Privacy Policy

1. Scope

This policy explains how Vera237 collects and uses personal data when you use vera237.com. It applies to property seekers, listers, landlords, tenants, professionals and diaspora clients.

We process personal data in accordance with Cameroonian personal data protection legislation, Law No. 2010/012 of 21 December 2010 on cyber security and cyber criminality, Law No. 2010/021 of 21 December 2010 on electronic commerce, and the sector rules applicable to electronic communications (Law No. 2010/013).

Vera237 is the data controller for the processing described here. Contact: privacy@vera237.com.

2. Data we collect

• Account data: name, email address, phone number, password (stored hashed), preferred language, role (seeker, landlord, agent, professional, admin).
• Profile data: profile photo, biography, trade or category, city, years of experience, business name.
• Listing data: title, description, price or rent in FCFA, property type, number of rooms, surfaces, features, availability per unit, photographs, videos and virtual tour links.
• Location data: address notes, neighbourhood and coordinates you provide. If you use the "use my current location" button, your device location is read once, with your permission, to fill the listing position.
• Verification data: ownership and identity documents you submit, inspection notes, reviewer decisions and Trust Score history.
• Tenancy data: tenancy records, rent ledgers, invoices, receipts, complaints, maintenance issues and notices you record.
• Communications: enquiries, messages, WhatsApp contact requests you trigger, reviews and reports.
• Technical data: IP address, device and browser type, pages viewed, approximate region, and cookie or local-storage identifiers used to keep you signed in and to remember your language.

3. Why we process it, and on what basis

• To perform the contract with you: creating your account, publishing your listings, matching searches, handling enquiries, running tenancy and receipt tools.
• With your consent: precise device location, marketing messages, saved-search alerts, optional cookies, and publication of documents you choose to submit.
• For our legitimate interest in a safe marketplace: fraud detection, duplicate-listing checks, moderation, abuse reports, security logs and service improvement.
• To comply with legal obligations: responding to lawful requests from Cameroonian authorities or courts, keeping accounting and tax records, and cooperating in investigations into property fraud.

4. What is public and what is not

• Published listings and their photos are publicly visible, together with the listing city and neighbourhood.
• The precise position of a property is published only when the lister chooses "exact spot". If they choose "area only", visitors see a rounded, approximate position. If they choose to hide the map, no position and no address note is published.
• Professionals' names, trade, city, experience and verification status are public; their phone number and email are revealed only to signed-in users, and may not be scraped or resold.
• Verification documents, identity documents, tenancy records, rent ledgers and complaints are private. They are accessible to the owner of the record and to authorised Vera237 reviewers only.
• Your profile photo is visible where your profile or your listing contact card is shown. Other files in your personal storage folder stay private.

5. Who we share data with

• Other users, strictly as needed: a lister receives your enquiry and contact details when you contact them; a tenant and landlord see the tenancy records that concern them.
• Service providers acting on our instructions: cloud hosting and database, storage of media, email and messaging delivery, and an artificial-intelligence provider used to interpret natural-language searches. They may only process data for us and must keep it confidential.
• Independent professionals (surveyors, notaries, lawyers, inspectors) when you ask us to involve them, or when a verification or diaspora service you requested requires it.
• Competent Cameroonian authorities and courts, where the law requires it or to report suspected property fraud.
• We do not sell your personal data.

6. Artificial intelligence features

When you describe your needs in your own words, your text and a list of candidate listings and professionals are sent to an AI provider to produce a match. Do not include identity numbers, bank details or other sensitive information in that text. AI results are suggestions only and do not verify any property.

7. International transfers

Some of our providers host data outside Cameroon. Where that happens we require contractual confidentiality and security commitments, and we transfer only the data needed for the service, in line with the conditions applicable to cross-border transfers under Cameroonian law.

8. How long we keep data

• Account and profile data: while your account exists, then up to 12 months after closure for dispute and fraud handling.
• Listings and media: while published, then archived for up to 24 months so that a listing history can be checked in a dispute.
• Verification documents: up to 5 years after the decision, because they support the verification record.
• Tenancy, invoice and receipt records: for the period required by accounting and tax rules, generally 10 years.
• Security and access logs: up to 12 months, or longer if an investigation requires it.

9. Security

• Access to data is restricted by role, and private tables and storage folders are protected by row-level security rules so that users only reach their own records.
• Documents and private media are served through short-lived signed links rather than public addresses.
• Passwords are hashed, traffic is encrypted in transit, and administrative access is limited and logged.
• No system is perfectly secure. If a breach is likely to affect your rights, we will inform you and the competent authority without undue delay.

10. Your rights

• Access a copy of your data, and have inaccurate data corrected.
• Ask for deletion of data we no longer need, subject to legal retention duties and ongoing disputes.
• Withdraw consent — for location, alerts or marketing — at any time, without affecting past lawful processing.
• Object to processing based on our legitimate interest, and ask us to restrict processing while a claim is examined.
• Complain to the competent Cameroonian supervisory authority if you believe your rights have not been respected.
• To exercise a right, write to privacy@vera237.com. We answer within one month and may ask you to confirm your identity first.

11. Cookies and local storage

We use strictly necessary cookies and local storage to keep you signed in, to remember your chosen language and to protect the service. Any optional measurement is used only with your consent, and you can clear this data in your browser settings at any time.

12. Children

The platform is not intended for persons under 18. If we learn that a minor has created an account, we close it and delete the data.

13. Changes

We will publish any update to this policy on this page and announce material changes on the platform.