1
Introduction
Welcome to RAN — Record Am Now ("RAN", "we", "us", or "our"). We are a Nigerian business inventory and sales management platform operated by RAN Technologies Ltd, incorporated in Nigeria.
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website at ran.ng and when you use our software applications ("Services"). Please read this policy carefully.
Plain English Summary: We only collect data needed to run your business account. We never sell your personal or business data to third parties. Your sales records, inventory data, and customer information belong to you and only you.
This policy is written to comply with Nigeria's National Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) 2019 issued by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), and relevant provisions of the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) 2023.
By accessing or using RAN, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the terms of this policy, please do not access the Services.
2
Data We Collect
We collect several types of information in connection with providing our Services:
2.1 Information You Provide Directly
- Account Information: Your full name, phone number, email address, and password when you register.
- Business Information: Business name, type, category, address, and operating state.
- Business Records: Products, inventory levels, pricing, sales transactions, and receipts you create within RAN.
- Customer Data: Names, phone numbers, and purchase history of your customers, if you choose to record this.
- Staff Data: Names, roles, and phone numbers of staff you add to your business account.
- Payment Information: For paid subscriptions, we collect payment method details processed securely via our payment partner (Paystack). We do not store card numbers.
2.2 Information Collected Automatically
- Device Information: Device type, operating system, browser type, and unique device identifiers.
- Usage Data: Pages and features accessed, time spent, actions taken, and clickstream data to improve the product.
- Location Data: Approximate location based on IP address for security and fraud prevention. We do not collect precise GPS location without your explicit consent.
- Log Data: Server logs including IP addresses, access times, error reports, and referring URLs.
2.3 Information from Camera and Voice
When you use the "Snap" feature to photograph products or the voice entry feature, images and audio are processed on-device where possible, or transmitted securely to our AI processing servers. We do not store raw audio or images beyond the processing required to complete your product entry — typically under 5 seconds.
| Data Category |
Examples |
Retention Period |
| Account Data |
Name, email, phone, password hash |
Until account deletion + 30 days |
| Business Records |
Sales, inventory, receipts |
6 years (FIRS requirement) |
| Usage Analytics |
Feature usage, session data |
24 months |
| Voice / Image Processing |
Snap photos, voice commands |
Deleted after processing (<5s) |
| Payment Records |
Transaction IDs, subscription history |
7 years (legal requirement) |
3
How We Use Your Data
We use the information we collect for the following purposes:
- To Provide the Services: Processing your inventory entries, recording sales, generating receipts, and delivering reports.
- Account Management: Creating and maintaining your account, authenticating your identity, and processing password resets.
- AI-Powered Features: Training and running AI models that power smart insights, product recognition, and tax report generation. Models are trained on anonymised, aggregated data only.
- WhatsApp Notifications: Sending you daily summaries, stock alerts, and reports via WhatsApp if you've opted in to this service.
- Customer Support: Responding to your questions, resolving issues, and improving our support processes.
- Billing & Payments: Processing subscription payments and sending invoices via our payment processors.
- Security & Fraud Prevention: Detecting, investigating, and preventing fraudulent transactions and abuse of our platform.
- Legal Compliance: Complying with applicable Nigerian law, including NDPR, NDPA, FIRS regulations, and lawful requests from government authorities.
- Product Improvement: Analysing usage patterns to improve features, fix bugs, and develop new tools that serve Nigerian business owners better.
- Marketing (with consent): Sending product updates, tips, and offers via email or WhatsApp. You can unsubscribe at any time.
We do NOT use your data to: Train public AI models using identifiable business records, sell your data to advertisers, share individual business performance with competitors, or access your account without your explicit request.
4
Data Sharing & Disclosure
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal or business data. We may share your information only in the following limited circumstances:
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Service Providers: We use trusted third-party services to operate RAN, including cloud hosting (AWS Nigeria Region), payment processing (Paystack), SMS/WhatsApp delivery (Termii), and analytics. These partners are contractually bound to protect your data and may only use it to provide services to us.
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Legal Requirements: We may disclose your information if required by Nigerian law, court order, FIRS request, or other governmental authority — but only to the extent required and after verifying the legal basis of the request.
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Business Transfers: If RAN is acquired or merges with another entity, your data may be transferred. We will notify you before any transfer and you will have the right to delete your account.
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With Your Consent: We may share your data in any other circumstances with your explicit written consent.
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Aggregated, Anonymised Data: We may publish anonymised market insights (e.g., "average retail price of Indomie in Lagos this month") derived from aggregated, non-identifiable data across all RAN users.
5
Data Security
We take the security of your business data extremely seriously. We implement the following technical and organisational measures:
- Encryption in Transit: All data transmitted between your device and our servers is encrypted using TLS 1.3.
- Encryption at Rest: Your business data is stored with AES-256 encryption on our cloud servers.
- Access Controls: Employee access to production data is restricted on a strict need-to-know basis, with multi-factor authentication required.
- Security Audits: We conduct annual third-party security penetration tests and regular internal vulnerability assessments.
- Password Hashing: Passwords are never stored in plain text. We use bcrypt with a work factor of 12.
- Two-Factor Authentication: We encourage and support 2FA for all RAN accounts.
- Data Backups: Your data is backed up daily to geographically separate data centres within Nigeria.
Despite our best efforts, no security system is completely impenetrable. In the event of a data breach that affects your personal data, we will notify you within 72 hours of discovery as required by the NDPA 2023.
6
Your Rights
Under the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) 2023 and NDPR 2019, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:
- Right of Access: You can request a copy of all personal data we hold about you at any time.
- Right to Correction: You can update inaccurate or incomplete information directly in your account settings, or contact us for assistance.
- Right to Deletion: You can request deletion of your account and personal data. Note that business financial records may be retained for up to 6 years as required by FIRS regulations.
- Right to Data Portability: You can export your business data at any time in PDF, CSV, or Excel format from your dashboard.
- Right to Object: You can object to our processing of your data for marketing purposes by unsubscribing from communications or contacting us.
- Right to Restrict Processing: In certain circumstances, you may request that we restrict how we use your data.
- Right to Withdraw Consent: Where processing is based on consent (e.g., WhatsApp marketing messages), you can withdraw consent at any time without affecting prior processing.
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at privacy@ran.ng. We will respond within 30 days of receiving your request.
If you believe we have violated your data rights, you may lodge a complaint with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) at ndpc.gov.ng.