Privacy policy
Barxad Status is shipment-tracking software used by cargo houses on the Kenya ↔ Dubai, China and Turkey corridors. This page describes what the service holds, who can see it, where it is kept and how long for. It is written to be checkable against the software: if something here does not match what the product does, the page is wrong and should be reported.
Who is responsible for what
Two different organisations handle a cargo client's details, and the difference matters for who to ask about them.
- The cargo house — the business that shipped the cargo and gave the client their tracking code — decides what to record and who to message. Under the Data Protection Act 2019 it is the data controller. Requests about a specific consignment should go to that cargo house first.
- Feisal Omar operates the software and holds the data on the cargo house's instructions, as the data processor. The operator does not decide what to record, does not message clients on their own initiative, and does not use the data for anything other than running the service.
What the service holds
About a cargo client
| Held | Why |
|---|---|
| Name and WhatsApp number | To know whose cargo it is and where an update would be sent |
| Cargo details: tracking code, route, container or manifest reference, arrival dates | The record the client is tracking |
| Status history — every change, who made it, when, and the reason for a delay | So a dispute months later can be answered from the record |
| Office notes, and the waybill number from the receipt given at origin | So a question months later can be answered from the reference the client holds |
| Whether they agreed to WhatsApp updates, when, and whether they later said stop | Messages are only prepared for a client whose agreement is recorded |
| The text of each message prepared or sent, and any reply they send to the business number | So the office can see what the client was actually told |
About office and agent accounts
- Name, email address, role, and the origin hub an agent is assigned to.
- A password, stored only as a bcrypt hash. Nobody operating the service can read it.
Technical records
- Sign-in attempts, recorded as an email address or an IP address with a timestamp, purely to slow down password guessing. These are deleted automatically about an hour after they are made.
- Request keys that let a phone with a bad connection resend an update without it being applied twice. Deleted after seven days.
There is no analytics, advertising, profiling or tracking of any kind, and no third-party scripts run on any page. See the cookie policy.
What a tracking link shows
A tracking code is the only thing guarding a tracking page, so anyone the client forwards the link to can open it. The page deliberately shows only:
- the tracking code, status, route and arrival date
- the reason for a delay, as the office wrote it
- the status history with dates
- the cargo house's own name and contact number
- the waybill number from the receipt, so the client can tell it is their consignment
It does not show the client's name, their phone number or internal office notes. Those are visible only to signed-in staff of that cargo house. Tracking pages are also marked so search engines do not index them.
One thing worth saying plainly to cargo houses: the delay reason is shown to the client, word for word. It should not be used for anything the client should not read.
Separation between cargo houses
Every record belongs to one cargo house, and every query is limited to the house of the person signed in. One house cannot see another's shipments, clients or messages, and an agent assigned to one origin hub can only see and update cargo from that hub.
Agents at the origin hubs (Dubai, China, Turkey and others) can record a shipment when the client drops off cargo. That means they enter the client's name and WhatsApp number, and can see the names on their own hub's cargo. They never see another hub's clients.
Where the data is kept
The service runs on infrastructure in the European Union, so data about Kenyan clients is transferred outside Kenya. That transfer is necessary to provide the service, and these are the only processors involved:
| Processor | Role | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Railway | Runs the website, its server code and the database | Amsterdam, Netherlands (europe-west4) |
| Supabase | Holds a backup copy of the data, used only if Railway is unavailable | Frankfurt, Germany |
If a cargo house turns on automatic WhatsApp sending, its chosen provider (Meta or Twilio) also receives the client's number and the message text, and that provider's own terms then apply to the delivery. Until a provider is configured, no message leaves the service automatically — see below.
WhatsApp messages
A message is only prepared for a client whose agreement to receive updates has been recorded. Without that agreement the text is written but held, and cannot be sent.
A client can stop messages at any time by replying STOP (or jooji, iskaftay, ha ii soo dirin) to the business number. That takes effect immediately, withdraws the recorded agreement, and also stops any message that was already waiting to be sent. Replying START (or bilow) turns them back on. Nothing else a client writes will turn messages back on.
Some cargo houses run the service in a mode where the software does not send anything itself: it writes each message and a member of office staff sends it by hand. In that mode a screen saying a message is "prepared" means exactly that, and nothing has reached the client until someone sends it.
How long data is kept
Shipment records and messages are kept until the cargo house deletes them or ends its use of the service, because they are the record of what was promised to a client. There is no automatic deletion of cargo records — a cargo house that needs a retention limit should ask for one. Sign-in attempts and request keys are deleted automatically, as described above.
Encrypted backups are taken so the data can be restored after a failure. They are encrypted with a key the operator holds separately from the backup itself.
Security
- All traffic is over HTTPS.
- Passwords are stored as bcrypt hashes, never in a readable form.
- Sessions can be revoked immediately — a lost agent phone can be cut off from every device at once.
- The database is reachable only by the application's own least-privilege account; the public API roles have no access to any table.
- Backups are encrypted, and restoring one is tested rather than assumed.
No system is beyond failure. If a breach affects personal data, the cargo houses concerned will be told without undue delay so they can meet their own obligations, and the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner will be notified where the law requires it.
Rights under the Data Protection Act 2019
A person whose data is held has the right to:
- be told what is held about them and be given a copy
- have something inaccurate corrected — a misspelled name, a wrong number
- object to messages, and to have them stop
- ask for deletion, where there is no legal or contractual reason to keep it
Ask the cargo house that shipped your cargo first: they decide what is recorded, and they can act on most requests immediately. If you cannot reach them, or they do not respond, write to [email protected] and Feisal Omar will act on the cargo house's instructions or tell you who to contact. You may also complain to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner.
Contact
- Operator: Feisal Omar
- Address: P.O. Box 6100, Eastleigh, Nairobi, Kenya
- Data protection enquiries: [email protected]
- ODPC registration: Not registered
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that affects what is held or who can see it, cargo houses will be told before the change takes effect, and the date at the foot of this page will change.