DATA PRIVACY POLICY

Kweli Smart Solutions LTD (Registered Trademark Smart Kiosk) hereafter referred to as ‘sk’, is a limited liability company registered in the Republic Of Kenya. 

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, with whom we share it, and how you (the user of the Service) can prevent us from sharing certain information with certain parties. You should read this Privacy Policy in its entirety. By accessing our website, downloading our app/s , accessing our services at any time via any of our channels (WhatsApp, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), Email, Phone), submitting your mobile money statement and password you consent to the following:

“I hereby give consent to the collection and processing of my personal information for legitimate business purposes, included but not limited to determining my credit score and providing a loan. I hereby certify that all the information provided by me is true and correct to the best of my knowledge, and that any misrepresentations or falsity therein will be considered as an act to defraud sk and its partners. I authorise sk to verify and investigate the above statements/information as may be required, from the references provided and other reasonable sources. For this purpose, I hereby waive my rights on the confidentiality of client information and expressly consent to the processing of any personal information and records relating to me that might be obtained from third parties, including government agencies, my employer, credit bureaus, business associates and other entities you may deem proper and sufficient in the conduct of my business, sensitive or otherwise, for the purpose of determining my eligibility for a loan which I am applying for. I further agree that this application and all supporting documents and any other information obtained relative to this application shall be used by and communicated to SK, and shall remain its property whether or not my credit score is determined, or the loan is granted. I expressly and unconditionally authorise SK  to disclose to any bank or affiliate and other financial institution, third party verification services, Credit Reference bureaus (crb)  any information regarding me. In particular, I hereby acknowledge and authorise: 1) the regular submission and disclosure of my basic credit data as well as any updates or corrections thereof; and 2) the sharing of my basic credit data with other lenders, and duly accredited credit reporting agencies.”

SECTION 1. SCOPE OF POLICY AND TERMS

This Privacy Policy applies to your use of:

1. sk mobile application software, the K-smart mobile app (personal finance service),  available on our site or hosted on the Google Play Store (“App Site”) and/or our WhatsApp/ USSD  channel, once you have downloaded or streamed a copy of the App onto your mobile telephone or handheld device (Device) or once you access our services through WhatsApp/USSD/Email/Phone. Collectively access through the K-smart app, sk application hosted on Google play store and/or on Apple Store or on our website and/or our other hosted sites or through USSD or our WhatsApp channel as referred hereunder as ‘app’ or ‘App’, 

2. Any of the services accessible through the App which are available on the App Site or other sites of ours (“Services Sites”).

Terms used in this Privacy Policy shall have the following meanings:

“SK” means Kweli Smart Solutions LTD a limited liability company incorporated in Kenya, with the Registered Trademark “smart kiosk”

“Authorities” includes any judicial, administrative, public or regulatory body, any government, any Tax Authority, securities or futures exchange, court, central bank or law enforcement body, or any of their agents with jurisdiction over sk.

“Compliance Obligations” means obligations of sk to comply with: (a) Laws or international guidance and internal policies or procedures, (b) any demand from Authorities or reporting, disclosure or other obligations under Laws, and (c) Laws requiring us to verify the identity of our customers.

“Customer” or “User” means any individual within the Republic of Kenya to which sk provides its products or services.

“Customer Information” means your Personal Data, confidential information, and/or Tax Information, including relevant information about you, your transactions, your use of our products and services, and your relationships with sk.

“Financial Crime” means money laundering, terrorist financing, bribery, corruption, tax evasion, fraud, evasion of economic or trade sanctions, and/or any acts or attempts to circumvent or violate any Laws relating to these matters.

“Laws” include any local or foreign law, regulation, judgement or court order, voluntary code, sanctions regime, an agreement between any member of sk and an Authority, or agreement or treaty between Authorities and applicable to sk.

“Personal Data” or “Personal Information” refers to any information whether recorded in a material form or not, from which the identity of an individual is apparent or can be reasonably and directly ascertained by the entity holding the information, or when put together with other information would directly and certainly identify an individual.

