Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy provides information on how Vendaw collects and processes your personal data when you visit our website or mobile applications. It sets out what we do with your personal data and how we keep it secure and explains the rights that you have in relation to your personal data.

Vendaw is a digital platform offering unique solutions to enhance efficiency and reach for SMEs, Independent Retailers, Online Businesses, Chambers of Commerce/Trade Bodies, Manufacturers, FMGC, Retailers, Festival/Trade Fair, and event Organizers in Nigeria.

Our platform consists of:

• Storefront: where vendors connect with consumers.
• Inventory & Stock Management: where vendaws track the quantity of their products.
• Payment: where transactions are facilitated via our Dynamic Virtual Account, PoS, Bank Transfer, and other acceptable means.
• Order Management: where orders are created, detailed, and monitored.
• Delivery and Shipping: which enables the shipment and delivery of packages from sellers to consumers.

This website and/or mobile app is operated by Vendaw.
Any personal data provided or collected by Vendaw is controlled by Vendaw.

Personal data means any information that can be used to identify, directly or indirectly, a specific individual. We collect your personal data in order to provide tailored products and services, and to analyze and continually improve our offerings. We may collect, use, store, and transfer different kinds of personal data for marketing, personal data optimization, and proposing targeted offers.

You provide us with your personal data when you register on our website or mobile platforms and transact. The personal data we collect includes:

1. Information you provide to us: We receive and store the information you provide to us including your identity data, contact data, biometric data, delivery address, and financial data. These types of personal data may include:
   
   1. Contact details (e.g., name, postal addresses, phone numbers, email, and business registration details).
   2. Demographic information (e.g., date of birth, age, or gender).
   3. Online registration information (e.g., Password, Biometrics, and other authentication data).
   4. Financial data (e.g., Bank details, Credit/Debit card information, and Billing address).
   5. Information from online questionnaires (e.g., customer satisfaction surveys).
   6. Trade fair and event entries/submissions.
   7. Your marketing preferences (in certain cases).
2. Instagram data, if you connect an Instagram professional account to import products. See section 9 (Instagram Import).

We automatically collect and store information regarding your use of our platform, including details about your searches, views, and purchases. We may also receive information from third parties (e.g., delivery agents, payment service providers, merchants).

This data includes:

• Device information (e.g., your device’s operating system, browser, IP address).
• Unique device identifiers.
• Details about your product searches and views.
• Time spent on website/app sections and visit/usage timestamps.
• User-generated content (e.g., blogs, social media posts).
• Social media user name/ID and profile photo.

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we put on your computer, mobile phone, or tablet if you agree. Cookies allow us to distinguish you from other users of our website and mobile applications, which helps us provide an enhanced browsing experience. For more information, please read our Cookie Notice.

We use your personal data to operate, provide, develop, and improve the products and services we offer, including:

• Registering you as a new customer.
• Processing and delivering your orders.
• Managing your relationship with us.
• Enabling you to participate in promotions, Trade fairs, and Events.
• Improving our website, applications, products, and services.
• Recommending or advertising products or services that may interest you.
• Enabling access to products and services offered by our partners and vendors.
• Complying with our legal obligations, including identity verification where necessary.
• Detecting and preventing fraud.

We will only process your personal data where we have a legal basis to do so. The legal basis will depend on the purposes for which we have collected and used your personal data. These may include:

• Consent: Where you have provided your consent to receive marketing communications. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
• Legitimate business interests: For understanding our customers, promoting our services, and operating effectively in a way that does not unduly affect your privacy.
• Performance of a contract: When it is necessary for us to fulfill our contractual obligations to you, such as processing an order.
• Compliance with law: Where we are required by law to use your personal data to comply with legal obligations.

We may need to share your personal data with third parties for the following purposes:

• Sale of products and services: To deliver products or services purchased from affiliated vendors.
• Working with third-party service providers: For order fulfillment, data analysis, marketing assistance, payment processing, and other services.
• Business transfers: In the case of a business sale or purchase, customer information may be transferred as part of business assets.
• Fraud detection: Sharing data with companies to prevent fraud and credit risk reduction.

When we share your personal data with third parties, we ensure:

• They agree to use your data per our Privacy Policy and applicable law.
• They process your data only for specified purposes under our instructions.

Vendaw lets a business create product listings from the photos it has posted on Instagram. This section explains what we receive from Instagram when you use this feature, what we do with it, who we share it with, how long we keep it and how to have it deleted. It applies only if you choose to connect an Instagram account.

