Linkaz ("we", "us", "our") is committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and share data when you use the Linkaz platform — including the mobile app and the website.

1. Information We Collect

Account Information

Full name, phone number, profile photo and, if you add one, an email address. You may also save an emergency contact (their name and phone number). Service Providers additionally provide national ID, relevant certificates, and bank account or M-Pesa details for payouts. Service Providers may also upload skill certificates (for example a trade test or college certificate) with a short title; these are optional.

Service Providers and agencies with a shop may list it: its name, address and map location, how to find it, opening hours, and optionally a shop phone number and a storefront photo.

Identity Check

Service Providers who use the automatic ID check, and Employers who choose to verify, take photos of their ID and a short selfie. From these, a face template is created to confirm that the selfie matches the ID photo, that a real person is present, and that the same person does not hold more than one Service Provider account, or more than one Employer account. We keep the result of the check and the details read from the ID (name, ID number and date of birth), and for Service Providers, copies of the ID photos.

Usage Information

Hire history (instant hires, scheduled bookings and regular visits), payment records and receipts, ratings and reviews (including an Employer's yes/no answers about a job), in-app chat messages (including photos and files sent in chat), SOS alerts, and notifications received.

Location Information

Service Providers' location is collected in three cases only: (1) the location they set on their profile; (2) automatic location, about once an hour while they have an active boost, have turned it on, and are marked Available; and (3) live GPS during a journey-sharing session that they start themselves, shared with the Employer who hired them (and with anyone either of them sends the journey's tracking link to) and ending when they arrive, tap Stop Sharing, or the job starts. Cases (2) and (3) may continue in the background, even when the app is closed or not in use, if the Service Provider allows it. Employers' device location is used to show nearby Service Providers. If you press SOS during a hire, the location of the job and of the Service Provider at that moment are recorded with the alert.

Locations entered for hires and job posts (the place name and its position, including a pickup and drop-off for trips) are remembered so they can be suggested to you again when you search for a location. A place that at least three different people have used may be suggested to other users by its name and distance; we never show who used it. Places only you have used are shown only to you.

Device Information

Device type, OS version, push notification token, app version, and crash logs for debugging purposes.

2. How We Use Your Information

• To create and manage your account

• To match Service Providers with Employers and facilitate hires

• To process payments and payouts through Linkaz Pay

• To send hire notifications, OTP verification codes, and service updates via SMS and push notification

• To send offers and news about Linkaz by push notification and, sometimes, SMS; you can turn these off at any time in the app under Settings → Notification Preferences → Offers and news, and messages about your hires, payments and account still come

• To display the Service Provider's live location to the Employer during journey-sharing

• To show Employers nearby Service Providers, including keeping a boosted Service Provider's position current when automatic location is on

• To suggest places when you search for a location, and to work out the road distance of a trip

• To alert your emergency contact and Linkaz staff when you press SOS

• To investigate and resolve disputes

• To show Employers a Service Provider's track record: how often they arrived by the time they promised (worked out from their arrival records) and how many Employers would hire them again, once there are at least three hires behind it; these also affect search order

• To verify Service Provider identity and credentials, and the identity of Employers who choose to verify, which may include checking ID details against official government records and screening names against sanctions and politically-exposed-person lists

• To improve the platform through anonymised analytics, including counting hires and available Service Providers by county

3. Information Sharing

Between Users

If you sign up with someone's invite code, we record that they invited you. They see only how many people joined with their code and how many finished a first hire, not who.

Employers searching for Service Providers see each Service Provider's profile location, their distance away, and how recently that location was updated. Agencies are shown at the office location they set.

A listed shop is shown to Employers in full: its name, address and map location, how to find it, opening hours, the shop phone number if given, and the storefront photo. The Service Provider or agency can hide or remove it at any time.

Location search may suggest a place by name once at least three different people have used it. It never shows who used a place, and places only one person has used are never suggested to anyone else.

When a hire is confirmed, the Employer sees the Service Provider's name, profile photo, rating, and live journey location. Service Providers see the Employer's name and the details of the hire. Either of them can send the journey's tracking link to someone else; anyone with the link sees the Service Provider's name, profile photo and position on the journey.

If you press SOS during a hire, your emergency contact is sent an SMS with your name, the job location and, if a journey is being shared, its tracking link. Linkaz admins and moderators are alerted at the same time.

A Service Provider's profile shows Employers their on-time and would-hire-again rates (once there are at least three hires behind them) and the titles of skill certificates our moderators have checked. The certificate files themselves are never shown to Employers.

Payment Processors

We use a trusted third-party payment processor to handle Linkaz Pay and wallet payments. It receives only the payment details needed to complete each transaction and handles them under its own privacy policy.

Identity Verification Provider

We use a third-party identity verification provider for the automatic ID check. It receives the ID photos, selfie, face scan and device details captured during the check, may process them outside Kenya, and uses them only to carry out the check for us.

Maps Provider

We use a third-party maps provider to search for places, show maps, and work out the road distance of a trip. It receives the text you type into a location search and the places being looked up.

Crash Reporting

When the app crashes or hits an error, a third-party crash reporting service receives a report with the device type, OS and app version, and what the app was doing, so we can fix the problem.

SMS Providers

We use a third-party SMS provider to send OTP verification codes and service notifications. It receives only your phone number and the message being sent.

Legal Requirements

We may disclose your information where required by Kenyan law, court order, or to protect the safety of our users.

We do not sell your personal data to third parties.

4. Data Retention

• Account data: retained while your account is active.

• Hire and payment records: 7 years for legal and financial compliance.

• Journey location points: deleted after 7 days, except on a hire under dispute, where they are kept until the dispute is resolved.

• Profile location (set manually or by automatic location): only the latest position is kept; each update replaces the previous one. Deleted with your account.

• Chat messages: retained for 2 years.

• ID photos, certificates and other uploaded documents: kept while your account is open and deleted when it is closed.

• ID check results (the outcome, and the name, ID number and date of birth read from the ID): retained for 3 years after the check, including after the account is closed, so one person cannot open several accounts.

• After account deletion, anonymised data may be retained for analytics.

5. Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you

• Request correction of inaccurate information

• Request deletion of your account and personal data (subject to legal retention requirements)

• Withdraw consent for non-essential data processing

Deleting Your Account

You can ask us to delete your account at any time in the app (Settings → Delete account) or at linkaz.co.ke/delete-account. Confirm it is you with your password. We then remove your name, phone number, email, photos, documents and saved places, and you can no longer log in. We complete deletion within 30 days. Before we do, any hires in progress are closed out, any wallet balance or Linkaz Pay earnings owed to you are paid out, and any amount you owe Linkaz or a Service Provider is settled. Reviews and messages stay, shown under "Deleted user". Records we must keep (see Data Retention), such as hire and payment records and ID check results, are kept for the period listed and then removed.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at privacy@linkaz.co.ke.

6. Data Security

• All data is transmitted over encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS).

• Passwords are hashed and never stored in plain text.

• Access to personal data is restricted to authorised Linkaz staff.

• We conduct regular security reviews of our systems.

7. Children's Privacy

Linkaz is not intended for users under 18 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has registered on our platform, contact us immediately at privacy@linkaz.co.ke.

8. Push Notifications

We send push notifications for hire updates, messages, and important alerts. You can manage notification preferences within the app. Disabling notifications may affect your ability to respond to time-sensitive hire requests.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes through the app or by SMS. Continued use of Linkaz after changes are posted means you accept the updated Policy.

10. Contact

Linkaz Privacy Team

Email: privacy@linkaz.co.ke

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

We aim to respond to all privacy enquiries within 5 business days.