“Sensitive Personal Information” refers to Personal Information (1) about an individual’s race, ethnic origin, marital status, age, colour, and religious, philosophical or political affiliations; (2) about an individual’s health, education, genetic or sexual life of a person, or to any proceeding for any offence committed or alleged to have been committed by such person, the disposal of such proceedings, or the sentence of any court in such proceedings; (3) issued by government agencies peculiar to an individual which includes, but not limited to, social security numbers, previous or current health records, licences or its denials, suspension or revocation, and tax returns; and (4) specifically established by an executive order or other legislative act to be kept classified.

“Services” includes maintaining the App available on our site OR hosted on the App Site, once you have downloaded or streamed a copy of the App onto your Device.

“Tax Authorities” means Kenyan or foreign tax, revenue or monetary authorities.

“Tax Information” means documentation or information about your tax status.

“We”, “Our” and “Us” refer to sk.

‘’GPS”,  refers to The Global Positioning System. A way of identifying your location or your shops/business location using global coordinates

“SMS”, refers to Short Message/Messaging Service. A way of sending short messages via mobile networks to your phone.

“CRB” or “CRB’s”, refers to Authorised Credit Reference Bureau’s in Kenya

“Our WhatsApp Channel” or “WhatsApp” refers to an automated messaging system offered by META corporations via any of their partners through a dedicated channel on the mobile number 020 2500081 and through a mobile or web application installed and maintained and secured by you.

“IPRS '' refers to the Integrated Population Registration System database provided by the Kenya Government that allows for identification of Kenya Citizens or Kenya Residents.

“KYC” , refers to "Know Your Customer". Appropriate Due diligence required to identify you. 

Reference to the singular includes the plural (and vice versa).

SECTION 2. DATA WE COLLECT

We may collect, use and share Customer Information. Customer Information may be requested by us or on our behalf or that of sk, and may be collected from you directly, from a person acting on your behalf, from other sources (including from publicly available information), and it may be generated or combined with other information available to us or any member of sk.

We may collect the following information about you, which may include non-public Personal Information:

1. Information you submit to us:

provided by filling in forms in the App or on the App Site;
provided by corresponding with us (for example, by e-mail or chat, WhatsApp , USSD, via paper form);
provided by registering to use the App Site, downloading or registering an App, subscribing to any of our Services (such as applying for a loan), searching for an App or Service, sharing data via an App’s social media functions, entering a competition, promotion or survey, and reporting a problem with an App, our Services, or any of Our Sites; and
including your name, address, e-mail address and phone number, the Device’s phone number, SIM card, age, username, password, gender, Kenya National ID number and a photo of the same, Kenya National ID serial number, data of birth, your photo selfie, your GPS location address and/or Gps location address of your shop or business where applicable and other registration information, financial and credit information, personal description and photograph, your 24 months mobile money statement and the applicable password required to access the same. Home ownership information, marital status and number of dependants
2. Information we collect about you and your device. Each time you visit one of Our Sites or use one of our Apps the information we may collect includes but is not limited to the following:

technical information, including the type of mobile device you use, unique device identifiers (for example, your Device’s IMEI or serial number), information about the SIM card used by the Device, mobile network information, your device operating system, the type of browser you use, or your Device’s location and time zone setting (Device Information);
information stored on your Device (where applicable), including contact lists, call logs, SMS logs, contact lists from other social media accounts, photos, videos or other digital content (Content Information) (where applicable);
details of your use of any of our Apps or your visits to any of Our Sites including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data. Your WhatsApp communication log messages with us on our official channel. SMS communication logs sent by us to your registered number with us and your phone number/WhatsApp phone number.
3. Location information. We may also use GPS technology or other location services to determine your current location.

4. Information we receive from other sources. 
We receive your phone number, WhatsApp phone number from WhatsApp and/or Our WhatsApp channel provider.
Your crb bio-data/contact information and your credit report from crb to enable us perform KYC checks and also to assess your credit performance with other credit providers. From the time you register with us we conduct crb checks from time to time to enable us to assess your credit performance with other credit providers.
your IPRS data from IPRS service providers or IPRS to enable us complete KYC checks
your mobile money statement received directly from your mobile money provider after you have made a request to them. The statement enables us to assess your spending patterns, interactions with other financial institutions and to assess your credits and debits, organisations you interact with, savings, investments, home ownership amongst other relevant data we require to model your profile and establish your identity and contact details.

