Hamio Market — Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-10-12

Hamio Market ("Hamio", "we", "us") is a location-based marketplace app for Nepal, operated from Kathmandu. This policy explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, and the choices you have. It applies to the Hamio Market app and the website hamiomarket.com.

1. Information we collect

1.1 Information you give us

• Account: your phone number (the primary identifier of your account), a nickname, an optional profile photo, your preferred language and country.
• Social sign-in (optional): if you continue with Google, Facebook or Apple we receive the name, email address and profile picture those services share. We never receive your password. The Facebook SDK is used for login only; its advertising-ID collection and automatic event logging are switched off.
• Phone verification: a one-time code is sent to your number by SMS or voice call through Twilio. The code is used once and is not kept after verification.
• Listings and posts: photos, titles, descriptions, prices and categories of items you list; community posts, comments, group pages, job posts and 24-hour stories (photo or video).
• Chat: text, photos, voice memos, shared locations and appointment proposals you send in a conversation.
• Reviews: ratings, text and photos you leave after a trade or a purchase, and the manner temperature computed from them.
• Business details (sellers and advertisers only): shop name, business registration number, tax number and contact details you submit when applying for a seller or advertiser account.
• Support requests: what you write when you report a problem, contact support or fill in a tester feedback form.

1.2 Information collected when you use the app

• Location: GPS coordinates when you verify your neighbourhood (re-verified periodically; other users see your neighbourhood name, never your raw coordinates), the approximate location of listings you create, and, if you choose to share it in a chat, your live location for a limited time (15, 30 or 60 minutes) while the app is open. Live location is exchanged only with the other person in that chat through Firebase Realtime Database and is removed when sharing ends.
• Device and technical data: push notification token, device identifier and IP address at sign-up (used to prevent referral fraud), app and OS version, and crash reports sent to Sentry with phone numbers and email addresses removed before sending.
• Usage data: which screens and features you use (for example category interest), used to order feeds and show relevant content.

1.3 Optional features that send data to a provider

• Translation: text you choose to translate (chat messages, posts, listings) is sent to Google Cloud Translation and the result is cached.
• HAMIO AI (only after you agree in the app; you can turn it off at any time): the following is sent to Anthropic, which runs the Claude AI and processes it for us. Your phone number and payment details are never sent.

- AI search and chat: what you type to HAMIO AI in the market or shopping tabs, with your approximate location for "near me" questions. - Help center AI: questions you ask the help center AI and the conversation used to draft an inquiry for you. If you have turned AI on, our support team may also use AI to draft a reply to your inquiry; a person reviews and sends it. - Reply suggestion: when you tap "Suggest replies" in a chat, the recent messages in that chat are sent to suggest short replies. The other person's messages are included only if they have also turned AI on. - Photo search: a photo you take or choose to find a product. The app resizes it, the server removes its location metadata, and Hamio does not store the photo. - Document pre-check (optional, separate checkbox): if you tick the box when you submit vehicle or property documents, the document images are sent to read the document type, PAN or vehicle number and expiry date and compare them with your submission. Our staff still make the decision.

• Dictation: the microphone dictation in chat is processed by your device's speech-recognition service (Apple or Google). Hamio does not receive that audio. Voice memos you send are stored by Hamio like any other message.
• Maps: map screens use Google Maps, which receives the map area you view.

1.4 HAMIO Shopping (where available)

When you buy from a registered seller inside the app we store your order, the delivery details you enter and the payment reference returned by eSewa, Khalti or your bank. Card numbers and wallet credentials are entered on the payment provider's pages and never reach Hamio.

2. How we use your information

• Run the service: match listings and posts to your neighbourhood, deliver chat and push notifications, show maps and nearby places.
• Keep the community safe: verify phone numbers, detect illegal listings under Nepali law, act on reports, block fraud and abuse.
• Operate purchases in HAMIO Shopping: hold and release payments, arrange delivery, handle refunds and disputes.
• Run rewards and referrals: points, invite codes and attendance, with device and IP checks against self-referral.
• Improve the app: understand which features are used, fix crashes, order feeds by relevance.
• Show sponsored listings from local advertisers. Advertisers do not receive your personal data.
• Meet legal obligations in Nepal.

3. Who we share information with

• Other users: your nickname, profile photo, neighbourhood name, manner temperature, listings, posts, stories, reviews and group membership are visible to other users by design. Chat content is visible only to the people in that chat, except that recent messages may be sent to our AI provider for a reply suggestion as described in section 1.3.
• Service providers that process data for us:

• Legal and safety: when required by law, court order or a lawful request from a Nepali authority, or to protect the safety of users or the public.
• Business transfer: if Hamio is merged or acquired, your data may transfer to the new operator under this policy.

We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it with advertising networks.

4. Where data is processed

Our servers are in Amazon Web Services' Mumbai region (India) and some providers above operate from the United States or elsewhere. By using Hamio you understand that your data is processed outside Nepal. We apply the same protections wherever it is processed.

5. How long we keep information

• Account data: while your account is active, then deleted within 30 days of account deletion.
• Chat messages, photos and voice memos: until you delete them or your account is deleted. A sender can delete an unread message within 24 hours; the other person then sees "Deleted message".
• Stories: shown for 24 hours; the files are removed from storage within 31 days.
• Live location: only while sharing, then removed.
• HAMIO AI conversations: kept for 30 days so you can reopen them, then deleted. Photos for photo search are not stored. Our AI provider deletes what it receives within 30 days.
• Reviews and manner temperature: kept while the account exists so that other users can rely on them; removed with the account.
• Technical logs and crash reports: up to 12 months.
• Purchase, payment and tax records (HAMIO Shopping, business accounts): kept for the period required by Nepali tax and accounting law even after account deletion.

6. Security

All traffic uses TLS. Data is stored encrypted at rest. Access tokens are short-lived and can be revoked by signing out. Uploaded files are stored under owner-scoped keys so that one user cannot delete another's photos. No method is completely secure, and we cannot promise absolute security.

7. Your rights and choices

• Access and correction: edit your profile, listings and posts in the app.
• Deletion: delete your account in the app (Profile → Settings → Delete account) or through hamiomarket.com/account-deletion.
• Export: ask us for a copy of your data through the contact below.
• Notifications: choose which notifications you receive in Settings.
• Location: you can refuse the location permission; you can still choose a neighbourhood manually, but neighbourhood verification, nearby maps and live sharing will not work.
• Translation and dictation run only when you use them.
• HAMIO AI: nothing is sent to the AI provider until you agree. You can turn AI off in Profile → Settings → AI features; after that nothing more is sent, and the optional document pre-check is a separate choice on each submission.

8. Children

Hamio Market is not intended for people under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children; if we learn that we have, we delete it.

9. Changes to this policy

We will announce significant changes in the app and update the date above. Continued use after the change means you accept the updated policy.

10. Governing law

This policy is governed by the laws of Nepal, including the Individual Privacy Act, 2075 (2018). Disputes are subject to the courts of Kathmandu.

11. Contact

Email support@hamiomarket.com, or see hamiomarket.com/support. Hamio Market, Kathmandu, Nepal.