Fonecia.com
27 Oct 2026 ·
1. Who we are
Fonecia.com is an online business-to-business marketplace where buyers around the world find and buy goods from manufacturers in China and India. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why, who we share it with and the choices you have.
Fonecia.com is operated by Saharahosts Technologies Limited, registered in Nigeria under company number RC-1762705, with its registered office at 22 Faulks Road, Aba, Abia State, Nigeria (“Fonecia”, “we”, “us”). We are the data controller for the personal information described here.
This policy applies to everyone who uses Fonecia.com: visitors, buyers, suppliers (vendors who sell through the marketplace), and the staff of companies that buy or sell on it. It covers the website, buyer and supplier accounts, the supplier dashboard, buying requests, quotes, orders, and our emails.
Fonecia is a marketplace, not the seller. Each supplier is an independent business and is responsible for how it handles the personal information it receives to fulfil your orders and quotes.
2. Information we collect
We collect information you give us, information created when you use the marketplace, and limited technical information from your device.
| Who | What we collect | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Buyers | Name, company name, email, phone, billing and delivery addresses, account password (stored encrypted) | Your account and checkout |
| Buyers | Buying requests: product needed, quantity, source country, destination country, details and email | The buying request form |
| Buyers | Orders, quote requests, enquiries, messages to suppliers, reviews | Your activity on the site |
| Suppliers | Contact person’s name, email and phone; store name, address and country; products and prices | Supplier sign-up and dashboard |
| Suppliers | Verification documents such as business licence, company registration, tax number, and the ID of the person who represents the business | Seller verification |
| Suppliers | Bank or payout account details, sales, commissions and withdrawals | Payout settings and orders |
| Suppliers | Quotes sent to buyers, including price, lead time and message | The buying request board |
| Everyone | IP address, browser and device type, pages viewed, approximate location from IP, cookie identifiers | Your browser (see section 6) |
| Everyone | Emails and messages you send us, and our replies | Support and contact |
Payment information. Card and bank details you enter at checkout are handled by our payment providers, not stored by us. We receive a confirmation, the amount, and the last digits or type of card or account.
Information about other people. If you give us details of a colleague, such as a delivery contact, make sure they know and agree.
We don’t ask for sensitive personal information such as health, religion or biometric data. Please don’t include it in messages, buying requests or documents.
3. How we use your information
We use personal information only where the law allows it, and for each use we rely on one of the legal bases below.
| What we do | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Create and run your account; process orders, payments, quotes and supplier payouts | Performing our contract with you |
| Pass buying requests to suppliers and deliver their quotes to you | Performing our contract with you |
| Verify suppliers’ identity and business documents before they sell | Legitimate interest in a safe marketplace; legal obligation where anti-fraud or know-your-customer rules apply |
| Hold supplier earnings until orders are complete, and handle disputes and refunds | Performing our contract; legitimate interest in buyer protection |
| Prevent fraud, spam, abuse and security incidents | Legitimate interest; legal obligation |
| Send service emails: order updates, quotes, password resets, policy changes | Performing our contract |
| Send marketing emails about Fonecia | Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
| Use non-essential cookies for analytics or advertising | Your consent (see section 6) |
| Improve the site, fix problems and understand how it is used | Legitimate interest |
| Keep tax and accounting records; respond to lawful requests from authorities | Legal obligation |
Where we rely on legitimate interest, we have weighed it against your rights, and you can object (see section 9). We don’t make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.
4. Who we share it with
We share personal information only as far as needed to run the marketplace. We do not sell your personal information.
With suppliers, when you buy or ask for a quote. When you place an order, the supplier receives your name, company, delivery address, phone and order details so it can fulfil and ship it. When you send a product quote request or enquiry, the supplier receives your message and contact details.
Buying requests. Approved buying requests are shown to registered suppliers with the product, quantity, source country, destination country and details. Your email address is not shown. A supplier’s quote reaches you by email from Fonecia; if you reply, the supplier will see your email and anything you write.
With buyers, when you sell. Your store name, store address and country, products, prices, verification badge, ratings and reviews are public. When you quote on a buying request, the buyer receives your store name, store link, quote and contact email.
Public content. Reviews and store ratings you post are visible to anyone, with your display name.
Service providers. These companies process information for us under contract and only on our instructions:
- Website hosting: Namecheap
- Payment processing: Paystack, Flutterwave, PayPal
- Email delivery: [email or SMTP provider]
- Marketplace software: WooCommerce and Dokan, which run on our own servers
- Fonts: Google Fonts, which receives your IP address when the page loads fonts
- Analytics, live chat or advertising tools, if used: [list, or delete this line]
- Shipping, freight, customs and inspection companies, when you use them through us
- Professional advisers such as lawyers, accountants and auditors
Legal and safety reasons. We may disclose information to courts, regulators, law enforcement or tax authorities when the law requires it, or to protect the rights and safety of our users and Fonecia, including to investigate fraud.
