Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

SONKA is operated by TELE-PORT PRIME GHANA LTD, a company incorporated in Ghana under the Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992), registration number CS014610126, with its registered office at Unnumbered plot, Kwadaso, near the main road, Kumasi, Ashanti, AK-586-0687, Ghana ("SONKA", "we", "us").

We are the data controller for the information described here: we decide what SONKA collects and why, and we are responsible for it under Ghana's Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843).

2. What we collect, and why

Your account

• Phone number, to create your account and sign you in with a code we text you.
• Name, town and whether you are a customer or a driver, shown on your profile.
• Optional: a profile photo, a short bio, your preferred language and an email address.
• When you accepted our terms and on which device, as proof of agreement.

Signing in and keeping accounts safe

• The sign-in codes we text you. We store them only in scrambled form, and they expire after 5 minutes.
• Device details (a device identifier, model, operating system and app version) and your IP address when you sign in, to protect your account. You can see your devices and sign-in history in the app under Settings.

Location

• Customers: your location while you use the map and when you make a booking, to show drivers near you and to set pickup and drop-off points.
• Drivers: your location while the app is open, and also in the background, including when the app is closed or not in use, if you allow it. This keeps you visible to customers nearby and lets us send you jobs on your routes. In the background your phone reports about once a minute while SONKA is running, and checks in about every 15 minutes otherwise. We may also send a silent notification to wake the app so your position stays current.
• During an accepted booking, the driver's location is shared every few seconds so the customer can follow the trip and see the time to arrival.

You can stop location sharing at any time in your phone's settings (Settings → Apps → SONKA → Location). Customers will then not see you on the map.

If you drive

• Vehicle details: type, make, model, colour, length, up to 4 photos, and the routes you usually run.
• Number plate: shown to a customer only once you have accepted their booking.
• Your availability (Free, Busy or Not working), ratings, completed trips and subscription status.
• Payment records for your subscription or adverts: the mobile money number used, transaction IDs, amounts and any screenshots you send as proof of payment.

What you create in SONKA

• Messages you send, including photos, videos and voice notes.
• Voice job posts: recordings of up to 90 seconds describing goods to move, with the route and day. Drivers can play them.
• Posts, comments, likes and 24-hour status posts on the SONKA feed.
• Ratings and reviews after a trip, reports you make, people you block, and messages to our support team.

Drivers' phone numbers given to customers

We keep a record each time a customer obtains a driver's number: who asked, which driver and when. See section 5.

Searching for places

When you type in a place field, the text you type and your approximate location are sent to Google to suggest matching places in Ghana.

How you found the app

On Android, Google Play tells the app which link it was installed from. If that was a Facebook or Instagram advert, the link carries identifiers of the advert campaign. We use this only to count which adverts bring people to SONKA. It says nothing about who you are, and we do not send your information to Meta. SONKA contains no Facebook or advertising software.

Notifications

A push token so we can send you notifications, and a record of the notifications we sent.

What we do not take

• Text messages: on Android, SONKA can fill in its own sign-in code automatically. It uses Google's SMS Retriever, which passes the app only that one SONKA message. For a mobile money code, SONKA reads only the single message you allow by tapping Allow. We cannot see your other messages, and SONKA does not ask for permission to read them.
• Microphone: used only while you record a voice note or voice job.
• Camera and photos: used only for pictures you choose to take or send.
• Your contacts, or anything else on your phone.

3. The legal basis for using your information

• To provide the service you signed up for: your account, the map, bookings, messages and payments.
• Your consent: location (and background location for drivers), microphone, camera and notifications. You give it through your phone's permission prompts and can withdraw it at any time in your phone's settings.
• Our legitimate interests: keeping SONKA safe and free of fraud, preventing drivers' numbers from being harvested, and improving the app.
• Legal obligations: keeping payment and tax records, and responding to lawful requests from the authorities.

4. What other SONKA users can see

• If you drive: your name, photo, vehicle type, length and photos, usual routes, rating, town, position on the map, availability and whether you are online are visible to signed-in users. Your number plate is shown only after you accept a booking. Your phone number is covered in section 5.
• If you are a customer: your name and number are shown to a driver once you are on a booking together, or if you call or message them first. Drivers can play voice job posts you publish.
• Feed posts and comments are visible to other signed-in users.
• People you block cannot see your posts, profile or driver listing, and cannot message you or obtain your number.

