Last updated: 30 October 2026

FairDrop is PokéSouq's app for limited releases ("drops") of trading cards and collectibles in the UAE. This policy explains what personal data FairDrop collects, why we collect it, who it goes to, how long we keep it and how you can delete your account. "We", "us" and "PokéSouq" mean the PokéSouq team in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which runs FairDrop.

Your pokesouq.com store account and your store orders are also covered by the store's own privacy policy: pokesouq.com/policies/privacy-policy.

1. Who can use FairDrop

• You sign in to FairDrop with the email address of your PokéSouq store account. If you don't have one, you can create one on pokesouq.com.
• FairDrop drops are for UAE residents aged 18 and over with a valid Emirates ID. To register for drops you verify your identity with your Emirates ID. Our team checks every ID, including the date of birth.

2. What we collect

2.1 From your PokéSouq store account

When you sign in, FairDrop uses the details on your store account: your name, email address, phone number, store customer number, saved delivery addresses and order history (what you bought, when, and the order totals). We keep a copy that is updated from the store regularly. Your store order history and your FairDrop drop history set your tier, which affects your place in drop queues.

2.2 Your FairDrop account

• Your FairDrop number (for example FD1234) and an anonymous number (for example Anonymous #4821).
• Your email address and WhatsApp number. If you change your email address, we keep the old one so you can still sign in with it.
• Your notification settings, and when you agreed to the community rules or to offers & news notifications, with the version of the wording you agreed to.
• Sign-in records: when you signed in, and the one-time codes we sent you.

2.3 Identity check (Emirates ID)

• A photo of the front of your Emirates ID, which you take or upload in the app.
• The details our team reads from the photo and types in: your name as it appears on the ID, the ID number, date of birth, nationality, issue date and expiry date.
• The result of the check (approved or rejected) and the reason.

We store your Emirates ID number in full. We also store an encoded copy of the number, which we use to find the same ID on more than one account. That copy can be decoded, so it is not a one-way hash. Only the PokéSouq team can see your ID photo and ID details. We keep them while your account is open, so we can check an account again if we suspect scalping or duplicate accounts. When you delete your account they are erased (see section 9).

2.4 Your device and connection

• A device code that the app works out on your phone from the phone's model, its operating system version and an app identifier (on iPhone Apple's "identifier for vendor", on Android the Android ID). We use it to spot several accounts on one phone.
• Your phone's model and operating system version, whether it looks like an emulator or a rooted or jailbroken phone, and your FairDrop app version.
• Your push notification token, so we can send you notifications.
• Your IP address when you sign in, ask for a code or register for a drop. When you register for a drop we check whether the connection is a VPN or proxy. If it is, we record the country and the network provider of that connection.

FairDrop does not use your phone's location (GPS) and never asks for location permission.

2.5 Drops and orders

Your drop registrations, queue entries and places, turns, the items you select or reserve, payment links, orders and their status, and pre-orders. You pay on the pokesouq.com checkout. FairDrop never sees your card details.

2.6 Community

• Your display name and avatar. Until you choose them, you appear as Anonymous with a number and a random avatar.
• Your comments, replies and suggestions (and any edits), and the up and down votes and emoji reactions you give.
• Reports you make, people you block, and our moderation decisions about your comments or display name (for example a removed comment or a strike).
• For comments written in Arabic or Arabizi, an English translation for our team (see section 6).

2.7 Polls, quizzes and other interactive posts

Your poll votes, quiz and questionnaire answers (including any written answers, which are never shown publicly), predictions, giveaway entries, interest in pre-order goals, reminders and "Notify me" requests you set, and "helpful" taps on FAQ answers. Also the interests you choose in Profile > My interests.

2.8 Drop Dash (the game)

When you play Drop Dash, each run is sent to us: the timing of your taps, your score and when you played. We replay the run to check the score, then use it for the leaderboards, trophies and your profile.

2.9 How you use the app

Which Sets & News posts you open (including when you open one from a notification), which deals you view or tap, banners you close, whether you have seen the app tour, and the back-in-stock alerts you set.

