Privacy Policy

Last updated: December 15, 2024

We're students building an app for students. We collect what we need to make eGate work, and we're not interested in selling your data or doing anything weird with it. Here's exactly what we collect and why.

Your Academic Data Stays On Your Phone

Your GPA, grades, CA results, and all academic performance data are stored locally on your device using SQLite. This data never leaves your phone, never touches our servers, and only you have access to it. We built it this way on purpose because we believe personal things should stay truly personal.

Important: If you switch phones, this data won't transfer over automatically. It's the tradeoff for keeping your academic info completely private.

What We Collect

Personal Information

When you create an account, we collect:

Name: So other students know who they're dealing with in marketplace or eBuddy transactions
Email: For account recovery and important notifications
Phone Number: For WhatsApp based coordination in eBuddy, marketplace, and Lost & Found
Matricule: To verify you're actually a UB student and match you with campus updates

Activity Data

To make the app work properly:

Marketplace listings you post
eBuddy tasks you create or accept
Lost & Found posts
Roommate search profiles
App usage patterns to fix bugs and improve performance

What We DON'T Collect

These stay on your device only, stored locally using SQLite:

Your GPA: Never leaves your phone
Your grades and CA results: Stored locally, never synced to our servers
Your timetable: Only on your device
GPA predictions and what if scenarios: Calculated locally, stays private
Expense tracking data: Your financial information never leaves your phone
Course registration history: Tracked locally for your reference only

We designed it this way on purpose. Your academic performance and finances are nobody's business but yours.

How We Use Your Data

Core Functionality

Send you notifications about registration deadlines
Alert you when general sports week is scheduled
Notify you when results drop
Match you with buyers/sellers in the marketplace
Connect you with other students for eBuddy tasks
Help reunite lost items with their owners
Connect you with potential roommates

Campus Updates

We use your matricule to verify you're a UB student so you get:

Accurate campus event notifications
Department specific announcements
Access to UB venue maps and hotspots

Improvements

We analyze usage patterns to:

Fix bugs faster
Figure out which features students actually use
Optimize performance when everyone checks for results at once

What We Share (and Don't Share)

We DO Share:

In Marketplace: Your name and contact info with people you're buying from or selling to. They need to know who you are to complete the transaction.
In eBuddy: Your name and phone number with the person you're hiring or working for. You can't coordinate a task without knowing who's involved.
In Lost & Found: Your contact info with someone who found your item (after verification) so you can meet up and get it back.
In Roommate Search: Your profile information with potential roommates. That's the whole point.

We DON'T Share:

Your academic data: GPA, grades, CA results never leave your phone, so there's nothing for us to share even if we wanted to
Your timetable: Stored locally, nobody else can see it
Your expense tracking data: On your device only, your financial situation is your business
Your matricule: We only use this internally for verification, never shared with other users
Anything with advertisers or data brokers: We're not selling your data. Ever.

Data Security

Account data is stored securely using industry standard encryption on Firebase and Supabase. Your password is hashed, so even we can't see it.

Your academic data (GPA, grades, results) is stored locally on your device using SQLite. This means it's as secure as your phone itself. We never see it, our servers never see it, nobody can hack our servers to get it because it's not there.

That said, we're students, not a massive corporation with unlimited security resources. We do our best to keep your data safe, but no system is 100% secure. If we ever have a security breach affecting account data, we'll let you know immediately. Your academic data stored locally on your device is unaffected by any server issues.

Your Rights

You have the right to:

Access your data: Ask us what data we have about you (note: academic data is on your device, not our servers)
Correct your data: Update your information anytime in the app settings
Delete your data: Request account deletion and we'll remove everything from our servers within 30 days. Academic data on your device can be cleared by uninstalling the app.
Export your data: Get a copy of all your server stored data in a readable format. Academic data can be exported directly from the app.
Opt out of notifications: Turn off any notifications you don't want in settings

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at advocate@egateub.online or through WhatsApp at +237 650 981 130.

Data Retention

We keep your account data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account:

Personal info gets deleted from our servers within 30 days
Marketplace and eBuddy history might stay visible to other users you interacted with (they need proof of transactions), but your contact info gets removed
Anonymous usage data might be kept for analytics, but it can't be traced back to you
Academic data stored locally on your device stays until you uninstall the app or clear app data

Changes to This Policy

We might update this policy as we add new features or if laws change. When we do, we'll update the date at the top and notify you through the app. Big changes will get a prominent notification, small tweaks might just show up in your updates feed.

Questions?

If something in this policy doesn't make sense or you have questions about how we handle your data, just ask. We're students too, not lawyers, so we'll explain it in plain English.