We reserve the right to work with a limited number of third parties (including credit reference agencies, mobile network providers, and collection agencies) and may receive information about you from them. As long as you have not withdrawn your consent or cancelled our services, we shall access your identity information from identity information suppliers and/or  crb providers from time to time to enable us to affirm your identity and bio-data & to establish your credit records (All your credit transactions (borrowing and repayment history) including your bio-data and contact information that is held by the CRB’s. 

5. Unique application numbers. When you install or uninstall a Service containing a unique application number or when such a Service searches for automatic updates, that number and information about your installation, for example, the type of operating system, may be sent to us.

We may occasionally send you push notifications (when available), sms, WhatsApp message, email  through our mobile applications  to send you marketing messages and other Service or transaction-related notifications that may be of importance to you. You may at any time opt-out from receiving these types of communications by contacting us through our official channels and requesting for the same to be stopped.

We and our third-party service providers, including our marketing partners and analytics providers, may use mobile tracking technologies and/or website cookies to distinguish you from other users of the App, App Site or Service Site. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you use the App or browse any of the sites and also allows us to improve the App and Our Sites.

As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information may include your internet protocol (IP) address, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data. From time to time, we may combine this automatically collected data to other information we collect about you for reasons such as analysis, security, content generation or marketing.

We may use the analytics tools and software in order to develop and analyse use of the Service. Analytics companies may access anonymous individual data to help us understand how the Service is used. We may link the information we store within the analytics software to any Personal Information you submit within the mobile applications.

By contacting us via our official channels and requesting for us to withdraw your consent ,you can withdraw your consent from accessing your Customer Information in the future. We may keep and share stored Customer Information after the point of such withdrawal for as long as necessary for the fulfilment of the purposes for which Customer Information was obtained or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, or for legitimate business purposes, or as permitted by law.

SECTION 3. WHY WE COLLECT, PROCESS YOUR DATA

We collect information for the following lawful purposes, including but not limited to (“Purposes”):

To process your transactions;
To verify your identity;
To disburse loans and collect payments for your use of the Service;
To build the credit models and perform credit scoring;
To analyse customer behaviour;
To establish your borrowing and repayment trends with other credit providers;
To allow our partners to fulfil their obligations to you;
To allow us to fulfil our obligations to our partners;
To troubleshoot problems with the Service;
To assess and assign a suitable credit limit;
To comply with applicable laws, regulations, and rules, such as those relating to “know-your-customer” and anti-money laundering requirements;
To detect and prevent fraud and other illegal uses of the Service;
To send you marketing notices, service updates, and promotional offers; and
To contact you by telephone using auto-dialled or pre-recorded message calls or text (SMS) messages (if applicable) as authorised for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
To provide personal finance insights for illustrative purposes only through our ksmart app.
To communicate to you on your loan performance during the loan tenure and to alert you on ways you can save on loan costs or upcoming repayments, missed payments, repayments in arrears and other important communication regarding your loan.
To analyse your mobile money statement and extract information related to your spending, credits and debits into your mobile money account, savings, investments, interaction with other financial institutions, pensions, home ownership, brands you interact with all to enable us build an appropriate score that enables us establish whether or not to provide you with credit and how much credit we can provide. This analysis can be carried out by a machine learning algorithm or by a human.
NOTE:  To analyse your mobile money statement we require you submit to us the password required to access the same ONLY through the procedure provided strictly and not via any other way. To submit your mobile money statement, you MUST request your money money provider to submit it to us  ONLY through the process and channels we prescribe. 
Submitting your mobile money statement and/or statement through any other process shall be disregarded/deleted and we shall not act on the same.
submitting your mobile money statement DOES NOT guarantee that you will be provided or offered any credit limit
submitting your money money statement at any time is sufficient trigger to assess or reassess your credit profile automatically

The data you supply to us and data we obtain from other sources about you are processed electronically via our technology platform and at times manually by one of our staff/contractors. Decisioning / credit scoring / data extraction and profiling  is carried out by a machine learning algorithm automatically unless there are errors that require human intervention by our staff or contractors. 