3. How we use your data

• To run FairDrop: to sign you in, check that you can take part, verify your ID, work out your tier and your place in a queue, run turns and reservations, create your payment link on pokesouq.com, and send you drop, turn and payment alerts.
• To keep drops fair: one person, one account. We look for the same Emirates ID, device, phone number, delivery address or connection across accounts, check for VPNs and emulators, and keep a blacklist of people who broke the rules. Some checks are automatic (for example, a VPN connection stops a drop registration until it is switched off). Blocks and ID decisions are made by our team.
• To run the community: to show your display name, avatar, comments, reactions and scores to other users, filter and moderate content, act on reports within 24 hours, and enforce the community rules.
• To understand what customers like: we look at poll and quiz answers, reactions, interests and how posts and deals are used, to plan drops, stock and posts. We group customers by interest (for example "Japanese sets") inside FairDrop, and we may use those groups to decide which offers and news to tell you about. We use interest groups inside FairDrop and in PokéSouq's own systems, to make your PokéSouq experience better. We don't add them to your store account, and we never share them with advertising networks.
• To send notifications (see section 7) and to answer your questions.
• To meet our legal obligations and protect PokéSouq and our customers.

Your Drop Dash scores never change your place in a queue.

We don't sell your personal data. FairDrop shows no ads and does not track you across other companies' apps or websites.

4. What other FairDrop users can see

• Your display name (or Anonymous #number), avatar and trophy count, your comments and replies, your emoji reactions in "who reacted" lists, and your Drop Dash scores on the leaderboards and the Hall of Fame.
• They never see your real name, email address, phone number, Emirates ID or address.
• Queue, drop, turn and payment screens never show other customers' names.

5. Who we share data with

We don't sell or rent personal data. We share it only with the service providers that run parts of FairDrop for us. They act on our instructions, and we only use providers that protect personal data at least as well as this policy does.

• Shopify: our online store. Your store account, orders, payment pages and delivery addresses.
• Supabase: our database and file storage, including Emirates ID photos.
• Vercel: hosts the FairDrop server.
• Upstash: fast storage for live queue information.
• Expo, Apple and Google (Firebase Cloud Messaging): deliver push notifications. Expo also delivers app updates.
• Wati: sends our WhatsApp messages (sign-in codes, and drop, turn and payment alerts).
• Our email delivery provider: sends sign-in codes, back-in-stock emails and account deletion codes.
• IPQualityScore: checks whether a connection is a VPN or proxy when you register for a drop. It receives your IP address.
• Anthropic: translates Arabic and Arabizi comments into English for our moderation team. It receives only the text of the comment (see section 6).

We may also share personal data when the law requires it, to answer a lawful request from the authorities, or to protect against fraud. If PokéSouq's business is ever transferred to a new owner, your data would go with it and stay covered by this policy.

Some of these providers store or process data outside the UAE, including in the European Union and the United States.

6. AI translation of comments

Comments written in Arabic or Arabizi may be sent to Anthropic, an AI company, which translates them into English so our moderation team can read them. We send only the text of the comment, never your name, FairDrop number, email address or anything else about you. Only our team sees the translation. Other users always see your original words.

You agree to this when you accept the community rules before your first comment. If you don't agree, you can still use FairDrop without commenting.

7. Notifications and your choices

• Alerts about your drops, your turn, payments, items you asked to hear about (back in stock), your ID check, and replies to your comments are part of the service. You can switch most of them off in Profile > Notifications, or turn off FairDrop notifications in your phone's settings.
• Offers & news notifications (new drops and products, deals, polls, quizzes, giveaways and announcements) are sent only if you said Yes to "Offers & news by notification?". Everyone starts with them off. You can turn them off at any time in Profile > Notifications > Offers & news.
• WhatsApp: we send sign-in codes, and drop, turn and payment messages, to the WhatsApp number on your account. FairDrop never sends marketing on WhatsApp. If you order from pokesouq.com or message us on WhatsApp, the shop may send you offers there until you reply STOP, as the store's privacy policy explains.
• Email: we send sign-in codes, the back-in-stock emails you ask for, and account deletion codes.

