Privacy policy
Last updated September 2026 · Written against the Kenya Data Protection Act 2019
The short version. We collect your phone number so you can sign in, your profile so people can find you,
and your ID documents so we can verify you. Your phone number is hidden from the public. Your ID documents are never shown to anyone
except our reviewing staff. We do not sell anything to anyone.
What we collect
| Account | Phone number in international format, optional email, the date you accepted these terms, and the IP address you accepted them from. |
| Profile | Name, photo, county and area, skills, languages, years of experience, salary expectation, availability, and what you write about yourself. |
| Verification | Photographs of your national ID, a selfie holding it, and where provided a Certificate of Good Conduct. |
| Messages | The conversations you have with other users on the platform. |
| Payments | Where payments are enabled: the M-Pesa reference, the amount, and the confirmation Safaricom sends us. We never see or store your M-Pesa PIN. |
| Security | Sign-in times and IP addresses, and a log of significant actions, kept to detect abuse. |
Why we collect it, and on what basis
- To run the service — signing you in, showing your profile, delivering your messages. Basis: performance of our agreement with you.
- To verify identity — so families can trust who they are meeting. Basis: your explicit consent, given when you upload documents. You can withdraw it and ask us to delete them.
- To keep people safe — investigating reports, blocking abuse, spotting scams. Basis: our legitimate interest in a safe platform, and yours.
- To meet legal obligations — keeping payment records where the law requires it.
Who can see what
- The public sees your profile, your first name shortened, your county, and a masked phone number. Nothing else.
- Another user sees your full phone number only after a contact reveal, and only if you have switched on “Allow contact”.
- Our staff can see verification documents when reviewing them, and can read a conversation when investigating a report.
- Service providers — our hosting company, the SMS gateway, and Safaricom for M-Pesa — receive only what they need to do their job.
- Nobody else. We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it for advertising.
How long we keep it
- Your profile and messages — until you ask us to delete your account.
- Verification documents — while your verification is valid, or until you withdraw consent.
- Payment records — kept after account deletion where the law requires, with personal details reduced to the minimum.
- Security logs — a limited period, then deleted.
Your rights
Under the Data Protection Act 2019 you can ask us to:
- Tell you what data we hold about you, and give you a copy.
- Correct anything that is wrong.
- Delete your account and your personal data.
- Stop using your data in a particular way, or withdraw a consent you previously gave.
- Object to how we are using it.
Email support@housemanagers.co.ke from the address or phone number on your account. We answer within 30 days. If you are not satisfied, you may complain to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner.
How we protect it
- The whole site runs over HTTPS.
- Verification documents are stored outside the web root and cannot be reached by a URL — they are served only to signed-in staff.
- Staff accounts are separate from user accounts and are access-controlled by role.
- Significant staff actions are written to an audit log.
Cookies
We use a session cookie to keep you signed in, and your browser's local storage to remember your light or dark theme preference and the profiles you have recently viewed. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.
Children
House Managers is for adults. You must be 18 or older to create an account. If we learn that an account belongs to a child, we remove it.