After successful submission of ALL requested data & information and successful verification , we process & communicate a decision to you via sms and/or email and/or your WhatsApp within 48 working hours or the time frame displayed on the APP or communicated via SMS or Email. In the event there is a delay of  more than 48 working hours, you should contact us through our official email and/phone during normal working hours and days.

The data collected from your mobile money statement is analysed and used to provide you with access through our k-smart app and provide you with insights related to financial education, home ownership, savings and pensions. The information provided on the k-smart app should never be substituted with advice from your personal finance advisor and is merely for illustrative purposes only which may be inaccurate and/or may not reflect on your personal financial circumstances. The information provided on the k-smart app requires subscription payment.

SECTION 4. HOW WE USE AND SHARE INFORMATION

These clauses explain how we will use and share your information. By using the Services, you agree that we and members of sk shall use Customer Information in accordance with such clauses.

Uses made of the information

We may associate any category of information with any other category of information and will treat the combined information as personal data in accordance with this Privacy Policy for as long as it is combined.
Information collected by us shall be used for the Purposes defined in this Privacy Policy.
We do not disclose information about identifiable individuals to other parties, unless it is necessary for providing the Services. We may share limited personal information with select partners for research and development. We may provide other parties with anonymous individual information about our users for the purposes of compiling statistics relating to our user base or loan portfolio and may disclose such information to any third party for such purposes, provided that such information will always be anonymous.
Sharing

By using the Services, you agree that we may, as necessary and appropriate for the Purposes, transfer and disclose any Customer Information to the following recipients globally (who may also process, transfer and disclose such Customer Information for the Purposes):

any member of sk and any subcontractors, agents, service providers, or associates of sk (including their employees, directors and officers);
persons acting on your behalf, payment recipients, beneficiaries, account nominees, intermediary, correspondent and agent banks, clearing houses, clearing or settlement systems, market counterparties, upstream withholding agents, swap or trade repositories, stock exchanges, companies in which you have an interest in securities (where such securities are held by us for you);
any financial institutions, credit reference agencies or credit bureaus, crb’s for the purposes of obtaining or providing credit references;
any third party to whom we provide introductions or referrals;
any party in connection with any sk business transfer, disposal, merger or acquisition, wherever located, including in jurisdictions which do not have data protection laws that provide the same level of protection as the jurisdiction in which the Services are supplied.
third-party service providers under contract with sk that help us with our business operations, such as transaction processing, fraud prevention, and marketing. We share your Personal Information with these companies only as necessary to provide you with our Service; and
law enforcement, government officials or other third parties, but only
in connection with a formal request, subpoena, court order, or similar legal procedure; or
when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to comply with the law, prevent physical harm or financial loss, report suspected illegal activity, or to investigate violations of our User Agreement; or
Or any other legally permissible purpose. From time to time we shall share the performance of any loan account/s you have with us with crb’s updating them on the opening of such a loan account, performance of such an account and when the account is fully settled or any other updates as may be required.

SECTION 5. WHERE WE STORE INFORMATION

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at and processed, at destination outside Kenya on cloud resources belonging to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and/or Google Cloud Platform (GCP). It may also be processed by our staff and/or contractors operating within or outside Kenya who work for us or for one of our suppliers. These staff and/or contractors may be engaged in the fulfilment of your requests. By submitting your Personal Data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing of data. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We may also disclose your data to anyone we consider necessary in order to provide you with services in connection with an account.

Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password or PIN that enables you to access certain parts of Our Sites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to Our Sites; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access. 

