Privacy notice

Who runs Watanli

This site is Watanli, operated by [legal entity name], [postal address], Milpitas, California. We run watanli.com for the Afghan community in the United States and Canada. Write to [email protected] about anything in this notice.

What we collect

When you join we take an email address or a phone number and the display name you choose. You can add your city. Everything you post is stored: listings, requests, bids, job applications, reviews, community questions and updates, event RSVPs and reports. Messages you send through Watanli, such as the message with a bid or a job application, are stored too.

Each time you log in we record the IP address and the browser you used. The same two details go into our audit log with every sensitive action, such as a login, a bid, a contact reveal or a moderator decision. When you reveal a listing's contact details, we record who revealed which listing and when.

Photos are rebuilt before they are shown and all camera and location data is removed. Work authorization and immigration status are never asked and never stored. Your location is city level only, unless you publish a business address yourself.

The identity check

Some actions, such as bidding on a request or sponsoring a business abroad, need an approved government ID. You upload the document once. It is encrypted, one moderator looks at it, and the image is deleted the moment a decision is recorded. We do not keep the picture.

What we keep is a one way fingerprint made from the document number, the issuing region and the date of birth. It cannot be turned back into those details. Its only job is to stop a banned person from returning under a new account and to stop one document being used for two accounts. For that reason the fingerprint stays even after you delete your account. We also keep the date the check was approved and, for a licence, the reference number.

Automated screening and moderation

Every post passes through a scam filter and lists of abusive words in English, Dari and Pashto, and every photo passes through a classifier that runs on our own server. None of them decides anything alone. A post the filters flag is held until a person looks at it.

The first post of every new account is checked by a person before it appears. Moderators can hold, hide or remove a post, and can issue a strike, a suspension or a ban. Every moderator action is written to the audit log.

What other members see

Your display name, city, listings, reviews and ratings are public. On the Community tab only your first name is shown. If you sponsor a business abroad, your first name and your area appear on that listing.

Nobody sees your phone number by default and it never appears in lists or search. A logged in member can reveal one listing's contact details at a time, up to 20 a day, and every reveal is recorded. An employer sees an applicant's number only after shortlisting them. In a booking, the customer and the pro see each other's number.

Cookies

We set four cookies and no advertising trackers. A session cookie keeps you logged in for up to 90 days. A language cookie remembers whether you read Watanli in English, Dari or Pashto. A metro cookie remembers the area you chose on the Community tab. A cookie that lasts 30 days remembers that you chose to keep browsing instead of picking what brought you here. There are no third party analytics and no advertising trackers on any page.

Email and text messages

We email you a login code when you log in by email, and a login alert when there is a new login to your account while it is already logged in on another device. If you have added an email, we may send a weekly digest of what is new in your area; every digest has an unsubscribe link that works with one click, and we stop at once.

Login codes by text message go to United States and Canada numbers only. Our email is sent through Amazon Simple Email Service and our text messages through Twilio.

Who else handles your data

Three companies process data for us and nobody else: Cloudflare, which sits in front of our server and sees every request, including your IP address; Amazon Web Services, which hosts our server in Oregon in the United States and sends our email; and Twilio, which sends our text messages and so sees your phone number.

We do not sell your data and we do not share it with advertisers. We hand data to the police or a court only when the law requires it.

How long we keep things

A login session lasts 90 days, and you can end any device's session sooner from My account. Records of contact reveals and notifications are deleted after 90 days. The audit log is kept longer because it is how we investigate scams, stolen accounts and appeals; we keep it for no more than 24 months. Encrypted backups of the database are kept for 30 days. Your listings stay until they expire or you remove them.

Your rights

You can ask for a copy of your data, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete your account by emailing [email protected] from the email or phone on your account. We answer within 30 days. When an account is deleted we remove your profile, listings and photos; the identity fingerprint and the audit log entries stay, for the reasons above.

If you live in California, the California Consumer Privacy Act gives you the right to know what we hold about you, to have it deleted, and not to be treated differently for asking; we do not sell personal information. If you live in Canada, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act gives you the right to access and correct your information and to complain to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. If you live in Quebec, Law 25 also applies; the person responsible for the protection of personal information at Watanli can be reached at [email protected].

Under 18

Watanli is for adults. You must be 18 or older to create an account, and everyone confirms this when they join. If we learn that a member is under 18, we close the account.

Security

Everything is encrypted in transit. The database and files are not reachable from the internet. Staff accounts need a second code, and every sensitive action is written to the audit log.

Changes

When we change this notice we update the date at the top and, for an important change, tell members by email or a notice on the site. This version is effective September 14, 2026.