Which accounts. Only Instagram professional accounts (Business or Creator) can be connected. You connect by signing in with Instagram and approving Vendaw on Instagram’s own screen. We never see or store your Instagram password.

What we receive from Instagram. With your permission (Instagram’s “instagram_business_basic” permission), we receive:

• your Instagram account ID, username, and account type;
• an access token that lets us read your account on your behalf;
• for each of your posts: its ID, caption, the photos (and the photos inside carousel posts), the type of post, its link, and the date it was posted.

We do not receive or read your direct messages, comments, followers, stories, insights, or passwords. We do not post, comment, or message on your behalf. Videos and Reels are not imported.

What we use it for. Only to create draft product listings for your business, which you review, edit, and choose to publish or save. Specifically, we:

• read your photo posts, newest first, when you start an import or sync;
• use automated checks, including artificial intelligence, to decide which posts show products, and to suggest a product name, a short description, a price (only one stated in your caption), and product options such as colours and sizes;
• copy the photos of posts that look like products to our storage, because Instagram’s photo links stop working after a while;
• remember which posts you have already imported, dismissed, or rejected, so they are not offered to you again.

Nothing is published on your storefront until you publish it. We do not use your Instagram data for advertising, we do not sell it, and we do not use it to train artificial intelligence models.

Who we share it with. To provide the feature, we share Instagram data only with service providers that process it for us:

• Artificial intelligence providers: Google (Gemini) and, as a backup, OpenAI. They receive a post’s caption and its photos to judge whether it shows a product. Their processing is governed by our agreements with them and their API terms, under which this data is not used to train their models.
• Cloud storage and hosting providers: including Cloudinary, which stores the copied photos.

We do not share your Instagram data with other businesses on Vendaw or with advertisers.

How long we keep it.

• Access token: stored encrypted, and refreshed automatically while your account is connected. It is deleted when you disconnect, when you remove Vendaw from your Instagram settings, or when you ask for your data to be deleted.
• Posts waiting for your review: kept until you decide about them. If an import is cancelled or fails, posts you never decided about are deleted after 30 days.
• Copied caption and post details: removed 30 days after you publish, dismiss, or reject the post.
• Copied photos: removed from import storage once you have published, dismissed, or rejected the post. Rejected posts keep them for 7 days, in case you change your mind. Photos used by a product you created stay with that product.
• Record of posts already handled: a minimal record (the post’s ID and what you decided) is kept while your account is connected, so the same post is not imported twice.
• Products you created: the products you published or saved from Instagram posts are part of your catalogue. They stay until you delete them, like any other product.

Your choices and deleting your data.

• Disconnect at any time from the import screen in your Vendaw dashboard. We delete the access token and stop reading your account. Products you already created stay.
• Remove Vendaw from Instagram: in the Instagram app, go to Settings → Apps and websites, and remove Vendaw. Instagram tells us, and we delete the access token straight away.
• Ask for your Instagram data to be deleted: when you remove Vendaw in Instagram’s settings, you can also ask for the data we received to be deleted. Instagram sends us the request, and we delete the access token, the posts, captions, and photos we copied, and the record of posts we handled, for every Vendaw business connected to that Instagram account. Instagram shows you a confirmation code, and you can use it to check the status of the request. Products you already created are part of your Vendaw catalogue and are not removed by this request: delete them from your dashboard, or close your Vendaw account as described in section 12 (Your Legal Rights).
• You can also email [email protected] to ask for your Instagram data to be deleted.

We will retain your personal data only as long as necessary for the purposes outlined in this policy, including:

• As long as we maintain an ongoing relationship with you.
• For legal, business, or consumer needs.
• During any applicable limitation period (time to bring legal claims).

We actively review and securely delete or anonymize personal data when no longer necessary for legal, business, or consumer needs.

Instagram data is kept for the periods set out in section 9 (Instagram Import).

We have implemented security measures to protect your personal data from unauthorized access, alteration, or disclosure. Our database is secured with strict access controls, allowing only whitelisted server IP addresses and limiting access to authorized personnel who follow strict confidentiality obligations.

You have rights under data protection laws, including access, correction, deletion, and objection to the processing of your data. To permanently delete your data, you can close your account by contacting our team. Once closed, your products and services will no longer be accessible.

To have the data we received from Instagram deleted, see section 9 (Instagram Import).

By using Vendaw's website or services, you acknowledge that you have read and agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, you are not authorized to use the website and its services.

You will receive an email notifying you of any updates made to this policy, and you will have access to updated information on our platform.