Privacy Policy

Indaba & Meer ("Indaba", "we", "us", or "our") respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect personal information when you use our website, mobile apps, editorial tools, and related services (the "Service").

This policy applies to readers, community contributors, and authorised staff who access our platform.

We may collect the following categories of information:

• Account information: name, email address, phone number, username, password hash, and profile details.
• Social login data: when you sign in with Google, Facebook, or TikTok, we receive identifiers and basic profile information permitted by that provider.
• Community submissions: photos, videos, audio, text, category selections, and optional location labels you attach to uploads.
• Usage data: pages viewed, articles read, device type, app version, IP address, and general analytics.
• Communications: messages you send to our newsroom, support requests, and moderation correspondence.
• Staff activity: actions taken in editorial and platform admin dashboards by authorised users.

We use personal information to:

• Provide, maintain, and improve the Service.
• Authenticate users and secure accounts.
• Review, moderate, publish, or reject community submissions.
• Send notifications about breaking news, account activity, or editorial updates.
• Operate internal dashboards for editorial and platform administration.
• Comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms of Service.
• Analyse aggregated usage to improve performance and content relevance.

Where applicable under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) and similar laws, we process personal information based on your consent, to perform our contract with you, to comply with legal obligations, or for our legitimate interests in operating a secure news platform.

We do not sell your personal information. We may share information with:

• Service providers that host our infrastructure, store media, deliver notifications, or provide analytics.
• Editorial staff and moderators who need access to review submissions and comments.
• Law enforcement or regulators when required by law or to protect rights and safety.
• Business successors in the event of a merger, acquisition, or asset sale, subject to this policy.

If you choose Google, Facebook, or TikTok sign-in, those providers process your authentication according to their own privacy policies. We receive only the data needed to create or link your Indaba account, such as your name, email address (where available), and a provider-specific user identifier.

The mobile app may request access to your photo library, camera, microphone, or location when you submit a story. Location is optional and used only to tag the geographic context of a submission when you choose to provide it.

You can manage permissions in your device settings. Denying permissions may limit certain upload features.

Our website uses cookies and local storage to keep you signed in, remember preferences, and measure site performance. You can control cookies through your browser settings, though some features may not work correctly if cookies are disabled.

We retain account information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the Service. Community submissions and published content may be retained for editorial, archival, and legal purposes even after account deletion, where permitted by law.

We may retain anonymised or aggregated data that no longer identifies you.

We use administrative, technical, and organisational measures to protect personal information, including encrypted connections (HTTPS), access controls for staff dashboards, and secure token-based authentication. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure.

Depending on your location, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or export your personal information, withdraw consent, or object to certain processing.

To exercise these rights, contact us through the Contact page. We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling a request.

The Service is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without appropriate consent. If you believe a child has provided us information without consent, please contact us so we can take appropriate action.

Your information may be processed in South Africa and in other countries where our service providers operate. We take steps to ensure appropriate safeguards when information is transferred across borders.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the revised policy on this page and update the 'Last updated' date. Material changes may also be communicated through the app or by email where appropriate.

Privacy questions or requests: email ludmilpaulo@gmail.com or visit our Contact us page at https://indaba-swart.vercel.app/contact.