Privacy notice

Last changed on 6 November 2026

This notice says what Tonbi keeps about you, why, who else sees it, how long we keep it, and what you can ask of us.

Tonbi is responsible for your details, and follows Ghana's Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843). Write to support@tonbi.io about anything here. Our terms of use are the rest of our agreement with you.

What we keep

• Your account: your mobile number, your name, and an email address and a picture if you add them. If you sign up without a name, we fill it in with the name your network has for your number.
• Your sign ins: the phones and browsers signed in to your account, so that you can sign them out, and for a day, the sign in attempts made with your number, to stop abuse.
• Your orders: what you buy or sell, the name, number and address an order is delivered to, how it is going, its delivery PIN, the photo taken when it is delivered, and the rider's name and number when the seller gives them.
• Your payments: the Mobile Money number a payment is asked from, its network, and the payment's references. Card numbers are typed on our payment partner's own page: Tonbi never sees them.
• If you sell: your shop's name, handle, words, pictures, address and city; the Mobile Money number you are paid to and the name on it; your riders' names and numbers; and your products, lives, shorts, wallet and cash outs.
• For a seller's identity check: the Ghana Card number, the name, date of birth and gender on it, pictures of both sides of the card, and a selfie.
• What you say on Tonbi: chats and voice notes, comments in lives, reviews with their pictures, and the shorts you report.
• What you look at: the products you open and the shops you visit, to show you what you may like. Searches are kept without your name.
• Lives: Tonbi records them, to make shorts from them.
• Your phone: a code that lets us send you notifications.

Tonbi does not use your phone's location: a place is only what you type.

On the website, your browser keeps your sign in, your settings, a random number that tells your browser apart, and for a day, some of what you looked at, so that pages open faster. After you sign out, it still keeps your number and first name, to sign you in faster next time. Tonbi uses no cookies, and no advertising or analytics tools.

Why we use it

• To run your account, your orders and your payments, and to hold and pay out money safely.
• To check a seller's Ghana Card before money leaves Tonbi, and to keep everyone safe from scams and from what our terms do not allow.
• To tell you about your orders, and to answer you when you write to us.
• To make Tonbi's features work, such as search, voice search, the shop assistant, and shorts made from photos or lives.
• To do what the law asks of us.

We do not sell your details, and we do not give them to others for their advertising.

Who else sees it

Other people on Tonbi: a shop and what it posts are public, its address too. A seller sees the name, number and address an order is delivered to, to deliver it, and so does the rider.

When someone types a Ghana number into Tonbi, Tonbi may show them the name the network has for it, as Mobile Money does before you send money.

Tonbi's staff, when their work needs it: to settle a dispute, to look at a report or a seller's identity, or to help you. They can read chats.

Companies that do work for us, only for that work:

• Hubtel, in Ghana: payments, SMS codes and messages, the Ghana Card check, and the names networks have for numbers. Ghana Card pictures are never sent to it.
• OpenAI and Google (Gemini): the AI features, such as filling in a product from its photos, answering shoppers' questions, warning about scams, and checking products, lives and shorts against our terms. Before anything goes to them, phone numbers, names, Ghana Card numbers, addresses, emails, card numbers and PINs are taken out, and Ghana Card pictures are never sent.
• Google (Gemini): turning voice searches and voice notes into words, and speaking the voice in some shorts and the comments read aloud in lives. When our paid Gemini service cannot take a recording, it may go through Google's free Gemini service, under which Google may use it to improve its products.
• Google (Firebase): sending notifications to your phone.
• Cloudflare: the network that carries Tonbi's pages to you, which sees your internet address.
• Zoho: our mailboxes, when you write to us.
• Resend: the alerts Tonbi emails to its own staff, which may name a shop or an order.
• Hetzner: the computers in Germany that Tonbi runs on.

The law: we share details when the law requires it, or to protect people from fraud or harm.

Where it is kept

Tonbi's servers are in Germany. Some of the companies above work from other countries, such as the United States. We send each only what its work needs.

How long we keep it

While your account is open, we keep your account, your orders, payments and cash outs, your chats, reviews and shorts, and a seller's identity check.

Some things go sooner, by themselves:

• Sign in codes, within an hour of when they stop working, and sign in attempts, after a day.
• A sign in not used for 31 days.
• An order never paid, after 30 minutes.
• The words of an SMS, once it is sent.
• The sound of a voice note, after 7 days. Its words stay in the chat.
• The recording of a live, once its shorts are made, and shorts never posted, after 7 days.
• What you looked at, after 60 days at most, and searches, after 30 days.
• Comments kept out of a live, after 7 days.

When you delete your account, your details go at once, except what we must keep: the records of orders, payments and cash outs, for as long as the law asks.

Copies of Tonbi's data are kept for 7 days, to recover from an accident, so a deletion reaches them within 7 days.

Deleting your account

In the Tonbi app, or at tonbi.io, open Settings and tap Delete my account. You can also write to support@tonbi.io from the number you sign in with, and we will delete it for you.

While an order, a payment, a live, a cash out or money in your shop's wallet is still open, the app says what to finish first.

At once, we delete your name, your number, your email and your picture, your sign ins, your addresses, your cart and saved items, the chats you wrote and your voice notes, your reviews and comments, and what you looked at. A shop of yours closes for good: its products, its shorts and its Ghana Card check, with the pictures, are deleted, and its handle is freed.

We keep the records of your orders, payments and cash outs, under the name Deleted account, for as long as the law asks. Your number can make a new account later, with nothing of the old one.

What you can ask of us

You can ask for a copy of what we keep about you, to correct it, or to delete it, and you can object to how we use it. Write to support@tonbi.io from the number you sign in with, and we will answer you.

If you are not happy with our answer, you can complain to the Data Protection Commission of Ghana.

Keeping it safe

Your details travel to and from Tonbi encrypted. Ghana Card pictures and selfies are kept apart from everything else, and only Tonbi's staff can open them. Staff need a second step to sign in to Tonbi's console, and what they do there is recorded.

Children

Tonbi is for people 18 and older. If you think a child has given us their details, write to support@tonbi.io and we will delete them.

Changes to this notice

When we change this notice, we change the date at the top. Before an important change, we tell you in the app.

Questions about your details: support@tonbi.io