Privacy Policy

3NAMES is a social app for Nigerian university students, available on Android, iOS and the web. In this policy, "3NAMES", "we" and "us" mean the team that operates the 3NAMES app and website.

We decide how your personal data is used, and we're responsible for it under the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023. You can reach us about anything in this policy at help@3names.ng.

We collect only what we need to run 3NAMES. Some of it you give us; some is created as you use the app.

• Account details: your name, email address, username, password (stored only in scrambled, hashed form), phone number, date of birth and gender.
• Academic details: your school, faculty, department, programme, matric number and JAMB number.
• Student verification documents: the student ID card, admission letter or student union document you upload so we can confirm you're a student.
• What you create and share: posts, comments, stories, messages, voice notes, photos, videos and files; marketplace, hostel and job listings; job applications; and study materials such as past questions, notes and project topics.
• AI Assistant conversations: the messages, images and voice notes you send to the AI Assistant, and its replies.
• Coins, gifts and payouts: your coin purchases, coin and earnings balances, the gifts you send and receive, and, if you withdraw earnings, the bank account details you save.
• Activity in the app: likes, follows, blocks, searches, notifications, call history, game scores, XP and levels, and the reports you submit.
• Device and technical data: a push notification token for your device and, when crash reporting is on, crash reports with basic device and app version details.
• Support messages: anything you send us when you report a problem or contact support.

We don't collect your location, your contacts, or your browsing activity outside 3NAMES. The app asks for camera, microphone and photo access only when you choose to take a photo or video, record a voice note, or save an image, and uses that access only for that purpose.

• To run your account and the app: showing your profile, feed, chats, groups, listings, games and study materials.
• To verify that you're a student, using your academic details and verification documents.
• To process coin purchases and gifts, and to pay out earnings to your bank account.
• To keep 3NAMES safe: reviewing reports, moderating content, and preventing fraud, spam and abuse.
• To send you notifications and account emails, such as login codes, password resets and important updates. You can turn off push notifications in the app's notification settings.
• To answer your support requests.
• To find and fix crashes and bugs.
• To meet our legal obligations, such as keeping financial records.

We don't sell your personal data, and we don't use it for advertising. There are no ads in 3NAMES.

Other students can see your public profile (name, username, photo, bio, school details and level) and the posts, stories, comments and listings you share. Messages are visible to the people in that chat or group.

You control some of this in the app's Privacy settings: you can make your profile private, hide your online status, and turn off read receipts. You can also block people.

We share data only with service providers that help us run 3NAMES, and only what each one needs to do its job:

• Cloudinary stores the photos, videos, files and documents you upload.
• Google (Gemini) processes the messages, images and voice notes you send to the AI Assistant, to generate replies. You're asked to agree to this before your first AI conversation.
• Apple (App Store), Google (Google Play) and RevenueCat process in-app coin purchases. We receive a record of the purchase, not your card details.
• Paystack processes coin purchases on the web, verifies the bank accounts you add, and handles payouts.
• Expo, Google Firebase Cloud Messaging and Apple Push Notification service deliver push notifications.
• Our email provider sends account emails such as login codes.
• Sentry receives crash reports so we can fix problems.
• Our hosting and database providers store the data that runs the app.

We may also share data when the law requires it, to respond to a valid legal request, or to protect the safety of our users or the public.

Some of these providers process data outside Nigeria. When they do, we rely on the safeguards the Nigeria Data Protection Act requires for international transfers.

Data sent between the app and our servers is encrypted in transit. Passwords are stored only in hashed form, and your login tokens are kept in your phone's secure storage.

Access to personal data, including verification documents, is limited to the people who need it to run and moderate 3NAMES.

No system is perfectly secure. If we become aware of a breach that affects your personal data, we'll notify you and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission as the law requires.

• Most data is kept while your account is open.
• When you delete your account, your profile, personal and academic details, verification documents, posts, stories, messages, listings and saved bank accounts are deleted. See Delete Your Account for the full list.
• Records of coin purchases, gifts and withdrawals are kept for up to 6 years where the law requires us to keep financial records, no longer linked to your name or contact details.
• Study materials you shared, and game scores, stay available to other students, shown as "Deleted User".
• Login codes expire within minutes, and we remove old sessions when you log out or change your password.

Under the Nigeria Data Protection Act you can:

• See and correct your data: most of it is in your profile, which you can edit at any time.
• Get a copy of your data: email help@3names.ng from your account's email address.
• Delete your account and data: in the app under Help & Support → Delete Account, or as described on the Delete Your Account page.
• Deactivate your account instead: this hides your account until you log in again.
• Withdraw consent: for example, stop using the AI Assistant or turn off notifications.
• Object to or ask us to restrict how we use your data.
• Complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission if you think we've handled your data wrongly.

We'll respond to requests within 30 days, and we may need to confirm it's you first.

3NAMES is for users aged 18 and over. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone younger. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we'll delete it.

The 3names.ng website doesn't use advertising or analytics cookies. When you tap a download button, we record which button was used, the page it was on and your browser type, so we know how people find the app.

We'll update this policy when what we collect or how we use it changes, and update the date at the top. If a change is significant, we'll tell you in the app before it takes effect.

Questions, requests or complaints about your privacy: help@3names.ng.