Last updated: August 2026
When you register we collect your full name and your Ethiopian mobile number. Your phone number is your login. We do not ask for an email address; we build an internal sign-in identifier from your phone number instead. Your password is handled by Firebase Authentication and stored only as a hash — Gebeya never sees it.
You may also add a profile photo, a short bio and a list of skills. If you sell on Gebeya and set up payouts, we collect your bank, account holder name and account number.
As you use the app we record your orders, payments and withdrawals, the messages you send, and the reviews you write. If you allow notifications, we store a device token that identifies the device or browser to send them to. We also keep automated counters of how often you use certain features, to stop the app being abused.
Your information is used to provide the Gebeya service, process payments, resolve disputes and improve the platform. We do not sell your personal data to third parties.
Payments are processed by Chapa, our payment provider. You choose how to pay on Chapa's own secure page — telebirr, CBE Birr, M-Pesa, a card or a bank transfer. That page belongs to Chapa, not to us: your PIN, card number and banking passwords are entered there and are never seen or stored by Gebeya. What we store is the record of the transaction — the amount, the date, the status and Chapa's reference for it.
If you sell on Gebeya and set up payouts, we also store the bank you chose, the account holder name and the account number, because we have to give them to Chapa to send your money. Deleting your account removes these from your profile.
Messages between users are stored so the chat works and so we can settle disputes. They are visible to the person you are talking to, and to Gebeya staff reviewing a dispute or investigating a report.
An automated system checks messages, service listings and reviews for phone numbers, social handles and other contact details, which are not allowed on the platform. If content is refused it is not delivered or published.
You should know that we keep a record of refused content. When something is blocked we store what you tried to send, along with the reason and the time, in a log that only Gebeya administrators can read. We keep it so we can review your appeal if you think the block was wrong, and so we can correct the system when it makes mistakes. Content that passes the check is not logged this way.
Your data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Access rules on our database restrict each record to the people involved in it — your orders, payments and messages are not readable by other users of the app. Passwords are handled by Firebase Authentication and are never visible to us.
We take these measures seriously, but no online service can promise perfect security, and we do not.
Gebeya does not run its own servers. Your data is held on Google Cloud infrastructure through Firebase, and it is stored outside Ethiopia.
Our database and the code that runs the app are located in Google's europe-west1 region, in Belgium. Uploaded images — profile photos and service pictures — are currently held in a Google data centre in the United States. Payment processing is carried out by Chapa, in Ethiopia.
We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it for advertising. Two companies process data on our behalf so that Gebeya can work:
Google (Firebase) provides our database, sign-in, file storage and push notifications. Most of the information described in this policy is held on their infrastructure.
Chapa processes payments. When you pay, we send Chapa the amount, our reference for the order, your name, your phone number and your sign-in identifier. When a freelancer withdraws, we send Chapa the bank code, account number and account holder name needed to make the transfer. Anything you enter on Chapa's own payment page is handled by Chapa under their terms, not ours.
Beyond these, we share data only when the law requires it — for example a lawful request from a regulator, tax authority or court.
You can update your profile information at any time. You can delete your account yourself from Profile → Delete Account; no request to support is needed and deletion takes effect immediately. Because deletion is permanent, we will not let you delete an account that still has an order in progress, an open dispute, or earnings you have not yet withdrawn. The app tells you which of these apply and you can delete once they are settled.
Deleting your account removes your profile, photo, phone number and bank payout details, and takes your listings off the marketplace. It also deletes your notifications, your registered devices, your usage counters, and the moderation log of any content of yours that was refused. Your sign-in is destroyed and you are signed out everywhere. On records that other people can still see — past orders, chats and reviews — your name is replaced with "Deleted user".
We cannot delete everything, because Ethiopian commercial and tax law requires us to keep business records. When an account is deleted, the underlying transaction, payment and statutory log data — order amounts and dates, our commission, payment and refund references, withdrawal records including the bank name, account holder name and the last four digits of the account number — is moved into a restricted financial archive. That archive is not part of the app. It is not visible to other users, and access is limited to authorised staff and to lawful requests from a regulator, tax authority or court. It is retained for up to ten years from the date of the transaction and is then deleted.
For privacy related questions contact us at privacy@gebeyaet.com