Privacy policy

We collect information needed to operate the welfare: names, contact details, location, date or year of birth, gender, membership and family relationships, profile photographs, account and security records, notification tokens, contribution obligations, payment and receipt references, welfare activities, claims, approvals, and documents a user chooses to provide. Security records include the IP address and device or browser description used for sign-in and other protected actions.

Medical-support claims may include health information that you or an authorized official supplies to explain the request. Welfare balances, claim descriptions, and review notes are used to administer support and assess claims. Provide only the information needed for the request. The app does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

If you use the community features, we also keep what you choose to share there: chat messages and the photos, videos, audio recordings and documents you send in them; family stories and their photos and recordings; job and opportunity posts; event responses; and, only if you turn it on, a skills and business listing. Education support applications include the student’s name, school and fee details and the documents you attach. Chat files and story recordings are stored encrypted. Photos are re-encoded when they are uploaded, which removes the location and camera details a phone embeds in them.

Chat messages are visible to the people in that conversation. Group membership follows the welfare’s records: the whole-welfare group reaches every active member, a committee group its members, and a family branch group that branch. Moderators do not read conversations they are not part of; they see a message only when a member reports it, together with a few messages around it, so they can decide whether to remove it.

The Android app can let a user choose or take a profile photograph. It does not request broad access to the device photo library. Push notification permission is used only to deliver welfare notices and account-related updates.

If fingerprint or face sign-in is enabled, the device performs the biometric check. The welfare does not receive or store biometric templates. The saved sign-in credential is protected by Android secure storage on that device.

Information is used to verify and secure accounts, maintain the member and family register, administer contributions and welfare activities, record payments, issue receipts, assess eligibility, process claims, communicate with members, prevent fraud, resolve disputes, maintain an audit trail, and meet applicable legal obligations.

We do not sell personal information and the app does not contain advertising.

Data is shared only when needed with authorized welfare officials and providers that operate hosting, database, file storage, email, text messages (SMS), push notifications, authentication, and payment processing. Payment details may be exchanged with Safaricom M-Pesa to initiate or reconcile a payment. When the welfare sends a notice by SMS, your phone number and the notice are passed to the SMS provider (Twilio) to deliver it. Providers may process data only for the service they supply.

We may disclose information when required by law, to protect members or the service, or to investigate fraud or misuse.

The service uses encrypted network connections, access controls, session protection, audit logging, and restricted administrative permissions. No system can guarantee absolute security, but access is limited to what each role needs.

Active account data is kept while membership or service use continues. When an account deletion request is completed, login access, sessions, notification tokens, and data not needed for an ongoing purpose are deleted or anonymized. Your chat messages are erased and shown to others as removed, the files you sent are deleted, and your directory listing, event responses and job posts are removed. Family stories and education applications involve other people too, so they are reviewed with you case by case. Financial, payment, governance, fraud-prevention, dispute, and audit records may be retained where necessary for legal, accounting, security, or legitimate record-keeping obligations. Retained records are restricted and removed or anonymized when that need ends.

We aim to complete verified deletion requests within 30 days. Accounting and tax records are normally retained for five years from the end of their reporting period, or longer for a documented legal hold or unresolved proceeding. This does not require keeping unrelated profile details, photos, sign-in credentials, or notification tokens. If a request needs more time, we explain the reason and next steps.

You can review and update contact details in the app. You can disable notifications in Android settings and remove locally saved biometric sign-in from the app settings. You may ask to access, correct, or delete personal information, subject to records that must be retained for the reasons described above.

To request account and data deletion, use the account deletion page.

Questions and privacy requests can be sent to maildon254@gmail.com.