Privacy policy

What we collect

• Account: your name, email address, city and, if you add it, your mobile number. There are no passwords: you sign in with a code we email to you, or with Google (Google then shares your name and email address with us).
• Supplier profile: business name, description, city, address, business phone, WhatsApp number, email, website, logo and cover photo. These details are shown publicly on your supplier page, except your account email and phone.
• Products: names, descriptions, prices, units, MOQ, stock and photos.
• Chats: messages, photos and price quotes between a buyer and a supplier.
• Carts and order requests: the products and quantities you choose, the delivery contact name, phone number, city and address you enter, and any note you send to a supplier. Wholo never takes payments or asks for card or bank details; payment and delivery are agreed directly between buyer and supplier.
• Saved searches: the searches you save and whether you want email alerts for them.
• Photos and camera: only the photos you choose to upload or take in the app (logos, product photos, chat photos). We do not look at other photos on your phone.
• Activity: when someone opens a supplier’s WhatsApp link (counted, never the message), reports you submit, and technical logs such as IP address for security and rate limiting.
• Search words: words people search for are counted to show popular searches, without any name, account or IP address. Phone numbers, emails and links are never stored. Your recent searches are kept only in your browser or on your phone.
• App notifications: if you allow them, a push token for your phone.

Your location

If you allow it, the website or app uses your location once to choose your nearest city, so suppliers near you show first. The nearest city is worked out in your browser or on your phone; your location is never sent to Wholo or stored by us. Only the chosen city is remembered, on your device. You can change the city at any time, or say no and pick a city yourself.

Why we use it

• To run the marketplace: show listings, deliver chats and order requests, send login codes, account emails, chat alerts and the saved-search alerts you ask for.
• To keep Wholo safe: review suppliers and products, handle reports, prevent spam and abuse.
• To show suppliers simple statistics, such as how many new chats they received, and to show buyers a supplier’s typical reply time.

We do not sell your personal information and we do not show advertising.

Who can see what

• Buyers and suppliers never see each other’s account email or phone number through chat.
• When you send an order request, that supplier sees the delivery contact name, phone number and address you entered for it, so they can arrange delivery with you.
• A chat is visible only to its buyer and supplier. The Wholo team opens a chat only when it is reported, and each view is recorded.
• We use service providers to run Wholo: hosting, Cloudflare (website protection and photo storage), email delivery, live chat delivery (Pusher), app notifications (Expo, and Google Firebase on Android) and Google Sign-In if you choose it. They process data only to provide those services. Live chat delivery carries message ids only, not message text.

Security

Data travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS). Login codes are stored only in scrambled (hashed) form and expire after 10 minutes.

Cookies

We use essential cookies to keep you logged in, protect forms and remember choices such as grid or list view. We do not use advertising cookies.

Keeping and deleting data

We keep your information while your account is open. You can delete your account from Settings on the website or from Account in the app (see how to delete your account). Deleting it removes your account, supplier profile, products, photos, chats, carts, order requests and saved searches. Reports you made and records of moderation decisions are kept without your name, to protect other users. To ask for a copy or correction of your data, contact us.

Children

Wholo is a marketplace for businesses and is not meant for children under 18.

Contact

Questions about privacy: [email protected].