Legal
Privacy Policy
What Ambatana collects, why, who we share it with, and what Kenyan law says your rights are over it.
Last updated 18 July 2026 · Applies to ambatana.co.ke and the Ambatana service generally.
In short
- We collect what we need to match homeowners with vetted tradespeople, verify those tradespeople, and process the fees that come with Hallmark membership — nothing more.
- We don't run ads, sell your data, or use tracking or analytics cookies.
- Verification documents (ID, insurance, legal-record checks) are collected to check a tradesperson before they're Hallmarked. Only the pass/fail result of each check ever appears on a public profile — never the underlying document.
- Your card details never touch our servers. Stripe handles those directly. M-Pesa payments go through Safaricom.
- You can ask to see, correct, or delete your data at any time — write to morrissuffo19@gmail.com.
- If you're not satisfied with how we handle a request, you can complain to Kenya's Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) — details at the bottom of this page.
1. Who we are, and what law applies
Ambatana is operated by Staples Products Limited, trading as Ambatana (“Ambatana”, “we”, “us”, or “our”), a company registered in Kenya. For the purposes of Kenya's Data Protection Act, we are the data controller for the personal data described in this policy, and in some cases also act as a data processor on behalf of homeowners and tradespeople (for example, when passing a homeowner's quote request on to a specific trader).
Registered office: [to be added — Staples Products Limited's registered business address]
Contact for privacy matters: morrissuffo19@gmail.com
This policy is written against the Data Protection Act, No. 24 of 2019 (“the Act”), and its subsidiary legislation — the Data Protection (General) Regulations, 2021 and the Data Protection (Registration of Data Controllers and Data Processors) Regulations, 2021 — as enforced by the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC).
On ODPC registration: Ambatana is not currently registered with the ODPC as a data controller or data processor. Data controllers and processors with annual revenue under KES 5 million and fewer than ten employees are conditionally exempt from mandatory registration — but that exemption doesn't apply to certain categories of processing regardless of size (for example, credit-reference-style checks or crime-related record checks). Because Hallmark verification involves checking court, insolvency, and company registries, whether Ambatana falls inside or outside that exemption is a genuine open question we intend to resolve with the ODPC or a lawyer directly — not something we're asserting either way here. This section will be updated once that's confirmed.
This policy applies to anyone who uses Ambatana as a homeowner looking for a tradesperson, anyone who applies for or holds Hallmark status as a tradesperson, and anyone who simply browses the public site. Ambatana is not directed at, and is not intended to be used by, anyone under 18 — see “Children” below.
2. The personal data we collect
This is a complete list, drawn directly from what Ambatana's systems actually store — not a generic list of what a directory site might collect.
| Category | What we collect | Why, and who provides it |
|---|---|---|
| Account data | Email address; account role (homeowner or tradesperson); optional full name | Created when you sign in via a one-click emailed link, so we can run your account and recognise you between visits. Provided by you. |
| Trader application data | Full name, trade, area in Naivasha, a phone number or email, and current public liability insurance status | Submitted when applying to be Hallmarked, to start the verification process. Provided by the applicant. |
| Hallmark verification records | Government-issued ID, proof of address, trade qualification and insurance certificates (exchanged by email); and the results — not the underlying records — of checks against court and civil case registries, company and director registries, and insolvency registries | Collected during the nine-point verification process, to confirm identity, competence, insurance, and legal standing before a trader is Hallmarked. Provided by the applicant, plus checks we run against public or official registries. |
| Quote requests | Job type, description of the work, area, a phone number or email, and — only if the homeowner chooses to drop one — a precise GPS pin for the job site | Sent to a specific trader when a homeowner requests a quote, so that trader can assess and reply to the job. Provided by the homeowner submitting the request. |
| Reviews | Reviewer's name (optional), a score, review text, and — if the reviewer is signed in — a link to their account | Submitted after a job and matched against a real completed job record before publication, so reviews on Ambatana reflect real work. Provided by the reviewer. |
| Payment records | Joining-fee and subscription payment amount, status, and method; an M-Pesa phone number and receipt number for M-Pesa payments; or a Stripe-generated reference for card payments | To bill and confirm Hallmark membership fees, and to gate publish status on payment. Provided by the trader, plus confirmation data from Safaricom or Stripe. |
| Session data | An authentication session token, stored in a browser cookie | Generated automatically when you sign in, to keep you signed in between page loads. |
What we don't collect: we don't run advertising or analytics tracking cookies, we don't use third-party ad pixels, we don't sell personal data to anyone, and we don't track your location beyond the one-time, optional pin a homeowner can choose to drop on a single quote request. Card numbers never reach our servers — see “Payments” under “Who we share your data with” below.
