Blog privacy policy

This policy explains how MyUniPal ("we", "us") handles personal data when you read or take part in the myunipal blog at myunipal.app/blog (the "Blog"). It is written to meet the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 ("NDPA"). MyUniPal is the data controller. The MyUniPal study app has its own privacy policy at myunipal.app/privacy.

1. Information we collect

Information you give us:

• Your account, if you make one to comment: your name, email address and password (stored in a form that cannot be read back), or, if you continue with Google, the name, email address and profile picture Google shares with us. Blog accounts and MyUniPal study app accounts are the same sign-in, so a student can comment with their app account.
• Comments: what you write, linked to your account. Comments made before accounts were needed also kept the name and email entered with them.
• Stories you send us: the headline, details and link, and your name, school and email if you choose to add them.
• Messages you send us, for example to report a mistake in a post.

Information collected automatically:

• A random reader id kept on your device, so a like counts once and we can count readers. It is not your name or phone number.
• Which posts you read, whether you came from search, social media or a link, whether you used a phone or a laptop, and whether you read to the end.
• Your network address, stored only as a scrambled code that cannot be turned back into the address, to stop spam and abuse.
• Technical logs, including error reports, kept for security and to fix problems.
• If we show advertising (see section 4), information our advertising partners collect as described there.

2. How we use your information

• To run the Blog: showing posts, likes and comments.
• To check stories you send us, write about them, credit you if you agree, and contact you about them.
• To send the deadline reminders you turn on for an opportunity (by email, and in the app if you use it). Turn a reminder off at any time on the post.
• To send the weekly email (the week's top stories and opportunities closing soon), only if you turn it on. Every weekly email has a link to stop it, or turn it off on the blog.
• To prevent spam, abuse and fraud, and to enforce the Blog terms.
• To correct mistakes when you tell us about them.
• To understand which posts are useful, using totals across readers, never a profile of you.
• To show advertising, if we do, as described in section 4.
• To meet our legal obligations.

We do not sell your personal data.

3. Legal basis

We process personal data to provide the Blog features you use (for example posting a comment), because of our legitimate interests in running a safe, useful blog and understanding its readership, to comply with the law, and with your consent where the law requires it, including for advertising cookies. You can withdraw consent at any time.

4. Advertising

Today the Blog only promotes MyUniPal's own study app. We may later show adverts from advertising partners, such as Google. If we do:

• Advertising partners may use cookies and similar technologies to show adverts, limit how often you see them, and measure how they perform. Some adverts may be personalised based on your visits to this and other websites.
• Before any advertising cookie that isn't strictly necessary is used, we will ask for your consent, and you will be able to choose non-personalised adverts or refuse. You can change your choice at any time.
• Google's use of information from sites that show its adverts is explained at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites, and you can manage personalised Google adverts at adssettings.google.com.
• We will list our advertising partners on this page before their adverts appear.
• Advertising partners never receive your comments' email addresses or the details of stories you send us.
• Sponsored posts, if we publish any, are always clearly labelled as sponsored.

5. Who can see your information

• Comments show your first name publicly (and your school, if you use the MyUniPal study app). Your email address is never shown.
• If you send us a story and agree to be credited, your name may appear with the post.
• A small number of MyUniPal staff can see comments, stories you send and messages, to moderate the Blog and reply to you.
• Service providers that run the Blog for us: hosting (website, database and storage), an email delivery provider, and language model providers that help us check and write stories (they receive only the story text and source needed for each request).
• Advertising partners, only as described in section 4.
• We may also disclose information where the law requires it, or to protect the rights and safety of our readers or others.

6. International transfers

Some of our providers store or process data outside Nigeria. Where this happens, we rely on the safeguards the NDPA allows, such as contractual commitments and the providers' security standards.

7. How long we keep information

• Your account stays until you ask us to delete it. Email us from the address on your account and we will delete it and your comments.
• Comments stay until you delete them or we remove them.
• Stories you send us are kept as editorial records while they are useful, and you can ask us to delete your details.
• Reading statistics are kept as totals and linked only to the random reader id, never to your name.
• Deleted data may remain in secure backups for a short period before it is overwritten.

8. Your choices and rights

Under the NDPA you have the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you and receive a copy;
• correct inaccurate data;
• have your data deleted;
• restrict or object to certain processing, including for advertising;
• withdraw consent at any time, without affecting earlier processing;
• complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (ndpc.gov.ng).

To use these rights, email support@myunipal.app. You can also clear this site's data in your browser, which removes your reader id and signs you out.

9. Children

The Blog is written for students and young people. If you are under 18, please don't comment or send us a story without a parent's or guardian's permission. If we learn that we hold data of someone under 18 without that permission, we will delete it. We do not knowingly show personalised adverts to readers under 18.

10. Cookies and local storage

The Blog keeps a random reader id on your device and, when you sign in, the cookies that keep you signed in. These are needed for the features you use. We do not use advertising or third-party tracking cookies today; if that changes, section 4 applies and we will ask for your consent first.

11. Security

We protect information with encryption in transit, access controls, limited staff access, and by storing network addresses only as scrambled codes. No system is completely secure. If a personal data breach is likely to put you at risk, we will tell you and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission as the law requires.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy, for example before advertising starts. We will show the new date at the top of this page.

13. Contact us

For questions about this policy or your personal data, email support@myunipal.app.