Privacy Policy

At Bizhack Kenya, our goal is to discover the truth and assist individuals in grasping global concepts. It’s important for you to be aware of how we manage your personal data. Additionally, we believe it’s crucial for you to be informed about your rights and options.

This policy describes how we handle your personal information when you use the following “Bizhack Kenya Services”:

listed below, and your rights concerning your personal data, as well as how you can exercise those rights:

• Our website (Bizhack.co.ke)
• Our app
• Our email newsletters
• Our shop
• Our pages or ads on social media networks
• Anywhere else, we gather information about you and refer you to this Privacy Policy.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact our Privacy team at [email protected].

The way we manage your data varies based on your interaction with Bizhack Kenya’s various services. The information we gather from those who subscribe to our apps differs from what we collect from our website users.

Note that some Bizhack Services have unique operational modes. Certain services have extra guidelines that augment this policy, such as Reader Submissions. Additionally, others like Loan Apps Kenya are governed by their own privacy policies, making this one inapplicable to them.

1. What Information Do We Gather About You?

1. Types of Personal Data We Collect

Our collection of your personal data varies depending on the situation. Primarily, it includes data that can identify you, either alone or in combination with other details.

Below is an outline of the types of information we gather and the methods of collection.

1. (A) Data Acquired via Bizkack Services

i. Data You Provide Willingly

For Registration:

Registering for a Bizhack service (via subscription or free account) requires your contact details and login credentials. Post-registration, we assign a distinct ID to each user for identification purposes during login.

For certain Bizhack Kenya Services, registration is possible through your Apple, Facebook, or Google accounts. Refer to the section on Data Collected From Other Sources for more details.

Event or conference registration may require additional details like your company name, job title, or dietary preferences. We advise reviewing any specific privacy policies or terms associated with these events before registering.

For Billing:

To process payments or donations, we collect payment-related information for processing transactions or donations. This includes your name, address, phone number, email, and credit or debit card details, among others.

For User-Generated Content:

Our platforms allow you to post content accessible to other users, such as comments or notes on recipes. Be aware that any personal information in your posts can be accessed and used by others. For further details, refer to our Comments F.A.Q., and the User-Generated Content section in our Terms of Service.

We reserve the right to decide whether to publish your content. If legal requirements necessitate the removal or modification of your content, we will comply.

For Contests, Sweepstakes, and Special Offers; Notice of Financial Incentives:

We occasionally run contests, sweepstakes, and special promotions, requiring your name, email, and other necessary information for participation.

These activities might include earning rewards, like discounts through Incentive Programs. We provide a comprehensive description of these programs, including benefits and legal terms. Under certain laws, these may be considered “financial incentive” programs due to the personal data involved. We use this data as described in this Privacy Policy, including for targeted advertising, and may share it with third parties like data analytics providers, advertising technology vendors, and social media platforms.

The value of any financial incentive is proportionate to the value of the personal data you provide. We determine this value by considering factors like the costs of data collection, revenue from the incentive’s use, and improvements to our products and Bizhack Kenya Services based on the data.

Additional terms may apply to specific financial incentives, which will be presented at the time of sign-up. You can opt out of these programs at any time by contacting [email protected].

For Reader Surveys, Research, Panels, and Experience Programs:

We collect data about Bizhack Services and related topics through surveys, feedback programs, and questionnaires, including demographic information like age, ethnicity, race, or gender. Additional terms, such as our Reader Submissions terms, may apply. Some demographic data may be considered sensitive under certain laws. We also conduct similar research for third-party advertisers and seek your consent for using this information in these programs and events.

During Contact With Our Call Centers:

Information is collected when you place orders over the phone or contact customer service. This includes your name, contact details, account information, and any other information you provide.

Personal Contact Data:

We do not scan or upload your device’s contact data.

With your consent, we collect data about your contacts (e.g., in Refer-a-Friend campaigns). This feature is intended for Kenyan residents only. By using it, you confirm that you and your contacts are Kenyan residents and have consented to our use of their contact information.

ii. Automatically Collected Data

Using Bizhack Kenya Services leads to automatic data collection. Technologies like cookies, web beacons, tags, scripts, and SDKs assist in this process. We may also employ newer technologies, like Comscore’s Unified Digital Measurement (UDM) 2.0. These technologies are used across our digital properties, including websites, apps, email communications, and newsletters. For managing tracking methods on Bizhack Services, refer to our Cookie Policy and the What Are Your Rights and Choices? section.

