Privacy Policy
Allowance · Last updated 18 August 2026
This policy explains what Allowance collects, why, who else sees it, and what you can do about it. It is written to describe how the app actually works rather than to cover every imaginable case.
1. What we collect
| Category | What it is | How we get it |
|---|---|---|
| Account | Email address, username, display name, profile picture, campus or state, and the tier of your subscription | You give it to us when you sign up or edit your profile |
| Contact details | Phone number, where you add one | You give it to us |
| Health details | Age, height, weight and blood group | You give them to us, and only if you choose to — see section 2 |
| Location | Your approximate area, state and country. Precise device location where you allow it, to find what is near you | Your device, with your permission, and from what you select |
| Content | Messages, photos, videos, voice notes, stories, moments, gists, listings, tickets and orders | You create it in the app |
| Device & session | Device model and operating system, an app-generated device identifier, sign-in sessions, and notification tokens | Collected automatically so you can see and sign out your own devices |
| Usage | Which features you open, errors and diagnostics | Collected automatically |
| Transactions | What you bought or sold, when, and the reference for it | Generated when you transact |
We do not collect or store your card details. Card and bank information is entered with our payment provider and never reaches Allowance's servers.
2. Health details, and why they are treated differently
Age, height, weight and blood group are sensitive personal data under section 30 of the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023. We handle them differently from everything else:
- They are optional. The app works without them.
- We rely on your explicit consent, given separately rather than bundled into your agreement to these terms.
- You can remove them at any time from your profile, and doing so deletes them.
- They are never shared with vendors, advertisers or other users.
3. Your phone's contacts
Allowance can share a contact into a chat. When you do this, your phone's own contact picker opens and only the single contact you tap is sent to us — as a name and a number, inside that message.
We do not read, upload, index or store your address book. We do not use it to suggest friends or to find who else is on Allowance. If you never share a contact, we never receive one.
4. Calls
Voice and video calls run over a real-time connection provided by LiveKit. While a call is in progress your audio and video pass through their servers to reach the other person.
- We do not record calls. No audio or video from a call is stored by Allowance.
- We do keep a call log — who called whom, when, and how long it lasted — so it can appear in your chat history.
- Calls need microphone access, and video calls need camera access. Both are requested at the moment you place or answer a call.
- The screen is kept awake during a call so it does not lock mid-call.
5. How your content is protected — stated plainly
What is true:
- Everything travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS), and is encrypted at rest on our provider's servers.
- Database access rules mean one user cannot read another user's private messages through the app or its API.
- However, because we hold the keys, your messages are technically readable by us. We access them only where we must: to investigate a report of abuse, to fix a fault, or where the law requires it.
- Do not send anything through Allowance that you would not want a platform operator to be capable of reading.
6. Why we use your data
| Purpose | Lawful basis (NDPA 2023 s.25) |
|---|---|
| Creating your account and running the app | Performance of a contract with you |
| Delivering messages, calls, orders and tickets | Performance of a contract |
| Showing what is near you or on your campus | Consent (location permission), which you can withdraw |
| Health details on your profile | Explicit consent |
| Push notifications | Consent (notification permission) |
| Keeping the platform safe, investigating abuse and fraud | Legitimate interest |
| Meeting legal, tax and regulatory obligations | Legal obligation |
7. Who else receives your data
We do not sell your personal data. We share it only with the providers who make the app work:
| Provider | What they handle | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Database, file storage, authentication | European Union |
| Google (Firebase) | Push notifications, sign-in with Google | Global |
| Apple | Sign in with Apple, iOS push | Global |
| Paystack | Payments and subscriptions | Nigeria |
| LiveKit | Carrying live voice and video calls | Global |
| OpenStreetMap (Nominatim) | Turning a place you type into a location | European Union |
| Vercel | Serving the website | Global |
Other users see what you choose to show them: your profile, your posts, your store and anything you send them. We may also disclose data where we are legally required to, or to protect someone's safety.
8. Where your data is stored
Our database and files are hosted in the European Union, and some providers above operate globally. Transferring personal data out of Nigeria is permitted under section 41 of the NDPA where the destination offers adequate protection or appropriate safeguards are in place; we rely on our providers' contractual data protection terms for this.
9. Age
Allowance is for people aged 16 and over. If you are under 18, you may use Allowance only with the consent of a parent or guardian, as required by section 31 of the NDPA.
Certain parts of the app are restricted to users aged 18 and over, including selling on the marketplace, receiving payouts, and any feature involving a financial transaction in your own name.
We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has given us their data, contact us and we will delete it.
10. How long we keep things
- Your account — until you delete it.
- Messages and media — until you or the sender delete them, or the account is deleted.
- Stories and moments — removed automatically when they expire.
- Call logs — kept with your chat history.
- Transaction records — kept for up to 6 years, because tax and accounting law requires it. This survives account deletion.
- Reports of abuse — kept as long as needed to act on them and prevent repeat harm.
11. Your rights
Under the NDPA 2023 you may ask us to:
- tell you what we hold about you, and give you a copy;
- correct anything inaccurate;
- delete your data, subject to the retention periods above;
- restrict or object to how we use it;
- withdraw a consent you gave — for location, notifications or health details — without affecting what we did before you withdrew it;
- receive your data in a portable form.
Email allowancemobileapp@gmail.com. We respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied, you may complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission.
Deleting your account
You can delete your account from Settings in the app. This removes your profile, posts and messages. Transaction records are retained as described above.
12. Security
- Encrypted connections everywhere, and encryption at rest.
- Row-level database rules so one account cannot read another's data.
- You can see every device signed into your account and sign any of them out remotely, from the account switcher.
- No card details are ever held by us.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your rights, we will notify you and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission as the NDPA requires.
13. Website storage
The Allowance website stores data in your browser to keep you signed in and remember your preferences. It is not used for advertising or cross-site tracking.
14. Changes
We will update this policy as the app changes, and will tell you in the app when a change is significant. The date at the top always reflects the current version.