3. Why we process your data, and our legal basis
Section 30 of the Act requires that any processing of personal data be justified by one of a specific set of lawful grounds: consent, necessity for a contract, a legal obligation, protecting someone's vital interests, a public-interest task, or a legitimate interest that isn't overridden by your own rights. Here's how each category above is grounded:
- Account and session data — necessary to perform our contract with you (you can't have an account without it), and our legitimate interest in keeping accounts secure.
- Trader application and verification data — your consent, given by choosing to apply; and our legitimate interest in running the verification process that is the entire reason Ambatana exists — protecting homeowners and honest tradespeople alike from the alternative, which is no vetting at all.
- Quote requests — necessary to perform the specific thing you asked us to do: pass your request and contact details to a trader you selected.
- Reviews — your consent, given by submitting a review; and our legitimate interest in keeping the review system tied to real, verifiable jobs.
- Payment records — necessary to perform our contract with a Hallmarked trader (membership is conditioned on payment), and our legal obligation to keep accounting records.
4. A note on sensitive information
The Act defines “sensitive personal data” specifically as data revealing a person's race, health status, ethnic or social origin, conscience, belief, genetic data, biometric data, property details, marital status, family details (including the names of a person's children, parents, or spouse), sex, or sexual orientation. Most of what we collect during Hallmark verification — ID numbers, court and insolvency records — doesn't squarely fall inside that statutory definition. We treat it with the same level of care regardless, because of what it is.
In practice, that means: only the result of each Hallmark check (confirmed, renews, or pending, plus a short public-facing description) appears on a trader's public profile — never the ID document, insurance certificate, or the underlying court or insolvency record itself. Today, access to the underlying documents is limited to the person running the verification process directly. As Ambatana grows a team, this section will be updated to describe formal access controls around that team.
One honest gap worth naming here rather than glossing over: verification documents are currently exchanged by email during the application process, rather than through a purpose-built, access-controlled upload system inside the app. That's a reasonable way to run a pilot with a handful of applicants, but it is not how this should work at real launch scale — a proper secure-upload mechanism with encryption at rest and restricted access is a piece of engineering work that should happen before Hallmark verification handles real applicants' documents in volume.
5. Who we share your data with
| Who | Role | What they see | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Database and authentication hosting (data processor) | All data stored in the Ambatana application, encrypted in transit and at rest | European Union (Ireland) |
| Stripe, Inc. | Card payment processor | Payment amount and a billing reference — never your card number, which goes directly from your browser to Stripe | United States / global Stripe entities |
| Safaricom PLC (Daraja / M-Pesa) | Mobile-money payment processor | Phone number, payment amount, and payment confirmation | Kenya |
| Ambatana staff | Internal | Whatever is necessary to run verification, respond to support requests, or administer the platform | Kenya |
| The public | — | Published trader profiles (name, trade, area, Hallmark check results, and verified review text and score) are publicly visible by design — that's the product | — |
We do not sell personal data to anyone. We do not share personal data with advertisers, data brokers, or any party not listed above, except where required by law (for example, in response to a valid court order).
6. Cross-border data transfers
Section 48 of the Act restricts transferring personal data outside Kenya unless there is proof of adequate data protection safeguards, or the transfer falls under a specific exception (contract necessity, public interest, legal claims, vital interests, or compelling legitimate interests). Two of our processors sit outside Kenya:
- Supabase hosts our database in the European Union (Ireland). The EU maintains its own comprehensive data protection standard, which we rely on as a reasonable basis for adequate protection.
- Stripe is based in the United States and processes payment data globally as a PCI-DSS Level 1 certified processor. We rely on Stripe's standard contractual data protection commitments, made to merchants worldwide, as our basis for this transfer.
M-Pesa payments processed through Safaricom's Daraja API stay within Kenya — there is no cross-border transfer for that leg of the payment flow.
