Privacy Policy

Last updated: 4 October 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Shop.mw collects, uses, stores, and protects information when you use our search engine, social network, discovery platform, website, and related services. Shop.mw is owned and operated by JADE IT, a registered company in Blantyre, Malawi.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your information transparently. This policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, how it may be displayed, when it may be shared, and the choices and rights available to you.

1. Who We Are

Shop.mw is a Malawi-focused search engine, social network, and discovery platform. We index publicly available web content with a focus on Malawi, and we also let users create accounts, publish posts, submit RSS feeds, build microsites, create groups, advertise, sell products, and interact with content.

JADE IT is the data controller responsible for determining how personal information is processed on Shop.mw.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information from Google Sign-In

2.2 Information you give us directly

• Profile information — name, username, bio, location, website, avatar, cover photo, and other information you choose to provide.
• Content you publish — posts, comments, group content, messages, microsite pages, uploaded files, advertisements, polls, and other material you submit.
• Content visibility choices — including whether a post is public or limited to your followers, where such controls are available.
• RSS feeds you submit — including the feed URL and title you provide.
• Payment information — when you purchase advertising, memberships, products, or other paid services. Payment card or payment credentials are processed by the relevant payment provider; Shop.mw does not store full payment card numbers.
• Payment and transaction information — such as transaction references, payment status, amounts, timestamps, and other limited transaction information supplied by payment processors.
• Communications — emails, support requests, complaints, copyright notices, privacy requests, and other communications you send to us.

2.3 Information collected automatically

• Log data — IP address, browser type, operating system, pages visited, timestamps, referring pages, and related technical information. This is used for security, abuse prevention, troubleshooting, and basic analytics.
• Session data — cookies, session identifiers, and similar technologies required to maintain login sessions and remember preferences.
• Search queries — the terms you search for on Shop.mw, which may be used to improve search quality, discover trends, prevent abuse, and improve the service.
• Device and usage information — technical information about how you interact with Shop.mw.

2.4 Information from payment and other third parties

• Payment processors — PayChangu and other payment providers may provide transaction status, payment references, merchant information, or other information necessary to confirm and manage a transaction.
• PayChangu Connect — where a seller or creator connects a PayChangu account to Shop.mw, Shop.mw may receive information necessary to establish and maintain the connection and confirm transaction status. Payments are processed through the user's connected payment account according to the payment provider's terms.

2.5 Web crawling and indexing

2.6 Public posts, followers-only posts, and search visibility

If you change a post from public to followers-only or delete a post, Shop.mw will take reasonable steps to remove it from public display and public search. Copies, screenshots, cached versions, or material previously shared by other people may continue to exist outside Shop.mw.

2.7 Microsites, groups, advertisements, and other public content

Content that you choose to publish publicly through Shop.mw, including public microsites, public advertisements, public group information, and other public pages, may be visible to anyone and may be searchable or shareable.

The visibility of content inside groups or other community features may depend on the privacy settings and membership rules of that feature.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide, operate, maintain, and improve Shop.mw
• Create and manage accounts through Google Sign-In
• Display public content and profiles to other users
• Respect the privacy settings selected by users
• Provide search, discovery, ranking, filtering, and indexing functionality
• Improve search relevance and platform recommendations
• Process payments and confirm transactions
• Prevent fraud, spam, abuse, and security threats
• Respond to support requests and complaints
• Send service notifications and, where permitted, product updates
• Administer advertising and promotional services
• Provide creator, group, storefront, and website functionality
• Comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms of Use

We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

3.1 Search and automated systems

Shop.mw uses automated systems to crawl, index, organize, rank, filter, and present content. These systems may process search queries and public content to produce relevant search results.

Shop.mw does not currently use solely automated processing to make decisions that produce legal effects or similarly significant effects concerning a user.

4. Legal Basis for Processing

Depending on the activity involved, we process personal information on one or more of the following legal bases:

• Contract — where processing is necessary to provide services you have requested or to perform our agreement with you.
• Consent — where you have freely and specifically consented to processing for an identified purpose.
• Legitimate interests — where processing is necessary for purposes such as security, fraud prevention, platform improvement, or other legitimate interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your fundamental rights and freedoms.
• Legal obligation — where processing is required by law, regulation, court order, or another lawful requirement.
• Other lawful grounds — where another lawful basis permitted by applicable data protection law applies.

5. Cookies and Similar Technologies

Shop.mw uses cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:

You can block or delete cookies through your browser settings. Some functionality, especially login and account-related features, may not function correctly when essential cookies are disabled.

6. Affiliate Links and Third-Party Offers

Shop.mw may sometimes display affiliate links, sponsored recommendations, or promotional offers from third parties. Where an affiliate relationship exists, Shop.mw may receive a commission if you click a link or complete a qualifying transaction.

