Privacy Policy

Rheevue ("we", "our", or "us") operates the Rheevue mobile app and the website at rheevue.com (together, the "Service"), a spot discovery and review platform focused on Ghana. This Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how it is used and shared, how long we keep it, and the rights you have over it. It applies to everyone who uses the Service, whether or not you create an account. By using the Service you agree to the practices described in this policy.

The table below summarises every category of personal data the Service collects and why. Full detail follows in Section 3.

We do not collect financial or payment information or health data. The website uses your precise location only when you tap Near me, check in, or pin a business, and only as described in Section 5. We do not sell personal data to anyone. Optional advertising measurement and retargeting tags are only enabled after advertising consent.

Information you provide directly

• Account registration: first name, last name, email address, phone number, and password when you sign up. Passwords are stored by our authentication provider in hashed form; we never see or store your password in plain text.
• Business account registration: business name, registration or tax ID, owner name, verification phone number, and any supporting documents (such as a business certificate or utility bill) submitted when you claim a spot.
• Reviews and content: written reviews, star ratings, and any photos you attach to a review or spot listing.
• Profile information: display name, avatar or initials, and any bio or profile details you choose to add.
• Contacts (mobile app only, optional): if you choose to use the Find Friends feature, the app reads names, phone numbers, and email addresses from your device address book so it can check which of your contacts already use Rheevue. See Section 6 for how this is handled.

Information collected automatically

• Usage data: pages and screens visited, search queries, spots viewed, interactions with the Service, and whether the website is opened in a browser or as an installed web app.
• Device and log information: browser type, operating system, general device model, and IP address.
• Location: an approximate location derived from your IP address on the website; your device's location on the website only when you tap Near me, check in at a business, or pin a business you are adding; or your device's precise GPS location in the mobile app if you grant location permission. See Section 5.

Information from third parties

• Google Sign In: if you choose to sign in with Google, we receive your name, email address, and profile picture from Google.

• To create, secure, and manage your account.
• To display your reviews, ratings, and profile information on the platform.
• To verify business ownership claims and manage spot listings.
• To personalise search results and spot recommendations based on your location and activity.
• To send important account notifications, such as claim approval status, inside the app.
• To detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and violations of our Terms & Conditions.
• To maintain and improve the platform through aggregated, deidentified analytics.
• To respond to support requests you send us.

• On the website, we estimate your region from your IP address, using request headers processed on our servers. This is approximate only, typically accurate to a city or region, and is never linked to a precise address.
• Near me on the website. When you tap Near me, your browser asks whether to share your location. If you allow it, we round it to about 110 metres and keep it in a cookie on your device for 30 minutes, so results can be sorted by distance. It is sent to our servers with each search in that time and is not stored there.
• Checking in. When you tap to check in at a business, your location is compared with the business's map pin to confirm the visit, which shows as "Visited" on a review you write there. We keep the check-in (which business, when, and how far you were from its pin), and your location rounded to about 110 metres for 60 days, after which only the distance remains. Scanning a business's QR code while signed in counts as a check-in too. The places you checked in at are listed on your own profile. Nobody else can see your check-ins unless you switch on "Show my check-ins to friends", which is off until you do; your friends then see the names of the places, never when you were there, and nothing from the last three hours. Reviews show only the Visited label.
• Pinning a business. If you add or edit a business and choose to use your current location, that position becomes the business's map pin, together with how accurate your device reported it to be and that you set it.
• In the mobile app, we request permission to access your device's precise location so we can show spots near you and suggest your home region. You can grant this as "while using the app", and you can deny or revoke it at any time in your device settings. If location access is not granted, the app falls back to a default region (Greater Accra).
• Location data is used solely to improve search relevance and is never sold, never used to build an advertising profile, and never shared with third parties beyond what is described in Section 9.

The Find Friends feature in the mobile app is entirely optional and is never activated without your explicit action. If you choose to use it:

• The app asks the operating system for permission to read your device contacts. You can decline this and use every other part of Rheevue normally.
• Phone numbers and email addresses from your contacts are converted into one way cryptographic hashes on your device before anything leaves it. Your raw contact list, including names, is never uploaded to or stored on our servers.
• Those hashes are compared against hashes of phone numbers and emails already registered on Rheevue to identify contacts who are also Rheevue users, so we can suggest them as friends.
• You can turn this off at any time by revoking the Contacts permission in your device settings.

