Privacy Policy

Effective date: 15 September 2025

Prestige & Graca (organiser of the Prestige Africa Education Awards (PAEA) & the African Biology Olympiad (ABO)) respects your privacy. This Policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use and protect it and your rights.

1. Information we collect

Registration & Participation: full name, organisation/school, role, email, phone/WhatsApp, billing address, invoice and payment metadata (note: payment card data is processed by PCI-DSS compliant third-party gateways; we do not store raw card numbers).
Nominations & Supporting Documents: nominee names, school/institution details, category, contact person details, uploaded documents (reports, photos, certificates), and any media submitted for evaluation/publicity.
Voting Data: votes cast via our public voting platform. To protect integrity we may collect vote metadata such as email or phone verification tokens, IP address, device/browser identifiers and timestamps. Where possible we anonymise vote outputs after verification.
Website & Cookies: IP address, browser type, device information and analytics cookies to improve site performance and user experience.

2. How we use your information

To process registrations, ticket/table/exhibition purchases and payments and to issue receipts/invoices.
To validate and administer nominations and voting (preventing fraud and enforcing one-person-one-vote).
To communicate event updates, confirmations, logistical information and follow-up surveys.
To publish verified nominees, finalists and winners on official PAEA platforms (we will seek consent for promotional use where required).
To maintain an archival record (Hall of Honour) and for historical/impact reporting.

3. Legal basis & third-party sharing

We do not sell personal data. We share personal data only when necessary to deliver our services:

Payment processors, banks and authorised finance partners to complete transactions (PCI-DSS compliant providers).
Trusted service providers (IT/hosting, email delivery, livestream vendors, accreditation/printing houses) under confidentiality agreements.
Jury, Nomination Committee members and National Education Ambassadors for verification and evaluation purposes (subject to confidentiality).
Regulatory or law enforcement authorities when required by law.

4. Data retention

Payment & accounting records: retained for up to 7 years for audit and legal compliance.
Nomination records & supporting documents: retained for up to 5 years as part of event archives and for Hall of Honour records.
Voting metadata: retained securely until votes are verified and winners announced; identifiable vote metadata is retained up to 12 months for audit and fraud investigation and then anonymised or deleted where appropriate.

5. Security

We implement technical and organisational safeguards including TLS/SSL encryption for our website, access controls, secure servers and contractual requirements for third-party providers. Payment processing is performed by PCI-DSS compliant gateways — we do not store raw card details on our servers.

6. Your rights

You may request access, correction, portability or deletion of your personal data. You may withdraw consent for marketing communications. To exercise your rights, contact:

Email: awards@prestigeafrica.org

7. Cookies

We use cookies for analytics and functionality. You can control cookies via your browser settings; disabling cookies may reduce site functionality.

8. Third party links

Our site may contain links to external websites. We are not responsible for external sites’ privacy practices. Please review their policies.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. Any changes will be posted with a revised effective date on this page.