Privacy Policy

Rate Am collects information you provide, information created through your use of the service, and limited technical information used to operate and protect the platform.

• Account information: username, email address, optional phone number, profile image, city, account-verification information, and account identifiers supplied through authentication.
• Review information: titles, stories, ratings, experience date, follow-up responses, anonymous-review preference, verification information, and any proof or evidence you upload.
• Community activity: comments, review interactions, reports, saved businesses, and business-claim information where you use those features.
• Business information: name, category, business type, location, website, social handles, WhatsApp link, photos, and ownership or claim details.
• Technical and security information: timestamps, authentication identifiers, IP address for review-related requests, and a hashed device fingerprint derived from request headers for abuse prevention and platform security.

• Provide, maintain, and improve Rate Am; authenticate accounts; and publish business listings and eligible reviews.
• Process reviews, uploaded evidence, comments, reports, favorites, and business claims.
• Help prevent spam, fraud, abuse, manipulation, and security incidents; verify experiences where applicable; and enforce the Terms and Community Guidelines.
• Run automated review moderation, respond to support requests, and meet applicable legal obligations.

Business listings and review content are intended to help people discover businesses. Publicly displayed information can include business details, published review titles and stories, ratings, and reviewer profile information where applicable.

When a review is submitted anonymously, Rate Am's public review presentation is designed to use an anonymous reviewer identity instead of the reviewer's profile identity. Do not include private information in content you choose to submit for public display.

Rate Am uses Clerk for account authentication and Google Gemini for automated review moderation. Review text and attached evidence images are sent to Google Gemini when needed for that moderation process. Uploaded proof and business photos are stored using S3-compatible object storage.

We may also disclose information where reasonably necessary to protect the platform or others, enforce our rules, respond to valid legal processes, or comply with applicable law.

Rate Am retains information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this policy, applicable legal requirements, security, dispute handling, and platform integrity. More specific retention schedules should be established where appropriate.

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures appropriate to the service, including access controls, authentication, validation, moderation processes, and security logging. No system can promise absolute security.

Subject to the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 and other applicable law, you may have rights to be informed, access personal data, request correction, object to or restrict processing, request erasure, and request portability where applicable. You may also have rights relating to automated decision-making and to complain to the relevant supervisory authority. These rights are not absolute and may be limited by law.

For privacy or data-rights requests, contact privacy@rateam.ng. You may also raise an applicable concern with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission.