Privacy Notice
In force from Mon, Oct 26, 2026. Last updated Mon, Oct 26, 2026.
This notice says what Zellany collects about you, why, who can see it, how long we keep it and what you can do. We wrote it in plain words. If anything is unclear, write to us at help@zellany.com.
Who is responsible. Zellany, in the Philippines, decides how your personal information is used. In this notice "we" means Zellany. Privacy contact and Data Protection Officer: write to help@zellany.com and put "Privacy" in the subject. A person on our team reads it.
What we collect, and why
| What we collect | Why | Our reason |
|---|---|---|
| Your name, email address and password (we keep only a scrambled form of the password), your city, and your photo, bio and cover if you add them | To make your account, let you sign in and show your profile | Contract |
| A 6-digit code or link we email you, and a record that you checked your email | To check that the email is yours | Contract, safety |
| Items you post: title, description, price, category, photos, short videos (5 to 30 seconds, with a caption), and the area where the item is | To show your item to buyers | Contract |
| Chats, offers, chat photos, and the numbers you choose to share | To pass your messages and offers between you and the other person | Contract |
| Saved items, saved searches, who you follow, who you blocked, ratings you give and get | To give you those features and to show trust | Contract |
| Your place. If you tap Use my location, your phone or browser gives us a position once. We round it to about 1 km and use it to show items near you. We do not follow you around. | To show items near you | Consent |
| Reports you send, reports about you, our decisions and your appeals | To answer you and keep Zellany fair | Contract, safety, law |
| Messages you send to our support team (Help chat, contact form, email) | To help you | Contract |
| Phone and browser details: the phone's push address (a "token"), phone type, app version, browser, IP address, sign-in times and error records | To send you alerts, keep the site secure and fix problems | Contract, safety, law |
| Your choices for alerts and emails, and a record of what you agreed to and when (for example "I am 18 or older", the terms, this notice and the community rules) | To follow your choices and to show your consent | Consent, law |
| Counts for videos, such as plays. To avoid counting one visit twice, we use a scrambled code that points to no one and is deleted after 14 days | To show the seller how a video is doing | Legitimate interest |
| Papers a business sends when it asks for a Shop check (for example a DTI or SEC paper, a BIR certificate, a permit, a photo of the shop front) | To know who business sellers are. Staff look at them. They are never shown to the public | Law, contract |
Consent means you agreed. Contract means we need it to give you the service. Law means the law says we must. Safety means we need it to protect people. Legitimate interest means a fair use that does not harm your rights.
What we do not collect today. ID checks, selfie checks and text-message codes are not switched on, so we hold no ID picture, selfie or phone-check data from them. Zellany has no advertising trackers and no analytics tools from other companies in its website or phone app. We do not ask for your contacts and we do not follow your position in the background. The app asks to use your camera, microphone and photos only when you record or pick a photo or video.
What other people can see
- Other people see your first name and the first letter of your last name, your photo, bio and area (never a street or a pin), your items and videos, your ratings, which checks you did (such as your email) and when you joined.
- They never see your email address, your phone number, your exact place or your ID. A phone number typed in a chat stays hidden until you both choose to share it.
- Your saved items, saved searches, follows, blocks and chats are private. Only the two people in a chat can see it.
- We remove hidden location data from your photos and videos.
What staff can see
- Staff see only what they need. Reports show what was reported and why, without phone numbers, emails or exact places.
- Staff read a private chat only when there is a reason: a report, a dispute, a safety check or a legal request. We keep a record of every time.
- When you ask for help, support can look at your account the way you see it. This needs a written reason, ends after a short time and cannot change anything.
What we do not do
- We do not sell your personal information.
- We do not show your phone number or email to anyone unless you and the other person both agree.
- We share data with the police or courts only when the law requires it, or in a real emergency. See Law-Enforcement Requests.
