This policy explains what EthioBete collects when you use ethiobete.com, why we collect it, and who else can see it.
What we collect
- Account details — your email address and a password, which is stored only as a cryptographic hash and is never visible to us.
- Identity details — legal first and last name, and date of birth, collected at sign-up to confirm you are 18 or over. These are held in a separate, access-restricted table and are not shown on your public profile.
- Profile — display name, optional photo and bio. These are visible to other users.
- Listings — for hosts: property details, house rules, pricing and photos you upload, plus the map location you set. Listing photos are stored in a public bucket, so anyone with the image URL can view them.
- Bookings and reviews — dates, guest counts, amounts charged, and any review you leave. Reviews are public.
- Approximate location — only if you allow it in your browser, and only to sort nearby stays. It is used in the page and not stored on our servers.
- Usage data — anonymous page views and performance timings, via Vercel Analytics and Speed Insights.
Payment information
Card payments are handled entirely by Stripe on Stripe's own checkout page. We never receive, see or store your card number. We keep only a payment reference, the amount, and whether it succeeded, so we can show your booking history and process refunds.
Who else processes your data
- Supabase — database, authentication and file storage (servers in the United States).
- Vercel — website hosting, analytics and performance metrics.
- Stripe — payment processing and refunds.
- Resend — sending booking confirmations and account emails.
- OpenStreetMap / Nominatim — map tiles and address lookup. Searching for a place sends that text to their service.
We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it for advertising.
What other people can see
Your display name, photo, bio and reviews are public. When you book, the host sees your name and stay details; when you host, guests see your name and listing. Your email address, legal name and date of birth are not shown to other users.
How long we keep it
Account and booking records are kept while your account is open, and afterwards only where needed for financial and tax records. Ask us to delete your account and we will remove your profile, listings and personal details, retaining only what the law requires us to keep.
Your choices
- View and edit your profile, email and password in Account.
- Choose whether we may measure analytics — see Cookies & Storage.
- Refuse or revoke browser location access at any time — search still works, you just type a destination instead.
Your rights (GDPR)
If you are in the UK or the European Economic Area, the GDPR gives you the following rights over your personal data. They apply to everyone using EthioBete — we do not ask where you live before honouring a request.
- Access — get a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Rectification — correct anything inaccurate. Most of it you can edit yourself in Account.
- Erasure — ask us to delete your account and personal data.
- Portability — receive your data in a machine-readable format.
- Restriction and objection — ask us to stop certain processing.
- Withdraw consent — where we relied on consent, such as analytics, you can change your mind at any time and it takes effect immediately.
- Complain — to your local data protection authority if you believe we have handled your data wrongly.
To exercise any of these, email contact@ethiobete.com from the address on your account. We aim to respond within 30 days. Some records must be kept for financial and tax purposes even after an account is deleted; we will tell you if that applies.
Why we are allowed to hold your data
- To perform our contract with you — your account, bookings and payments. Without this data the service cannot run.
- Legal obligation — financial and tax records.
- Legitimate interests — keeping the platform safe and preventing fraud and abuse.
- Consent — analytics only. Refusing costs you nothing.
Where your data is held
Our database and file storage run on Supabase infrastructure in the United States, and hosting is provided by Vercel. If you are in the UK or EEA, this means your data is transferred outside your region; those transfers rely on the providers' standard contractual clauses.
Children
EthioBete is not for anyone under 18. We ask for date of birth at sign-up to enforce this.
Contact
Questions about this policy, or a request about your data — email contact@ethiobete.com.