Privacy Policy

1. Account and Contact Information

We may collect your name, username, email address, phone number, password authentication data, communication preferences, and support history.

2. Business, Vendor and Manufacturer Information

If you sell, manufacture, supply, distribute, or represent a business, we may collect business name, location, product categories, factory or workshop details, business description, catalogue data, minimum order quantity, production capability, certifications, tax or registration information, representative details, and verification documents where required.

3. Buyer and Sourcing Activity

We may process product searches, vendor views, saved items, quote requests, bid activity, messages, sourcing preferences, order requirements, delivery locations, and buyer-vendor communication.

4. Product, Listing and Social Commerce Content

We process listings, product images, videos, descriptions, prices, currencies, inventory status, manufacturing lead times, comments, likes, shares, public profile information, and other content you choose to publish or interact with.

5. Payment, Payout and Transaction Information

Where payment tools are available, we may collect payment request information, transaction references, virtual account metadata, payout destination details, saved primary bank information, pay-in and payout records, refund or dispute records, and related payment partner metadata.

6. Device, Security and Usage Data

We may collect IP address, browser and device information, log data, activity timestamps, approximate location signals, fraud indicators, cookie data, analytics events, and security records to protect accounts and improve the Platform.

Operate the marketplace: Create accounts, show profiles, publish listings, enable product discovery, connect buyers with African vendors and manufacturers, and support quote or bid workflows.
Support communication: Enable messages, comments, enquiries, quote responses, notifications, and support interactions.
Process payments and payouts: Generate payment requests, support virtual POS or virtual account flows, route eligible payouts, maintain transaction records, and help resolve payment issues.
Trust, safety and compliance: Verify accounts, detect fraud, prevent prohibited products or deceptive activity, enforce policies, review disputes, comply with AML/CTF, sanctions, tax, banking, and legal obligations where applicable.
Improve discovery and services: Personalise search, improve vendor intelligence, recommend relevant products or suppliers, analyse platform performance, and develop new commerce features.
Marketing and updates: Send product updates, security alerts, service messages, and optional marketing communications where permitted by law and your preferences.

1. Public Marketplace Information

Vendor and manufacturer profiles, product listings, public descriptions, images, comments, likes, and other public marketplace activity may be visible to other users, buyers, search systems, or external audiences when you publish or share them.

2. Buyer-Vendor Sharing

When you request a quote, contact a vendor, respond to a buyer, bid on an opportunity, or move toward a transaction, we may share relevant contact, business, product, quote, delivery, and transaction details between the parties involved.

3. Service Providers and Partners

We may share information with hosting providers, analytics providers, customer support systems, identity or business verification providers, banks, payment processors, payout providers, logistics or compliance partners, fraud-prevention services, and professional advisers as needed to provide services and protect the Platform.

4. Legal and Safety Disclosures

We may disclose information to courts, regulators, law enforcement, payment partners, banks, or other authorised parties when required by law, to enforce our Terms, to investigate prohibited activity, or to protect rights, safety, property, and platform integrity.

1. Cross-Border Processing

Because VSL Market connects African vendors and manufacturers with buyers and partners across regions, your information may be processed in countries other than where you live or operate. We use reasonable safeguards where required by applicable law.

2. Retention

We keep information for as long as needed to provide services, maintain records, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, prevent fraud, and satisfy legal, tax, payment, banking, or compliance requirements. Some transaction and compliance records may be retained after account closure where required.

3. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect information. No online system is completely secure, so you should keep your login details private and report suspicious activity promptly.

You can update certain profile, business, listing, bank, and payout information in your account.
You can remove or edit certain public content, subject to dispute, safety, compliance, and legal retention needs.
You can contact support to request access, correction, deletion, portability, or restriction of personal information, depending on applicable law.
You may opt out of optional marketing messages where available. We may still send important account, security, policy, or transaction messages.

We may need to verify your identity or authority before fulfilling privacy requests, especially where the request involves business, payment, payout, or transaction records.