Your phone number is collected for the following purposes only.

• Account identity and verification.
• Optional contact discovery, described in Section 6, only with your explicit consent.
• Business verification: if you submit a spot claim, our admin team may use your phone number to verify ownership.

For contact discovery, phone numbers are stored only as a one way hash and are never displayed publicly. Your phone number is never sold or shared with third parties for marketing purposes.

Photos you attach to a review, a spot listing, or a business claim, and documents you submit with a claim, are stored with trusted third-party cloud storage providers that process them on our behalf. Photos attached to public reviews or listings are visible to anyone using the Service. Claim documents are kept in a separate, restricted storage location and are only accessible to our admin team for verification purposes.

We do not sell your personal data. We share information only in the following limited circumstances.

• Service providers: trusted third-party providers for database hosting, authentication, storage of reviews, profiles, uploaded photos and claim documents, and web hosting. These providers process data on our behalf under data processing agreements and only for the purposes described in this policy.
• Analytics and advertising partners: only if you opt in, Google Tag Manager may load configured analytics or advertising tags (such as Google Analytics, Meta, TikTok, or Snap). We send only allow-listed event data such as a listing ID, category, region, result count, or rating. We do not send names, emails, phone numbers, passwords, review text, claim contents, or precise location.
• Legal requirements: we may disclose information if required by Ghanaian law, a court order, or to protect the rights and safety of Rheevue, its users, or the public.
• Business transfers: if Rheevue is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, user data may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this policy.

The following information is visible to anyone using the Service.

• Your display name and avatar initials on reviews you submit.
• The content of your reviews, star ratings, and any photos you attach to them.
• Your business name if you own a verified, claimed spot.

Your email address, phone number, and password are never displayed publicly.

• Account data is retained for as long as your account remains active.
• Reviews and other public content remain on the platform after account deletion unless you explicitly request their removal.
• Business claim documents are retained for a minimum of twelve months for audit purposes.
• You may request full deletion of your personal data at any time by contacting contact@rheevue.com. We will action deletion requests within thirty days, except where we are required to retain certain records by law.

We use industry standard security measures, including encrypted connections (HTTPS), hashed passwords and contact values, and role based access controls, to protect your data. Access to admin tools and claim documents is restricted to authorised staff only. No method of transmission or storage over the internet is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Rheevue is not intended for children under 13, and business accounts require the account holder to be at least 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have inadvertently collected such information, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

Depending on your location, you have the right to the following.

• Access: request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction: update inaccurate or incomplete information through your account settings.
• Deletion: request deletion of your account and associated personal data.
• Objection: object to certain uses of your data, including contact discovery and location based personalisation, by disabling the relevant permission on your device.
• Portability: request an export of your data in a machine readable format.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at contact@rheevue.com. We will respond within thirty days.

The website uses essential cookies and local storage entries for authentication and to keep you signed in. We store your tracking choice locally, and ask again after six months so a decision you made once does not stand indefinitely. Analytics and advertising technologies are off by default and only load after your optional consent; you may reject them without affecting essential functionality, and may change your answer at any time from Cookie settings in the footer.

When you scan a Rheevue QR code at a business, we record that the code was scanned and when, the type of device and browser, and an approximate country and city worked out from your connection. We do not store your IP address. To avoid counting the same scan twice we keep a one-way code derived from it, which changes every day and cannot be turned back into your address or used to follow you from one day to the next. The scan sets a first-party cookie for two hours so we can tell whether the visit led to a review. It is not used for advertising and is not shared with anyone. Businesses see only totals.

Tapping Near me sets a first-party cookie holding your rounded location for 30 minutes, described in Section 5. It is essential to the feature you asked for and is never used for anything else.

Rheevue is built for Ghana and most of our users are located there. Some of our service providers, listed in Section 9, operate infrastructure outside Ghana. Where your data is processed outside Ghana, we require our providers to protect it using safeguards consistent with this policy and applicable data protection law.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. If a change is significant, we will communicate it by email or an in app notice. Continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

This Privacy Policy is governed by the laws of the Republic of Ghana, including the Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843). Any disputes arising from this policy are subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of Ghana.

If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal data, please contact us. See also our Terms & Conditions.