AxcessAfrica ("AxcessAfrica", "we", "us") provides free messaging, voice and video calls, meetings, communities, a mobile-money wallet, and community fundraising, built for Africa and open to the world. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why, how we protect it, who we share it with, and the choices and rights you have. The service is operated by [LEGAL ENTITY NAME], [REGISTERED ADDRESS].
When you create an account we collect your email address, display name, and a securely hashed password. You may optionally tell us your country and city. Feature-phone users who reach AxcessAfrica over USSD or SMS are identified by their mobile phone number.
If you choose to add or import contacts, we store the names and phone numbers or email addresses you provide so we can show you which of your contacts already use AxcessAfrica and let you message them. We do not use your contacts to send marketing.
One-to-one and group chats, including attachments, are end-to-end encrypted using the Signal protocol: the keys that decrypt your messages live only on your own devices. AxcessAfrica routes and stores the encrypted data but cannot read the contents of end-to-end encrypted messages. Some lightweight and feature-phone access paths (for example the offline "Lite" and USSD/SMS experiences) do not yet support end-to-end encryption; where that is the case, messages are protected in transit and at rest but are technically readable by the service. We store the files you send as attachments so they can be delivered. For calls, we process connection information needed to route the call (such as network relay credentials); we do not record the audio or video of your calls.
If you use the wallet, we collect and store your wallet balance, transaction history, and the mobile-money account identifiers (such as your M-Pesa, MTN MoMo, Airtel Money, Wave, Orange Money, or OPay number) needed to send and receive money. Payment instructions are processed together with the relevant mobile-money operator.
Because the wallet moves money, we are subject to anti-money-laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) laws. To meet these obligations we may collect and verify identity information, monitor transactions for unusual activity, screen against sanctions and watch lists, and keep an audit trail of wallet-related events. These compliance records are kept in a separate, append-only log and are retained for the periods required by law in the countries where we operate.
If you create or donate to a fundraiser, we record the donation so the campaign can be managed and reconciled. You may choose to appear as an anonymous donor to other users; we still keep an internal record of the donation for financial, tax, and anti-fraud purposes.
We use strictly necessary cookies to keep you signed in and to protect forms against cross-site request forgery. We process limited technical information such as your IP address and device type for security, fraud prevention, and to keep the service reliable. We do not use advertising trackers and we do not track you across other apps or websites.
We do not sell your personal information. We share it only as needed to run the service:
We keep account information for as long as your account is active. Financial and compliance records are retained for the minimum periods required by applicable anti-money-laundering law (which in several African markets is five to seven years after a transaction) even after you close your account. End-to-end encrypted message content remains unreadable to us for its entire lifetime. When data is no longer needed and no legal hold applies, we delete or anonymize it.
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or receive a copy of your personal information, and to object to or restrict certain processing. These rights apply under laws such as South Africa's POPIA, Nigeria's NDPR/NDPA, Kenya's Data Protection Act, and the EU/UK GDPR where relevant. Some data — particularly financial and compliance records we are legally required to keep — cannot be deleted on request until the required retention period ends. To exercise a right, contact us using the details below.
We protect your data with end-to-end encryption for chats, TLS encryption for data in transit, encryption of stored data, strict access controls, and rate limiting and lockout protections on sign-in. No system is perfectly secure, but we work continuously to protect your information and to respond quickly to any incident.
AxcessAfrica is not intended for children under 13, and the wallet and other money-related features are not available to anyone below the minimum age required by law in their country. We do not knowingly collect information from children below these ages.
Your information is stored and processed on cloud infrastructure located in South Africa. Where information is transferred across borders — for example to a mobile-money operator or compliance provider in another country — we take steps to ensure it remains protected in line with applicable data-protection law.
We may update this policy as the service and the law evolve. When we make material changes we will update the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, notify you in the app.
For privacy questions or to exercise your rights, contact our privacy team at [PRIVACY CONTACT EMAIL][, or write to our Data Protection Officer at [DPO ADDRESS]].
Ubuntu — I am because we are. We treat your data as we would want ours treated.