When accessing our services through our WhatsApp dedicated channel, you will have ensured that only you has access to your device at all times and that you have enabled/established/setup sufficient passwords/ personal identification number (pin), facial or thumb recognition or other methods that can be used to deter anyone else apart from you from accessing our services through our WhatsApp Channel. You have further satisfied yourself that accessing our services via our WhatsApp channel is sufficiently secure for you. All requests made via your  WhatsApp number  or purportedly from your WhatsApp number to our WhatsApp channel number shall be assumed to have come from you. All requests received from your email address or purportedly from your email address registered with us shall be assumed to have come from you. We shall therefore act on such instruction/s therefore accordingly.

SECTION 6. CUSTOMER OBLIGATIONS AND RIGHTS

You agree to inform us promptly, and in any event, within 7 days, in writing if there are any changes to Customer Information supplied to us or a member of sk from time to time, and to respond promptly to any request from us.

Where:

you fail to provide promptly Customer Information that we reasonably requested, or
you withhold or withdraw any consents that we may need to process, transfer or disclose Customer Information for the Purposes (except for purposes connected with marketing or promoting products and services to you), or
We have, or a member of sk has, suspicions regarding Financial Crime or an associated risk.
We may:

be unable to provide new, or continue to provide all or part of the, Services to you and reserve the right to terminate our relationship with you;
take actions necessary for us or a member of sk to meet the Compliance Obligations; and/or
block, transfer or close your account(s) where permitted under local Laws.
In addition, if you fail to supply promptly your Tax Information and accompanying statements, waivers and consents, as may be requested, then we may make our own judgement with respect to your status, including whether you are reportable to a Tax Authority, and may require us or other persons to withhold amounts as may be legally required by any Tax Authority and paying such amounts to the appropriate Tax Authority.

You agree that We shall not be liable for any loss or damage arising from or incidental to our use, collection, processing and sharing of Customer Information, and any action we have taken in relation to this Section.

Certain laws in Kenya may allow you to restrict the sharing of your Personal Information in certain instances. However, these laws also state that you cannot restrict other types of sharing. 

You have a right to request for the data we hold about you which will be available to you within 7 working days to your official email.

You have a right to request for your data to be amended and we shall carry out the request within 7 working days and confirm the same to you via your official email.

You have a right to request that we delete data held by us about you. Your request for this will be acknowledged via email and carried out within 7 working days. NOTE: DELETING your data shall not extinguish your responsibility to repay us any outstanding loan nor prevent us from reminding or demanding any amount owed to us.  DELETING any data will also mean that any credit limit shall be immediately withdrawn. Any data that may be required by the authorities including but not limited to access logs shall be maintained for such a duration as the law may require.

 

SECTION 7. QUERIES

Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you when you next start the App or log onto one of the Services Sites. The new terms may be displayed on-screen and you may be required to read and accept them to continue your use of the App or the Services. Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to the data protection officer as detailed in section 9.

SECTION 8: How long we hold your data

Mobile money statements submitted are deleted after 7 days from the date of receipt. However if there is technical error during the processing of your mpesa statement we may hold it for up to 14 days to enable us to correct the technical error.

Aggregated data derived from your mobile money statement, crb data, identity data, payment data, communications between us, your gps location data, identification data, log data is held for the duration you hold an account or profile with us. 

If we are not able to assign you with an initial credit limit, we shall keep your data and automatically reassess/rescore your profile every 4 months. If we are not able to qualify you for a credit limit (zero credit limit), 12 months after registration, your profile will be placed under dormant status and deleted 6 months thereafter.

SECTION 9:  Your Data Controller and How To Contact Us

Your data controller is 
Kweli Smart Solutions LTD
P O BOX 53431-00200, Nairobi
Phone: 0791 578693 (phone calls only)
Physical Address: 2nd Floor Eaton Place, Off UN Crescent Drive, Nairobi. Kenya
Email: data_privacy@ksmart.tech

You can also contact us through your smart kiosk whatsapp chat under:
My Profile Menu > Talk To Us  (follow the displayed instructions)

Working hours:
Monday to Friday (9am to 4pm) excluding public holidays

All requests will be acknowledged within 3 working days & actioned within the time frame provided (depending on the request) & communicated to you via your email and/or SMS and/or Your WhatApp number once actioned and/or in case any clarification is required.