Our data policy in a nutshell.
We value your privacy and data protection rights. We are committed to safeguarding and protecting your personal data and using it in accordance with the applicable data protection legislation.
We collect some or all of the following personal data from you: your anonymised IP address or domain name of the computer you use to connect to our website, and information about your visit to our website using cookies. Your cookies are set to expire after every session (defined as 60 minutes).
If you sign up for a Spacehubs Africa account, we ask for further identifying information such as your name, email address, date of birth, nationality, gender and other details that are used to personalise your new account and interact with others in the community platform. We give you control through your settings to limit the data we collect from you and how we use it, and to control things like account security.
We provide certain features that let you communicate more privately or control who sees your content. For example, you can use Direct Messages to have non-public conversations. When you communicate with others by sending or receiving Direct Messages, we will store and process your communications and information related to them. This includes link scanning for malicious content, detection of spam, abuse, and prohibited images, and use of reported issues. We also use information about whom you have communicated with and when (but not the content of those communications) to better understand the use of our services and to protect the safety and integrity of our platform.
What are Cookies?
A cookie is a small text file that is downloaded onto ‘terminal equipment’ (e.g. a computer or smartphone) when you access a website. It allows the website to recognise a device and store information about the user’s preferences or past actions. Most browsers support cookies, but you can set your preferences to decline them and delete them whenever you like.
With your consent, we use cookies to observe how you interact with our website through Google Analytics and in-house analytics. We do this so that we may improve your user experience and the functions of our website. We do not use cookies to track your behaviour once you have left our website. To learn more about cookies, including how to view which cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, please visit: www.allaboutcookies.org.
What about embedded content?
Some pages on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Why do you want my data?
We process your data to improve your experience on our website and to share information with you via our newsletter We process your data with your consent, given in the cookie pop-up when you visit our website for the first time. This consent can be changed at any time, by contacting us directly at contact@spacehubs.africa.
How do you process my data?
Your personal data will be retained for a period of two years unless we are required by law to retain your personal data for a longer period of time. Your data are not subject to automatic decision procedures. Spacehubs Africa follows strict data security procedures to ensure that your personal information is not damaged, destroyed, or disclosed to a third party without your permission and to prevent unauthorised access. The computers storing the information are kept in a secure environment with restricted physical access. We use secure firewalls and other measures to restrict electronic access.
If the data must be transferred to a third party, we require them to have in place similar measures to protect your personal data. All of the information we collect, or record is restricted to our offices. Only persons who need the information to fulfil their duties are granted access to personal data. We will explicitly ask you when we need information to identify you. We may require you to cooperate with our security checks before we disclose information to you. You can update the personal information that you give us at any time by contacting us directly.
What data do you collect?
Geolocation data. We log all access to all accounts by full IP address so that we can always verify no unauthorised access has happened. We keep this login data for as long as your account is active.
Website interactions. When you browse our website, your browser automatically shares certain information such as which operating system and browser version you are using. We track that information, along with the pages you are visiting, page load timing, and which website referred you for statistical purposes like conversion rates and to test new designs. We sometimes track specific link clicks to help inform some design decisions. These web analytics data are tied to your user account if applicable and you are signed into Spacehubs Africa.
Voluntary correspondence. When you write to use with a question or to ask for help, we keep that correspondence, including the email address, so that we have a history of past correspondences to reference if you reach out in the future.
Do you share my data?
Our default practice is to not access your information. The only times we’ll ever access or share your info are: To provide products or services you've requested. To help you troubleshoot or squash a software bug, with your permission. If at any point we need to access your account to help you with a Support case, we will ask for your consent before proceeding. To investigate, prevent, or take action regarding restricted uses. Accessing a customer’s account when investigating potential abuse is a measure of last resort.
We have an obligation to protect the privacy and safety of both our customers and the people reporting issues to us. We do our best to balance those responsibilities throughout the process. If we do discover you are using our products for a restricted purpose, we will report the incident to the appropriate authorities. When required under applicable law. If the appropriate law enforcement authorities have the necessary warrant, criminal subpoena, or court order requiring we share data, we have to comply. Otherwise, we flat-out reject requests from local and federal law enforcement when they seek data. And unless we’re legally prevented from it, we’ll always inform you when such requests are made.
What are my rights?
You have the following rights in relation to your data and the processing thereof:- Access your data
- Have knowledge of the reasoning underlying data processing
- Obtain a copy of your data
- Request their erasure or rectification
- Request your data to be provided to another controller on your behalf
- Not to be subject to a purely automated decision without having your views taken into consideration
- Object to processing in some circumstances
- Withdraw your consent
Lodge a complaint with the national supervisory authority should you consider this data processing to be in violation of the law and to claim compensation for damage incurred as a result if the processing is found to be unlawful You may contact us at contact@spacehubs.africa with a request to exercise your rights. We will answer your request within one month of the date we receive your request, but if your request is sufficiently complex or there are too many parallel requests, this period may be extended by a further month to be addressed.
Is my data secure?
All data is encrypted via SSL/TLS when transmitted from our servers to your browser. The database backups are also encrypted. Most data are not encrypted while they live in our database (since it needs to be ready to send to you when you need it), but we go to great lengths to secure your data at rest.
What happens if I delete my account?
If you opt to delete your account, you will not be able to access your account once you cancel, so make sure you download everything you want to keep beforehand. We will permanently delete your account data within 30 days from our servers and logs, and within 60 days from our backups. Retrieving data for a single account from a backup is not possible, so if you change your mind, you’ll need to do it within the first 30 days. Data cannot be recovered once it has been permanently deleted.