7. How long we keep your data
The Act requires that we not keep data in a form that identifies you for longer than necessary. Our intended retention approach is set out below — though we're being upfront that automatic enforcement of these windows (scheduled deletion jobs, for example) isn't built yet. Treat this as a firm policy commitment we intend to implement technically, not a description of an automated system that already exists.
- Active account data — kept while your account is active, and deleted or anonymised within 90 days of a deletion request or account closure, except where we're required to keep it longer (for example, payment records — see below).
- Rejected trader applications — kept for 12 months, so we can tell an applicant why if they ask, then deleted.
- Hallmark verification documents — the underlying document is deleted once a check is confirmed; only the check result is retained for as long as the trader remains listed, plus a reasonable period afterward for dispute or audit purposes.
- Payment records — kept for 7 years, in line with standard Kenyan tax and accounting record-keeping practice.
- Quote requests and reviews — kept for as long as they're operationally relevant, or until a deletion request is made and there's no legal reason to keep them.
8. How we protect your data
- Database access is restricted by row-level security policies scoped to each account — a homeowner or trader can only read the rows that belong to them, enforced at the database layer, not just in application code.
- There are no passwords to steal: signing in happens through a one-time emailed link, not a stored password.
- Server-only secrets (database service keys, payment API keys) are kept out of client-side code entirely.
- Card numbers never touch Ambatana's servers — Stripe Checkout collects them directly. M-Pesa payments are confirmed through a signed callback from Safaricom, verified before we record anything as paid.
No system is unbreakable, and we won't claim otherwise. If a breach involving personal data occurs, we will notify the ODPC without delay and within 72 hours of becoming aware of it, and notify affected individuals in writing within a reasonably practical period, in line with Section 43 of the Act.
9. Your rights
Under the Act, you have the right to:
- Be informed of how your personal data is used — which is what this policy is for.
- Access the personal data we hold about you.
- Correct personal data that is false or misleading.
- Delete personal data that is false or misleading, or that we no longer have a lawful basis to keep.
- Object to some or all of our processing of your personal data.
- Restrict processing in certain circumstances.
- Data portability — receive a copy of the personal data you've given us, in a structured, commonly used format.
- Not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing that produces legal or similarly significant effects. Ambatana doesn't currently make any such decision about you — Hallmark approvals and quote-request matching are both reviewed by a person, not decided automatically.
To exercise any of these rights, email morrissuffo19@gmail.com. We'll respond within a reasonable time, and will let you know if we need to verify your identity first before acting on the request.
If you're not satisfied with how we've handled a request or a concern, you have the right to complain directly to Kenya's Office of the Data Protection Commissioner — contact details are at the bottom of this page.
10. Children
Ambatana is not directed at, and is not intended to be used by, anyone under 18. In line with the Act, processing a child's personal data requires verifiable consent from a parent or guardian, and we don't have a mechanism for that today — so we don't knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If we learn that a child's data has been submitted to us without appropriate consent, we'll delete it once we've verified that.
11. Cookies and similar technology
Ambatana uses one cookie: a session/authentication cookie set by our sign-in system when you log in, so you stay signed in as you move between pages. We don't use analytics cookies, advertising cookies, or any third-party tracking technology. The light/dark theme toggle on the site is held only in the page's memory for that visit — it isn't saved as a cookie or anywhere else, so it resets each time you reload.
12. Third-party links
Some parts of Ambatana link out to third-party services we don't control — for example, a WhatsApp contact link, or a Google Maps link shown next to a homeowner's pinned quote-request location. Those services are governed by their own privacy policies, not this one; we'd encourage you to check them directly before using them.
13. Changes to this policy
If we make a material change to how we collect or use personal data, we'll update the “last updated” date at the top of this page and, where the change is significant, describe it clearly here rather than letting it pass silently.
14. Contact us
For any question about this policy or how your data is handled, email morrissuffo19@gmail.com.
You can also contact or complain to Kenya's Office of the Data Protection Commissioner directly:
- Website: www.odpc.go.ke
- Complaints: complaint@odpc.go.ke, or the online form at odpc.go.ke/file-a-complaint
- General enquiries: info@odpc.go.ke
- Address: Britam Towers, 12th Floor, Hospital Road, Upperhill, Nairobi, Kenya