HerbsAfrika (“HerbsAfrika”, “we”, “us” or “our”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information.
HerbsAfrika operates an online marketplace that connects independent sellers of herbs, natural products, wellness products, foods and related products with customers around the world. We may also coordinate the collection of products from sellers in Nigeria and their shipment to customers internationally through third-party logistics providers.
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, store and protect personal information when you use our website, marketplace, mobile applications, services or communicate with us.
Because HerbsAfrika operates internationally, different privacy and data-protection laws may apply depending on where you live, where you are located and how our services are provided to you. We aim to handle personal information in accordance with applicable data-protection laws, including the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 where applicable.
1. Who we are
HerbsAfrika is operated by:
- Trading name
- HerbsAfrika
- Website
- www.herbsafrika.com
For certain activities, HerbsAfrika may act as a data controller or equivalent entity responsible for determining why and how personal information is processed.
Where third-party service providers process personal information on our behalf, they may act as data processors or equivalent service providers, depending on applicable law.
2. Information we collect
We collect only information that is reasonably necessary for operating and improving the HerbsAfrika marketplace, fulfilling orders, supporting sellers and customers, complying with legal obligations and protecting our business and users.
The information we collect may include the following.
2.1 Customer information
When you create an account, place an order or communicate with us, we may collect:
- Full name
- Email address
- Telephone number
- Billing address
- Delivery/shipping address
- Country of residence or delivery
- Account login information
- Order history
- Products purchased
- Communications with HerbsAfrika
- Customer-service enquiries
- Reviews, ratings and other content you submit
- Information required to resolve disputes or refunds
2.2 Seller information
If you apply to sell through HerbsAfrika, we may collect:
- Full name
- Business or trading name
- Email address
- Telephone number
- Business address
- Identification information where required for verification
- Business registration information
- Tax or regulatory information where applicable
- Bank or payment information
- Product and inventory information
- Seller account information
- Documentation relating to regulatory compliance
- Communications with HerbsAfrika
- Information concerning orders, returns, complaints and disputes
We may request additional documentation where necessary to verify sellers, products or regulatory compliance.
2.3 Payment information
Payments may be processed through third-party payment providers.
Depending on the payment method, we or our payment providers may process information such as:
- Payment card details
- Bank account details
- Payment transaction information
- Billing information
- Payment status
- Fraud-prevention information
Where payment information is processed directly by a third-party payment provider, that provider may process your information under its own privacy policy.
HerbsAfrika does not intend to store complete payment-card information where this is unnecessary for providing the service.
2.4 Shipping and customs information
Because HerbsAfrika may coordinate the collection and international delivery of products, we may process:
- Recipient name
- Delivery address
- Telephone number
- Email address
- Shipment information
- Tracking information
- Customs information
- Import or export documentation
- Product descriptions and quantities
- Information required by customs authorities or logistics providers
This information may be shared with logistics providers, customs authorities and other parties involved in fulfilling an international shipment.
2.5 Technical and usage information
When you use our website or applications, we may automatically collect certain technical information, including:
- IP address
- Device type
- Browser type
- Operating system
- Approximate location derived from technical information
- Website pages viewed
- Search activity
- Referral information
- Date and time of visits
- Device identifiers
- Authentication and security information
- Website and application usage information
We use this information to operate, secure and improve our services.
3. Information we receive from other sources
We may receive information about you from third parties where permitted by law.
These sources may include:
- Payment providers
- Shipping and logistics providers
- Sellers
- Fraud-prevention providers
- Identity or business-verification providers
- Analytics and technology providers
- Customer-support providers
- Advertising or marketing platforms
- Publicly available sources
- Government authorities and regulators
For example, a seller may provide information about a customer necessary to fulfil an order, while a logistics provider may provide delivery and tracking information.
4. How we use your personal information
We may use personal information for the following purposes:
Providing the HerbsAfrika marketplace
We use information to:
- Create and manage accounts
- Process orders
- Connect buyers and sellers
- Facilitate payments
- Coordinate product collection
- Arrange shipping and delivery
- Provide order tracking
- Handle returns, refunds and cancellations
- Provide customer support
- Communicate with users about their accounts and transactions
Seller management
We may use seller information to:
- Verify seller identities and businesses
- Assess seller applications
- Verify regulatory or compliance information
- Review products listed on the marketplace
- Monitor seller performance
- Investigate complaints
- Prevent prohibited or unlawful products
- Manage seller payments
- Protect the marketplace from fraud and abuse
Safety, security and fraud prevention
We may process information to:
- Detect and prevent fraud
- Detect suspicious transactions
- Protect customer and seller accounts
- Investigate abuse
- Prevent unauthorised access
- Protect our website, applications and systems
- Investigate security incidents
- Protect users and the public from unsafe products
Legal and regulatory compliance
We may process and disclose information where necessary to:
- Comply with applicable laws
- Respond to lawful requests from authorities
- Meet tax, customs or regulatory requirements
- Comply with court orders or legal proceedings
- Establish, exercise or defend legal claims
- Maintain appropriate business and transaction records
Improving HerbsAfrika
We may use information to:
- Understand how customers use the marketplace
- Improve website functionality
- Improve search and product discovery
- Analyse marketplace performance
- Develop new services
- Identify technical problems
- Conduct internal research and analytics
Marketing
Where permitted by applicable law, we may use your information to send:
- Newsletters
- Product information
- Marketplace updates
- Promotional communications
- Offers and recommendations
Where applicable, you may unsubscribe from marketing communications at any time.
