Privacy policy.

This policy applies to three groups of people: campaign organisers who create and manage fundraisers on ChangaSente, donors who contribute to those campaigns, and visitors who browse public pages without an account. ChangaSente is operated as a platform registered in Uganda. We are the data controller for everything described below. Where payment partners or infrastructure providers act as processors, they are named in the relevant section.

This policy is governed primarily by the Uganda Data Protection and Privacy Act 2019. Because our platform serves users across Africa and the diaspora, additional frameworks apply depending on where you are located — including the Kenya Data Protection Act 2019, Rwanda Law N° 058/2021, the EU and UK GDPR for European residents, and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA) for California residents. Where your local law gives you stronger rights than the baseline, those stronger rights apply to you.

When you create an account we collect your name, email address, and a hashed password — we never store it in plain text. When you start a campaign we collect the title, description, fundraising goal, location, and any images you upload. When you make a donation we collect the amount, the mobile money number used (for refund purposes only), and the display name you choose. If you donate anonymously, your number is still kept privately for reconciliation but never shown publicly.

When anyone visits a public campaign page, we log standard server access data — IP address, browser type, page path, and timestamp — solely for security and fraud detection. We do not run third-party analytics or advertising trackers.

Your email address is used for transactional notifications only — contribution alerts, withdrawal confirmations, and password resets. We do not send marketing emails. If we ever introduce them, you will receive a clear opt-in request first.

Campaign content — the title, story, supporter list, and disbursement log — is published on the public campaign page, because that transparency is central to how the platform works. Mobile money numbers are kept strictly private and never appear on any public-facing page.

Public campaign pages are visible to anyone with the link. Donors who choose "anonymous" appear as "Anonymous" on the supporter list but remain linked to their account internally for refund and pledge-tracking purposes. Campaign organisers and the ChangaSente support team can view contributor names and contact details within their own campaign dashboard. We do not sell contributor lists, cross-campaign profile information, or any user data to third parties.

We share the minimum necessary data with sub-processors that keep the platform running:

• Mobile money processors (MTN, Airtel, Flutterwave, Paystack, Fincra) — receive the recipient phone number or card details, amount, and an internal reference for each transaction.
• Supabase — hosts our database and authentication layer under SOC 2 controls.
• Vercel — hosts the application infrastructure.

We do not share data with advertising networks because we do not run advertising. If a binding legal order requires disclosure to a government or law-enforcement authority, we will comply and notify you in advance where the law permits.

Account and campaign data is stored on Supabase infrastructure. Payment transactions flow through our licensed payment partners' infrastructure. Database backups are encrypted and retained for thirty days. For users subject to EU/UK GDPR, we rely on standard contractual clauses (SCCs) where data is transferred outside of the EEA.

Account data is kept for as long as your account is active. When an account is closed, we anonymise personal identifiers within ninety days — except where we are required to retain specific records for accounting, tax, or anti-fraud purposes, typically seven years for transaction data. Public campaign pages remain visible after a fundraiser ends; organisers may request removal via our support team.

Regardless of where you are, you can ask us to: confirm what data we hold about you, correct anything inaccurate, delete your account (subject to the retention rules above), or export a copy of your data in a portable format. Email privacy@changasente.com with any such request — we aim to respond within thirty days.

Ugandan users have rights under the Data Protection and Privacy Act 2019, including access, rectification, erasure, and the right to complain to the Personal Data Protection Office. EU/UK users have the full range of GDPR rights, including the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

We use a small number of first-party cookies essential to platform operation: a session cookie that keeps you signed in, a CSRF cookie that protects form submissions, and a preference cookie for UI settings like theme. We do not set advertising, analytics, or tracking cookies. See our Cookie Policy for full details.

Passwords are hashed with bcrypt before touching our database — they are unreadable to us and anyone who might access the database. Database access is governed by Supabase Row-Level Security so each user sees only their own data. Production secrets are stored outside the codebase and rotated when team members change. If we discover a security incident involving your personal data, we will notify you within 72 hours of confirming it.

ChangaSente is intended for users aged 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal data from minors. If you believe a person under 18 has created an account, contact us immediately and we will close the account and delete the data.

When we make a material change — a new data category, a new partner, or a new use — we will email all registered users and display a notice on the platform at least seven days before the change takes effect. Minor clarifications and corrections take effect immediately on publication. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent change.

Questions about this policy or your data: privacy@changasente.com. General support: support@changasente.com.