Privacy policy

In short

• We keep what your shop needs to run: who signs in, and the stock, sales, credit, customers and staff your shop records.
• Passwords are stored only as a one-way hash. Your fingerprint never leaves your phone.
• Your shop’s records are stored on servers in Frankfurt, Germany.
• The app sends usage and crash reports to Google Firebase. They carry an internal account number, not your name, phone number or exact amounts.
• We don’t sell your data and we don’t show ads.

What we collect

Account details, for everyone who signs in:

• Full name and phone number. Your phone number is what you sign in with. We don’t ask for an email address.
• Your password, which we store only as a bcrypt hash, so we can check it but can’t read it.
• Your role, permissions, the branches you work at, and whether your account is active. Staff accounts are created by the shop’s owner or an admin.

What your shop records in the app:

• Your business name, branches and branch addresses.
• Products, categories, units, prices and photos; stock batches with buy and sell prices, suppliers, dates and barcodes.
• Sales and receipts: the items, amounts, how they were paid, who sold them and, if you choose one, the customer. Credit is a sale marked as not yet paid.
• For a phone or other item with a serial number, the serial number or IMEI of the piece sold, so the sale can be found later.
• For a sale paid by bank transfer, a photo of the payment receipt. Receipts can show names, account numbers and amounts.
• Transfers between branches, with any notes.
• Customers (a name, and a phone number or email if you add them) and suppliers (company, contact person, phone and email).
• An audit log of who added, changed or removed what.

Sign-in and device records:

• A record of your current session: a hashed copy of your sign-in token and when the app last checked in.
• If you use fingerprint sign-in, a hashed device token, the phone’s operating system name and when the token expires.
• How many wrong passwords were entered in a row, so an account can be locked for 15 minutes after five.
• If you allow notifications, the phone’s notification token, the app’s language and when the phone last registered, plus the notifications sent to you (see “Notifications” below).

Text messages (SMS):

• When we check a phone number by text message, we send a one-time code through our SMS provider, AfroMessage. They receive the phone number and the message. We keep the code only as a hash, and it expires after 5 minutes.
• Mezgeb staff may also send a text message to shop owners or staff, for example about a subscription. These are sent by a person, not automatically. AfroMessage receives the phone numbers and the message.

Subscription payments:

• The plan, the amount, the bank or telebirr you paid from, the transaction reference, and whether and when the payment was confirmed.
• To confirm a payment we may check the reference with a payment verification service. It can tell us who paid; we don’t keep those details in our records.

Usage and crash reports: see “Usage and crash reports” below.

Server logs: our servers keep technical logs of requests and errors, which can include IP addresses. Log files are rotated, so older ones are overwritten.

What stays on your phone

So that selling works without internet, the app keeps a copy of some information on the phone:

• In Android’s secure storage: your sign-in token, phone number and profile, a salted, hashed form of your password for signing in offline, and the fingerprint device token.
• In the app’s private storage: products, stock and figures for the Home screen, and sales waiting to upload.

Signing out removes the sign-in token. The rest stays on the phone until the app is uninstalled or its data is cleared in Android’s settings. Before you do that, make sure no sales are waiting to upload: they exist only on that phone until they do.

Fingerprint sign-in

Fingerprint sign-in uses Android’s own prompt. Your fingerprint is checked by the phone and never reaches the app or us. Depending on the phone, Android may also accept your screen lock instead.

After you sign in with your password, our server gives the phone a random device token. We keep only a hash of it. It is replaced every time it is used, expires after 90 days, and is cancelled when you change your password.

Notifications

If you allow notifications on your phone, the app tells you about things such as low stock, sales still on credit after a week, transfers sent to your branch, your subscription ending, a payment confirmed, and messages from Mezgeb. Staff get only the notifications their role needs.

• Notifications are delivered through Google Firebase Cloud Messaging. The text of each notification passes through Google, and it can include product names, branch names and amounts owed.
• The reminder that sales are waiting to upload is set on the phone itself and doesn’t go through our server.
• You can turn notifications off at any time in Android’s settings. When you sign out, the phone’s notification token is removed from our server.

Usage and crash reports

The versions of the app we release send usage and crash reports to Google Firebase (Analytics and Crashlytics). We use them to see which features are used and to fix crashes.

