Privacy Notice

Yarko is a trade-matchmaking service operated by GiM Services, a company registered in Ghana ("Yarko," "we," "us," or "our"). GiM Services is the controller of the personal information described in this Notice — the party that decides why and how it is processed, whichever brand name appears on the page, invoice, or communication you received.

This Notice should be read together with our Terms of Use. Where this Notice and the Terms conflict on a matter of data handling, this Notice controls.

This Notice applies to:

Buyers — individuals who create an account and submit sourcing requests;

Sellers — the individuals at factories who apply to join the pool and manage a listing;

Individuals appearing in Seller video content — people whose image or voice appears in a video a Seller submits for publication; and

Visitors — anyone who uses this website without creating an account.

It does not apply to what a Buyer and a Seller do with each other’s information after we make an introduction. Once introduced, each of you is independently responsible for your own handling of the other’s information under applicable law.

Most information comes directly from you. We also receive information from:

Paystack and PayPal, for billing metadata (Section 3.5);

Sellers, where a Seller submits video content that includes other people (Section 3.6);

Public sources and screening providers, for business-registry, sanctions, and adverse-media checks (Section 3.9); and

Other users, where someone submits a report about you under our Terms of Use.

To provide the matching and introduction service — matching Buyer sourcing requests to Seller listings, compiling shortlists, and facilitating consented introductions.

To review Seller applications and maintain a pool we can responsibly describe as "Vetted" — a point-in-time review, not a credit rating or an ongoing guarantee.

To produce and publish video content, where a Seller has consented, including transcription, translation, editing, branding, and publication on this website and on our YouTube channel.

For security and abuse prevention, including detecting fraud, spam, scraping, and misuse of the platform, and investigating reports about users.

For trade-compliance screening, including sanctions and watchlist checks.

To run billing, including processing one-time intro-request payments through Paystack or PayPal and keeping the accounting records we are required to keep.

To communicate with you about your account, a sourcing request, an introduction, or a change to our service or these documents.

To improve the service, including understanding which categories and regions are in demand, generally using aggregated or de-identified information.

To comply with legal obligations, including responding to lawful requests from authorities, and to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

Where applicable data protection law requires a stated legal basis (for example, under the EU GDPR), we rely on the following:

Contractual necessity — to create your account, process a sourcing request or Seller application, facilitate introductions you request, and take payment.

Legitimate interests — for security, fraud and abuse prevention, compliance screening, service improvement, and defending legal claims, balanced against your rights and interests.

Consent — where we ask for it specifically, including a Seller’s consent to release its contact details for an introduction, a Seller’s separate consent to public video publication, and optional communications. You may withdraw consent at any time, without affecting processing already carried out.

Legal obligation — where we must retain or disclose information to comply with applicable law, including tax, accounting, and sanctions requirements.

We share personal information only as needed to operate Yarko:

Paystack and PayPal — payment processing; receive the billing details needed to take a one-time payment for an intro request.

Our hosting provider — stores the application and database.

YouTube (Google) — hosts published videos and the transcripts or metadata that accompany them. Published videos are public.

Our operations tooling — the form, database, workflow-automation, and video-rendering services we use to receive applications, manage records, and produce videos.

Transcription and translation provider — processes video audio to generate subtitles.

Screening providers and public registries — used to check business registration, sanctions, and red flags.

Sellers and Buyers — contact details are shared with the other party only after both sides have consented to a specific introduction, as described in our Terms of Use.

Professional advisers — lawyers, accountants, and auditors, under duties of confidentiality.

Legal and regulatory authorities — where required by law, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Yarko, our users, or the public.

An acquirer — if GiM Services is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, information may transfer as part of that transaction, subject to this Notice.

We do not share personal information with third parties for their own independent marketing purposes.

Our hosting infrastructure may be located in Singapore, the United States, or the European Union, depending on our hosting provider, and your information may be processed in any of those locations. Our vendors and the individuals whose information we process are also located in multiple countries, including China.

Where we transfer personal information out of a jurisdiction that restricts such transfers — for example, out of the European Economic Area — we rely on recognised transfer safeguards, such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, or an equivalent mechanism recognised under applicable law. Under Singapore’s PDPA, we take reasonable steps to ensure that a recipient outside Singapore is bound to a standard of protection comparable to the PDPA.

You may request information about the safeguards we use by contacting us.

We keep information for as long as we need it for the purpose it was collected, and then delete or anonymise it. As a general guide:

Account, sourcing-request, and Seller application records — for as long as the account is active, and ordinarily deleted or anonymised within twenty-four (24) months of account closure, absent an active dispute or legal hold.

Introduction and consent records — kept for the same period, since they evidence what each party agreed to.

Billing and accounting records — for as long as required by applicable tax and accounting law, typically at least five (5) years.

Published video content — for as long as it remains published, plus a short period after unpublication; raw submitted footage is deleted once the published version is final and the retention need has passed.

Server and security logs — ordinarily a rolling period of up to twelve (12) months.

Screening results — kept as long as needed to evidence the compliance check, and refreshed rather than accumulated.

Depending on where you are located, you may have the right to:

Access the personal information we hold about you;

Correct inaccurate or incomplete information;

Request erasure of your information, subject to legitimate exceptions (for example, records we must keep for legal or accounting reasons);

Withdraw consent, where processing is based on consent — including consent to video publication;

Request a copy of your information in a portable format;

Object to or restrict certain processing, including processing based on legitimate interests;

Opt out of marketing at any time; and

Lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority, in addition to contacting us directly.

We do not make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you based solely on automated processing. Shortlist compilation and Seller review involve human judgement, and a decision to grant, withhold, or withdraw a Vetted badge is made by a person. Where screening tools flag a potential match against a sanction or watchlist, a person reviews that result before any action is taken.

We may send you service messages about your account, a sourcing request, an introduction, or changes to our terms; these are part of the service and are not marketing. Where we send marketing messages, we do so in accordance with applicable law, and every marketing message includes a way to unsubscribe. Unsubscribing from marketing does not stop service messages.

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information, including encryption of data in transit, access controls limiting who within our team can view sensitive information, restricting administrative access to the minimum number of people, and reliance on reputable, security-vetted processors (including Paystack and PayPal for payments).

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Yarko is intended for business use and is not directed at individuals under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn that we have done so, we will delete it.

Seller video content must not feature individuals under 18. If you believe a published video shows a minor, contact us and we will unpublish it while we review.

We use session and authentication cookies so that you can stay signed in, and cookies strictly necessary for security. This version of Yarko does not run a separate analytics cookie layer.

Videos are embedded using YouTube’s no-cookie domain, which avoids setting YouTube tracking cookies unless you play a video. Playing a video may result in Google setting cookies or similar identifiers under its own privacy policy.

If we add analytics or advertising cookies in the future, we will update this Notice and, where required by law, request your consent first.

If we become aware of a breach of security that compromises your personal information in a way that creates a real risk of significant harm, we will notify affected users and, where required by applicable law, the relevant regulator, without undue delay and within any timeframe required by that law.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties, we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, and we do not provide it to third parties for their own independent marketing purposes. Contact details are released only through the consented introduction process described in our Terms of Use.

We may update this Notice from time to time. If we make material changes, we will update the version number and date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, give additional notice to account holders. Where a change requires your consent, we will ask for it before the change applies to you.

For privacy questions, to exercise any of the rights described above, or to raise a concern about a video in which you appear, email trade@yarko.trade, or reach us through your buyer account or a seller application on this website.