Privacy policy

This policy explains what personal information United Africa Today (“we”, “us”) collects when you read our site, create an account, buy a membership, comment or contact us, what we do with it and the choices you have. We keep it short on purpose.

1. Who is responsible

United Africa Today is responsible for the personal information described here. You can reach us at any time through our contact page, including for privacy requests.

2. What we collect

Account details: your name, email address and a password, which we store only in scrambled (hashed) form.
Membership and payments: the plan you chose, dates, amount and payment reference. Payments are taken by our payment provider, Flutterwave. We never see or store your card details or mobile money PIN.
Comments: what you write, your display name and when you wrote it.
Messages to us: your name, email address and what you tell us in the contact form.
Technical data: your IP address, browser and device type, and the pages you request. We use this to keep the site secure, stop spam and abuse, and keep it running.
Cookies and similar storage: see our cookie policy.

3. How we use it, and why

To run your account and membership, and to deliver what you paid for (our agreement with you).
To send service emails such as sign-in, password reset and payment receipts (our agreement with you).
To publish and moderate comments, answer your messages and handle corrections (our legitimate interest in running a publication, or your request).
To keep the site secure and prevent spam and fraud (our legitimate interest and, where applicable, legal obligations).
To show advertising to readers who allow it (your consent), and to understand in general how the site is used.

We do not sell your personal information.

4. Advertising and Google

We may show advertising through Google AdSense. Google and its partners may use cookies and similar technologies to show and measure ads. Where the law requires it we ask for your permission first through our cookie banner, and we do not load advertising scripts until you accept. You can manage Google’s ad personalisation at adssettings.google.com and read how Google uses data from partner sites at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. Members read without advertising.

5. Who we share it with

Only the service providers that help us run the site, and only for that purpose: our hosting provider; Amazon Web Services (email delivery); Flutterwave (payments); Cloudflare (domain name services and secure storage of encrypted backups); and Google (advertising, and the translation links that open in a new tab). We may also disclose information where the law requires it. Our providers may handle data outside your country, and we choose providers that protect it.

6. How long we keep it

We keep account details for as long as your account exists and delete or anonymise them within a reasonable time after you ask us to close it. Payment records are kept as long as accounting and legal rules require. Contact messages are kept as long as we need them to answer you and keep a record of corrections and complaints, and we review them periodically. Encrypted backups are rotated and deleted on a short schedule.

7. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to how we use it, take a copy of it, or withdraw consent you gave us. Use the contact page and choose “Privacy request”. We may need to confirm it is really you. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority. We serve readers across Africa and around the world, and we handle personal information in line with the data protection laws that apply to our readers, including the GDPR in the European Union and United Kingdom and African laws such as South Africa’s POPIA, Kenya’s Data Protection Act, Nigeria’s Data Protection Act and Zambia’s Data Protection Act.

8. Security

We protect the site with encrypted connections, hashed passwords, staff two-factor sign-in, access controls and encrypted backups. No system is perfectly secure, and we will tell affected people and the authorities where the law requires.

9. Children

Our site is for general audiences and is not directed at children under 16. We do not knowingly collect their personal information. If you believe a child has given us information, contact us and we will remove it.