Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

SkillSwipe (“we”, “us”) is a South African platform that connects homeowners with verified tradespeople and protects payments between them. We process personal information in terms of the Protection of Personal Information Act, 4 of 2013 (“POPIA”). Zenflare (Pty) Ltd is the responsible party.

2. What we collect, and why

• Account details (name, email, phone, password hash, city): to create and secure your account.
• Verification information — tradespeople only (SA ID number, photo of your ID document, a selfie, and — for GOLD verification — the result of a criminal-record check): to verify that tradespeople on the platform are who they say they are. This is the heart of the service and we only do it with your explicit consent, given during onboarding. Your ID number is stored masked; documents are stored securely and are visible only to you and our verification team.
• Videos you upload (pitch, proof of work, client vouch): shown publicly on your profile — that is their purpose.
• Banking details — tradespeople only: to pay out your escrow earnings. Visible only to you and our payments desk.
• Job and payment records: to operate escrow, resolve disputes, and meet our legal and tax obligations.

3. What we never do

• We never sell your personal information.
• We never show your ID documents, ID number or banking details to other users.
• We never run a criminal check without your explicit prior consent.

4. Sharing

When a homeowner connects with a tradesperson, we share the contact details each party needs to do business (name, phone number, job details). Payment processing is performed through our banking partners and, in future, through Paystack — they receive only what is needed to process the payment. If required by law, we may disclose information to authorities.

5. Retention and security

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purposes above or as required by law. Financial records are retained for 5 years. Verification documents of rejected or deleted profiles are removed within 90 days. Passwords are stored as salted hashes; sessions use secure, httpOnly cookies; verification documents and banking details are restricted to authorised staff.

6. Your rights

Under POPIA you may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information, or object to processing, by emailing zenflare.ai@gmail.com. You may also lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (inforegulator.org.za).

7. Cookies

We use a single session cookie to keep you signed in, and local storage for your preferences (like language). No third-party advertising trackers.