Privacy Policy

At Mechanic Africa Technology Service Limited, we are committed to protecting the privacy of the personal information that is provided to or collected by us while using our Services. We acknowledge and comply with our legal obligations in relation to applicable data protection laws. By registering for Services via the Mechanic Platform, you accept the terms of this Privacy Policy.

This privacy policy explains:

• How we may collect, use, manage, and disclose information about clients, other businesses, and contacts
• How we may collect, manage, and use personal information obtained from you
• The rights you may have in respect of your own personal information

Purpose of This Privacy Policy

The purpose of this privacy policy is to give you information about how we collect and process your personal data. This privacy policy supplements our Terms of Use and such other notices that we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing your personal data.

The Information That We May Collect

The scope of information we may collect from persons using our Services includes:

• All personal information obtained from persons using the Service
• Information provided to us while enquiring the use of the Service
• Information provided to us while reporting a problem or making a complaint about the Service

The Type of Information We May Collect

In the course of providing and improving our Platform and services, we may collect and process various categories of personal information, including but not limited to:

Identity Data

Your first name, last name, title, gender, date of birth, profile photograph, driver’s licence details, government-issued identification, or other identity verification information where required.

Contact Data

Your email address, telephone number, residential address, service location address, and other contact details you provide when creating an account or requesting services through the Platform.

Account Data

Usernames, passwords, authentication methods, account preferences, account roles (such as vehicle owner, mechanic, technician, or workshop operator), and other information associated with your account.

Vehicle Data

Information relating to vehicles registered or serviced through the Platform, such as vehicle make, model, year, mileage, VIN, license plate number, service history, and related vehicle details necessary to facilitate diagnostics, repairs, and maintenance services.

Service Request Data

Information relating to repair or maintenance services requested through the Platform, including the nature of the issue, type of service requested, preferred service location, appointment date and time, service estimates, invoices, and job completion details.

Transaction Data

Records of payments made or received through the Platform, service charges, invoices, receipts, and other transaction-related details. Payment processing may be conducted through third-party payment service providers, and we may not store full payment card details.

Location Data

Approximate or precise location data, including GPS location or service location information.

Technical Data

IP address, browser or device information.

Usage Data

Information about how you use the Platform, including pages visited, features accessed, searches conducted, interactions with service providers, and other analytics data used to improve the Platform.

Communication Data

Records of communications between you and the Company, between users and service providers, customer support inquiries, feedback, and messages sent through the Platform.

User-Generated Content

Any content you submit or upload to the Platform, such as photos or videos of vehicle issues, reviews, ratings, comments, and feedback.

Professional Data (for Mechanics and Workshops)

Where you register as a mechanic, technician, or workshop operator, this may include your business name, workshop address, qualifications, certifications, professional experience, areas of specialization, service pricing, availability, and other professional information provided for listing or verification purposes.

Marketing and Communications Preferences

Your preferences in receiving promotional communications, service notifications, updates, newsletters, and other communications from us.

Why We Collect Information

We collect information to enable us to provide you with our Services, to communicate with you, to provide further information on our Services, to assist you, and to respond to questions or requests that you submit.

How We Collect Your Personal Data

• Direct collection: You may give us your data by filling in forms, creating your profile, by correspondence and conversations (including via email and telephone), or through contracts we may enter with you.
• Automated technologies: As you interact with our website, we will automatically collect data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns using cookies and similar technologies.
• Third parties or publicly available sources: We also receive your personal data from third parties to whom you have legally provided such data.

Lawful Basis for Our Use of Your Personal Data

We will use your personal data only to the extent permitted by law. Under the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation 2019 (NDPR), personal data may be processed under any of the following lawful bases:

• Where you consent to our use of your personal data
• Where your personal information is necessary for the performance of the contract to use our Services
• Where we need to comply with a legal obligation
• Where we need to protect your vital interest or the vital interest of another individual
• Where it is in the interest of the general public to process your data

Disclosure of Your Information

We may disclose your personal information to any of our affiliates. We may also disclose your personal information to third parties if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our Terms of Use and other agreements; or to protect our rights, property, or safety or those of other users, our clients, or others.

Data Security

We will take reasonable steps to protect personal information disclosed to us from loss, modification, misuse, unauthorized access and/or disclosure. While we do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to us over the internet; therefore, any such transmission is at your own risk. We will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorized access once we have collected your information.

Data Retention

We retain your data for such a period as is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected. Storage of your data is also determined by legal, regulatory, administrative, or operational requirements. When data is no longer required for the purposes for which it was collected, we securely destroy it.

Third Party Sites

Our website and Services may contain links to third-party websites, products, and services. Information collected by third parties are governed by their privacy practices and we will not be liable for any breach of confidentiality or privacy of your information on such third-party websites. We encourage you to learn about the privacy practices of those third parties.

Privacy Policy Changes

We may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time without prior notice by publishing a new version on our website. Any changes will become effective immediately upon publication. We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Policy to stay informed about how we are protecting the personally identifiable information we collect.

Access, Consent and Correction

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect remains accurate, up to date and complete. We will also provide you with access to your personal information held by us on your request unless we are otherwise permitted by applicable laws. You have the right to withdraw consent previously given for processing your data or restrict the processing of your personal data.

Your Legal Rights

In addition to being able to control the data you directly provide to us, you may exercise any of the below rights with respect to your data:

1. Request information about any of your personal data which we are processing, and request access to your personal information.
2. Request correction of personal information that we hold about you.
3. Request us to refrain from doing certain things with your data or restrict the extent of our collection or processing of your data.
4. Request partial or complete erasure of your personal information.
5. Object to our processing of your personal information where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
6. Object to decisions being taken by automated means which produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you.
7. Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

Contact Details

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our privacy practices, please contact us:

Mechanic Africa Technology Service Limited
Email: info@mechanicafrica.com