Privacy Policy

• Provide, maintain, and improve the Service
• Process bookings, payments, and refunds, including Vetted Stays reservations
• Generate personalized travel itineraries using AI
• Power Pulse's live map and Circles' group matching, if you opt in
• Send booking confirmations, updates, and customer support communications
• Send promotional emails (with your consent — you can unsubscribe at any time)
• Analyze usage patterns to improve user experience
• Detect and prevent fraud or security incidents
• Comply with legal obligations including Ghana's Data Protection Act (Act 843) and Bank of Ghana directives

Akwaaba uses two different kinds of location data, and they are not the same thing:

If you join or create a Circle, other members of that same Circle can see your first name, avatar, and any messages or content you post inside it. Circles are scoped to a location or trip, are capped in size, and expire automatically — we do not keep Circle membership or content visible to other users after a Circle expires. You can leave a Circle at any time. We may retain Circle content for a limited period after expiry for safety, moderation, and abuse-investigation purposes, consistent with Section 08 of our Data Retention practices.

We use cookies and similar technologies to enhance your experience, remember preferences, track referral codes, and analyze site traffic. Your IP-based country is cached for 24 hours in your browser's local storage (akw_geo_cache) solely to serve compliant currency pricing without repeated geolocation calls.

You can control cookie preferences through your browser settings. Essential cookies required for site functionality cannot be disabled.

• With hosts and experience providers to fulfill your bookings (name, contact details, booking info only)
• With other members of a Circle you join, limited to your first name, avatar, and Circle content (see Section 04)
• With nearby Pulse users, limited to an approximate map marker, only while Pulse is turned on (see Section 03)
• With service providers as described in Section 06
• To comply with legal obligations, court orders, or government requests (including Ghana DPC inquiries)
• To protect the rights, safety, and property of Akwaaba and its users
• In connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets (you will be notified in advance)

We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide services. Booking records, including Vetted Stays reservations, are retained for a minimum of 3 years for legal and accounting purposes under Ghana Revenue Authority requirements. Precise Pulse location is not retained once you turn Pulse off — we keep only aggregated, non-identifying activity data to improve the feature. Circle content is generally deleted when a Circle expires, subject to a limited safety/moderation retention window. You may request deletion of your account and data at any time by contacting support@akwaaba.app.

We implement industry-standard security measures including encryption in transit (TLS 1.3), encryption at rest, secure JWT-based authentication with short token lifetimes, and regular security reviews aligned with the Cyber Security Authority of Ghana (Act 1038). However, no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. See our Security page for more detail, including how to report a vulnerability.

Under Act 843, Ghana-based data subjects have the following rights:

• Right to be informed about the collection and use of your data
• Right of access — you may request a copy of personal data we hold about you
• Right to correction of inaccurate or incomplete data
• Right to erasure — request deletion of your personal data
• Right to object to processing of your personal data
• Right to complain to the Data Protection Commission at dataprotection.org.gh

To exercise any of these rights, contact our Data Protection Officer at privacy@akwaaba.app. We will respond within 21 days as required by Act 843.

Our Service requires users to be at least 13 years old, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone younger. Bookings, payments, and other binding transactions additionally require the user to be of legal age to contract in their jurisdiction, or to have a parent or guardian complete the transaction on their behalf — see our Terms of Service. If you believe we have collected information from a child under 13 in error, please contact us immediately at privacy@akwaaba.app and we will delete it promptly.

Your information may be transferred to and processed in countries other than your country of residence, including the United States (Supabase, Vercel, Resend infrastructure) and Ghana (Paystack processing, and where Akwaaba App Limited is based). We ensure appropriate contractual safeguards are in place for all international transfers, consistent with Ghana's Data Protection Act and applicable international standards.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by posting the updated policy on our website, updating the "Last updated" date, and sending an email notification for significant changes. Continued use of the Service after changes constitutes acceptance.