This policy explains, data type by data type, how long AYE Market keeps information described in our Privacy Policy, and the reasoning behind each retention period. Our general principle: we keep data only as long as it serves the purpose it was collected for — active service, safety, or a legal obligation — and no longer.
1. The retention principle
We don't keep data indefinitely by default. Each category below is tied to a purpose — running the Service, keeping the community safe, meeting a legal obligation, or auditing a payment — and retention ends when that purpose reasonably no longer applies, or when you exercise your deletion rights under Account Deletion.
2. Retention by data type
| Data type | Retention | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Active account & profile data | While your account is active | Needed to operate your account and the Service. |
| Listings | While active, or until you remove/archive them | You control your own listing lifecycle. |
| Chat messages | Retained for safety and moderation purposes; see Section 3 for the deletion exception | Supports abuse investigation and dispute review between users. |
| Reports & moderation records | Retained for as long as necessary for safety and legal purposes | Pattern detection across repeat offenders and legal/compliance needs. |
| Payment references & receipts | Retained for financial record-keeping | Auditing manual payment approvals and resolving disputes. |
| ID verification documents | Retained only as long as necessary for verification and account security, with strictly limited access | Confirming identity and re-checking a case if a badge is contested. |
| Crash & basic analytics data | Short-lived, first-party only | Diagnosing and fixing app problems; we use no third-party analytics SDK today. |
3. Chat messages & the anonymization exception
Chat messages are kept while relevant for safety and moderation. If you delete your account, your side of a shared conversation is anonymized — your name and account link are removed — rather than deleted outright, so the other participant's own copy of the conversation (which may include agreements they made with you) isn't destroyed. This exact exception is also described in our Privacy Policy and our Account Deletion page — all three describe the same behavior.
4. Account deletion cascade
When you request permanent deletion, our Account Deletion page describes exactly what happens: your login, profile, listings, and files are deleted; your activity records (favorites, applications, payment and verification records) are deleted; and the one narrow exception above applies to shared chat messages. This Data Retention Policy doesn't change or extend that cascade — it explains the reasoning behind how long each category would otherwise be kept if you hadn't deleted your account.
5. Backups
Like most cloud-hosted services, our infrastructure (Firebase/Google Cloud) keeps routine backups for reliability. Deleted or anonymized data is removed from live systems immediately; any residual copy in a backup is purged automatically as part of the normal backup rotation, not kept indefinitely.
6. Legal holds
If we're required to preserve specific data for an active legal process, investigation, or dispute, we may retain it beyond the periods above for as long as that requirement applies, even across an account deletion request, to the extent permitted by law.
7. Governing law
This Data Retention Policy is governed by the laws of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
8. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as our data practices evolve. Material changes are reflected by updating the "Last updated" date above.
9. Contact
Questions about how long we keep a specific type of data: ayetechub@gmail.com.