Privacy Notice

Introduction

This Privacy Notice explains how we collect, use, share, and protect your personal information when you use our platform. We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your data in an open and transparent manner. This notice applies to all users of our services and describes your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

Information We Collect

Account Information

When you create an account, we collect information such as your name, email address, password, and contact details. This information is necessary to provide you with access to our services and communicate with you about your account.

Business Profile Information

If you register as a business or organization, we collect additional information including business name, registration details, address, industry sector, and authorized representative information. This helps us verify your business identity and display accurate information to other users.

Usage and Technical Data

We automatically collect information about how you use our platform, including pages visited, features used, search queries, and interactions with other users. We also collect technical data such as IP address, browser type, device information, and operating system to ensure platform security and optimize performance.

Communications

We collect information from your communications with us and with other platform users, including messages, support tickets, feedback, and survey responses. This helps us improve our services and provide customer support.

Optional Information

You may choose to provide additional information such as profile photos, social media links, business descriptions, and preferences. This information helps enhance your profile and improve your experience on the platform but is not required.

How We Use Your Information

We use your personal information to: provide and maintain our services; process your transactions and manage your account; communicate with you about updates, features, and support; personalize your experience and show relevant content; analyze platform usage and improve our services; ensure security and prevent fraud; comply with legal obligations; and enforce our terms and policies.

Information Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

Service Providers

We share information with trusted service providers who perform services on our behalf, such as hosting, analytics, payment processing, and customer support. These providers are contractually obligated to protect your information and use it only for the purposes we specify.

Other Platform Users

Certain information in your profile is visible to other platform users as part of the service functionality. You can control the visibility of some information through your privacy settings. Business profiles are publicly visible to facilitate connections and opportunities.

Legal Requirements

We may disclose your information when required by law, legal process, or governmental request, or when we believe disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, your safety, or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to a legal request.

Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures include encryption, secure servers, access controls, and regular security assessments. However, no method of transmission over the internet is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to provide our services, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. When you delete your account, we will delete or anonymize your personal information, except where we are required to retain it for legal, regulatory, or legitimate business purposes.

Your Privacy Rights

Right to access your personal information and obtain a copy of the data we hold about you

Right to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal information

Right to request deletion of your personal information in certain circumstances

Right to restrict processing of your personal information under specific conditions

Right to receive your personal information in a structured, commonly used format and transmit it to another controller

Right to object to processing of your personal information for certain purposes

Right to withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent to process your information

To exercise these rights, please contact us using the information provided in this notice. We will respond to your request within the timeframe required by applicable law.

International Data Transfers

Your information may be transferred to and processed in countries other than your country of residence. These countries may have data protection laws that are different from the laws of your country. When we transfer your information internationally, we implement appropriate safeguards to protect your information in accordance with this Privacy Notice and applicable law.

Children's Privacy

Our services are not intended for individuals under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child without appropriate parental consent, we will take steps to delete that information as quickly as possible.

Third-Party Links and Services

Our platform may contain links to third-party websites, applications, or services that are not operated by us. This Privacy Notice does not apply to those third-party services. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party services you access through our platform.

Changes to This Privacy Notice

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Notice on our website and updating the effective date. We encourage you to review this notice periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.

Contact Us

For questions about this Privacy Notice, the use of your personal information, or the exercise of your data-protection rights, contact our Data Protection Officer at dpo@ubumwi.com. Legal enquiries may be sent to legal@ubumwi.com.

Information contained in directory records

UbumWi creates and maintains directory records using information supplied by users and organisations, together with information obtained from publicly accessible sources and other recorded sources.

A directory record may contain an organisation or business name, category, location, website, public contact information, the names and professional roles of representatives, source information and other information relevant to discovery through UbumWi.

Where this information identifies an individual, it is personal information. UbumWi processes this information for its legitimate interests in:

making African and Caribbean diaspora businesses, people, organisations and institutions easier to discover;

maintaining an accurate and useful directory;

enabling organisations to claim, correct and manage their records;

preventing duplication, misrepresentation and misuse; and

protecting the integrity of the platform.

UbumWi considers whether this processing is necessary and balances its interests against the rights and reasonable expectations of the individuals concerned.

Public availability does not by itself constitute consent, confirmation or verification.

Sources

Directory information may come from an organisation’s public website, an official register, a public professional profile, information supplied by a partner or representative, or another publicly accessible source.

Where available, the source and ingestion method are recorded against the relevant record.

Your rights

If your personal information appears in a directory record that you did not create, you may ask us to:

provide access to the personal information we hold about you;

correct inaccurate or incomplete information;

restrict or object to our use of the information;

remove information where applicable; or

explain its source and how it is being used.

Send requests to dpo@ubumwi.com and identify the relevant record. We may need to confirm your identity or your relationship with the organisation before changing a record.

You may also submit a correction through the correction or claim process shown on the relevant record. Exercising these rights does not require you to purchase a service.

Where the UK GDPR requires us to provide privacy information directly after obtaining personal information from another source, we will do so within the applicable period unless a lawful exemption applies.

You may complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office if you are dissatisfied with how we use your personal information.