• What we send: an internal account number (a random code, not your name or phone number) and your role; for crash reports, also internal numbers for your business and branch.
• Events such as signing in (with password or fingerprint), a sale completed (how it was paid, whether on credit or offline, the number of lines and a price range such as “500–1999”), a sale cancelled or marked paid, a receipt shared, a barcode scanned, stock received, a transfer completed, sales that are slow to upload, and the names of the screens you open.
• We don’t send names, phone numbers, product names, customers or exact amounts.
• Firebase also collects standard technical details, such as the phone model, Android version and app version.

There isn’t a setting in the app to turn these reports off yet. If you object to them, contact us.

When our server runs into an error, it sends an error report to Sentry, so we can find and fix the problem. Before a report is sent we remove what was typed or sent in the request (such as passwords and sale details), cookies, sign-in tokens and IP addresses. A report can still include the address of the page or action that failed.

Where your data is kept

Your shop’s records are stored in a PostgreSQL database run by Supabase, and our server is run by Render. Both are in Frankfurt, Germany, outside Ethiopia. The app talks to our server over HTTPS, and the server’s connection to the database is encrypted.

Photos (of products and batches, and of bank-transfer receipts) are stored with Cloudflare R2, which may keep them outside Ethiopia, and are shown through web links. The app shows a receipt photo only to people in your shop who can see that sale, and the links aren’t published anywhere, but anyone who has a link can open the photo. Don’t share these links, and don’t put private information in product photos.

Our service providers (listed under “Who can see it”) may also handle data in other countries, as described in their own policies.

How we use it

• To run the service: signing you in, syncing sales, and showing your stock, credit and reports.
• To check phone numbers, confirm payments and manage your subscription.
• To send you the notifications you allowed, and messages about your account.
• To help you when you ask for support.
• To keep accounts safe, for example by allowing one active phone per account and keeping an audit log.
• To understand how the app is used and fix problems, through the reports above.

We don’t sell your data, and we don’t use it to show you ads.

Who can see it

• Inside your shop: the owner and admins see everything. Staff see only what their permissions and branches allow; for example, buy prices and profit stay hidden unless they are allowed to see them.
• Mezgeb staff: authorised people at Mezgeb can access accounts and shop data when needed to give support, handle billing or keep the service running. Our admin tools show, for example, each business, its owner’s name and phone number, its plan and payments, its branches, and how many staff and sales it has. Every action in our admin console is recorded.
• Service providers that run parts of Mezgeb for us: Supabase (database), Render (servers), Cloudflare (photos), Google Firebase (usage and crash reports, notifications), Sentry (server error reports), AfroMessage (SMS) and a payment verification service. They receive only what their part needs.
• Others, when the law requires it.

How long we keep it

We keep your shop’s records for as long as its account exists, so its history and reports stay complete. Most things you delete in the app, such as products, customers, suppliers and staff, are switched off rather than erased, for the same reason.

One-time codes expire after 5 minutes and fingerprint device tokens after 90 days. A phone’s notification token is removed when you sign out, or when Google tells us it no longer works. You can delete your account in the app (More › Profile and password › Delete account), or ask us to: see “Delete your account” at /delete-account/. Some records, such as payments, may need to be kept for accounting.

How we protect it

• Passwords are hashed with bcrypt; one-time codes, session tokens and fingerprint device tokens are stored as hashes.
• Each account can be signed in on one phone at a time. Signing in on another phone signs the first one out.
• Five wrong passwords in a row lock the account for 15 minutes.
• Staff permissions and branch access limit what each person can see and do.
• Our admin console needs a password and an authenticator code, and records every action.

No system is perfectly secure. If you think your account has been misused, contact us straight away.

Your choices

• You can see and correct most of your information in the app: your name and password in your profile, and, for owners and admins, your staff, customers and suppliers.
• You can ask us for a copy of your information, to correct it, or to delete it, and you can object to the usage reports.
• You can turn notifications off in Android’s settings.
• If you work at a shop, the shop decides what is recorded about its business; ask the owner first.
• If you’re a shop’s customer, the shop recorded your details; contact the shop.

This website

This website doesn’t use cookies, analytics or ads, and loads its fonts from this site rather than from another company. Like any website, the company hosting it may keep standard logs of requests, such as IP addresses and the pages asked for.

Children

Mezgeb is a business tool for shops and isn’t meant for children.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy we’ll update this page and its date. If a change matters for how your data is used, we’ll tell shop owners directly before it takes effect.

Contact us

For privacy questions or requests, contact Mezgeb: