Privacy and data use
Privacy Notice
This notice explains what information ADF Connect collects when you apply for membership, become a member or use the platform, why we collect it, who sees it and the choices you have. ADF Connect is the membership platform of the African Drone Forum.
Who we are
ADF Connect is run by The African Drone Forum, a nonprofit corporation registered in Texas, United States ("ADF", "we", "us"). ADF is responsible for your information. For any question or request about your information, write to info@africandroneforum.org.
What we collect
When you apply at adfconnect.org/apply:
- Your name, email address and phone number. If you apply for an organization, your job title. If you apply as a professional, your role, the country you are based in and, if you choose, the organization you work with.
- Your LinkedIn profile and your organization's LinkedIn page, if you give them.
- For organizations: the legal name, country of registration, website, type of organization, team size, a short description of your core services, your registration and license status, and, if you choose, your registration number and supporting documents.
- Your work and goals: sectors, the countries you work in and those you want to enter, your presence in Africa if you are based outside it, your top outcomes, your 12-month priorities, and whether you hold an operating license. For Strategic Partner enquiries, your partnership priorities and the components that interest you.
- The tier you are interested in, how you heard about ADF, and any activities or affiliations you tell us about.
- The confirmations you gave, with the time you gave them, and whether you asked for the newsletter.
- How you reached the application: the campaign tags on the link you followed (for example utm_source), the referring page and the first page you landed on.
- Technical information needed to run the form securely, such as the time of submission and spam-prevention checks.
The application saves your answers in your own browser as you go, so you can return to them. That copy stays on your device and does not reach us until you submit. Clearing your browser data removes it.
When you are approved and complete your membership:
- A password or a linked Google account, so you can sign in. Passwords are stored only in hashed form by our authentication provider, and ADF cannot see them.
- Any billing details you add for your invoice: the name on the invoice, billing address, tax or VAT number and purchase order number.
- Payment records: the amount, any code used, the payment reference and whether the payment is complete. You enter card details on Square's secure checkout. ADF Connect does not receive or store them.
When you use ADF Connect:
- Your member profile and organization profile, and your directory and contact settings.
- What you add to the platform, such as messages, connections, opportunities you save or pursue, event registrations, and credentials you submit for verification.
- The names and email addresses of colleagues you invite to your organization's membership.
- Account and security records: sign-ins, session data, device and browser information, and basic usage activity.
Google sign-in
If you choose to sign in with Google, ADF Connect requests only your name, email address and basic profile information, to authenticate your account. We use Google user data only to provide the features you choose, keep your account secure, answer your support requests and comply with the law. We do not use Google user data for advertising.
Google API Limited Use. ADF Connect's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We do not sell Google user data, use it for advertising, or allow humans to read it unless you ask us to, it is necessary for security or abuse investigation, it is required to comply with law, or the data has been aggregated and anonymized for internal operations.
Why we use it, and our legal basis
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Reviewing your application and contacting you about it | Steps you asked us to take before a membership agreement |
| Setting up and providing your membership, including invoices, payments and onboarding | Performing our agreement with you |
| Showing your profile to other members in the directory | Performing our agreement with you. You control visibility in Settings |
| Keeping financial records, and checking applicants against government sanctions lists | Our legal obligations, and our legitimate interest in complying with the laws that apply to ADF |
| Protecting the application and the platform from fraud, spam and misuse | Our legitimate interest in running a safe service |
| Understanding which campaigns bring applications | Our legitimate interest in improving how we reach members, and your consent where the law requires it |
| Producing aggregated insights for ADF research and reports, in which no person or organization can be identified | Our legitimate interest in understanding the drone and aviation sector |
| Dealing with legal claims and requests from authorities | Our legal obligations, and our legitimate interest in protecting our rights |
| Sending the ADF newsletter and event announcements | Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
A person at ADF reviews every application. We do not make membership decisions by automated means alone.
What stays confidential
Your 12-month priorities, target markets, top outcomes, partnership priorities, phone number, registration number and documents are used by the ADF team to review your application, recommend the right membership and plan your onboarding, and are stored and processed for us by our service providers. We do not show them on your profile, share them with other members, partners or regulators, or use them to identify you in published research, unless you agree or the law requires it.
Who sees your information
- The ADF membership, partnerships and finance teams.
- Other signed-in members: the profile details your settings make visible.
- Service providers that act on our instructions, including Supabase and Vercel (database, sign-in and hosting), Square (card payments), Google (if you use Google sign-in), and our email, analytics and automation providers.
- Professional advisers, such as lawyers and accountants, when needed.
- Authorities or others, where the law requires it, or to protect the rights, safety and security of ADF, our members or the public.
- A successor organization, if ADF's activities are reorganized or transferred, which must protect your information as this notice describes.
We do not sell your information, and we do not give it to other members or partners for their marketing.
Where your information is stored
ADF is registered in the United States. We and our service providers store and process information in the United States and other countries, whose data protection laws may differ from yours. Where the law requires, we protect these transfers with recognized safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses.
Cookies and similar technologies
ADF Connect uses the cookies and similar storage it needs to work: to keep you signed in, keep the service secure and save your application draft on your device. It also remembers, on your device, the campaign link that brought you to the application, so we can see which campaigns work. Some pages load fonts from Google Fonts, which receives your IP address in order to deliver them. We do not use advertising cookies. Where the law requires your consent for analytics or campaign measurement, we ask for it first.
How long we keep it
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Applications that are not approved, including approvals never completed | 12 months after the decision, or sooner if you ask |
| Applications withdrawn or left incomplete after submission | 6 months after our last contact |
| Member profiles and platform content | While your membership is active, then 90 days so you can renew, then deleted or anonymized |
| Invoices, payments and the records that support them | 7 years after the transaction |
| Security logs | Up to 12 months |
| Newsletter consent | Until you withdraw it. We keep a record of the withdrawal so we do not contact you again |
We may keep information longer where the law requires it, or while it is needed for a legal claim.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you can ask us to:
- give you a copy of your information
- correct it or delete it
- restrict how we use it, or object to our use
- give it to you in a portable format
You can withdraw consent at any time. Withdrawing newsletter consent does not affect your application or membership. You can also delete your account in Settings. Write to info@africandroneforum.org for anything else. We may need to confirm your identity first, and we reply within one month, or within the time the law allows.
If you are unhappy with how we handled your information, please tell us first. You can also complain to your data protection authority: for example, the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner in Kenya, the Information Regulator in South Africa, the Data Protection Commission in Ghana, or your authority in the United Kingdom or the European Union.
Security
We protect your information with encrypted connections and by limiting access to the people who need it. No online service is completely secure. If a security breach affects your information, we will tell you and the relevant authorities where the law requires it.
Children
ADF Connect is for professionals and organizations. It is not intended for anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect their information.
Changes to this notice
When our use of information changes, we will update this notice and its effective date. If a change is significant, we will tell members by email before it takes effect.
Contact
Questions or requests about your information: info@africandroneforum.org.