Privacy Policy

Last updated 26 September 2026 · HiveShop, operated by vHive Solutions (Philippines)

This policy explains, in plain language, what personal data HiveShop collects, why we collect it, and what you can do about it. We follow the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10173) and its implementing rules, and we handle online listings in line with the Internet Transactions Act of 2023 (Republic Act No. 11967).

1. Who is responsible for your data

vHive Solutions is the personal information controller for HiveShop. You can reach our Data Protection Officer at privacy@vhivesolutions.com.

2. What we collect

  • Account details — your mobile number and/or email address, your name or shop name, and (if you use Google Sign-In) your Google account's name, email and unique account ID. We never receive your Google password.
  • Optional profile details — avatar photo, bio, city and province, contact mobile and WhatsApp number, and your preferred delivery and payment options.
  • Listing content — the titles, descriptions, prices, item attributes, photos and location you publish. Anything you put in a listing is public.
  • Messages — inquiries you send to sellers and replies sellers send back, including the name and contact details you supply.
  • Usage data — pages and listings viewed, searches, filters, favorites, contact-button clicks, your IP address, browser user-agent and timestamps. We use this for view counts, abuse prevention and product analytics.
  • Security data — one-way hashes of your login codes and passwords, session records, and logs of login attempts (successful and failed).

We strip camera EXIF metadata from uploaded photos except for a small set of technical fields, and we discard the original file after converting it to a web-sized image.

3. Why we use it (our lawful basis)

  • To run your account and listings — necessary to perform our service to you.
  • To deliver one-time login codes by SMS and email — necessary for security and to authenticate you.
  • To pass inquiries to sellers — necessary to perform the marketplace function you asked for. A seller receives the name, contact detail and message you submit.
  • To keep the marketplace safe — our legitimate interest in preventing fraud, spam, prohibited items and abuse, including rate limits and moderation of reports.
  • To improve the service — aggregated, non-identifying analytics.
  • To comply with the law — where a valid legal order requires it.

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use it for third-party advertising.

4. Who else sees your data

  • Other users — your shop name, city, avatar, listings and the contact details you choose to publish on a listing are visible to anyone.
  • A seller you contact — receives the name, contact and message you send.
  • Our own delivery services — SMS is sent through our SMSTrack gateway and email through our MailTrack gateway; both are operated by vHive Solutions on our own servers.
  • Google — only if you choose Google Sign-In, and only to verify the sign-in token you present.
  • Anthropic (Claude) — only when you use the optional "Smart fill" button while creating a listing. The text you paste is sent to the model to extract listing fields. Do not paste anything confidential into that box.
  • Authorities — when compelled by lawful process.

5. How long we keep it

  • Login codes expire in 10 minutes and are deleted or marked used immediately after.
  • Login sessions last up to 365 days, or until you log out.
  • Listings you delete are hidden immediately and purged from backups within 90 days.
  • If you delete your account, we soft-delete your profile and deactivate your listings at once, and remove the underlying records within 90 days, except where we must keep a record for fraud prevention or legal compliance.

6. Your rights under RA 10173

You have the right to be informed, to access, to correct, to object, to erasure or blocking, to data portability, to damages, and to lodge a complaint with the National Privacy Commission. Most of these you can exercise yourself from your profile — edit your details, remove listings, or delete your account. For anything else, email privacy@vhivesolutions.com and we will respond within 15 working days.

You may also contact the National Privacy Commission at privacy.gov.ph.

7. Security

HiveShop is served only over HTTPS. Passwords and one-time codes are stored as one-way bcrypt hashes; session tokens are stored as SHA-256 hashes, never in plain text. Uploaded files cannot be executed on our servers. Access to production data is restricted to authorised vHive Solutions personnel.

8. Cookies and local storage

We use one HttpOnly session cookie (hs_token) to keep you logged in, and your browser's local storage for the same token plus your light/dark theme preference. We use no third-party advertising or tracking cookies.

9. Children

HiveShop is not intended for anyone under 18. If we learn that a minor has created an account, we will remove it.

10. Changes

If we make a material change to this policy we will update the date above and, where the change affects you meaningfully, notify you in the app.

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