Privacy Policy

1.1 Account Information

When you create or use a ShadoShops account, we may collect information such as:

• your name;
• email address;
• telephone or mobile phone number;
• account credentials and authentication information; and
• other information required to create, secure, or maintain your account.

1.2 Profile Information

You may provide information to create and personalize your ShadoShops profile, including:

• profile picture;
• interests and preferences;
• gender or sex, where provided;
• date of birth;
• profile description or other information you choose to provide; and
• other profile information made available through ShadoShops.

1.3 Seller Information

If you operate a shop or sell products through ShadoShops, we may collect information necessary to create and manage your shop and facilitate your selling activities.

This may include:

• shop name and shop description;
• shop address and contact information;
• business information, where applicable;
• product and inventory information;
• payout information;
• seller performance and transaction information; and
• information required for verification, compliance, fraud prevention, or other seller-related purposes.

1.4 Transaction Information

When you purchase, sell, promote, or otherwise participate in a transaction through ShadoShops, we may collect information relating to that transaction, including:

• products ordered or sold;
• order details and order status;
• purchase and sales history;
• prices, fees, commissions, and other transaction amounts;
• delivery and pickup information;
• shipping or delivery addresses;
• recipient information;
• delivery status and tracking information; and
• information relating to returns, refunds, cancellations, disputes, or customer support.

1.5 Payment Information

ShadoShops may collect information necessary to process and manage payments and payouts.

Depending on the payment method used, ShadoShops may receive information such as the payment status, transaction reference, payment amount, currency, payment method, and other information provided by the applicable payment provider.

Payment card details, banking credentials, or other sensitive payment credentials may be processed directly by third-party payment providers rather than stored or processed directly by ShadoShops. For example, payments may be processed through payment providers such as ArifPay, Chapa, PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, or other payment services supported by ShadoShops.

The information collected and processed by a payment provider is subject to that provider's own privacy practices and applicable terms. ShadoShops may receive information from payment providers that is necessary to confirm, reconcile, support, refund, or otherwise manage a transaction.

1.6 User-Generated Content

We collect and process content that you create, upload, publish, send, or otherwise make available through ShadoShops, including:

• product listings and descriptions;
• photographs and other images;
• videos;
• comments and reviews;
• messages and other communications;
• promotional content;
• shop-related content; and
• other materials you choose to submit or share through the platform.

Who can receive or access your User Content depends on the type of content, the ShadoShops feature through which you provide it, and your applicable privacy or visibility settings.

Public User Content. Content that you publish through features intended to be publicly accessible, such as product listings, public shop information, product-related videos, public comments, reviews, or other public posts, may be displayed to other ShadoShops Users and, where the relevant feature permits, to persons who access ShadoShops without an account. Public content may also be made available through search, recommendations, feeds, sharing, or other platform features.

Content shared with other Users. Content that you send directly to another User, such as messages or communications with a Seller, Shopper, Creator, Promoter, or Agent, may be received and accessed by the intended recipient and by ShadoShops as necessary to provide, secure, moderate, or support the applicable communication feature.

Transaction-related content. Information and content you provide in connection with an order, purchase, sale, delivery, pickup, return, refund, dispute, or other transaction may be made available to the Users, Sellers, Agents, delivery providers, payment providers, or other service providers involved in facilitating that transaction, to the extent reasonably necessary to provide the applicable service.

Service providers and other recipients. ShadoShops may provide User Content to third-party service providers that process information on our behalf where reasonably necessary to operate, maintain, secure, analyze, moderate, or provide ShadoShops services. Such providers may include hosting, storage, communications, analytics, content moderation, payment, delivery, and other technology or service providers.

Legal and safety purposes. ShadoShops may also disclose or provide access to User Content where reasonably necessary to comply with applicable law, respond to lawful requests or legal process, enforce our Terms and policies, protect the rights and safety of ShadoShops, our Users, or others, investigate fraud or abuse, or resolve disputes.

We do not make all User Content available to all recipients. Access to User Content depends on the nature of the content, the feature through which it is provided, the intended purpose of the sharing, applicable settings, and applicable law.

