Privacy Policy

Last updated: April 24, 2026

The German version (Datenschutzerklärung) is legally authoritative. This translation is provided for convenience.

We take your data seriously. This website is deliberately built to be technically minimal: statically hosted, no tracking cookies, no fonts from third-party CDNs. If you send us data — for example via the contact form — it is processed only to respond to your inquiry and is not shared.

1. Controller

Controller within the meaning of Art. 4(7) GDPR:
EmpowerED Africa gUG (haftungsbeschränkt)
Tobias Segert (managing director)
Moltkeplatz 5
23566 Lübeck
Germany
Email: info@empowered-africa.org

A data protection officer is not legally required (Art. 37 GDPR in conjunction with § 38 BDSG); data protection inquiries are handled directly at the address above.

2. Hosting (Netlify)

This website is hosted by Netlify, Inc. (610 22nd Street, Suite 315, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA). Upon access, technically necessary server logs (shortened IP address, user agent, timestamp, requested URL) are recorded to ensure operation and security. These logs are automatically deleted after 30 days. Any transfer to the USA is based on the Standard Contractual Clauses (Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR) and a data processing addendum. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in secure, performant provision of the site).

3. Analytics with Cloudflare Web Analytics (cookieless)

We use Cloudflare Web Analytics (Cloudflare, Inc., 101 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA). Cloudflare Web Analytics sets no cookies, assigns no individual identifiers, and performs no cross-device tracking. Only aggregated usage data is collected (page views, referrer, browser type, country). IP addresses are hashed for processing and not permanently stored. Attribution to a specific person is neither intended nor possible. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in basic reach analysis); no consent under § 25 TDDDG is required because no information is stored on or read from your device. We have a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) with Cloudflare in place, including the EU Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) for the US transfer.

4. Contact form & email contact

When you write to us via the contact form or by email, we store your name, email address, and message to respond to your inquiry. Delivery is handled via Postmark (ActiveCampaign, LLC, Chicago, USA) as a data processor. A data processing agreement under Art. 28 GDPR is in place. Data is deleted once your request has been processed and no statutory retention obligations apply (at most 24 months). Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (pre-contractual/contractual measures) or (f) (legitimate interest in communication).

5. Newsletter (Brevo)

For our newsletter we use Brevo (Sendinblue SAS, 106 Boulevard Haussmann, 75008 Paris, France). Registration follows the double-opt-in procedure: after you register, you receive a confirmation email, and only after clicking the link is your email added to the list. We store your email address and registration timestamp until you unsubscribe. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link at the end of each newsletter email or by informal email. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR (consent). A data processing agreement with Brevo is in place.

6. Donations

Donations are processed via our donation platform at donate.empowered-africa.org. For payment we use Stripe (Stripe Payments Europe Ltd., Dublin) and PayPal (PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A., Luxembourg) as independent controllers. Their respective privacy policies apply there.

To issue the tax receipt (§ 50 EStDV), we process your name, address, donation amount, and date. Under German tax retention obligations (§§ 147 AO, 257 HGB), this data is archived for ten years. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (execution of the donation) and (c) in conjunction with § 50 EStDV.

7. Cookies & device information

On this main site (empowered-africa.org), no non-essential cookies are set, and no information is stored on or read from your device (§ 25 TDDDG). No consent banner is shown deliberately. On the donation platform (donate.empowered-africa.org), cookies may be set by Stripe or PayPal depending on payment method; the corresponding consent dialog is shown there.

8. Fonts

All fonts used (Inter, Fraunces) are served locally from our own server. No connection to Google Fonts or any other third-party CDN is ever made.

9. Your rights

You have the rights to: access (Art. 15 GDPR), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20), objection (Art. 21), and withdrawal of consent with future effect (Art. 7(3)). For requests: info@empowered-africa.org.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection authority (Art. 77 GDPR). The authority responsible for our registered office is the Independent State Data Protection Center Schleswig-Holstein (ULD), Holstenstraße 98, 24103 Kiel, Germany — datenschutzzentrum.de.

10. Changes to this policy

We update this privacy policy when services or the legal situation change. The current version is available at this URL.