Privacy policy

This is the privacy policy for diabetesafrica.org. Everything that we do is guided by our values of integrity and independence– including our editorial approach and how we use data.

We use your personal data for many reasons, from understanding how our users engage with our content to informing our marketing and advertising. Ultimately, this allows us to inform our members, partners and audience and build a community of people who are making a greater impact fighting diabetes around the world.

These are the main reasons why we collect and use data about our users:

  • To show you information that is relevant to you and to improve your experience on our site;
  • To provide the services you sign up for, such as subscriptions;
  • To carry out marketing analysis and send you communications when we have your permission, or when permitted by law;
  • To enable us to show advertising on our sites.

We think carefully about our use of personal data, and below you can find the details of what we do to protect your privacy. This policy covers, among other topics :

  • Information about your rights and our obligations;
  • Clarity about our dealings with you and transparency about how we collect and use your personal data;
  • Commitments on how we protect your personal data;
  • Commitments on how we will facilitate your rights and respond to your questions;

We will continue to examine how we can provide more clarity to our users about our use of data.

About this privacy policy

This privacy policy explains how we (Diabetes Africa Ltd, a non-profit company limited by guarantee) collect, use, share and transfer your personal data when you use the services provided on diabetesafrica.org (“our sites”).

Personal data is any information about you by which you can be identified. This can include information such as:

  • your name, date of birth, email address, postal address, phone number, mobile number;
  • debit card details;
  • information about your device (such as the IP address, which is a numerical code to identify your device that can provide information about the country, region or city where you are based); and
  • information relating to your personal circumstances and how you use our sites, apps and services.

Sometimes our site may contain links to third party sites and services. These sites and services have their own privacy policies. If you follow a link to a third party, you should read the privacy policy shown on their site.

Who we are and how to contact us

The data controller for our sites Diabetes Africa Ltd, 1st Floor, North Westgate House, Harlow, Essex, United Kingdom. This means that we are responsible for deciding how and why we hold and use your personal data. If you want to contact us, you can find our contact details in the “How to contact us” section below.

What personal data we collect and how we use it

We collect personal data when you sign up for our services and when you browse our site. This information is used to provide our content and other services, possibly display advertising and analyse how visitors use our site.

The personal data we collect when you register as a member. 

When you register for a Diabetes Africa account on diabetesafrica.org we collect:

  • your name;
  • your email address;
  • your photograph, if you add one to your account page.

You can choose to add a username to your profile page and you can use this when posting content or comments on our site.

When you register for a Diabetes Africa account, we assign you a unique ID number that we use to recognise you when you are signed in to our services. This will recognise you if you sign in using the same account on a new device or through a different application.

When you use our site we may also use cookies or similar technology to collect extra data, including:

  • your IP address – a numerical code to identify your device and which can provide information about the country, region or city where you are based;
  • your browsing history of the content you have visited on our sites, including information on how you were referred to our sites via another website; and
  • details of your devices, for example, the unique device ID, unique advertising ID and browsers used to access our content.

Signing up for membership or a subscribing to receive our news may also mean you need to provide other details such as your address details.

We will not collect special categories of data – such as information about your race, political opinions, religion, health or sexual orientation – unless you have chosen to provide that information to us.

Posting comments on our sites

When you post information on a discussion board or comment publicly on an article on one of our sites, the information you post and your username are publicly accessible. This information can be viewed online and collected by other people. We are not responsible for the way these other people use this information. When contributing to a discussion, we strongly recommend you avoid sharing any personal details, and especially information that can be used to identify you directly such as your name, age, address and name of employer. We are not responsible for the privacy of any identifiable information that you post in our online community or other public pages of the site.

How we collect personal data

We collect personal data when you:

  • become a subscriber or register for an members’ account on diabetesafrica.org;
  • contribute to fund and support Diabetes Africa;
  • pay for a subscription or purchase any other products/services;
  • attend our events;
  • enter our surveys;
  • sign up to receive our emails;
  • post in our online community;
  • sign up for marketing communications;
  • use mobile devices to access our content;
  • access our sites, through cookies and other similar technology; and
  • when you contact us via email, social media, our apps or similar technologies or when you mention us on social media.

Why we use your personal data

We use personal data collected through our site for a number of purposes, including the following:

  • To comply with applicable laws and regulations.
  • To send marketing communications when we have your permission, or when permitted by law.
  • To personalise our services (for example, so you can sign in), remembering your settings, displaying personalised advertising as well as measuring how effective our online adverts are, recognising you when you sign in on different devices and tailoring our marketing communications based on what you read on our site.
  • To carry out marketing analysis, for example we look at what you have viewed on our sites and apps and what products and services you have bought to better understand what your interests and preferences are, and to improve our marketing by making it more relevant to your interests and preferences. 
  • To improve our marketing communications, we use a similar technology to cookies to confirm whether you have opened a marketing email or clicked on a link in the email.
  • To sell advertising space on our site. Digital advertising may be used to support investment in our work programme and high-quality content.
  • For statistical purposes such as analysing the performance of our sites and to understand how visitors use them.
  • To respond to your queries and to resolve complaints.
  • For security and fraud prevention, and to ensure that our sites and apps are safe and secure and used in line with our terms of use.

Updating your personal data and your profile page on our sites

When you register for an account with diabetesafrica.org, you have access to an account page. Under “My account” you can update your information or provide extra information if you want.