5. Drivers' phone numbers

SONKA is a marketplace where customers ring drivers directly and agree the job between themselves. If you register as a driver, customers can obtain your mobile number through the app in order to call you. This is how work reaches you.

• Your number is not shown in search results, on the map or in any list. A customer must open your profile and ask for it.
• Only signed-in users can ask, and they must first confirm their own number by SMS.
• Each customer can obtain only a limited number of drivers' numbers per day.
• We record every time your number is given out, and you can see how many people have asked for it from your driver dashboard.
• We never supply driver lists to anyone.

6. Companies that help us run SONKA

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with the companies below, and only what each needs to do its job. Most of them are processors: they act only on our instructions and may not use your information for their own purposes.

• Supabase: stores the SONKA database (Ireland).
• Railway: runs the SONKA servers (United States).
• Cloudflare: protects and speeds up the connection between the app and our servers.
• Cloudinary: stores photos, videos and voice recordings you upload.
• Expo and Google Firebase Cloud Messaging: deliver push notifications, including their text.
• Google Maps Platform: shows maps, suggests places as you type, and calculates routes and travel times in current traffic. It receives the locations and searches involved. Google's use is described in the Google Privacy Policy.
• Arkesel: sends sign-in codes and SMS reminders to your number.
• Google Play: distributes the app on Android and tells us the link it was installed from.

These companies are not our processors. They keep payment records of their own, because the law requires them to:

• Paystack and MTN Mobile Money: process mobile money and card payments.

We may also disclose information when the law requires it, or to protect the safety of SONKA users.

7. Where your information is kept

Our database is hosted in Ireland and our servers in the United States. Our notification, SMS and media providers are also outside Ghana. We choose established providers who protect information to recognised international standards. We remain responsible to you for your information wherever it is held, as Act 843 requires.

8. How long we keep it

• While your account is open, we keep your account information.
• Chat photos are removed after 7 days, chat videos after 24 hours, and chat voice notes after 30 days. Status posts disappear after 24 hours.
• Sign-in codes expire after 5 minutes.
• When you delete your account, it closes straight away and you disappear from the map and search. For 30 days we can restore it if you ask, in case it was a mistake. After 30 days we permanently delete or anonymise your personal information, including your name, number, photos, vehicle details, location, posts and voice jobs.
• What remains after deletion: messages you already sent stay with the people you sent them to, shown as from "Deleted user". Records of completed bookings and ratings are kept without your name or number. Payment, receipt and subscription records are kept for as long as Ghanaian tax and accounting law requires. Security logs of sign-ins are kept without your phone number.

9. How we protect it

All traffic between the app and our servers is encrypted (HTTPS). Database tables that hold personal information are protected by row-level security, so people can reach only what they are allowed to. Sign-in codes are stored scrambled, and our own staff can reach only what their role needs.

10. Your rights

Under the Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843) you can:

• ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
• ask us to correct anything that is wrong. You can change most of it yourself in the app under Edit Profile;
• ask us to delete your information. In the app, open Profile → Delete Account, or use the account deletion page;
• object to how we use your information, or withdraw consent (for example, turn off location or notifications in your phone's settings);
• complain to the Data Protection Commission of Ghana (dataprotection.org.gh) if you think we have mishandled your information.

To use any of these rights, email [email protected] from your account, or contact Help & Support in the app. We may need to confirm the request comes from the owner of the number. We will answer within 21 days.

11. Children

SONKA is for adults. You must be at least 18 to use it, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has an account, tell us and we will close it.

12. Cookies on our website

sonkagh.com uses no advertising or tracking cookies and no analytics that follow you. Pages may store small technical items in your browser that are needed for the page to work, such as remembering that you are signed in to the SONKA web app. These cannot be used to identify you across other websites, so we do not ask for cookie consent.

13. Changes to this policy

If we make an important change, we will tell you in the app or by notification before it takes effect, and update the date at the top of this page.

14. Contact us

TELE-PORT PRIME GHANA LTD
Unnumbered plot, Kwadaso, near the main road, Kumasi, Ashanti, AK-586-0687, Ghana
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +233 53 821 4744