Privacy Policy
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Our Core Privacy Promise
We respect your trust. W Buys does not sell, rent, or trade your personal information or chat logs to third-party data brokers or marketing agencies. Your data is used exclusively to facilitate your shopping discovery, connect you with stores, and secure your account.
1. Introduction
W Buys ("we", "us", or "our") is committed to protecting the privacy, confidentiality, and security of our users ("you" or "your"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, store, use, and disclose personal data when you visit our website (w-buys.com), use our mobile application, communicate via our merchant chat messaging service, or engage with our AI shopping assistant.
We operate in accordance with applicable data protection regulations, including the United Arab Emirates Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 regarding Personal Data Protection (PDPL) and international privacy frameworks.
2. Information We Collect
Depending on how you interact with W Buys, we collect the following categories of data:
A. Account & Profile Information
When you create an account as a Shopper or Store Owner, we collect your name, chosen username, email address, telephone number, city, country, and encrypted password. If you register a merchant Store, we also collect store trade names, category specializations, store logos, and optional business contact details.
B. Direct Chat Messaging & Inquiries
Because transactions on W Buys are coordinated via direct chat with stores, our servers retain the messages, timestamps, and product inquiry context exchanged between Buyers and Stores. This is essential to provide you with ongoing message history across devices and to assist with dispute moderation in case of reported misconduct or fraudulent activities.
C. Google Single Sign-On (SSO)
If you authenticate using Google Sign-In, we receive your verified email address, full name, and avatar image URL from Google OAuth. We do not receive or store your Google account password.
D. AI Shopping Assistant Interactions
When you ask questions to our AI Shopping Assistant, we process your inquiry to search the product catalog and generate relevant recommendations. We do not associate sensitive personal identifiers with natural language search queries processed by the model.
E. Technical & Device Information
We automatically record standard connection telemetry: IP address, device type, operating system, browser configuration, page views, and performance logs to maintain platform uptime, prevent DDoS attacks, and enforce rate limits.
3. How We Use Your Information
We use your information strictly for legitimate commercial and operational purposes:
- Facilitating direct product inquiries and order coordination between Buyers and Stores;
- Creating, maintaining, and authenticating your user profile;
- Delivering curated catalog suggestions, search results, and category navigation;
- Safeguarding our community by detecting spam, counterfeit listings, and abusive interactions;
- Providing technical customer support and notifying you about security updates or policy changes;
- Fulfilling legal and regulatory obligations under UAE law.
4. Service Providers & Infrastructure
We rely on enterprise-grade cloud service providers to maintain the Platform. These providers are contractually obligated to handle data confidentially and securely:
- Database Hosting: Supabase (PostgreSQL managed cloud database with TLS 1.3 encryption at rest and in transit).
- Object Storage & CDN: Cloudflare R2 (high-performance object store hosting product photographs and user avatars).
- Authentication & AI: Google Cloud Platform (Google Identity Services for SSO and Google Gemini for catalog assistant responses).
- Caching & Rate Limiting: Upstash Redis (in-memory caching for low-latency session validation).
5. Cookies & Local Storage
W Buys uses functional cookies and browser local storage strictly necessary to operate the platform:
- Authentication tokens to preserve your login session;
- User interface preferences (dark mode / light mode);
- Language and regional currency preferences (e.g. AED, EGP, USD).
We do not deploy intrusive third-party cross-site behavioral tracking cookies.
6. Security Safeguards
We implement stringent technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information:
- HTTPS Everywhere: All traffic between your browser or mobile app and our servers is encrypted using standard Transport Layer Security (TLS).
- Bcrypt Hashing: User passwords are encrypted with salted one-way bcrypt hashes and cannot be viewed in plain text by W Buys personnel.
- Tokenized Authentication: Access tokens (JWT) have short expiration periods to mitigate unauthorized session hijacking.
7. Your Legal Rights
Under applicable data protection laws, you possess the right to:
- Access: Request a copy of the personal information we hold concerning your account.
- Correction: Update or rectify incomplete or inaccurate personal data directly in your Account Settings.
- Deletion (Right to be Forgotten): Request the permanent deletion of your account, profile, and associated history.
- Withdraw Consent: Revoke consent for discretionary communications or third-party connections (e.g., disconnecting Google SSO).
To exercise any of these rights, email our team at [email protected]. We respond to verified requests within thirty (30) days.
8. Data Retention
We retain your information only as long as necessary to provide platform services, maintain active buyer-seller message threads, comply with regulatory requirements, and resolve potential disputes. When an account is closed and deletion is requested, all personal identifiable records are either purged or irreversibly anonymized.
9. Contact Our Privacy Officer
If you have questions, feedback, or concerns regarding our privacy practices or data handling, please contact: