Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

AfriMarket Group Ltd (company number 17282940, registered in England & Wales) is the data controller for personal data collected through the AfriMarket platform. You can contact us at admin@afrimarket.org.

2. What data we collect

We only collect data necessary to operate and improve the Platform:

• Account data — name, email address, password (hashed), country, optional phone number.
• Seller verification data — proof of ID and address (encrypted at rest, accessed only by admins for KYC review).
• Listing data — titles, descriptions, prices, photos and category metadata you upload.
• Transaction data — orders, payment status, dispute history. Card details are handled by Stripe / PayPal and never stored by us.
• Communication data — messages exchanged with other users on the Platform.
• Location data — country and city you set in your profile, plus (only if you click "Use my location") your approximate browser geolocation to surface nearby listings.
• Device & usage data — IP address, browser type, pages viewed, referrer URL, cookie identifiers.
• Email-preference data — whether you subscribe to our weekly digest.

3. Why we process your data (lawful bases)

• To provide the Platform — performance of our contract with you (Art. 6(1)(b) UK GDPR).
• For seller KYC and trust & safety — legitimate interest in preventing fraud and protecting buyers.
• For payment processing — performance of contract; we share necessary fields with Stripe and PayPal.
• For marketing emails & cookies — your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
• For legal compliance — to meet our obligations under UK tax, anti-money-laundering and consumer-protection law.

4. Who we share data with

We share data only with the third-party processors necessary to run the Platform:

• Stripe, Inc. & PayPal Holdings Inc. — payment processing (US, with UK/EEA data-transfer safeguards).
• Resend.com — transactional and digest emails (US, with SCCs in place).
• MongoDB Atlas — encrypted database hosting (EU region).
• Cloudflare — DDoS protection and CDN.
• OpenAI / Google / Anthropic — when you use AI search or AI-generated descriptions, the relevant prompt is sent to the LLM provider. We do not include personal contact details in prompts.
• UK / international tax authorities — only where legally required.

We do not sell your personal data to advertisers.

5. International transfers

Some of our processors are based outside the UK/EEA. For each transfer we rely on appropriate safeguards — typically the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the EU Standard Contractual Clauses with the UK Addendum.

6. How long we keep your data

• Active account data — until you close your account.
• Closed account data — up to 6 years (UK tax law) for transactions; 30 days for non-financial data.
• Verification documents — deleted within 90 days of your account closure unless required for ongoing investigations.
• Server logs — 30 days.

7. Your rights under UK GDPR

You have the right to:

• Access a copy of the data we hold about you.
• Rectify inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Erase your data ("right to be forgotten"), subject to legal retention requirements.
• Restrict or object to certain processing.
• Data portability — receive your data in a machine-readable format.
• Withdraw consent for marketing emails or non-essential cookies at any time.
• Complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk) if you believe we have mishandled your data.

To exercise any of these rights email admin@afrimarket.org. We respond within 30 days.

8. Cookies

See our Cookie Policy for the full list of cookies we use and how to control them.

9. Children

AfriMarket is not directed at children under 18. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it.

10. Changes

We may update this Privacy Policy. The "Last updated" date reflects the latest version. Material changes are notified by email.

AfriMarket Group Ltd · Company No. 17282940 · Registered in England & Wales.