1.7 Device and Technical Information

When you access or use ShadoShops, we may automatically collect certain technical information about the device and connection you use, which may include:

• IP address;
• browser type and version;
• device type and model;
• operating system and version;
• device identifiers or similar technical identifiers;
• language and regional settings;
• network information;
• application version;
• referring and exit pages or URLs; and
• information about errors, crashes, and other technical events.

We may use this information to operate, secure, maintain, troubleshoot, and improve ShadoShops and to detect fraud, abuse, unauthorized access, or other security risks.

1.8 Usage Information

We may collect information about how you interact with ShadoShops, including:

• products and content you view;
• searches you perform;
• products you like, save, or add to a cart;
• purchases and other transactions;
• accounts, shops, or Users you follow;
• content you like, comment on, or share;
• interactions with Sellers, Creators, Promoters, Agents, and other Users;
• features and pages you access;
• time, duration, and frequency of your activity; and
• other interactions with the platform.

We may use this information to provide and personalize features, improve search and recommendations, analyze platform performance, maintain security, and understand how Users use ShadoShops.

1.9 Location Information

Where location-based features are used and permitted by your device settings and applicable law, ShadoShops may collect or process location information.

This may include location information provided through your device's location services, information associated with a delivery or pickup location, or location information generated through ShadoShops delivery and tracking features.

For example, location information may be used to facilitate deliveries, help Users locate Seller shops or pickup locations, provide delivery tracking, improve location-based services, prevent fraud, resolve disputes, or provide other features that require location information.

You may be able to control access to device location information through your device or application settings. Some features may not function properly if location access is disabled.

1.10 Cookies and Similar Technologies

ShadoShops may use cookies, local storage, pixels, software development kits (SDKs), and similar technologies to operate the platform, remember preferences, maintain sessions, understand usage, improve performance, provide relevant features, and support security and analytics.

The use of cookies and similar technologies is described in more detail in the separate ShadoShops Cookie Policy, which forms part of the policies applicable to your use of ShadoShops.

For more information about the types of cookies and similar technologies we use and how you can manage them, please refer to the ShadoShops Cookie Policy.

3.1 Create and Manage Accounts

We use information such as your name, email address, phone number, and profile information to create, maintain, authenticate, and manage your ShadoShops account and provide access to features associated with your account.

3.2 Process Orders

We use information necessary to process and manage purchases and sales, including order details, product information, delivery information, and communications between Users involved in a transaction.

3.3 Facilitate Payments

We use relevant transaction and payment-related information to facilitate payments, confirm transactions, process refunds where applicable, prevent payment fraud, and maintain records of payments. Payment information may be processed by third-party payment providers in accordance with their own terms and privacy policies.

3.4 Deliver Products

We use delivery and contact information to facilitate product delivery, pickup, shipping, and related services. This may require sharing relevant information with Sellers, ShadoShops Agents, postal services, delivery providers, or other parties involved in fulfilling an order.

3.5 Display Personalized Content

We use information about your activity, interests, preferences, and interactions with ShadoShops to personalize the content, products, shops, and other features displayed to you.

3.6 Provide Recommendations

We analyze information such as your searches, views, likes, follows, purchases, and other interactions to provide product, shop, content, and other recommendations that may be relevant to you.

3.7 Communicate with Users

We use your contact information and account information to communicate with you about your account, orders, transactions, deliveries, security, customer support, platform features, policy updates, and other matters related to ShadoShops. Where permitted by applicable law, we may also send promotional or marketing communications.

3.8 Prevent Fraud and Abuse

We use information to detect, investigate, prevent, and respond to fraud, scams, unauthorized activity, abuse, manipulation, suspicious transactions, and violations of our Terms or other policies.

3.9 Moderate Content

We use information and User Content to review, detect, investigate, and take action regarding content or activity that may violate our Terms, policies, applicable law, or the safety of our Users and platform.

3.10 Improve ShadoShops

We use information to understand how Users interact with ShadoShops, identify problems and areas for improvement, develop new features and services, test functionality, analyze performance, and improve the overall user experience.

3.11 Maintain Security

We use information to protect ShadoShops, our Users, and our systems against unauthorized access, security threats, attacks, malicious activity, and other risks. This may include monitoring activity, maintaining logs, investigating security incidents, and implementing technical and organizational safeguards.

