About this policy:
This Privacy Policy explains what information SafeHer collects, why we collect it, how we use it and your rights over this data. We are committed to protecting your privacy, and in doing so, we want you to fully understand exactly what type of data we are collecting.
What is personal information, and how do we collect it?
Personal information is any information that can be used to identify you, for example, your name, location, email addresses or even your phone numbers. We collect this information when you sign up for and use SafeHer to create and manage your account, verify your identity, send important notifications, and provide personalised safety resources. You can choose not to provide certain information, but doing so may limit some features.
We collect your personal information for the primary purpose of providing online safety services to you, and in doing so, we may collect relevant content such as public profile information, posts, messages, comments, images and screenshots. We only collect this information to the extent necessary to document incidents, corroborate reports, preserve evidence and deliver tailored safety, legal and mental health support.
This data helps our AI provide relevant advice depending on your situation with the aim of preventing online abuse before it escalates. As a user of SafeHer, you remain in control, and you can choose how we process your data, where we need to share your information with third parties, we will ask for additional consent.
Given the sensitivity of the information we collect, we will only use this information for the primary purpose for which it was obtained. We will only disclose your information to third parties where you consent.
Where we are required to comply with a lawful request from law enforcement officers, we will disclose only the minimum information necessary to satisfy that request. In doing so, we will be guided by applicable data protection law, including the Data Protection Act, 2019 (Kenya) and where relevant, the General Data Protection Regulations (EU). Where permitted under applicable law, we will notify you if your personal data is disclosed. If notification is prohibited, we will comply with that prohibition but will seek to provide notice as soon as the restriction is lifted.
To improve our services, we may contact you to take part in surveys so we can get your feedback on our platform. We do this to help us understand more about how our users think about and use our services.
Your personal data rights and controls
As a user of the SafeHer mobile application, you have rights over the personal information SafeHer holds about you.
Below is an explanation of each right and how you can use it.
Access - you have a right to access your personal data at any time upon request. You can do this either by using the “ Download your data” tool on your Account Privacy Page, or you can contact us[1]
Correction - as a data subject, you have a right to correct any misinformation held about you. We have included an “edit profile” tab in your account, which you can use to edit your user data. Alternatively, you can reach out to us, and we will help you correct your data
Deletion - should you no longer wish to have your data with us, you can ask us to delete your personal data, and we will. Reach out to us via email.
Restriction - you have the right to request that we stop processing all or some of your personal data.
Object - You can object to the processing of your data at any time, and it will be done
Withdraw consent - No means no, we perfectly understand this phrase. We rely on your consent to process your data, and without it, we cannot process your data. Note that you can withdraw your consent at any time, even after processing of data has already begun.
Data portability - you can request a copy of your personal data in electronic format
Data retention
We will only retain your personal data for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including providing you with SafeHer’s online safety services.
Once your personal data is no longer needed, we will securely delete it in a way that prevents unauthorised access or use. In practice, this means that:
We will only retain your account information for as long as your account remains active. If you delete your account, we will delete this information within 90 days
We may retain your usage data(how you interact with the app, device logs, session history) for analytical and security purposes, but this will be anonymised to maintain your privacy
Reports or complaints made through the SafeHer app may be retained for up to 7 years, where they may be needed for ongoing investigations and safeguarding purposes.
Once we no longer need your data, we will securely delete or anonymise it to prevent unauthorised access.
Keeping your personal data safe
We take the security of your personal data very seriously, and to do this, we use a combination of technical and procedural safeguards to protect your information. These include encrypting the data we process, restricting access controls to only authorised personnel, to anonymising personal data where possible. We have taken extra measures to ensure that our reporting channels are secure so as to allow you to submit incidents safely and anonymously.
Despite our efforts, no system is completely secure, and should we experience a data breach that poses a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify you and the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) in line with the requirements of the Kenya Data Protection Act, 2019. We, in turn, encourage you to use strong passwords and ask that you do not share your accounts so we can further work to protect your data.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices and legal requirements, and when we do, we will notify you before the changes take effect. We encourage you to review this policy regularly to stay informed about how we protect your personal data.
How to contact us
If you have any queries or complaints about our privacy policy, please contact us at info@sow-kenya.org