Privacy notice

Who we are

Maedot Gems PLC (“Maedot”, “we”), based in Bole, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is responsible for personal information collected through this website. Email: contact@maedot.co.

What we collect

Enquiry form. Your name, email address, message and enquiry type, plus your company and telephone number if you add them. We also store the date and time, your reference, the enquiry’s status and a code that prevents duplicate submissions. Enquiries sent from a selection link also record the selection and any parcel concerned. Our team may add internal notes.

Private selection pages. If you use the conversation on a private selection link, we store your messages, any parcel they refer to, files you attach (photographs, PDFs or videos) and when each was sent. We may save your name, company and email address with the selection, usually from your enquiry. Email is optional; we use it to send the link and reply notifications. Anyone with the link can view the selection, join its conversation and download its attachments, so share it carefully.

Technical and security data. Our hosting provider receives your IP address and browser details to deliver pages, and may keep them in logs for a limited period. To limit repeated submissions, our server keeps a hashed form of your IP address with an hourly count.

The enquiry form and selection pages use Google’s Firebase App Check with reCAPTCHA, a background check against automated abuse that sends browser, device and IP information to Google. reCAPTCHA sets a necessary cookie (_GRECAPTCHA); the page also keeps a short-lived security token and a small technical record in your browser’s storage. Google Analytics sets the only other cookies (below). We use no advertising trackers.

Analytics. We count visits to our public pages with Google Analytics, to see which pages are useful. It records which pages you open, roughly where you are and what device you use, and when you send an enquiry (with the topic you chose) or press our email address or WhatsApp number. We send only the page's address without anything after it, never what you type, and never anything from private selection, order or staff pages, which have no analytics at all. Google signals and ad personalisation are switched off.

Outside the European Union, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, Google Analytics sets cookies (_ga and _ga_FQFTF2GD7Y) so that it can tell a returning visitor from a new one. For visitors in those countries it sets no cookies and stores nothing on your device, so a later visit is not linked to an earlier one. To stop Analytics everywhere, use your browser's tracking protection or Google's opt-out add-on.

WhatsApp. If you contact us on WhatsApp, WhatsApp’s own terms and privacy policy also apply to that conversation.

Why we use it

To reply to enquiries, prepare selections and discuss purchases you ask about; to send selection links and reply notifications; to protect the website against spam, fraud and abuse; and to keep business records and meet legal obligations. We don’t sell personal information or use it for advertising.

Who processes it for us

• Google (Firebase and Google Cloud): website hosting, our server code, storage of enquiries, selections, messages and attachments, and App Check with reCAPTCHA.
• Google Analytics: counting visits to our public pages.
• Microsoft 365: our company email. We use it to reply to you and, where set up, to notify our team of new enquiries (these notifications contain the details you submit) and to send selection links and reply notifications from contact@maedot.co. Selection emails contain a link, not message text or attachments.

These providers act on our behalf. Beyond them, we share information only with your agreement or where the law requires. Within Maedot, only authorised team members can view enquiries and conversations.

International transfers

Our providers may process information outside Ethiopia and your country; our server code, for example, runs in Google Cloud’s europe-west1 region (Belgium). Their terms include commitments to protect personal data when it is transferred.

How long we keep it

We keep enquiries, selections, conversations and attachments while we need them for your request, any resulting business and our records, then delete them or remove identifying details. Some records are deleted automatically: enquiry rate-limit records expire after 24 hours, and unsent conversation uploads are removed by a daily clean-up once they are a day old. A disabled or expired selection link stops working, but its conversation stays in our records until it is deleted.

Your choices and rights

You can leave optional fields blank or email us instead of using the form. Applicable data protection laws may give you rights to access, correct or delete your personal information and to object to its use. To make a request, including disabling a selection link or removing your email from it, email contact@maedot.co. We may verify your identity first. You may also be able to complain to a data protection authority.

Security

Our database and file storage cannot be reached directly from a browser, our servers check every request, only invited team members can use our staff system, and selection links use long random codes. Connections to the website are encrypted. No system is completely secure; please don’t send passwords or payment card details through the website.

Changes to this notice

We’ll post changes here and update the date above.