3.12 Comply with Legal Obligations

We use and retain information when necessary to comply with applicable laws, regulations, legal processes, or lawful requests from government authorities or other authorized bodies. We may also use information to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims and to enforce our Terms and other policies.

4.1 Sellers and Shoppers

We may share relevant information between Sellers and Shoppers when necessary to facilitate an order, purchase, sale, delivery, pickup, return, refund, dispute, or other transaction. For example, a Seller may receive information necessary to fulfill an order, while a Shopper may receive relevant Seller or shop information needed to complete a purchase.

4.2 Delivery Agents

Where ShadoShops-managed delivery or another delivery service is used, we may share relevant information with ShadoShops Agents, postal services, delivery providers, or other logistics providers as necessary to arrange, track, and complete delivery.

4.3 Payment Providers

We may share transaction and payment-related information with payment providers and financial service providers to process payments, confirm transactions, issue refunds, prevent fraud, and provide related payment services. Payment providers may independently process payment information under their own terms and privacy policies.

4.4 Hosting and Cloud Providers

We may use third-party hosting, cloud storage, database, infrastructure, and other technology providers to store, process, secure, and deliver information and operate ShadoShops.

4.5 Analytics and Search Providers

We may share or make available relevant information to analytics, search, and similar service providers that help us understand platform usage, measure performance, improve search and recommendations, and improve ShadoShops.

4.6 Communication Providers

We may share relevant contact and communication information with email, SMS, push notification, messaging, and other communication providers to send account, transaction, security, service, and, where permitted, marketing communications.

4.7 Content Moderation Providers

We may provide User Content and related information to third-party content moderation, safety, fraud detection, or similar service providers to help detect and address prohibited, harmful, fraudulent, or otherwise inappropriate content and activity.

4.8 Government and Law-Enforcement Authorities

We may disclose information to government authorities, law-enforcement agencies, courts, regulators, or other authorized parties when required or permitted by applicable law, legal process, court order, or other lawful request. We may also disclose information when reasonably necessary to protect the rights, safety, or property of ShadoShops, our Users, or others.

4.9 Other Users and the Public

Information that you intentionally make public through ShadoShops, such as public product listings, shop information, public comments, reviews, videos, or other public content, may be visible to other Users and, where applicable, people who access ShadoShops without an account. Public information may also appear in search results, recommendations, feeds, or other platform features.

4.10 Service Providers Generally

Third-party service providers that process information on our behalf may access information only as reasonably necessary to provide the services they perform for ShadoShops, subject to applicable agreements and legal requirements. Depending on the service, these providers may include infrastructure, storage, analytics, search, communication, payment, delivery, security, and content moderation providers.

5.1 Payment Information Processed by Payment Providers

When you make a payment through ShadoShops, payment providers may collect and process information required to authorize and complete the payment. This may include card details, bank account information, mobile money information, payment credentials, or other financial information required by the provider.

ShadoShops does not generally receive or store full payment credentials, such as complete card numbers, card security codes, or banking passwords, when these are collected and processed directly by the payment provider. The handling of such information is governed by the applicable payment provider's terms and privacy policy.

5.2 Payment Information Stored by ShadoShops

ShadoShops may receive and retain payment-related information necessary to operate the platform and maintain transaction records. This may include:

• payment status;
• transaction or payment reference numbers;
• order and transaction identifiers;
• payment method or provider used;
• amount and currency;
• payment date and time;
• refund or cancellation information; and
• other information provided by the payment provider that is necessary to reconcile or manage the transaction.

We use this information to confirm and manage transactions, process refunds where applicable, provide customer support, maintain financial and business records, detect and prevent fraud, resolve disputes, and comply with legal and regulatory obligations.

Payment providers may retain and process payment information in accordance with their own privacy policies, terms, and applicable legal requirements.

8.1 Personalized Advertising

Depending on your location, applicable law, your settings, and the advertising provider's practices, advertisements displayed on ShadoShops may be personalized based on information about your interests and interactions with websites or services.

Where required by applicable law, we will obtain the necessary consent before using information or technologies for personalized advertising.

