-money laundering regulations, and responding to lawful requests from government authorities.

Legitimate Interests: We may process your data based on our legitimate business interests, provided these interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. Our legitimate interests include improving our services, preventing fraud, and maintaining the security of our platform. We carefully balance our interests against your privacy rights and only proceed when we are confident that the processing is fair and reasonable.

5. How We Share Your Information

We understand that how we share your information is just as important as how we collect and use it. We are committed to sharing your information only when necessary and with appropriate safeguards in place.

When you place an order, we share your name, phone number, and delivery information with the vendor fulfilling your order. This is necessary for the vendor to prepare your order and arrange delivery or pickup. Vendors are required to use this information only for order fulfillment and are prohibited from using it for other purposes or sharing it with third parties.

To process payments, we share relevant transaction information with our payment processing partner, Paystack, which facilitates Mobile Money transactions. Paystack is a reputable payment processor that operates under its own privacy policy and maintains appropriate security measures to protect your payment information.

We use third-party service providers to help us operate our platform. These include Cloudflare, which provides hosting and content delivery services, and Meta (WhatsApp), which provides the messaging infrastructure for our platform. These service providers process your data on our behalf and are contractually obligated to use your information only as directed by us and to maintain appropriate security measures.

We may disclose your information if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to comply with applicable laws or respond to valid legal process, to protect the rights, property, or safety of KwikMo, our users, or the public, or to detect, prevent, or address fraud, security, or technical issues.

We want to be absolutely clear: we do not sell your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes. We never have and we never will.

6. Data Security

Protecting your personal information is a top priority for us. We implement a comprehensive set of technical and organizational measures designed to safeguard your data against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction.

All data transmitted between your device and our servers is encrypted using industry-standard encryption protocols. This ensures that your information cannot be intercepted or read by unauthorized parties during transmission. Our servers are hosted on Cloudflare's infrastructure, which provides robust security features including DDoS protection and web application firewalls.

Access to personal data within our organization is strictly controlled and limited to authorized personnel who need the information to perform their job functions. We maintain audit logs of data access and regularly review access permissions to ensure they remain appropriate.

For particularly sensitive data, such as identity verification documents, we implement additional security measures. ID images are stored in private storage locations with hashed filenames, ensuring that even if unauthorized access were to occur, identifying the owner of a particular document would be extremely difficult.

We regularly assess and update our security practices to address new threats and vulnerabilities. While no system can guarantee absolute security, we are committed to implementing security measures that are appropriate for the sensitivity of the data we handle and the risks we face.

7. Data Retention

We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, including to satisfy any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

Transaction records, including order details and payment records, are retained for seven years. This retention period is necessary to comply with financial record-keeping requirements under Ghanaian law and to address any disputes or legal claims that may arise.

Identity verification documents are retained for three years after your last verification or until you delete your account, whichever comes first. This allows us to maintain the validity of your verified status while respecting your right to have your data deleted.

Order history and general account data are retained as long as your account remains active, plus an additional period of three years following account closure. This allows us to fulfill any outstanding obligations and address any issues that may arise after you stop using our services.

Support chat history is retained for one year after the conversation, which allows us to reference previous interactions if you contact us again and helps us improve our support services.

When personal data is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, we take steps to securely delete or anonymize the information so that it can no longer be used to identify you.

8. Your Rights

Under the Ghana Data Protection Act 2012, you have several rights regarding your personal data. We are committed to respecting these rights and making it easy for you to exercise them.

Right of Access: You have the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you. Upon request, we will provide you with information about whether we hold any of your personal data, what data we hold, and the purposes for which we process it. We will respond to access requests within a reasonable timeframe and provide the information in a commonly used electronic format.

Right to Correction: If you believe that any personal data we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right to request that we correct or complete the information. We encourage you to keep your information up to date to ensure that our communications reach you and that your orders are processed correctly.

Right to Deletion: You have the right to request that we delete your personal data in certain circumstances. This includes situations where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, where you withdraw your consent (and there is no other legal basis for processing), or where the data has been unlawfully processed. Please note that we may not be able to delete data that we are required by law to retain or that is necessary to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

Right to Object: You have the right to object to certain processing activities, including processing based on legitimate interests. If you object, we will cease processing your data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing that override your interests, rights, and freedoms.

Right to Data Portability: In certain circumstances, you have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, and to transmit that data to another controller without hindrance from us.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the contact information provided at the end of this policy. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request to ensure that we do not disclose your information to unauthorized parties.

9. Children's Privacy

Our services are not intended for individuals under the age of 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we become aware that we have collected personal data from a child under 18, we will take steps to delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we may have collected information from a child under 18, please contact us immediately so that we can take appropriate action.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technologies, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you by posting a notice on our platform and, where appropriate, sending a notification via WhatsApp.

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information. Your continued use of our services after any changes to this Privacy Policy constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.