The categories of automatically collected personal information include:

Identifiers and Device Information:

Accessing our digital Bizhack Services logs device-related information automatically. This includes unique identifiers. If your browser rejects our cookies or similar technologies, access to certain website parts (like your account) may be restricted. Logged items include:

• Your IP address
• Cookie identifiers
• Operating system and browser details
• Browser language
• Device identifiers (e.g., MAC address)
• Advertising identifiers

We merge this data with other information we collect about you.

Geolocation Information:

We use location data like city, state, and zip code to tailor content, including articles, newsletters, and weather updates. For more details, see the Personalization FAQ. We also use location data for pricing and promotional purposes.

Providing your billing address as a subscriber is used for compliance and payment purposes (e.g., determining notice requirements or billing currency).

Our apps may offer content based on your GPS location if enabled. GPS location is considered sensitive personal information.

You have the choice to enable GPS features upon app installation and can change this setting on your device. Enabling these features allows the app to locate you via satellite, cell phone tower, or Wi-Fi. Location-based search history is stored on our service provider’s servers.

If GPS location services are disabled, or if an app lacks such features, we do not collect your precise GPS location. However, we do collect your IP address, which can approximate your location. Ads on our sites and apps may be based on this approximate location, but never on your precise GPS location.

Other Usage Data:

We gather internet and network activity data on our Services, including websites and apps. This includes URLs of visited pages, the referring website’s URL, time spent on a page, access times, and other usage details.

iii. Regarding Sensitive Personal Information

We generally avoid collecting sensitive personal information, which includes:

• Government-issued IDs (e.g., driver’s license, passport, social security number)
• Racial or ethnic origin
• Political opinions
• Religious or other beliefs
• Health, biometric, or genetic characteristics
• Trade union membership
• Sexual life or orientation
• Criminal background
• Private communication content (except messages sent to us)

However, we may collect precise geolocation information for the GPS-based services you enable. Some laws consider account access information (like usernames and passwords) as sensitive, but we only collect this for accounts created directly with us.

In certain cases, we may request sensitive information (e.g., reader surveys about political leanings or ethnicity), but you have the option to decline. Outside of these instances, we prefer not to receive sensitive personal information from you.

1. (B) Data We Derive or Formulate.

Through the analysis of the collected data, we generate new insights. This involves the application of automated processes, such as artificial intelligence, which might include external AI services. These processes help us deduce your preferences or other traits (“derived insights”).

1. (C) Data Acquired from External Entities.

i. Private Databases:

We gain access to various types of information through databases owned by marketing, data analytics, and social media entities. This information often encompasses public records, survey results, and more. It may include details like your postal address, gender, age, household earnings, and other demographic specifics.

ii. Social Media and Additional Third-Party Platforms:

Social media encompasses platforms like Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok, and Snap, among others. Additional third-party services include entities like Google.

By connecting your social media or other third-party accounts to a Bizhack Service, you permit us to gather, store, and utilize any information provided by these platforms (for instance, your email address). You have the option to sever the connection between your Bizhack.co.ke account and these third-party accounts at any time.

Additionally, we collect data from your interactions with our content on social media platforms. This includes collective data about our followers (such as age, gender, and location), engagement metrics (like the number of “likes,” comments, shares, reposts, and clicks), awareness statistics (such as total impressions and reach), and the public profiles of individual users.

For further details, please see our guidelines on social login and the Facebook News Feed F.A.Q.

iii. Workplaces and Educational Institutions:

In cases where your employer or educational institution subscribes to Bizhack Services on an organizational level, they may provide us with your name and organizational email address. This is done to facilitate your access to and use of our services as a registered user.

2. How We Utilize Your Collected Information

We employ the various types of personal data outlined previously for specific business and commercial objectives. These activities may involve collaboration with external entities, agents, or contractors (“service providers”) to whom we disclose your personal information for these reasons (more details in Section 3 of this Privacy Policy).

2. (A) Provision of Bizhack Services

Your information is instrumental in facilitating your interaction with and navigation of Bizhack Services, including:

• Access to Bizhack Service
• Account access facilitation
• Customer support provision
• Addressing your queries, requests, feedback, or complaints
• Processing your payments and transactions
• Sending notifications related to service changes (e.g., updates to terms and conditions)
• Storing your reading lists, recipes, or search history
• Displaying your game statistics (e.g., Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Spelling Bee)
• Involvement in paid services, polls, promotions, surveys, panels, research, and feedback opportunities.

