Privacy policy

Last updated 5 October 2026

Bilup is a rent and utility record used by landlords, their offices and their tenants in Kenya. This policy covers the Bilup Tenant app (co.bilup.tenant) and bilup.co.ke. Bilup Solutions, Nairobi, is the data controller.

What the app holds about you

Almost all of it was already on your tenancy before you had an account. The app shows it to you, it does not gather it:

Your name, phone number, house and property, and the date you moved in, given to the office when you took the house.
Your rent, balance, arrears, water meter readings and every payment made against your house, with its M-Pesa reference and date.
Messages between you and the office, and any requests or payment claims you send.

Things you add yourself, and can remove yourself:

A username and password.
A profile photograph, an email address, a second phone number, an ID number, an occupation and a next of kin, every one optional.

Things the app records to work at all:

The IP address and device description of a sign-in attempt, kept so an account taken over can be traced. It is not used for anything else.
A one-time code sent to your phone number when you sign in, register, reset a password or close an account. Codes are stored hashed and expire in two minutes.

Signing in with Google

Providers on Bilup Services can sign in with Google instead of a password. Google then tells Bilup three things: your name, your email address and the ID of your Google account. They are kept on your Bilup Services account and used only to sign you in. Bilup never sees your Google password and asks Google for nothing else.

What it does not do

The Bilup Tenant app has no permission to read your messages, your contacts, your call log, your photo library or your location. Those permissions are not merely unused. They are removed from this build, and anyone can verify that from the APK itself. There are no advertisements, no advertising identifiers, no analytics SDKs and no third-party trackers of any kind.

When you attach a picture (a profile photograph, or a file in a message to the office), Android’s own picker hands the app that one file. The app never gets access to the rest of your gallery.

Why it is held, and on what basis

To show you your own rent record and let you act on it: the contract between you and your landlord.
To let the office bill, receipt and account for rent, water and garbage: the landlord’s legitimate interest and their own accounting obligations.
To keep the account secure: codes, sign-in records and rate limits.

Who sees it

Your landlord and the office that manages your property, the people who already hold your tenancy.
Africa’s Talking, which delivers the SMS carrying your one-time code. They receive your phone number and the code, nothing else.
Google, when a Bilup Services provider signs in with Google. Google learns that you signed in to Bilup.
Supabase (database and file storage) and Railway (the servers), as processors under contract.

Nothing is sold, and nothing is shared for advertising. Data may be disclosed where the law requires it.

How long

Your account: until you close it. A closed account can be recovered for 14 days, after which the row is deleted permanently.
Your rent record: for as long as the tenancy and the accounting obligations behind it require. It belongs to the tenancy, not to your login. See below.
One-time codes: two minutes.
Sign-in records: kept while the account exists, for security.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account from inside the app: profile, Close my account…, or on the website, or by asking the office. It removes your sign-in and everything you filled in yourself.

It does not remove your rent record, and that is deliberate: those payments are the landlord’s account of money received and they are also your proof that you paid. A record that could be erased on request would be no protection to anybody.

The full detail (what goes, what stays, and how to ask without the app) is on the account-deletion page.

Your rights

Under Kenya’s Data Protection Act, 2019 you can ask for a copy of what is held about you, ask for a correction, object to a use, or complain to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner. Corrections to your own details can be made in the app, though the office approves them, because a name or a phone number on a tenancy is also the landlord’s record.

Children

Bilup is for tenants holding a tenancy and is not directed at children under 18.

Changes and contact

Material changes will be announced in the app. Questions, requests and complaints: info@bilup.co.ke.