Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Welcome to Twende Meru ("we," "our," or "us"). We are committed to protecting your personal information and your right to privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website and use our services to discover businesses, events, attractions, and properties in Meru County, Kenya.

2. Information We Collect

Personal Information

We may collect personal information that you voluntarily provide when you:

• Register for an account (name, email address, phone number)
• List a business or property on our platform
• Submit reviews or stories
• Contact us or other businesses through our messaging system
• Subscribe to our newsletters
• Participate in surveys or promotions
• Join the promoter programme, request a withdrawal, or provide an M-Pesa phone number and registered name
• Submit a promoter complaint or exchange messages in a complaint conversation

Automatically Collected Information

When you access our platform, we automatically collect certain information including your IP address, browser type, device information, pages visited, time spent on pages, and referring website addresses. This helps us improve our services and user experience.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Create and manage your account
• Process business and property listings
• Facilitate communication between users and businesses
• Send administrative information, updates, and marketing communications
• Analyze usage patterns to improve our platform
• Prevent fraudulent activities and ensure platform security
• Comply with legal obligations
• Process promoter withdrawal requests, maintain statements, and support payment investigations
• Route complaint messages to the promoter, Twende Meru administrators, and an event organizer when an administrator adds that organizer to the conversation

4. Information Sharing

We may share your information in the following situations:

• With Business Owners: When you contact a business, your message and contact details are shared with that business.
• Complaint Participants: A promoter complaint and its conversation are visible to the complainant, Twende Meru administrators, and any event organizer added by an administrator to share their side.
• Service Providers: We may share data with third-party vendors who perform services on our behalf (analytics, email delivery, payment processing).
• Legal Requirements: We may disclose information if required by law or to protect our rights and the safety of our users.
• Business Transfers: In connection with any merger, sale, or acquisition of our business.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

9. Promoter Support and Payment Information

If you use promoter features, we process your payout phone number, M-Pesa name, commission balances, withdrawal requests, statements, and related messages to provide the service, notify organizers, and investigate complaints. Promoter payments are made directly by event organizers; Twende Meru uses this information to facilitate support and records, not to become the payer. We retain complaint and payment records for operational, safety, dispute-resolution, and legal purposes, subject to applicable law and your rights under this policy.

10. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. However, no method of transmission over the Internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

11. Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate information
• Request deletion of your personal data
• Opt-out of marketing communications
• Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent

To exercise these rights, please contact us at muuga@twendemeru.co.ke.

12. Cookies and Tracking

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to enhance your experience on our platform. Cookies are small data files stored on your device. You can control cookies through your browser settings, but disabling them may affect certain features of our website.

13. Third-Party Services

Our platform may contain links to third-party websites and services. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these external sites. We encourage you to review their privacy policies before providing any personal information.

14. Children's Privacy

Our services are not intended for individuals under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe we have collected information from a child, please contact us immediately.

15. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

16. Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at: