Last Updated: October 1st, 2021
Business Club Africa (“Business Club Africa,” “BCA,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) deeply believes in the importance of earning and maintaining the trust of our clients and other individuals who visit the Website or otherwise consume or interact with our various Services (“you” or “your”). We are strongly committed to protecting your privacy rights.
This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) applies to this website (https://businessclubafrica.com) and/or any other BCA website(s) (together, “Website”), as well as the various paid and non-paid subscriptions, newsletters, mobile platforms, briefings, programs, software, applications, events, or services provided by Business Club Africa (collectively, “Services”) which reference, link to, or incorporate this Policy. In the event any Services incorporate expressly different privacy terms, we will provide or link to such different terms accordingly. Additionally, if you have previously entered into a separate, written agreement(s) with Business Club Africa which governs your existing use of Services (“Subscriber Agreement”), any conflicting privacy terms of the Subscriber Agreement shall control as set forth therein.
To the extent permitted by applicable law, by using any of the Services or by affirmatively accepting any Subscriber Agreement which links to or incorporates this Policy, you consent to the collection and use of all information that you provide or that is legally or contractually provided to BCA, and all information that BCA collects based on your use of the Services, in accordance with this Policy and/or Subscriber Agreement.
Third-Party Links
The Services may contain links to websites or services operated by individuals or entities other than Business Club Africa. Such links, where applicable, are provided for your reference and convenience only, and are the exclusive responsibility of the owners of each such website or service. Business Club Africa is not responsible for the content or operation of such websites or services, nor the security or privacy of any information collected by such third-parties. You are solely responsible for determining the extent to which you may use any content at any other such websites or services and you should review the privacy statements or policies applicable to these third-party websites or services.
Information We Collect
Business Club Africa collects personal information that you voluntarily provide through interaction with, or use of, the Services, or to the extent applicable, via third-party websites and applications when requesting information regarding the Services, which information may respectively include, but is not limited to, your name, email address, billing information, participation on social or professional networks, etc. For example, we collect the personal information you provide when you register for complimentary BCA briefings or paid events, if you request information on certain Services, or where you submit information to enter a contest or promotional activity.
For marketing purposes, we collect information about your visits to, and activity on, the Website, the number of times you have viewed an advertisement or opened an email, and other such usage information. When you receive promotional emails or other such communications from Business Club Africa, we may use certain service providers, customized links, or similar technologies to determine whether an email has been opened and which links were accessed. We also may make use of location-based data for our Services and might ask you to enter your general location, specifically to provide more relevant advertisements or promotional offers, rather than to personally identify you.
Some of the personal information we collect may not be provided directly by you (e.g. your name, email address, or role may be provided by your employer if they have purchased Services for you). Under no circumstances should you provide personal information about others unless you are authorized and permitted to do so. By submitting personal information about others, you represent and warrant that you have received authorization and consent from the person about whom you are providing the personal information. We also collect information from certain third-parties (such as service providers or via publicly available sources), in order to offer Services we think may be of interest, to enable us to maintain data accuracy, or to continuously provide and improve the Services.
When you access the Services, we may automatically collect certain information regarding usage of the Services. This information, which is collected passively using various technologies, generally will not specifically identify you or other individuals. Examples may include IP addresses, browser types, domain names, and other anonymous statistical data regarding aggregate usage.
Certain listed portions of the Services may have download restrictions or other such consumption limits. When utilizing those portions, some information is collected to determine additional usage (such as your IP address or activity of certain Services components) and attributed to your BCA account, username, email address, registration, etc. Additionally, if you elect to download and use any optional third-party applications with the Services (for example, the Business Club Africa Chrome plugin), we will detect and store information necessary for you to effectively use the third-party application.
If you contact us to provide feedback, file an inquiry, or otherwise communicate in a manner that necessitates action or a response, we will record personal information and other content that you provide in order for us to effectively respond to your communication or act as required.
Regarding payment information, in the event that you purchase any of the Services, we will collect financial or credit card information and other information necessary to process the transaction. Such information is collected and used strictly for billing purposes only, is not shared or used for any other purposes, and is and will be processed in accordance with all applicable laws. For more information, please visit Stripe Privacy Policy.
Use Of Cookies And Other Electronic Tools
A “cookie” is a small text file placed on a computer or other device in order to identify the user or device and to collect limited information. Business Club Africa and our third-party providers use cookies and similar technologies on the Website for such limited purposes related to your use of and experience with the Services, which includes managing your preferences, delivering targeted advertising, enabling content, and gathering certain Website analytics.
Business Club Africa only uses cookies and other tracking technologies which are standard across websites and applications through which information is collected about an individual’s online activities across such websites and applications. We may use both “session cookies” (which expire once the browser is closed) and “persistent cookies” (which remain in operation until deleted). You can manage website cookies in your browser settings, and you always have the choice to change these settings by accepting, rejecting, or deleting cookies. If you choose to change your settings, you may find that certain functions and features will not work as intended on the Services. All browser settings are slightly different, so to manage cookies, you should refer to the relevant settings within your browser.
For certain, limited portions of the Services, we utilize Google Analytics to improve your experience. To our knowledge, Google Analytics uses both session and permanent cookies to collect information on how such relevant Services perform, as well as certain usage statistics. Business Club Africa solely uses Google Analytics to evaluate and assess your use of the Services, review aggregate and statistical reports, and generally improve the Services for you. We do not and will not use Google Analytics to collect any information regarding our personal information of our clients other than IP addresses nor shall we correlate any of our client’s IP address with their individual identity. It is possible that Google Analytics may collect more information that Business Club Africa collects. You can learn more about Google Analytics’ privacy practices and the ability to opt-out of Google Analytics tracking by clicking here.
Use of Personal Information.
Business Club Africa’ unending goal is to provide our clients with the best Services possible and to maintain a relentless focus on client satisfaction. As such, we are committed to providing you with responsive, personalized offerings, and ensuring that individuals are informed about relevant and new information, and Services that may be of immediate interest or which will enable you to derive the greatest value from the Services. We thus use personal information for the following business-related purposes:
User Registration and Client Services/Support: We use personal information such as your name and email address to register and administer your account, provide technical and client support and training, verify your identity, and send important account, subscription, and Services information.
Provision of the Services and Personalization: Personal and aggregate information gathered from usage is utilized to analyze trends and better understand how individuals can most effectively use the Services, to ultimately deliver and suggest tailored content and to personalize your experience with our Services. Such information is utilized for internal research and development purposes, and strictly related to improving and testing the features and functions of our Services.
Marketing Communications: We use personal information to deliver marketing communications to you across various platforms, including but not limited to, email, telephone, and various other channels. As described further below, we will comply with all applicable laws which may require us to obtain your clear and unambiguous consent or maintain other lawful and legitimate reasons for using your personal information for such initiatives. If we send you a marketing email, it will include instructions on how to opt-out of receiving these emails in the future. For clients, it is important to note that even if you opt-out of receiving marketing emails, we may still send you important information related to your accounts and subscriptions. If you choose to participate in a survey or poll, any personal information you provide may be used for marketing or market research purposes.
Public Forums: A limited number of our Services provide public or community forums for commenting, collaboration, etc. For example, some publicly available research briefings contain comment sections which may require registration through Business Club Africa or a third-party provider. Depending upon the Service, the personal information you choose to post, share, upload, or make publicly available may be visible to others who use those Services. You should never post or share any information that is confidential or about others unless you have permission to do so. We may use information you provide to personalize your experience and to make content recommendations. Notwithstanding any of the preceding, information uploaded to non-public Services by our clients is controlled and managed by, and only made accessible to, those clients or others our clients may expressly authorize from time to time. Our access to this information is limited to BCA personnel with a critical business reason, such as technical support.
Legal Obligations: We may be required to use and retain personal information for legal and compliance reasons, such as the prevention, detection, or investigation of a crime; loss prevention; or fraud. We may also use personal information to meet our internal and external audit requirements, information security purposes, and as we otherwise believe to be necessary or appropriate: (a) under applicable law, which may include laws outside your country of residence; (b) to respond to requests from courts, law enforcement agencies, regulatory agencies, and other public and government authorities, which may include such authorities outside your country of residence; (c) to enforce our terms of service or other terms and conditions; and (d) to protect our rights, privacy, safety, or property, or those of other persons.
Sharing Information
We only share or disclose personal information to the extent necessary to provide the Services, conduct our business operations, or when we believe that applicable law permits or requires disclosure. When sharing personal information, we strive to abide by all applicable privacy and security requirements. Occasionally, we may share non-personal, anonymized, and statistical data with third-parties. In the event of a merger, acquisition, consolidation, change of control, corporate divestiture or dissolution where we sell all or a portion of our business or assets, we will disclose necessary personal information and such information will be governed by the privacy policies of acquiring entities.
Our business operations are supported by several BCA teams and departments, and certain, limited personal information will be made available to them as necessary to conduct such operations (for example, for teams engaged with the provision of Services, client services, sales and marketing, technical support, product development, etc.). Any and all BCA employees and agents are required to follow strict data privacy and security policies when handling personal information.
In certain circumstances, we are supported by third-parties which provide limited and necessary services on our behalf. These third-parties only receive personal information necessary to fulfill the services they provide to us, such as hosting promotional websites, marketing services, processing conference ticket transactions, performing statistical analysis of our Services, etc. Under no circumstances are such third-party providers permitted to use obtained personal information for any purpose other than to provide BCA with the designated services. We further require all such third-parties to maintain the confidentiality of the information.
Lastly, we will share personal information when we believe it is legally required or necessary. For example, when and to the extent we believe, in good faith, that we are legally compelled to do so pursuant to an order of a court of competent jurisdiction or other governmental body.
Data Storage and Security Protocols
We use Amazon Web Services (AWS), GoDaddy and Google Cloud, three of the world’s premier data-hosting providers, to respectively host our Services and store information on servers located in Canada and the United States. By using the Services, you agree and consent to allow your data to be stored on such AWS and Google Cloud servers, all of which are based solely in the United States. Neither AWS nor Google Cloud controls, and neither is permitted to access or use your personal information, except for the limited purpose of storing the information. More information about AWS‘s compliance can be found on their compliance page. Similarly, information regarding Google Cloud’s compliance can be found on their compliance page.
In addition to the immense protections offered by AWS, we use reasonable administrative, technical, personnel, and physical measures to safeguard information against loss, theft, unauthorized use, etc. To help us protect your privacy, you should always maintain the secrecy of any combination of username or password in connection with your participation in the Services. Nonetheless, you acknowledge that no Internet transmission can be guaranteed to be fully-secure or error-free, and you further agree that any transmission of personal information over the Internet, as related to the Services, is at your own risk. If we or any of our service providers are required to disclose or provide notice to you of unauthorized access to or other invasions of certain security systems, you agree that we may provide you notice by either posting the notice on the Website or sending notice to any email address we have on file for such communications.
Accessing and Controlling Your Information
We will review your requests for personal information and, where applicable, will correct, amend, or delete your personal information. While we will make reasonable commercial efforts to accommodate requests, we also reserve the right to impose certain restrictions and requirements on such access requests or refrain from replying, if required or permitted by applicable laws.
In order to protect personal information, all requests for information are subject to relevant legal requirements and exemptions, including identity verification procedures. Before providing any data, including even confirming whether we have any data, we will ask for proof of identity and sufficient information about your interaction with us in order to locate relevant data and confirm that the request is indeed coming from you. We may also charge you a fee for providing you with a copy of your data (except where this is not permissible under local law).
In some jurisdictions, you have the right to correct or amend your personal information if it is inaccurate or requires updating. You may also have the right to request deletion of your personal information; however, this is not always possible due to legal requirements and other obligations and factors. Of course, you can always contact the applicable government or regulatory authorities in your jurisdiction.
To opt-out of email marketing, you can use the unsubscribe link found in the email communication you receive from us, visit the applicable email preference center, or contact us as described below, as applicable.
Questions Regarding this Policy and Your Information
If you have any questions or comments regarding this Privacy Policy or your information, please contact us in writing at the following address:
Business Club Africa, Business Club Africa, Harju maakond,Kesklinna linnaosa, Veskiposti tn 2-1002 Tallinn, 10138 Estonia or by contacting us here.
Modifications To This Privacy Policy
Business Club Africa reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time by posting revisions on the Website. Such changes will be effective upon posting.