Who helps us run Zellany
These companies and services handle data for us. We choose them with care and stay responsible for your data when it goes to them.
| Job | Who | What they handle |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | The web hosting company that runs the server where Zellany lives | All data on Zellany, including photos and videos |
| Zellany's own mail server (the address noreply@zellany.com) | Your email address and the words of the email | |
| Phone alerts | Google Firebase (Android and iPhone) and Apple's push service (iPhone) | The phone's push address and the alert text. In Settings you choose whether an alert shows the words of a message |
| Sign in with Google | Google, only if you choose that button, and only while we have it switched on | Your name and email, as Google gives them to us |
Some of these services run outside the Philippines, for example in the United States. By using Zellany you understand that your data can travel there for these jobs only. We do not use other companies for payments, ID checks, text messages or maps today. If that changes, we will name them here first.
Photo check (off today). We have a tool that can send an item's photos to an AI service (Anthropic) to look for nudity and graphic violence before an item shows. It is switched off. If we switch it on, we will say so here. The photos would be used for the check only.
Automatic checks
Computers help us stop scams and rule breaks. They look at the words of item titles, descriptions and captions (in English and Filipino) for things that are not allowed, hide phone numbers typed in chats, and spot the same video uploaded twice. If several different people report an item as a scam or as illegal, the item is hidden until a person looks.
- A check can warn you, stop a post or hide an item. A check can be wrong.
- A person decides when to close an account. You can appeal. See the Notice-and-Takedown and Complaints Policy.
How long we keep data
See the Data Retention Schedule. In short: we keep your account data while your account is open, delete it after you delete your account, and keep some safety and legal records for the times set there. Backup copies are kept for about 14 days.
Your rights
Under the Data Privacy Act you can:
- see the personal information we hold about you (access);
- correct it if it is wrong;
- delete or block it (erasure);
- get a copy of your data;
- object to some uses, or withdraw your consent; and
- claim damages if your rights are broken.
How to use them:
- Download a copy: on the website open Settings, then Your data, then Download my data. On the app open Me and tap Export my data. You get one ZIP file of spreadsheets, made straight away.
- Delete your account: on the website open Settings, then Your data, then Delete my account. On the app open Me and tap Delete my account. We wait 30 days before we delete, so you can change your mind and tap Keep my account. After that, our team deletes the account. This cannot be undone.
- Everything else (correct, object, withdraw consent, ask a question): write to help@zellany.com from the email on your account. We answer within 30 days.
When your account is deleted, your profile, photo, items and photos, saved items and settings go. Some records stay for the times in the retention schedule. Your messages in other people's chats and your ratings may stay, shown as "Deleted user", so their chats still make sense.
If you are not happy with how we handled your information, you can complain to the National Privacy Commission (privacy.gov.ph). We would like the chance to fix it first.
Children
Zellany is for people 18 and older. You confirm this when you join. If we find an account of someone younger, we close it and delete the data, unless the law says we must keep something. See the Child-Safety Policy.
Keeping your data safe
We keep passwords scrambled, send data over secure connections, give photos in chats only through short-lived links, limit which staff can see what and keep a record of staff access to private chats. No service is perfectly safe, and we cannot promise that nothing will go wrong.
If a data leak could harm you, we tell the National Privacy Commission and the people affected within 72 hours of learning of it, as the law requires.
Cookies and storage
We use only what Zellany needs: cookies to keep you signed in, protect forms and, if you choose, remember you or a trusted device; and your browser's storage to remember your chosen place and unsent drafts. We use no advertising cookies and no tracking cookies.
Changes
If we change this notice in a way that matters, we tell you in the app or by email before the change starts, and the date at the top changes.
Contact
Zellany, Philippines. help@zellany.com (put "Privacy" in the subject).
Laws behind this notice: Data Privacy Act (RA 10173) and its rules; Cybercrime Prevention Act (RA 10175); RA 11930; Philippine rules on the age of adulthood (RA 6809).