Legal Start a deal

Delete your data

You can ask us to delete the personal data Hoolam holds about you at any time. Here’s how, what we delete, and the few records Nigerian law says we must keep.

Contents
  1. 01How to ask
  2. 02What we delete
  3. 03What we must keep
  4. 04Smaller requests
  5. 05Your WhatsApp account

In short

  • Message us on WhatsApp or email us, and ask us to delete your data.
  • We confirm it’s you by messaging your WhatsApp number, then delete within 30 days.
  • Deal and payment records are kept for 5 years, because the law requires it, and used for nothing else.

How to ask

  1. 1
    Send us your request

    In our WhatsApp chat (WhatsApp on +234 703 679 9976), open the menu, tap “Talk to a person” and write “Delete my data”. Or email hello@hoolam.com with the subject “Delete my data” and the WhatsApp number you use with Hoolam.

  2. 2
    We check it’s you

    We send a message to that WhatsApp number to confirm. We never delete anyone’s data based on an email alone.

  3. 3
    Open deals finish first

    If you have a deal where money is held, it must be completed or refunded first, so nobody loses money.

  4. 4
    We delete, and tell you

    Within 30 days of confirming, we delete your data as below and send you a message to say it’s done.

What we delete

  • Your name and business name, your city, your profile photo and your social links.
  • Your public seller page and your trust record.
  • Your saved bank accounts, where they aren’t part of a deal record.
  • Your chat history with our bot and our team, and photos you sent, where they aren’t part of a deal record.

What we must keep

Nigerian law, including the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 and tax law, requires us to keep records of transactions. So for 5 years after each deal ends, we keep that deal’s record: the amounts, dates, the deal’s steps, the bank accounts money was paid from and to, problem reports and how they were decided, and the phone numbers of the people in the deal.

We keep these records locked away, use them only if the law or a dispute about that deal requires it, and delete them when the 5 years are up. The other person in a past deal keeps their own copy of the WhatsApp messages they received.

Smaller requests

  • Hide your page: turn off your public seller page yourself in the chat, under “My trust card”.
  • Remove your photo or links: use “Edit my page” in the chat.
  • Stop deal messages from strangers: tap “Not me” on any message about a deal you didn’t expect.
  • See what we hold: ask us for a copy at hello@hoolam.com.

Your WhatsApp account

Deleting your Hoolam data doesn’t delete your WhatsApp account or your chat history in WhatsApp. You can delete our chat from your phone at any time. To delete messages or data held by WhatsApp, use WhatsApp’s own settings.