Business changes. If Fonecia is merged, sold or restructured, personal information may pass to the new owner, who must continue to protect it as this policy describes.
5. International transfers
Fonecia connects buyers worldwide with suppliers in China and India, so your information will travel between countries. When you order from or send a request to a supplier, your details go to that supplier in China or India. Our hosting and service providers may also store data in US, Canada or EU and other countries.
These countries may not have data protection laws equivalent to yours. Where the law requires it, we protect transfers with suitable safeguards, such as contractual clauses with our service providers and terms that require suppliers to use buyers’ information only to fulfil orders and quotes. Some transfers are made because they are necessary to perform the contract you asked for, such as sending your delivery address to the supplier who ships your goods.
You can ask us for more information about the safeguards for a particular transfer (see section 11).
6. Cookies
Cookies are small files a website stores in your browser. We use essential cookies to make the site work, and other cookies only if you agree in the cookie banner.
| Type | What it does | Your choice |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | Keeps you logged in, remembers your cart and checkout, protects forms against misuse, remembers your cookie choice | Always on; the site can’t work without them |
| Preferences | Remembers settings such as currency or language | Optional |
| Analytics | Counts visits and shows which pages are used, so we can improve the site | Optional |
| Marketing | Measures our advertising or shows Fonecia ads on other sites | Optional |
You can change your choice at any time with the cookie button at the bottom of every page, and you can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Blocking essential cookies will stop log-in and checkout from working.
7. How long we keep it
We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purposes in this policy, then delete or anonymise it.
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Account details | While your account is open, then up to 2 years after it closes |
| Orders, invoices, payments and payouts | [6] years after the order, for tax and accounting law |
| Supplier verification documents | While the supplier sells on Fonecia, then [5] years, for fraud prevention and legal claims |
| Buying requests | Shown to suppliers for 60 days, then kept for up to 2 years |
| Messages, quotes and support emails | Up to 3 years after the last message |
| Marketing preferences | Until you unsubscribe, then a record that you opted out |
| Cookie and analytics data | As shown in the cookie banner, usually no more than 13 months |
We may keep information longer if the law requires it or if it is needed for a dispute, investigation or legal claim.
8. Security
We protect personal information with measures suited to the risk. The site runs over HTTPS, passwords are stored encrypted, card payments are handled by certified payment providers, and access to supplier verification documents and buyer contact details is limited to staff who need it. We keep software up to date and take regular backups.
No system is completely secure. Use a strong, unique password and don’t share your log-in. If we learn of a breach that puts your rights at risk, we will notify you and the relevant regulator as the law requires.
Be careful with requests to pay outside Fonecia or to an unfamiliar bank account. We will never ask for your password by email.
9. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you have rights over your personal information. These include the right to:
- Access the information we hold about you and get a copy
- Correct information that is wrong or incomplete
- Delete your information, where we no longer need to keep it
- Restrict how we use it while a concern is being resolved
- Object to uses based on legitimate interest, and to direct marketing at any time
- Port information you gave us to another service, in a common machine-readable format
- Withdraw consent for marketing or optional cookies, without affecting earlier use
- Not be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing that significantly affect you
You can update most account details yourself under My Account. For anything else, contact us (section 11). We will answer within one month, may ask you to confirm your identity first, and won’t charge a fee unless a request is clearly unfounded or excessive.
Complaints. Please contact us first so we can try to help. You can also complain to a data protection regulator. If you are in Nigeria, this is the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (ndpc.gov.ng). If you are in the European Union or the United Kingdom, contact the regulator in the country where you live or work.
Closing your account deletes your profile, but we keep the records listed in section 7 for as long as the law requires.
10. Children, other websites and changes
Children. Fonecia is for businesses and adults. You must be at least 18 to create an account. We don’t knowingly collect information from children; if you believe a child has given us information, contact us and we will delete it.
Other websites. Supplier stores may link to their own websites, and our pages may link to payment, shipping or social media sites. Those sites have their own privacy policies, and we are not responsible for them.
Changes to this policy. We may update this policy as the marketplace or the law changes. The date at the top shows the latest version. If a change is significant, we will tell account holders by email or with a notice on the site before it takes effect.
11. Contact us
For questions about this policy or to use your rights, contact our Data Protection Officer:
- Email: privacy@fonecia.com
- Post: Saharahosts Technologies Limited, 22 Faulks Road, Aba, Abia State, Nigeria
- Data Protection Officer: Christie Samuel
We aim to reply within 5 working days and to complete requests within one month.