What we know about you, and why

The short version

We collect what we need to collect an item from one home, check it, and carry it to another. That is a name, a phone number, an address, and a record of the deal.

We do not track you. There is no analytics, no advertising, and no third-party tracking anywhere in this site — not switched off, not installed. The only cookie we set is the one that keeps you signed in.

We have never sold anyone's information and the business does not depend on doing so.

Who we are

Amana is a preloved baby and children's gear marketplace operating in Cairo, Egypt. We are the ones who decide what happens to the information described here, which in data-protection language makes us the controller.

The fastest way to reach a human about anything on this page is WhatsApp, on the number at the bottom of every page.

What we collect, and when

Nothing here is collected in the background. Each item below is attached to something you did.

• When you sign in with Google — your name, your email address, and your Google account identifier. That is all Google gives us and all we ask for. We cannot see your contacts, your photos, your files, or anything else in your Google account.
• When you first buy or sell — your phone number. This is the only moment we insist on one, and the reason is in the next section.
• When you buy — the delivery address you give us: area, street, building, floor, apartment, a landmark if you add one, and a contact number for the door.
• When you sell — the photographs and description of your item, including the flaws you tell us about, what you originally paid if you tell us, your asking price, and the lowest price you would accept. Your lowest price is never shown to a buyer.
• When you are paid — the InstaPay handle you want the money sent to.
• If you pay by InstaPay — the transfer reference and the screenshot or photo you attach as evidence.
• As you browse — the items you save and the items in your basket. Both are tied to your account so they survive you closing the tab.
• Through the deal — a record of what was listed, approved, bought, collected, checked, delivered and paid, with the date of each step and which of our staff did it. We keep this because it is the only honest answer to "what happened to my item", and because a verification nobody recorded is not a verification.

Why we ask for a phone number

Because we ring everybody. Before an item or any money moves, somebody from Amana calls the seller to arrange a collection and the buyer to arrange a delivery. We are carrying a physical object between two homes; that cannot be done by email.

This is also why you can browse the whole site, save items and fill a basket without giving us a number at all. We ask at exactly two moments — when you check out, and when you submit an item to be listed — and not before.

What we do not collect

Said plainly, because most sites this sentence appears on do collect it:

• No card numbers, because we do not take card payments at all. There is nowhere on this site to type one.
• No analytics or usage tracking. We do not know which pages you looked at, how long you stayed, or where you came from.
• No advertising or marketing trackers, no pixels, no fingerprinting.
• No location data beyond the delivery address you type yourself.
• No contact list, no access to your photo library, and nothing from your Google account beyond your name and email.

Cookies

One cookie, and it only keeps you signed in. It is set when you sign in and cleared when you sign out. If you block it you can still browse, but you will not be able to stay signed in.

There are no advertising cookies and no analytics cookies, so there is no cookie banner asking you to accept any. We thought that was the better way round.

Who else can see it

A small number of companies hold or handle this information so that the site can work. They act on our instructions and may not use it for their own purposes.

• Supabase — our database, sign-in system and photo storage. This is where almost everything described above actually lives.
• Vercel — serves the website itself.
• Google — only for signing you in. Google learns that you signed in to Amana; Google does not receive your address, your items or your orders.
• WhatsApp, owned by Meta — only if you choose to message us there. That conversation is on their service and subject to their terms, not ours.
• Your bank and InstaPay — a seller payout is a transfer between two bank accounts, so your InstaPay handle and the amount necessarily pass through the banking system.

Something we want to be straight about: where your data sits

Our database is hosted in Frankfurt, Germany. We chose the region nearest to Cairo that our provider offers, because closer means the site is faster for you.

It does mean your information leaves Egypt. We would rather say that here than have you find it out later. Egypt's Personal Data Protection Law treats sending personal data abroad as something that needs its own permission, and we are working through what that requires of us. If the honest answer changes, this paragraph changes with it.

How long we keep it

Your account and the things attached to it stay for as long as you have an account.

A completed order is kept as a business and tax record after that, because we are obliged to be able to show what we sold and what we paid out. We keep the record of the transaction and remove what is no longer needed to support it.

A draft listing you never submitted is just yours to delete, and you can do that yourself at any time.

Deleting your account

Message us on WhatsApp and ask. We will do it, and we will not make you explain why.

Being straight about two things. First, there is no button for this yet — it is a message to a person, and we will confirm when it is done. Second, deletion removes your account, your profile, your addresses, your saved items, your basket, your draft listings and your photographs. Where you have completed a sale or a purchase, we keep the financial record of that transaction, because we are required to.

You can also ask us for a copy of what we hold, or to correct anything that is wrong. Same number, no form to fill in.

Children

Amana sells things for children, to adults. Accounts are for people aged 18 and over, and we do not knowingly collect anything about a child. The only information we hold that relates to a child is what a seller chooses to write about an item — the age a carrier suits, for instance. If you believe a child has created an account, tell us and we will remove it.

If this page changes

The date at the top moves whenever the words do. If a change actually affects what we do with your information — rather than making a sentence clearer — we will tell you about it rather than quietly reposting the page.

Asking us about any of this

WhatsApp is the fastest route and reaches a person, not a queue. If you are not satisfied with how we have answered, Egypt's Personal Data Protection Centre is the authority responsible for these rules and you are entitled to raise it with them.