Transactional and service communications, such as order confirmations, shipping updates and important account notices, may still be sent when necessary to provide the service.
5. Legal bases for processing
Where applicable law requires us to identify a legal basis for processing your personal information, we may rely on one or more of the following:
Contract
We may process information where it is necessary to provide services you have requested, including processing orders, payments and deliveries.
Legal obligation
We may process information where necessary to comply with applicable laws, regulations, tax requirements, customs requirements, regulatory obligations or lawful requests.
Legitimate interests
We may process information where necessary for legitimate business interests, such as:
- Operating and improving the marketplace
- Fraud prevention
- Network and information security
- Customer support
- Business administration
- Protecting our legal rights
- Preventing misuse of the platform
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we will consider applicable legal requirements and the rights and interests of affected individuals.
Consent
Where required by applicable law, we may ask for your consent before processing personal information for particular purposes, such as certain forms of marketing, cookies or other optional processing.
Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw your consent where permitted by law.
Other lawful bases
Depending on the country or jurisdiction involved, applicable law may provide additional lawful bases for processing personal information.
6. Information shared with sellers
HerbsAfrika is a marketplace involving independent sellers.
When you purchase a product, we may provide the seller with information necessary to fulfil and support your order.
This may include:
- Customer name
- Delivery information
- Contact information where necessary
- Order details
- Product information
- Information concerning returns, refunds or customer-service issues
Sellers must only use customer information for legitimate marketplace and order-related purposes and must comply with applicable privacy and data-protection laws.
Sellers must not use customer information obtained through HerbsAfrika to send unauthorised marketing communications or for unrelated purposes.
7. Logistics and shipping providers
HerbsAfrika may use third-party logistics and shipping providers to collect products from sellers and deliver them to customers internationally.
This may include providers such as Terminal Africa and their relevant shipping, customs and delivery partners.
We may provide logistics providers with information necessary to:
- Collect products
- Prepare shipments
- Generate shipping documentation
- Deliver packages
- Provide tracking
- Handle customs requirements
- Contact recipients regarding delivery
- Resolve delivery problems
International shipping may require personal information to be transferred to service providers, customs authorities or other parties located in countries outside the country where you live.
8. Other third-party service providers
We may use third-party providers to help operate HerbsAfrika.
These may include:
- Payment processors
- Hosting providers
- Cloud service providers
- Website and application providers
- Analytics providers
- Fraud-prevention services
- Identity and business-verification providers
- Customer-support platforms
- Email and communications providers
- Marketing service providers
- Accounting and professional advisers
- Legal advisers
- Insurance providers
- IT and cybersecurity providers
We seek to use appropriate contractual, technical and organisational safeguards when third parties process personal information on our behalf.
9. International data transfers
HerbsAfrika is an international marketplace. Your personal information may therefore be processed or transferred across national borders.
For example, information may need to be transferred between:
- Customer
- HerbsAfrika
- Seller
- Logistics provider
- Customs/delivery provider
- Customer
The countries involved may differ depending on the location of the seller, customer, logistics provider and other service providers.
Where applicable law imposes requirements for international transfers of personal information, we will take appropriate steps to comply with those requirements.
These measures may include contractual safeguards, adequacy mechanisms, approved transfer mechanisms, or other legally recognised safeguards.
12. Data security
We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against:
- Unauthorised access
- Unauthorised disclosure
- Accidental loss
- Destruction
- Alteration
- Misuse
- Unlawful processing
Security measures may include access controls, authentication systems, encryption where appropriate, monitoring, backups, security testing and staff or contractor controls.
However, no internet-based service can guarantee absolute security.
You should use strong passwords, protect your account credentials and notify us promptly if you believe your account has been compromised.
13. Data retention
We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, unless a longer period is required or permitted by applicable law.
Retention periods may depend on:
- The type of information
- The purpose for which it was collected
- Whether you maintain an active account
- Legal or regulatory requirements
- Tax and accounting obligations
- Dispute-resolution requirements
- Fraud-prevention requirements
- Product-safety or recall requirements
- Legal claims
- Our legitimate business needs
When information is no longer required, we may securely delete, anonymise or otherwise dispose of it in accordance with applicable requirements.