Security of your personal data

We have implemented appropriate technical and organisational controls to protect your personal data against unauthorised processing and against accidental loss, damage or destruction. You are responsible for choosing a secure password when we ask you to set up a password to access parts of our sites or apps. You should keep this password confidential and you should choose a password that you do not use on any other site. You should not share your password with anyone else, including anyone who works for us. Unfortunately, sending information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data once with us, we cannot guarantee the security of any personal data sent to our site while still in transit and so you provide it at your own risk.

How long we keep your personal data

We keep your personal data for only as long as we need to. How long we need your personal data depends on what we are using it for, as set out in this privacy policy. For example, we may need to use it to answer your queries about a product or service and as a result may keep personal data while you are still using our product or services. We may also need to keep your personal data for accounting purposes, for example, where you have purchase a ticket for an event or subscribed to a paid membership option. If we no longer need your data, we will delete it or make it anonymous by removing all details that identify you. If we have asked for your permission to process your personal data and we have no other lawful grounds to continue with that processing, and you withdraw your permission, we will delete your personal data. However, when you unsubscribe from marketing communications, we will keep your email address to ensure that we do not send you any marketing in future.

We use MailChimp as a platform to send email communications, and you can see their own privacy policy by clicking here

How we may contact you

Service communications

From time to time we may send you service emails, for example, telling you your subscription is coming to an end or thanking you when you contribute or place an order with us.

Marketing communications and newsletters

If we have your permission, we may send you materials we think may interest you, such as offers and updates. 

You can decide not to receive these emails at any time and will be able to “unsubscribe” directly by clicking a link in the email.

Responding to your queries or complaints

If you have raised a query or a complaint with us, we may contact you to answer your query or to resolve your complaint.

Cookies and similar technology

When you visit our sites or when you use our apps, we may collect personal data from you automatically using cookies or similar technology. A cookie is a small file that can be placed on your device that allows us to recognise and remember you.

Online advertising

When done, advertising on our sites that is based on cookies and similar technology.

We may use personalised online advertising on our sites. This allows us to deliver more relevant advertising to people who visit diabetesafrica.org. It works by showing you adverts that are based on your browsing patterns and the way you have interacted with our sites and apps. It then shows you adverts which we believe may interest you.

Our editorial content is not influenced by the advertising we display and our writers are free to challenge the activities of companies and organisations that advertise and sponsor activities and content that appears on our site.

When you browse our site, some of the cookies and similar technology we place on your device are advertising cookies, so we can understand what sort of pages you are interested in. We can then display advertising on your browser based on these interests. 

We do not collect or use information such as your name, email address, postal address or phone number for personalised online advertising.

We may also share online data collected through cookies and similar technology with our advertising partners. This means that when you are on another website, you may be shown advertising based on diabetesafrica.org. We may also show you advertising on diabetesafrica.org based on your browsing patterns on other sites that we have obtained from our advertising partners.

Online retargeting is another form of online advertising that allows us and some of our advertising partners to show you advertising based on your browsing patterns and interactions with a site away from our sites.

We also use personalised online advertising to promote our own products and services. This means that you may see advertising for our products and services on our site and when you are on other, third party websites, including social media platforms.

Your rights with regard to the personal data that we hold about you

You can contact us with regard to the following rights in relation to your personal data:

  • If you would like to have a copy of the personal data we hold on you or if you think that we hold incorrect personal data about you, please write to the Data Protection Officer at Diabetes Africa Ltd. 1st Floor, North Westgate House
    Harlow, Essex, United Kingdom or email info@diabetesafrica.org. We will deal with requests for copies of your personal data or for correction of your personal data within one month. If your request is complicated or if you have made a large number of requests, it may take us longer. We will let you know if we need longer than one month to respond. You will not have to pay a fee to obtain a copy of your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive.
  • Where you have provided us with consent to use your personal data, you can withdraw this at any time.
  • Where applicable, you may also have a right to receive a machine-readable copy of your personal data.
  • You also have the right to ask us to delete your personal data or restrict how it is used. There may be exceptions to the right to erasure for specific legal reasons which, if applicable, we will set out for you in response to your request. Where applicable, you have the right to object to processing of your personal data for certain purposes.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity.

Other legal considerations

You cannot transfer any of your rights under this Privacy Policy to any other person. We may transfer our rights under this Privacy Policy where we reasonably believe your rights will not be affected.

If any court or competent authority finds that any provision of this Privacy Policy (or part of any provision) is invalid, illegal or unenforceable, that provision or part-provision will, to the extent required, be deemed to be deleted, and the validity and enforceability of the other provisions of this privacy policy will not be affected.

Unless otherwise agreed, no delay, act or omission by a party in exercising any right or remedy will be deemed awaiver of that, or any other, right or remedy.

This Policy is deemed agreed by the users of the website and subscribers and members of Diabetes Africa, and will be governed by and interpreted according to the law of England and Wales. All disputes arising under the Policy will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English and Welsh courts.

Contact us for information about how we use your personal data

If you have any questions about how we use your personal data or if you have a concern about how your personal data is used, please contact the Data Protection Officer at Diabetes Africa, 1st Floor, North Westgate House Harlow, Essex. Or, email info@diabetesafrica.org.

Complaints will be dealt with by the Data Protection Manager, and will be responded to within 30 days.

If you have a question about anything else, please see our Contact us page (link at the bottom of this page).

Changes to the Privacy Policy

If we decide to change our privacy policy we will post the changes here. If the changes are significant, we may also choose to email all our registered users with the new details. If required by law, we will get your permission or give you the opportunity to opt out of any new uses of your data.