Ethiopia Privacy PolicyVersion 2.4 · Effective August 2026

AutoEthiopia Privacy Policy

How we protect user data, secure seller contact information, and comply with Ethiopian data protection laws across Addis Ababa and Ethiopia.

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01
Data We Collect
Account credentials, National ID (Fayda) verification status, vehicle specs, and contact books.

When registering on AutoEthiopia, we collect your name, email address, hashed authentication credentials, and user role. For sellers and commercial dealers, we collect verification data including National ID (Fayda) verification status and Trade License details.

Technical Architecture & Privacy Notes:

  • Password hashes are stored using bcrypt encryption.
  • Identity verification status is stored securely in Postgres identity verifications.

Sellers maintain a contact book (`seller_contacts`) containing phone numbers and optional WhatsApp or Telegram links. When a listing is published, a denormalized contact snapshot is locked to the listing so buyers can initiate contact.

We store listing specifications (make, model, year, trim, mileage, price in ETB), vehicle photos, region and city location, and bilingual descriptions (`am-ET` and `en-ET`).

02
How We Use Your Information
Connecting buyers and sellers, AI valuation analytics, search indexing, and security.

We use contact snapshots to enable signed-in buyers to reveal seller phone numbers and initiate direct negotiations or chat inquiries regarding vehicles listed on the platform.

Listing details are indexed in OpenSearch for fast browsing and processed by our AI Engine to generate market valuation estimates, fair price indicators, and personalized buyer recommendations.

Technical Architecture & Privacy Notes:

  • AI Concierge chat transcripts are logged anonymously or by session ID.
  • OpenSearch maintains lexical projections for browse and administrative directories.

Payment information for subscription plans (Seller Pro, Dealer Fleet) and listing boost packages is processed through encrypted payment gateways (e.g. Stripe).

03
Seller Contact Privacy & Reveal Phone
Strict protection against automated public web scrapers and phone spam.

Public listing pages and search API endpoints omit seller phone numbers by default to prevent automated web crawlers and telemarketing bots from harvesting contact details.

Seller phone numbers are revealed ONLY when a signed-in user explicitly clicks 'Reveal Contact'. This action logs an engagement metric (`engagement.phoneReveals`) for seller analytics while protecting seller privacy.

Technical Architecture & Privacy Notes:

  • Unauthenticated guests cannot access raw phone numbers.
  • Rate-limiting prevents excessive automated phone reveal attempts.
04
Cookies, Authentication & Data Security
HttpOnly cookie security, encrypted data storage, and media safety.

AutoEthiopia stores authentication JSON Web Tokens (JWT) strictly inside HttpOnly, Secure, SameSite cookies. We NEVER store raw authentication tokens inside browser `localStorage`, preventing XSS token theft.

Data is transmitted over encrypted TLS connections via edge gateways. Vehicle media uploads are stored securely on isolated object storage (MinIO/S3). Account SoT resides in Postgres and listing SoT in MongoDB.

05
Data Sharing & Essential Third Parties
We never sell personal data. Data is shared strictly with essential service providers.

AutoEthiopia does NOT sell, rent, or trade your personal data, phone numbers, or vehicle transaction history to third-party ad networks or data brokers.

We share data only with essential infrastructure providers required to operate the service: payment processors (Stripe/Bank APIs), verification providers, and cloud hosting infrastructure.

06
Ethiopian Data Protection Rights & Account Deletion
Your rights under Ethiopian data protection and personal information laws.

Under applicable Ethiopian data protection and personal information laws, you have the right to access your personal information, request corrections, restrict processing, or request full account deletion.

Technical Architecture & Privacy Notes:

  • Account deletion removes active seller contacts and user profiles.
  • Soft-erased users are de-indexed from OpenSearch public search directories.

You can update profile details, saved contacts, and notifications directly in Account Settings, or submit a data erasure request to privacy@autoethiopia.et.