Privacy Policy

1. Who this covers

This policy applies to the NGENA website, mobile app and admin dashboard (together, the “Service”), operated as a student marketplace for housing, vehicles, campus accessories and bus travel across Zambia.

2. Information we collect

Account information. Full name, email address, phone number, and a password (stored as a salted hash, never in plain text) — or, if you sign in with Google or Apple, the name and verified email address that provider shares with us.

Listings. If you list an item, room, property or vehicle: its title, description, category, location, price and any photos you upload.

Reservations. When a NGENA agent reserves a boarding-house room for you after WhatsApp, we record the listing, the room, your name and the WhatsApp number the agent spoke to.

Messages. Enquiries between you and a NGENA agent are stored so the conversation can continue and so a dispute can be reviewed. We automatically screen outgoing messages to keep phone numbers and email addresses out of them, to reduce the chance of a conversation moving off-platform where it is no longer protected.

Bus travel. If you book a seat, we record the booking and, for the carrier operating that route, a passenger manifest. A carrier can request your real phone number for one trip; every such request is logged with who asked and why.

Device and log information. Standard technical data such as IP address, browser or device type, and access/refresh session tokens, used to keep you signed in and to secure the Service.

3. How we use it

• To create and secure your account, and to sign you in.
• To show, publish and moderate listings — including a human review by a NGENA agent before certain listings go live.
• To record boarding-house reservations made by a NGENA agent after WhatsApp.
• To connect buyers, sellers, agents and carriers without exposing personal contact details until both sides choose to share them.
• To respond to support requests and investigate disputes or misuse.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use third-party advertising trackers on the Service.

4. Who we share it with

We share information only as needed to run the Service: the payment provider that processes a transaction; Google or Apple, if you choose to sign in with them; the NGENA agent or bus carrier a specific booking or listing involves; and, if required, a regulator or law enforcement body under a valid legal request.

5. How long we keep it

Withdrawn listings are not immediately erased — they are marked withdrawn and kept on file because active transactions and enquiries may still reference them. Financial and transaction records are retained for as long as needed to resolve disputes and meet our accounting obligations.

6. Your choices

• You can review and update your profile details at any time from your account.
• You can ask us to access, correct or delete the personal information we hold about you, subject to what we must keep for legal, security or accounting reasons (for example, a completed transaction's record).
• You can withdraw a listing or stop using social sign-in at any time.

To make any of these requests, contact us at privacy@ngena.app.

7. Security

Passwords are hashed, not stored in plain text. Sessions use short-lived access tokens with a separate, rotating refresh token; a reused refresh token revokes every session on the account as a precaution. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure, but we work to protect your information appropriately.

8. Children

The Service is intended for users old enough to enter into a legally binding transaction in their jurisdiction. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children below that age.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the Service changes. We will update the date at the top of this page when we do.

10. Contact

Questions about this policy or your information can be sent to privacy@ngena.app.