1. (B) Personalizing Your Experience

We monitor your interests and reading patterns (like the articles you engage with) to personalize your experience using technologies such as algorithmic recommendations and machine learning, potentially including third-party machine learning services. This approach helps us suggest relevant articles and downplay those you’ve already seen. For more on content personalization in Bizhack Services, refer to the Personalization F.A.Q and our blog post on recipe recommendation personalization. We also present you with tailored prices, promotions, products, or services based on demographic and usage data, including location data like IP address and zip code.

2. (C) Facilitating User-Generated Content Sharing

Any information you reveal in your content becomes public, along with your chosen screen name and uploaded photo.

2. (D) Product and Service Development, and Data Analysis

We analyze user data regarding subscriptions, purchases, registered account activities, and other usage patterns. This analysis informs our business and marketing strategies.

For instance, our analysis, employing technologies like machine learning (ours or third-party), aids in predicting user preferences and pricing for our offerings. It evaluates the effectiveness of our marketing and provides insights about our audience, which we may share in aggregate with advertisers.

We use tools like Google Analytics on certain Bizhack Kenya services. Learn about how Google Analytics uses data usage and how to opt out of Google Analytics.

2. (E) Conducting Administrative Tasks

• For auditing: Ensuring our internal processes are effective and comply with legal, regulatory, and contractual obligations.
• For fraud and security: Detecting and preventing cyber threats or unauthorized robotic activities.
• For customer satisfaction: Evaluating user contentment with Bizhack Services and our customer support.

2. (F) Organizing Sweepstakes, Contests, and Promotions

Participation in our sweepstakes, contests, and promotions is possible, each potentially governed by additional personal information usage and disclosure rules.

2. (G) Personalized Advertising on Bizhack Services and Audience Creation for Third-Party Advertisers

We collect data and collaborate with service providers and third parties to display and assess the effectiveness of personalized advertisements on behalf of advertisers. This data is derived from ad tracking technologies (like cookies), the information you provide (e.g., email address), your interaction with Bizhack Services (like reading and account activity history), information from advertisers or ad vendors (like demographic data), and inferences from this information.

For example, we use Google for ad serving on Bizhack Services. Google employs cookies or unique device identifiers, combined with their data, to present ads based on your visits to Bizhack.co.ke and other sites. Opt out of specific Google cookies via their privacy policy.

A list of some of the service providers and third parties we work with is available here.

We also identify user groups for targeted ads on behalf of advertisers. This involves merging survey or registration information with data collected automatically using tracking technologies. This combined data helps build models to measure user attributes, like demographics or interests. Working with service providers, we use these measurements to group users with common characteristics. Each group is linked to a random ID, used in ad campaigns targeting our sites and apps.

We also engage in targeted third-party advertising using services like Unified ID 2.0 and LiveRamp’s Authenticated Traffic Solution. Here, we use directly identifying information (name, email, phone number) for targeted advertising, including converting email/phone numbers into advertising identifiers. We may also acquire such information from third parties. For more on your choices regarding this processing, see the “What Are Your Rights and Choices?” section.

An example includes our affiliate link vendors in our guides and product recommendations. Bizhack Services like BizhackAffiliates may feature links leading to vendor URLs and services beyond our control. These vendors use cookies and other technologies to track your navigation from Bizhack Services to the merchant site. If you purchase a product via these links, we may earn a commission.

Additional Notes:

For more on targeted advertising and opting out via your specific browser and device, visit the DAA Webchoices Browser Check and NAI Opt Out of Interest-Based Advertising. The AppChoices app allows opting out of mobile apps. For opt-out instructions, refer to “What Are Your Rights and Choices?” below.

We aim to restrict how third-party ad technology vendors use the information they collect from you. Many require contracts, enabling them to optimize their services and products or create their own. Essentially, they merge information collected through Bizhack Services with data from other clients. This aids in targeting ads to you on behalf of their other clients, not just us.

These third parties sometimes employ other services for ad serving; their privacy policies provide more details. For more on tracking technologies and your rights and choices regarding them, see our Cookie Policy. As detailed below, California residents have the right to instruct us not to “sell” or “share” their personal information. Residents of Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, and Utah can opt out of “targeted advertising” and “sales” (as defined under applicable law). For more information, see the “What Are Your Rights and Choices?” section below.

2. (H) Marketing Bizhack Services to You

We market Bizhack Services to you, sometimes using marketing vendors. For example, when visiting Bizhack Services, the Google Dynamic Floodlight tag collects data through browser request redirects to entities other than Bizhack Services, Google, and other property owners where Bizhack may market using Google.

