How to Speak About Africa Todayis a project of Africa No Filter (“we”, “us”). This page explains what we collect, why, and your choices. Our guiding rule is to collect the least personal data needed, and keep it no longer than necessary.
Browsing the dictionary
You can browse, search and read the dictionary, change the display language, and download the public PDF without an account and without giving any personal details. There is no public sign-in.
Submitting a word
When you submit a word you may give a name and email, but you can also submit anonymously. If you give an email, we ask for your explicit consent to contact you about that submission. We use it only to tell you the outcome and, if you allow it, to credit you when a word is published. We store your submission and a one-way hashed version of your IP address to prevent spam and abuse. We do not store your raw IP address.
Updates from Africa No Filter (marketing)
Receiving digital updates is a separate, optional choice with its own checkbox. We never add you to updates as a side effect of submitting a word. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Tari (AI assistant)
Tari helps you find clearer language. English and French are official, maintained versions; other languages are AI-assisted translations. We do not store the full text of what you paste into Tari, or its full responses, by default. We keep limited technical information (such as request counts and a hashed IP) to prevent abuse and to manage AI cost. Do not paste sensitive personal information into Tari.
Analytics & anonymous monitoring
We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking. There is no Google Analytics, no advertising pixels, and no third-party marketing trackers, and we do not build profiles of you or follow you across other sites.
We do use anonymous, cookieless monitoring (AWS CloudWatch RUM, hosted in our own AWS account) so we can see that pages load correctly and catch errors and slow performance. It records technical events only, such as page load times, browser errors and which pages are visited, with no name or account attached, and it sets no cookie. We use it to keep the site working, not to identify you. We also keep limited technical counts (such as request counts and a hashed IP) to prevent abuse and manage AI cost.
Cookies & local storage
We do not use any advertising or tracking cookies, so there is no cookie banner. The only cookies and storage we use are needed for the site to work or to remember a choice you made:
- Editor login (
anf_session): a secure cookie set only when a member of the editorial team signs in to the admin area. Public visitors never receive it. - Language (
googtranscookie and ananf-langvalue in local storage): remembers the display language you chose. - Small preferences (local storage): remembers whether you have seen the welcome message and any words you bookmarked. This stays in your browser.
When you choose a language other than English, the page is translated by Google Translate, a third-party service. At that point the text on the page is sent to Google so it can be translated. If you prefer not to use it, stay on the English version. We do not use these cookies or storage for advertising.
Editorial review
Submissions are reviewed by the Africa No Filter editorial team before anything is published. Nothing you submit is published automatically.
How long we keep data
Published entries are kept for as long as they are useful. Rejected submissions and email logs are kept for a limited period and then deleted or anonymised. AI usage is kept as counts only. Full details are in our internal retention policy, available on request.
Your rights & contact
You can ask us to access, correct or delete your personal data, to object to or restrict how we use it, to withdraw a consent you gave, and to receive a copy in a portable format. Contact info@africanofilter.org.
Africa No Filter is registered in Mauritius and is the data controller for this site. We handle your data in line with the Mauritius Data Protection Act 2017, and the GDPR where it applies to you. You can also complain to the Data Protection Office in Mauritius, or the data protection authority where you live.
See also our Terms of use.