8.2 Information Used for Advertising

Advertising providers such as Google may use information such as cookies, device and browser information, approximate location, advertising identifiers, and information about interactions with advertisements or websites to provide, measure, and improve advertising services.

ShadoShops does not control all information independently collected by third-party advertising providers. Their collection and use of information are governed by their own privacy policies and applicable terms.

8.3 Cookies and Similar Technologies

Google and other advertising providers may use cookies, pixels, local storage, and similar technologies to deliver, measure, personalize, and limit advertisements, as well as detect invalid activity and help maintain advertising security.

For more information about cookies and similar technologies used on ShadoShops, see our Cookie Policy.

8.4 Managing Advertising Preferences

Depending on your location and the services available to you, you may be able to manage or limit personalized advertising through your browser, device settings, cookie controls, or advertising preference tools provided by Google and other advertising providers.

Disabling personalized advertising does not necessarily prevent advertisements from appearing on ShadoShops. You may continue to see advertisements, but they may be less relevant to your interests.

Third-party advertising providers may change their advertising technologies, settings, and available controls from time to time. We recommend reviewing the applicable provider's privacy and advertising preference information for the most current options.

13.1 Access

You may have the right to request access to personal information we hold about you and to receive information about how we use or process it.

13.2 Correction

You may have the right to request that inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated personal information be corrected or updated.

13.3 Deletion

You may have the right to request deletion of your personal information in certain circumstances. We may retain certain information where required or permitted by applicable law, or where necessary for legitimate purposes such as security, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, or enforcing our agreements.

13.4 Data Portability

Where applicable, you may have the right to receive certain personal information you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, or request that it be transferred to another service where legally required and technically feasible.

13.5 Withdrawal of Consent

Where we process your personal information based on your consent, you may have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing that occurred before the withdrawal and may not affect processing that we are permitted or required to perform on another legal basis.

13.6 Objection and Restriction

Depending on applicable law, you may have the right to object to certain processing of your personal information or request that processing be restricted in particular circumstances.

13.7 Marketing Communications

You may be able to opt out of certain promotional communications by using the unsubscribe or opt-out instructions provided in the communication or through available account settings. You may still receive essential communications relating to your account, transactions, security, or use of ShadoShops.

13.8 Complaints

If you believe that we have not handled your personal information appropriately, you may contact us using the contact information provided in this Privacy Policy. Depending on your location and applicable law, you may also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection or privacy authority.

13.9 Exercising Your Rights

To exercise an applicable privacy right, you may contact us using the contact details provided in the Contact Us section of this Privacy Policy. We may need to verify your identity before completing certain requests to protect your account and personal information.

We will respond to valid requests within the period required by applicable law. Certain requests may be subject to legal limitations, exceptions, or reasonable verification requirements.

14.1 What Happens When You Request Deletion

When your account deletion request is completed, we will take reasonable steps to delete or anonymize personal information associated with your account that we are no longer required or permitted to retain.

Your profile and other account-related information may no longer be accessible through ShadoShops. Content that you have made public may also be removed or anonymized where reasonably possible, subject to applicable law, technical limitations, and our legitimate need to retain certain information.

Deletion may not be immediate in all cases. Some information may remain temporarily in backups, archives, or systems that are not designed for immediate deletion. Such information will be protected and deleted or anonymized in accordance with our applicable retention practices.

14.2 Information We May Retain

We may retain certain information after account deletion where necessary or permitted to:

• comply with legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, or other obligations;
• maintain transaction and payment records;
• resolve disputes and enforce agreements;
• prevent fraud, abuse, and other harmful or unlawful activity;
• protect the security and integrity of ShadoShops;
• establish, exercise, or defend legal claims; or
• comply with lawful requests from government authorities or other authorized parties.

Information retained for these purposes will be kept only for as long as reasonably necessary or as required by applicable law.

14.3 Limitations

Deleting your ShadoShops account does not necessarily remove information that other Users may have independently copied, saved, or shared outside ShadoShops, or information that must be retained for legal, security, transaction, or other legitimate purposes.

We may also retain information that has been sufficiently anonymized so that it can no longer reasonably be associated with you.