Privacy Policy

Rhodium is a product of Fonio Labs Limited (“we”, “us”), the company responsible for the data described here. Rhodium helps merchants in Nigeria sell and collect payments through WhatsApp and keep their sales records. This policy explains what we collect, why, and what you can do about it.

1. Who we are to you

Our role depends on who you are.

• If you are a merchant using Rhodium to run your shop, we are the controller of your account data.
• If you are a buyer messaging a merchant’s shop, we process your messages and order details on that merchant’s behalf, so they can sell to you and send you a receipt. The merchant remains responsible for their own relationship with you.

2. Information we collect

• Merchant details provided at onboarding: business name, WhatsApp phone number, and the bank account used for payouts.
• Buyer details: the phone number used to place an order, and the order and receipt data attached to it.
• Transaction data: products, orders, payments, and an append-only sales ledger.
• Messages sent to a WhatsApp number connected to Rhodium — either our own number or a merchant’s — in order to operate the shop.
• Wallet credentials: where a merchant uses an embedded crypto wallet, we generate and store its recovery phrase and private key in encrypted form so the merchant can recover it. See section 5.

3. Merchants who connect their own WhatsApp number

A merchant may connect their own WhatsApp Business number to Rhodium so that buyers message them directly. Where the merchant continues to use the WhatsApp Business app on that same number (“Coexistence”), WhatsApp may additionally send us:

• Prior conversation history — up to the most recent six months of messages on that number, including messages exchanged before Rhodium was connected.
• Contacts saved on that business number.
• Copies of replies the merchant sends from their own phone, so that our automated replies stand down while the merchant is answering personally.

Only a merchant can authorise this, and only for their own number, during the connection flow. We use this data solely to run that merchant’s shop — to avoid replying over the top of them and to keep their order history intact. We do not use it to build profiles, and we do not share it with other merchants.

4. How we use it

To provide the service: to show a merchant’s catalogue, process orders, request and confirm payments, send receipts and notifications, and maintain the merchant’s sales records. We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use message content for advertising.

5. Security

Personal and financial identifiers — phone numbers, bank account numbers and wallet credentials — are encrypted at rest with authenticated encryption, and are looked up through a blind index so they need not be stored in plain text. Wallet recovery phrases are revealed only to the merchant who owns them, and only after a one-time code sent to their registered WhatsApp number. Access is limited to what is needed to operate the service.

6. Payments and custody

Payments settle directly to the merchant — to their own bank account via a licensed payment processor, or to their own crypto wallet. Rhodium never takes custody of funds and never holds a balance on your behalf.

7. Third parties

We share data with these providers only as needed to deliver the service:

• Meta / WhatsApp — to send and receive messages.
• Monnify — bank transfers and payout settlement.
• OnSwitch — stablecoin-to-naira settlement, where a buyer pays in stablecoin and the merchant is paid in naira.
• Quai Network — on-chain payments. Blockchain transactions are public and permanent by design, and cannot be deleted by us or by you.

Each provider handles data under its own privacy policy.

8. Retention, deletion and your rights

We keep transaction and ledger records for as long as needed to provide the service and to meet legal and accounting obligations. Conversation history received under Coexistence is retained only while the merchant’s number stays connected, and is deleted when they disconnect it.

To request deletion of your data, email admin@foniolabs.xyz from, or quoting, the phone number concerned. State that you want your data deleted and we will confirm within 30 days. You may also request access to your data or correction of it the same way. A merchant can disconnect their WhatsApp number at any time, which stops all further collection from it.

Two limits we cannot work around: on-chain payment records are public and permanent and cannot be erased by anyone, and we may need to retain a minimal transaction record where law requires it.

We aim to handle personal data in line with the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR).

9. Changes

If we change this policy materially we will update the date above and, where the change affects merchants, notify them on WhatsApp.

10. Contact

Questions or data requests: admin@foniolabs.xyz.