Privacy Policy — Affordable Rentals

Table of Contents

Introduction
Data We Collect
How We Use Your Data
Data Storage & Security
Third-Party Services
Your Rights
Cookies & Local Storage
Children's Privacy
Changes to this Policy
Contact Us

Introduction

Affordable Rentals ("we", "us", "our") is committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains what data we collect, how we use it, and your rights as a user of our platform.

This policy is compliant with the Kenya Data Protection Act 2019. By using Affordable Rentals, you consent to the data practices described in this policy.

🔒 We never sell your personal data. Your information is only used to provide and improve our service.

Data We Collect

We collect the following categories of personal data:

Category	Data Collected	When
Identity	Full name, email address	On registration
Contact	Phone number (for M-Pesa STK Push)	On registration
Financial	Payment amounts, months paid, M-Pesa transaction codes	On payment
Communication	In-app messages between tenant and landlord	When messages are sent
Property	House name, location, rent amount, unit details	When landlord adds property
Technical	Login timestamps, session tokens (JWT)	On login

We do not collect your M-Pesa PIN, national ID number, or bank account details. PIN entry happens exclusively on Safaricom's secure STK Push interface.

How We Use Your Data

Your data is used exclusively for the following purposes:

To create and manage your account
To process rent payments via M-Pesa
To generate and email payment receipts as PDF documents
To send rent reminders and system notifications
To enable communication between tenants and landlords
To calculate and display arrears and payment history
To display your property publicly on the listings page (landlords only)
To improve platform performance and fix bugs

We will never use your data for marketing, advertising, or any purpose not listed above without your explicit consent.

Data Storage & Security

Your data is stored securely in a MongoDB Atlas cloud database. We implement the following security measures:

Password encryption — all passwords are hashed using bcrypt (never stored in plain text)
JWT authentication — all sessions are protected by signed JSON Web Tokens with expiry
AES-256 encryption — M-Pesa consumer keys and secrets are encrypted at rest
HTTPS only — all data in transit is encrypted using TLS/SSL
Access control — tenant data is only accessible to their assigned landlord and platform admins
Environment variables — all secrets are stored securely and never exposed in source code

🛡️ Despite our best efforts, no system is 100% secure. Please use a strong unique password and keep your credentials private.

Third-Party Services

Affordable Rentals integrates with the following third-party services to deliver our platform:

Safaricom M-Pesa (Daraja API) — for payment processing. Their privacy policy applies to all payment transactions.
MongoDB Atlas — for database hosting. Data is stored in compliance with their data protection policies.
Resend / Brevo — for transactional email delivery (receipts, rent reminders, welcome emails).
Cloudinary — for property photo storage and delivery.
Railway / Render — for backend hosting infrastructure.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these third-party services. We recommend reviewing their individual privacy policies.

Your Rights

Under the Kenya Data Protection Act 2019, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

Right to access — request a copy of the data we hold about you
Right to correction — request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data
Right to deletion — request deletion of your account and associated personal data
Right to object — object to how we process your data in certain circumstances
Right to portability — receive your data in a structured, portable format

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at support@affordablerentals.site. We will respond within 30 business days.

Cookies & Local Storage

Affordable Rentals uses localStorage — not cookies — to store your session token and user preferences on your device. This data is:

Stored only on your device and not shared with any third party
Sent to our servers only as part of authenticated API requests
Cleared automatically when you sign out of your account
Never used for advertising, profiling, or cross-site tracking

We do not use third-party tracking cookies, advertising pixels, or analytics tools that collect personal data.

Children's Privacy

Affordable Rentals is not intended for use by persons under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from minors.

If you believe a minor has created an account on our platform, please contact us immediately at support@affordablerentals.site and we will delete the account promptly.

Changes to this Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or applicable law. When we do, we will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page.

Registered users will be notified of material changes via email. Continued use of Affordable Rentals after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact Us

For any privacy-related questions or to exercise your data rights, please reach us through any of the following:

Email: support@affordablerentals.site
Developer Email: alexanderbosire60@gmail.com
WhatsApp: +254 702 276 609
GitHub: Alexander-Dev60
Response time: Within 30 business days

Privacy Policy.