Privacy Policy

Akwannya Hub is the data controller. That means we decide what personal information is collected and why. We are a community learning and talent development initiative based in Ghana, providing free training and curated opportunities in technology.

For any question about this policy, or to exercise any right described below, contact us at akwannyahub@gmail.com.

When you create an account:

• Your name and email address. These are required. Without them we cannot create an account for you.
• A username, generated from your email address, which you can change.
• Optional profile details you choose to add: a short bio, your skills, country, time zone, and links to your GitHub, LinkedIn or personal website.
• A profile picture, if you upload one.

Everything except your name and email address is optional. Leaving a field blank has no effect on your access to programs.

When you take part in a program:

• Project work you submit, including links to repositories or live sites.
• Feedback and assessments from mentors.
• Which programs and events you have joined.

When you contact us without an account:

The Partner with us form collects your name, organisation, email address, your phone number if you give one, and the message you write.

Ghana's Data Protection Act, 2012 and the GDPR both require us to state not only what we do with your information, but the legal ground we rely on for doing it. Those grounds are set out below.

We do not sell personal information. We do not send marketing email to people who have not asked for it. We do not use your information to build advertising profiles.

Signing in with Google is optional. Email and password works just as well, and gives you the same access.

If you choose Google, Google sends us three things:

• Your name.
• Your email address.
• Your profile picture.

That is the full extent of it. We request only the basic sign-in permissions, so we cannot read your Gmail, open your Drive, see your contacts, or access any other Google service. We never receive your Google password.

You can disconnect Akwannya Hub from your Google account at any time in your Google account settings. Doing that stops future sign-ins but does not delete your Akwannya Hub account. Email us if you want the account deleted as well.

Please read this section carefully. Parts of this website are visible to anyone on the internet, including people without an account and search engines.

• Project showcase and Hall of Fame. When we feature completed work, this can include your real name, a photograph, your project and a short description of it. Nothing appears here unless an administrator publishes it, and we ask for your agreement first.
• Your portfolio page. If you set your profile to public, your profile page can be viewed by anyone with the link. This setting is yours to control and is private by default until you change it.
• Testimonials. If you give us a quote, we publish it with the name and role you provided at the time.

We publish this material to celebrate people's work and to help them be found by employers. It rests on your consent, and consent can be withdrawn. If you would rather not appear, or you want something taken down, email us and we will remove it. You do not need to give a reason, and it will not affect your place on any program.

• Sign-in cookies, stored on your device. These are strictly necessary for the site to know you are signed in. A session ends 12 hours after you sign in, or after one hour without activity, whichever comes first.
• A limited record derived from your IP address, used only to limit how often actions such as sign-in attempts and form submissions can be repeated. This exists to stop abuse and is cleared on a rolling basis.
• Your light or dark theme preference, saved in your own browser. It never reaches our servers.

We do not use advertising cookies, tracking pixels, or third-party analytics services.

We do not make any decision about you by automated means alone, and we do not carry out profiling. Decisions about applications, assessments and program places are made by people.

We use a small number of service providers so that the site can run. They process data on our instructions and for no purpose of their own.

We may also share information where the law requires it, for example in response to a valid legal request.

Some of these providers run their systems outside Ghana, so your information may be stored or processed in another country, including in the European Union and the United States.

Ghana's Data Protection Act, 2012 and the GDPR both restrict sending personal data abroad. Where we do so, we use providers that commit by contract to protecting the data to a standard comparable with the protection it has here, including the European Commission's standard contractual clauses where those apply. You can ask us for details of the arrangements for any particular provider.

We protect your information with access controls enforced by the database itself, not only by the website, so that one account cannot read another's private data. Connections to the site are encrypted. Passwords are stored using one-way hashing, which means nobody at Akwannya Hub can read your password. Administrative access is limited to people who need it.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach ever affects your personal data, we will tell you and the Data Protection Commission as required by law.

You have the right to:

• Be told what personal information we hold about you and why.
• See a copy of it.
• Correct anything that is wrong or out of date.
• Have it deleted. We will do this unless we are legally required to keep something.
• Object to a particular use of your information.
• Ask us to pause a use of your information while a question about it is being resolved.
• Receive your information in a portable format, or have us send it to another service where that is technically possible.
• Withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on your consent. Withdrawing it does not undo anything done before you withdrew it.
• Not receive direct marketing. We do not send it, but the right stands.

To use any of these, email akwannyahub@gmail.com. We will respond as quickly as we reasonably can, and within one month at the latest. We will not charge you, and you do not need to explain why you are asking.

Deleting your account removes your profile and your submitted work. Anything already published on our public pages is stored separately, so please tell us if you want that removed too.

Please contact us first at akwannyahub@gmail.com. We would rather hear from you and fix it.

You also have the right to complain to a regulator without contacting us first. In Ghana, that is the Data Protection Commission. If you live in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you may complain to the data protection authority for your country instead.

The hub is intended for people aged 16 and over. We do not knowingly create accounts for anyone younger. If you believe a child has an account, please tell us and we will remove it.

If we change this policy in a way that materially affects you, we will say so on this page and update the date shown at the top. Where the law requires it, we will ask for your consent again.