14. Your privacy rights
Depending on your location and applicable law, you may have rights concerning your personal information.
These may include the right to:
- Know whether we process your personal information
- Request access to your personal information
- Request correction of inaccurate information
- Request deletion or erasure of information
- Object to certain processing
- Request restriction of processing
- Request data portability
- Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent
- Object to certain forms of direct marketing
- Request information about international transfers
- Object to certain automated decision-making or profiling
- Lodge a complaint with a relevant data-protection authority
The precise rights available to you will depend on the laws applicable to your circumstances.
For example, the Nigeria Data Protection Act provides data-subject rights including rights to be informed, access, rectification, objection, restriction, portability and erasure, among others.
15. How to exercise your rights
To exercise a privacy right or ask a privacy-related question, contact us at:
Privacy email: support@herbsafrika.com
Please provide enough information for us to identify you and understand your request.
For security reasons, we may need to verify your identity before responding to certain requests.
We will handle requests in accordance with applicable law.
Some requests may be subject to lawful exceptions or limitations. For example, we may need to retain certain information to comply with legal obligations, prevent fraud, resolve disputes or establish or defend legal claims.
16. Privacy complaints
If you believe that HerbsAfrika has not handled your personal information appropriately, please contact us first so that we can investigate and attempt to resolve the issue.
Privacy complaints: support@herbsafrika.com
Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to complain to the data-protection authority or supervisory authority responsible for your jurisdiction.
For matters falling within the Nigerian data-protection framework, this may include the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC).
17. Children’s privacy
HerbsAfrika is not intended to be used by children who are not legally permitted to use our services.
We do not knowingly collect personal information from children where doing so would be unlawful.
If you believe that a child has provided personal information to us without appropriate authorisation, please contact us so that we can investigate and take appropriate action.
Where age restrictions apply to particular products, we may also require appropriate age verification or restrict transactions in accordance with applicable law.
18. Automated decision-making and profiling
HerbsAfrika may use automated systems for purposes such as:
- Fraud detection
- Account security
- Transaction monitoring
- Product recommendations
- Search and marketplace personalisation
- Advertising or marketing analysis
Where applicable law provides rights concerning automated decision-making or profiling, we will provide the protections required by that law.
We will not use automated processing to make decisions in ways prohibited by applicable law.
19. Third-party websites and services
Our website or marketplace may contain links to third-party websites, applications or services.
These third parties operate independently from HerbsAfrika and may have their own privacy policies.
We are not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party websites or services that we do not control.
You should review the relevant privacy notice before providing personal information to a third party.
20. Seller responsibility for customer information
Sellers using HerbsAfrika may receive limited customer information necessary to fulfil orders and provide marketplace services.
Sellers must:
- Keep customer information secure
- Use customer information only for legitimate purposes
- Not sell customer information
- Not use customer information for unrelated marketing
- Not disclose customer information to unauthorised persons
- Comply with applicable privacy and data-protection laws
- Delete or securely dispose of information when it is no longer required, subject to legal obligations
HerbsAfrika may suspend or terminate seller accounts where a seller misuses customer information or violates applicable privacy requirements.
21. Business transfers
If HerbsAfrika is involved in a merger, acquisition, restructuring, financing, sale of assets or similar transaction, personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction.
Where required by law, we will provide appropriate notice and apply applicable safeguards.
22. Data breaches
If HerbsAfrika becomes aware of a personal-data breach, we will assess and respond to the incident in accordance with applicable law.
Where notification to affected individuals, regulators or other authorities is legally required, we will make the required notifications within the applicable timeframes.
23. Changes to this privacy policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect:
- Changes to our services
- Changes to our business model
- Changes to technology
- Changes to legal or regulatory requirements
- Changes to our data-processing practices
When we make material changes, we may provide additional notice where required.
The updated version will be published on our website with a revised “Last updated” date.
24. Contact us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, your personal information or our privacy practices, please contact:
HerbsAfrika
- Privacy email
- support@herbsafrika.com
- Website
- www.herbsafrika.com
25. Privacy at a glance
| What we do | Why we may do it |
|---|---|
| Create and manage accounts | To provide marketplace services |
| Process orders | To fulfil purchases |
| Share delivery information | To arrange shipping and delivery |
| Process payments | To complete transactions |
| Verify sellers | To protect the marketplace and meet compliance requirements |
| Monitor transactions | To prevent fraud and abuse |
| Communicate with customers and sellers | To provide services and support |
| Analyse marketplace activity | To improve our platform |
| Send marketing | Where permitted and, where required, with consent |
| Share information with logistics providers | To fulfil international shipments |
| Share information with authorities | To comply with legal and regulatory requirements |
| Retain records | To meet legal, regulatory and legitimate business requirements |