Privacy Policy

1. What we collect

• Your WhatsApp phone number, and the WhatsApp profile name WhatsApp sends us.
• What you tell us: your name, your role (farmer, trader, buyer, etc.) and your area.
• The messages you send us. Voice notes are converted to text; the recording itself is not kept.
• Listings and requests: crop, quantity, price, place and dates for selling or buying.
• Connection requests and your answers (agree or decline), and your answers about whether a trade happened and at what price.
• Reports you send (REPORT) and reports made about you.
• Delivery information (sent, delivered, read) from WhatsApp.

2. How we use it

• To understand your messages, publish your listings and reply to you.
• To find suitable buyers or sellers, and connect you with them if you agree.
• To send reminders and questions about your listings and trades.
• To provide market prices. These are aggregate figures; they never show a person’s name or number.
• To keep users safe: preventing fraud and handling reports.
• To improve the service, and to meet legal requirements.

We rely on your consent (when you message us and when you agree to be connected), on the need to provide the service you asked for, and on our legitimate interest in keeping the service safe.

3. Who we share it with

• Other users: possible matches see your listing details (crop, quantity, price, area) without your name or number. Your name and phone number are shared only after both you and the other person agree.
• Our service providers, working for us under contract:
  • Meta (WhatsApp): receiving and sending messages.
  • Supabase: our database, in Ireland (European Union).
  • Vercel: website, application and encrypted backups, in Dublin (European Union).
  • OpenAI: understanding messages and converting voice to text, in the United States. OpenAI’s terms say it does not use this data to train its models.
• Aggregate statistics: we may publish, share or sell market statistics (for example average prices by crop and area) that cannot identify anyone.
• The law: where Tanzanian law requires it, or to prevent fraud or harm.

We do not sell your personal information.

4. Where it is stored

Your information is stored outside Tanzania: in the European Union (Ireland), with some processing in the United States (OpenAI and Meta). We use providers with appropriate safeguards, and we encrypt information in transit and our backups.

5. How long we keep it

• A listing ends after 14 days unless renewed, but its record is kept for price history.
• We keep your information for as long as you use the service.
• If you ask us to delete your information, we delete it within 30 days, except what the law requires us to keep. Backup copies expire automatically within 14 days after that.

6. Your rights

You have the right to see the information we hold about you; to correct it; to ask us to delete it; to object to or restrict some uses; and to withdraw your consent at any time. You can also stop using the service at any time.

To use these rights: Send a message to Soko Connects on WhatsApp, or email hello@sokoconnects.com. We will reply within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with how we handled your information, you can complain to the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC).

7. Security

Only authorised staff can see personal information, by signing in with a password. Information is encrypted in transit, and backups are encrypted. No system is completely secure; if we find a problem affecting your information, we will tell you and notify the authorities as the law requires.

8. Children

The service is for people aged 18 or over.

9. Changes

If we change this policy, we will post the new version here with a new date. We will announce major changes on WhatsApp.

10. Contact us

Send a message to Soko Connects on WhatsApp, or email hello@sokoconnects.com.