8. How long we keep your data

• Your account, store details, drop and order history, community activity and settings: while your FairDrop account is open.
• Your Emirates ID photo and ID details: while your account is open, then erased when you delete your account.
• Comments: until you delete them, we remove them, or you delete your account.
• Sign-in codes: they expire after 10 minutes.
• Account deletion codes: they expire after 15 minutes. We keep the request (your email address, and coded copies of the code and of your IP address) for at most 2 days, to limit repeated requests. Once your account is deleted, your email address is removed from it.
• Back-in-stock alerts: until the item is back and we have told you, or until you remove the alert.
• After you delete your account: see section 9.
• Backups: copies in our providers' backups are overwritten on their normal backup cycle.

Orders you placed on pokesouq.com are the store's sales records. The store keeps them under its own policy and our legal record-keeping obligations.

9. Deleting your FairDrop account

You can delete your FairDrop account at any time:

• In the app: Profile > Delete account (at the bottom). Confirm with the 6-digit code we email you.
• On the web: pokesouq-backend.vercel.app/account/delete. Enter your account email address, then the code we email you.
• By email: write to hello@pokesouq.com from your account email address.

If you have items reserved or it is your turn in a drop, pay or let the timer run out first. Nothing else stops a deletion. In the app and on the web page, your account is deleted as soon as you confirm the code. If you email us, we delete it within 7 days and reply to confirm.

What we erase:

• your name, email addresses (current and previous), phone number, display name and avatar;
• your push token, your device code and device details;
• your Emirates ID photo and every ID detail (name, number, date of birth, nationality and dates);
• the text of your comments (they show as "[deleted]", so other people's replies still make sense);
• your votes, reactions, poll and quiz answers, predictions, entries, interests, Drop Dash runs and scores, back-in-stock alerts, the cards in your bell, the record of which posts you opened, your blocks and the reports you made;
• your words in our moderation records, and the personal details (email addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses and device details) in our sign-in and security records.

What we keep, and why:

• An archive record with no name or contact details: your FairDrop number, the dates your account was opened and deleted, your drop and order history, and whether the account was blacklisted or flagged as a scalper. We keep it so our drop and sales records stay complete and so bans can't be dodged.
• A one-way fingerprint of your Emirates ID number: a code made from the number with a secret key, which can't be turned back into the number. If the same ID is used for a new FairDrop account, our team is told that it belonged to a deleted account, and whether that account was blacklisted or flagged as a scalper. The fingerprint and those flags are deleted after 3 years.
• Reports other people made about your content, and our moderation decisions (with your words removed), so we can show we acted on them.
• Records we must keep for a promotion permit, such as a giveaway draw you won.

Anywhere your past activity still appears (for example a reply thread or a Hall of Fame entry), it shows as "[deleted]".

If you sign in again later with the same store account, FairDrop creates a brand-new account. Your pokesouq.com purchases still count towards your tier, because they belong to your store account. If you order on pokesouq.com again, our system also creates a new FairDrop customer record from your store account, as it does for every store customer.

Your pokesouq.com store account and its orders are separate and are not deleted with your FairDrop account. To close your store account, email hello@pokesouq.com.

10. Your rights

You can ask us to:

• show you the personal data we hold about you;
• correct it (you can change your email address, WhatsApp number, display name and avatar in the app yourself);
• delete it (your whole account as in section 9, or specific data);
• stop using it for a purpose you object to;
• withdraw a consent you gave (for example, switch off Offers & news).

Email hello@pokesouq.com from your account email address. We may need to confirm it's you. We reply within 30 days.

11. Security

Data travels between the app and our server over encrypted connections (HTTPS). Our database provider encrypts stored data. Emirates ID photos are kept in private storage that only our server can open. Only the PokéSouq team can open customer records, and you sign in with one-time codes. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your personal data, we will tell you as the law requires.

12. Children

FairDrop is not intended for anyone under 18, and we don't knowingly collect personal data from children. Our team checks the date of birth on every Emirates ID and rejects IDs of anyone under 18. If you think a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

13. Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we update this page and the date at the top. If a change is significant, we will tell you in the app before it applies.

14. Contact

PokéSouq, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Email: hello@pokesouq.com
WhatsApp: +971 50 295 0782
Website: pokesouq.com

We handle personal data in line with UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 on the Protection of Personal Data.