Affiliate and sponsored content will be identified where appropriate. Clicking a third-party link may take you to another website or service that has its own privacy policy and terms. Shop.mw is not responsible for the privacy practices of those external services.

7. How We Share Information

We share information only in limited circumstances, including:

• Service providers — hosting providers such as Google Cloud, Google authentication services, payment processors, email providers, security services, and other vendors that help us operate Shop.mw.
• Payment providers — where necessary to process and confirm a payment or maintain a connected payment account.
• Public content — content that you intentionally publish publicly may be displayed to other users and included in Shop.mw's public search and discovery systems.
• Legal requirements — when disclosure is required by applicable law, court order, or lawful request, or when necessary to protect rights, property, safety, or the integrity of the platform.
• Business transfers — if Shop.mw or JADE IT is acquired, reorganized, merged, or transferred, relevant information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to applicable law and reasonable notice where appropriate.
• With your consent — when you specifically authorize another disclosure.

8. Data Retention

• Account information — generally retained while your account remains active. If you request account deletion, we will remove or anonymize personal information that we are not required or permitted to retain.
• Published content — retained while your content remains published. Deleted content is removed from public view promptly and may remain temporarily in backups or technical systems before being permanently purged.
• Log data — retained for up to 12 months where required for security, troubleshooting, fraud prevention, and analytics.
• Crawled web content — retained for as long as it remains useful to the Shop.mw search index, subject to source removal requests, opt-outs, legal requirements, and operational considerations.
• Payment and transaction records — retained for as long as reasonably necessary for accounting, tax, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, contractual obligations, and applicable legal or regulatory requirements.

9. Your Rights

Subject to applicable legal conditions and limitations, you may have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Correct inaccurate or incomplete personal information
• Delete or erase personal information where the legal conditions for erasure are met
• Restrict certain processing
• Object to certain processing
• Receive or export your information in a commonly used, machine-readable format where applicable
• Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent
• Lodge a complaint with the Malawi Data Protection Authority

To exercise these rights, contact us at jadegraphicsmw@gmail.com.

We may need to verify your identity before completing a request in order to protect your personal information from unauthorized disclosure.

We aim to respond to access and portability requests within 30 days and will handle correction, erasure, restriction, and objection requests within the timeframes required by applicable law.

9.1 Disconnecting Google Sign-In

You can review and revoke Shop.mw's access to your Google account through your Google Account permissions page: myaccount.google.com/permissions .

Revoking access may prevent future Shop.mw logins. Revoking Google access does not by itself delete your Shop.mw account, so contact us if you also want the account and associated information deleted.

9.2 Website owners — opting out of indexing

If you own or manage a website and do not want your content indexed by Shop.mw, you can request removal by emailing: jadegraphicsmw@gmail.com

Include the domain or specific URLs you want removed. We will review and process legitimate requests within a reasonable period, normally within 7 working days.

Removal from Shop.mw does not automatically remove content from the original website, other search engines, archives, cached pages, or third-party copies.

10. Security

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect personal information, including:

• HTTPS encryption for traffic to and from Shop.mw
• OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect authentication through Google
• Restricted access to production systems
• Security monitoring and abuse prevention measures
• Regular reviews of application code and infrastructure

No internet-connected system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. If you believe your account or personal information has been compromised, contact us immediately at jadegraphicsmw@gmail.com.

11. Personal Data Breach Notifications

If Shop.mw experiences a personal data breach, we will investigate the incident and take appropriate steps to contain, remedy, document, and report the breach as required by applicable law.

Where required by Malawi data protection law, JADE IT will notify the relevant Data Protection Authority within the required timeframe and will notify affected data subjects where the breach presents a high risk to their rights and freedoms.

12. Children's Privacy

13. International Data Transfers

Shop.mw is hosted using infrastructure and service providers that may operate data centres or systems outside Malawi. As a result, personal information may be stored or processed outside Malawi.

Where personal information is transferred outside Malawi, JADE IT will take reasonable steps to ensure that the transfer is made on a lawful basis and receives an appropriate level of protection as required by applicable data protection law.

14. External Websites and Services

Shop.mw contains links to websites, social networks, payment providers, advertisers, affiliate partners, and other third-party services.

When you leave Shop.mw and access a third-party service, that service's own terms and privacy policy apply. Shop.mw does not control how third-party websites collect or use information.

15. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to the platform, technology, legal requirements, or our data practices.

When we make changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. For material changes, we will make reasonable efforts to provide additional notice where appropriate.

Your continued use of Shop.mw after an updated policy is posted means that the updated policy applies to your continued use of the service, subject to any consent requirements imposed by applicable law.

16. Complaints to the Data Protection Authority

You have the right to lodge a complaint about the processing of your personal information with the Malawi Data Protection Authority.

17. Contact Us