We serve ads across various third-party websites, locations, platforms, and services. These ads often target individuals who have visited or registered for a Bizhack Service but haven’t subscribed or made purchases. The ads also target individuals with traits or behaviors similar to our subscribers or customers.

We target these ads by uploading a customer list (email addresses) to a third party or incorporating third-party tracking technology into our Bizhack Service. The third party then matches individuals in both our and their data.

We take steps to opt you out of such matched ads if you reside in certain states with applicable opt-out rights, as discussed further below. However, to fully opt out of receiving these matched ads, you should also contact the relevant third parties. For instance, to opt out of Facebook’s “Custom Audiences” ads, hover over the ad’s right corner and select opt-out. We are not liable for third-party compliance with opt-out requests. To opt out of Unified ID 2.0 (or UID 2), visit https://www.transparentadvertising.com/.

We periodically send targeted email newsletters or promotional emails. For opt-out information, see “What Are Your Rights and Choices?” below.

2. (I) Aggregating (or De-identifying) Personal Information for Broader Insights

Occasionally, we aggregate or de-identify information, rendering it non-identifiable as per applicable laws. This assists us in better understanding and representing our users, like when assessing ad performance, creating interest-based advertising segments, or compiling survey results. We may use and disclose this aggregated or de-identified data for any purpose, unless restricted by law.

3. To Whom Do We Disclose or Share the Information We Gather?

3. (A) Within Bizhack Kenya Company:

Our associated entities may access your data for the reasons outlined here. This includes the companies listed. It’s important to note that The Loan Apps Kenya operates under its own privacy policy.

3. (B) With Service Providers:

We collaborate with various service providers, as previously mentioned, to execute specific functions, such as:

• Handling your payments
• Completing your orders
• Maintaining technological infrastructure
• Providing customer support
• Delivering and customizing advertisements
• Evaluating ad effectiveness
• Conducting surveys
• Shipping products and mail
• Sending emails
• Processing lists and performing analytics
• Research management and analysis
• Overseeing promotional activities

In doing these tasks, service providers may have access to your personal data.

Occasionally, we permit them to utilize aggregated or anonymized data for other purposes, in line with relevant laws.

3. (C) With Other Third Parties:

We sometimes share your information with third parties, not just our service providers. For instance, as mentioned in Section 2(G) and (H), we share your email and other personal details with third parties for marketing Bizhack Services on other sites and services, and for aiding in third-party advertising on Bizhack Services. This sharing of emails may be in hashed form or otherwise.

It’s important to acknowledge how external vendor practices and legal changes affect what we can disclose. Firstly, if regulators view sharing information for matched ads as a “sale,” we will take necessary steps to opt you out of such ads if you’re in a relevant jurisdiction and exercise your right against the “sale” of your personal information. As mentioned, you might also need to contact certain third parties to opt out of such ads.

Secondly, one of our vendors uses pseudonymized email addresses from us to support their products for us and their other clients. Thus, your email, shared with our vendor for our services, might be used in a pseudonymized form by the vendor for other companies.

While we attempt to oversee our vendors’ actions, some engage in activities beyond our control, which a regulator might view as actions of “third parties,” not service providers.

Here’s more on how we disclose personal information to third parties not acting as service providers:

i. We share information with third-party advertisers and their agencies, as detailed in Section 2(G).

ii. We share information with third-party websites, platforms, and services for marketing purposes, as outlined in Section 2(H).

iii. We share details like your name, company, or job title with sponsors of our live events and conferences. We inform you when collecting this information.

iv. We share information of participants in our sweepstakes, contests, and similar promotions with the sponsors. You’re notified upon providing this information.

v. We process payments through external services in two ways:

• We collect and transfer your data to a third-party service (like Worldpay) for processing.
• The third-party service directly collects your data for processing.

vi. In case of a business restructuring, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer, or disposition of our business, assets, or stock (including bankruptcy or similar proceedings), we may share or transfer your information to a third party, like an acquiring entity and its advisors.

vii. We may preserve or share personal information as required by law or if we believe it’s necessary to:

• Comply with legal processes
• Defend our rights and property
• Prevent misuse or unauthorized use of Bizhack Services
• Protect the safety or property of our staff, users, or the public (e.g., in cases of false information or impersonation, we might share your data to support investigations)
• Cooperate with government authorities, possibly outside your country of residence.

viii. We disclose public activities in our RSS feeds, APIs, and other distribution formats. Therefore, your public activities may appear on other websites, blogs, or feeds.