Privacy Policy

This page says what Bid Smart keeps about you, why, and who else sees it. It is short because we keep little.

1. What we keep

Your phone number and a username, from signup. The phone number is your account: it receives the sign-in codes and the auction texts.
Every bid you place: the auction, the amount, when you placed it, and whether its entry fee was paid. Bid amounts stay hidden from everyone until the auction closes.
The payment reference Chapa gives each entry fee. We never see or store your Telebirr or CBE Birr PIN or balance.
A partner code, if you signed up through a partner's link.
The usual server records: the address and browser each request came from, kept for a short time to run the site and stop abuse.

To run your account and your bids, and to decide and announce each auction's result.
To text you: a sign-in code, a reminder before an auction you bid in closes, a notice when an auction is extended, and the result if you won or came close.
To charge the entry fee: your phone number goes to Chapa, which sends the payment prompt to your wallet.
To contact the winner and arrange delivery.
To keep the auctions fair: limits on sign-in attempts, codes and bids per phone and per address.

Chapa (payments) receives your phone number and the amount of each entry fee.
AfroMessage (SMS) receives your phone number and the text of each message.
The company hosting our servers, outside Ethiopia, stores the data for us.
Other bidders see your username only, or your phone number with most of its digits hidden, on the results of an auction you bid in.
We do not sell your information, and we show no ads.

The site stores your language choice and, once you sign in, your session on your device. Nothing tracks you across other sites, and we run no analytics.

Your account stays until you ask us to close it.
Bids and their payment records are the auction's ledger: they stay with the auction's results even after an account is closed, with the phone number hidden.

You can see your bids any time under My bids, and your details under Account.
To close your account or correct your details, write to us through Support. We confirm when it is done.

Bid Smart is for adults. Telebirr and CBE Birr wallets are issued to adults, and we do not knowingly keep an account for anyone under 18.

We may update this page. The version shown here applies from the day it is posted.

Any question about your information? Reach us through Support.