Privacy notice

Last updated 30 September 2026

FindZim helps people in Zimbabwe find businesses on WhatsApp, and helps businesses show what they sell. This notice says what we keep about you, why, who sees it and for how long, and how to have it deleted. To ask us anything about it, leave your number on our registration page and our team will call you.

If you ask us for something on WhatsApp

We keep:

• your WhatsApp number and the name on your WhatsApp profile;
• your messages to us, what you asked for, and any location you share;
• the businesses we showed you and the ones you chose to contact;
• your answers to our follow-up, your ratings, and any report you make about a business.

We use them to find businesses for you, to connect you with the one you choose, to ask once how it went, to keep dishonest businesses off FindZim, and to get better at understanding requests. Voice notes and photos you send us are not downloaded or read.

If you list a business

We keep what you give us for the listing: the business's name, WhatsApp number, location, address, opening hours, description, products, prices and photos, and what our team noted when checking it. Most of it is public: customers see it on WhatsApp and on this website, and products with a photo and a price are also shown in WhatsApp's product catalog. We also keep a record of the customers we sent you and how it went, and your dashboard sign-ins.

Who else sees it

• The business you choose to contact sees what you asked for, with a reference code, and your number when you message them. Businesses you don't contact see nothing about you.
• Meta carries every WhatsApp message, and holds the product catalog.
• Anthropic reads some typed requests that our own system can't understand, without your number or name.
• Our hosting and storage providers keep the database and photos for us.

Some of these providers keep data outside Zimbabwe, under their own data protection terms. We never sell personal data, and we send no marketing.

How long we keep it

• Messages: 180 days.
• The wording of your requests: 365 days. After that we keep only the kind of thing asked for, the area and whether it was found, for statistics.
• Ratings and reports: until you delete your data. Reports stay after that, without your name or number.
• A listing and its products: while the business is listed.
• Dashboard sign-in links: 15 minutes, or a day when our team sends one. Sessions: 30 days.

Messages we send you

We answer your messages. After you contact a business we may ask once how it went. If nobody had what you asked for and a business near you lists it soon after, we may tell you once. Type alerts off to stop those, or stop to stop everything until you write to us again.

Your choices

• Delete everything: type delete my data on WhatsApp and confirm. It happens straight away.
• A copy of your data, or a correction: leave your number on our registration page and our team will call you. Businesses can correct their listing themselves on the dashboard.
• A complaint: tell us first, and we'll put it right if we can. You can also complain to POTRAZ, Zimbabwe's data protection authority.

Changes

If we change this notice we update this page and its date. If a change matters to you, we tell you before it takes effect.