1.Who is responsible for your data
Blockchain Trading PLC, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, operates Bnbit and is the controller of your personal data. Questions and requests go to support@bnbit.com.
2.What we collect
What you give us
- Account details: first and last name, username, email address, phone number (if you add one), date of birth, gender, profile photo and bio. If you sign in with Google or Apple, we receive your name and email from them.
- Content: the photos, videos, stories, playlists, comments, likes, reactions and gifts you post or send, and who you share a post with.
- Messages: what you send and receive in chats, including paid content in chat. Messages are stored on our servers so they reach the other person; they are not end-to-end encrypted.
- Creator and business details: what you create, your brand's name, logo, description, website and city; bank account holder, bank name and account number, or PayPal email, for payouts; and documents you send when we verify your identity before a payout.
- Support: what you write to us through Help and support, and feedback you send about the app.
Payments
- When you buy stars or unlock content, the payment is handled by Apple, Google, Chapa (including Telebirr), or Stripe. We never see or store your card number. We receive and keep a payment reference, the amount, the currency, the date, and whether the payment succeeded, was refunded or was disputed.
- For US dollar payouts through Stripe or PayPal, those companies collect what they need to pay you under their own privacy policies.
What we collect automatically
- Device and app data: device type and operating system, app version, language, time zone, IP address, a push notification token, and crash reports.
- Usage: which posts you view, how long, what you tap, searches, and the screens you use. Views of a post are counted and, for the creator's own stories, listed by viewer.
- Location: your approximate location (country and city) from your device, only when you allow it, to show businesses near you, to apply the right payment and payout rules, and to set your country. You can turn this off in your phone's settings; the app then asks for your country instead.
- Website: bnbit.com uses only the cookies needed to work. We do not run advertising trackers on it.
3.Why we use it
| Purpose | Examples | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Running Bnbit | Showing your profile and posts, delivering messages, counting views, keeping your wallet balance, ranking posts and creators | Our contract with you |
| Payments and payouts | Crediting stars you bought, paying creators, verifying payments with the provider, handling refunds and disputes, keeping accounts as the law requires | Our contract with you; legal obligations |
| Safety and fraud prevention | Checking a payout before it is made, taking back stars after a refund, blocking repeat refunders, reviewing reported content and messages, protecting accounts | Our legitimate interest in a safe service; legal obligations |
| Notifications | Telling you about stars, unlocks, messages, brand deals and reminders you have not switched off | Our contract with you; your choices in Settings |
| Improving the app | Crash reports, aggregated usage statistics, testing new features | Our legitimate interest |
| Support | Answering your questions and resolving problems | Our contract with you |
We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use it for advertising by other companies.
4.Who can see what
- Public: your username, display name, profile photo, bio, what you create, follower and following counts, public posts and stories, playlists, your position in rankings, and the stars and gifts you sent with your name showing.
- Only people you choose: posts shared with selected people, and locked content, which only those who unlocked it can see.
- Only the creator: who viewed their story, and their insights.
- Only you and the other person: messages.
- Nobody but you (and our team when needed): your email, phone number, date of birth, bank details, payment history and support conversations.
- Anonymous support: when you send stars or a gift with "Support anonymously", the public sees "Anonymous" on the creator's Supporters list. The creator you support can still see who you are, and we keep the record for payments and safety.
5.Who we share it with
We share personal data only with companies that help us run Bnbit, each under a contract that limits what they may do with it:
- Payment providers: Chapa (birr payments, including Telebirr), Apple and Google (in-app purchases), Stripe (card payments and US dollar payouts), PayPal (US dollar payouts), and RevenueCat (verifying App Store purchases).
- Hosting and delivery: Amazon Web Services for our servers, storage and content delivery.
- Notifications and reliability: Google Firebase for push notifications and crash reports.
- Analytics: PostHog for how the app is used, with no advertising use.
- Sign-in: Google and Apple, if you choose to sign in with them.
We also share data when the law requires it, to respond to a valid request from a court or authority, to protect the rights and safety of our users or the public, or as part of a sale or merger of the business, in which case this policy continues to apply.
6.Where your data is kept
Our servers are hosted by Amazon Web Services and may be located outside Ethiopia. Payment providers process data in their own countries. Wherever your data is, we protect it as described here and apply the safeguards the law requires for transfers.
7.How long we keep it
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Posts and stories | Posts for the period shown in the app after posting; stories for 24 hours. After that they are archived and their media is deleted on a schedule. |
| Profile, messages, playlists, comments | While your account exists; deleted when you delete your account (see below). |
| Payment, payout and wallet records | Up to 10 years after the transaction, as required by accounting and anti-money-laundering law, even after your account is deleted. |
| Fraud and safety records | Up to 5 years, so that a closed account cannot simply be reopened. |
| Crash and usage logs | Up to 12 months. |
| Support conversations | Up to 2 years after they are closed. |
| Backups | Up to 30 days, after which deleted data is gone from backups too. |
8.Your choices and rights
- Notifications: Settings → Notifications lets you pause all pushes or switch off each kind. Payment and account messages always arrive.
- Visibility: choose who can see each post, turn downloads off, and support anonymously.
- Location: turn it off in your phone's settings at any time.
- Access and correction: most of your data is visible and editable in the app. Email us for a copy of the rest.
- Deletion: delete individual posts, comments and messages in the app, or your whole account from Settings → Account. See Delete your data.
- Objection and restriction: you can ask us to stop or limit a use of your data; we will explain if we must keep some of it.
- Complaints: if you are unhappy with how we handle your data, write to us. You may also complain to the data protection authority where you live.
Requests go to support@bnbit.com. We may ask you to confirm it is your account, and we answer within 30 days.
9.Children
Bnbit is for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone younger. If you believe a child has an account, tell us at support@bnbit.com and we will remove it.
10.Security
Data travels to our servers over encrypted connections. Passwords are stored hashed, never in plain text. Access to personal data inside Bnbit is limited to the people who need it for their work. Payments are verified with the provider before they count. No system is perfectly secure, so if you learn of a problem with your account or with Bnbit's security, tell us at once.
11.Changes to this policy
When we change this policy in a way that matters, we tell you in the app before the change takes effect and update the date at the top. Smaller changes are posted here.
12.Contact
Blockchain Trading PLC, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Email support@bnbit.com. In the app: Settings → Help and support.