Privacy Policy

Who we are

Solar Second Life trains solar technicians, runs a community for people who repair, own and sell solar equipment, and keeps a register of old and broken equipment so it can be repaired or safely recycled.

If you have a question about your information, use our contact form and choose "My personal information".

The law we follow

We follow the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023, the main law for our work. Wherever you live, your own country's data protection laws may also protect you, for example UK GDPR or EU GDPR. This policy is written to meet those standards too.

What we collect, and why

• Training applications: your name, phone number, email if you give one, gender, age group, town or LGA, trade, solar experience and any support you need. We use this to select trainees, contact you and arrange support.
• Community accounts: your name, phone number, password (stored so that no one can read it), location, gender, age group and role, and what you post.
• The equipment register: what the equipment is, its condition, the town or LGA where it is, an optional photo, and a contact name and phone number.
• Requests for solar: the contact's name, phone number and email if given, their role, the name of the school, clinic, farm, group or business, where the equipment would go (town or LGA, never a street address), what it would power and who it would help.
• Donated equipment: the same details as the equipment register, and a record of who the equipment was later given to, with their sign-off.
• Contact messages and concern reports: only what you choose to tell us.

We never ask for a street address. We ask for gender and age group so we can make sure at least 30% of training places go to women and 60% to young people, and so we can report on this to our funders.

We only use your information for the reasons you agreed to when you ticked the consent boxes on each form.

Photos

Phones hide location details inside photos. We remove all of this from every photo you upload, so a photo can never show where you live.

Some training sessions are filmed for free video lessons. We only film people who have agreed in writing, and you can choose not to appear on camera.

Who can see your information

• Only the project team can see personal details, and each person sees only what their role needs.
• Concern reports can be seen only by our safeguarding lead and deputy.
• Your phone number is never shown on this website. Graduates who choose to be listed in Find a technician decide what is shown, and people reach them through a WhatsApp button.
• We share figures with our funders, such as how many women were trained. These figures never include names or contact details.
• We never sell your information.

Where it is kept, and how it is protected

Your information is kept on servers run by our hosting provider, Clue WebHost. It is protected by encryption when it travels over the internet, strict access controls, and two-step login for every admin account. Backup copies are kept for up to eight weeks and then replaced.

How long we keep it

• Training applications, attendance, assessments, register records, receipts and consent forms: 7 years after the project ends, because our funders may audit them. Then they are deleted.
• Concern reports: 7 years after the project ends, then deleted.
• Community accounts: deleted after 24 months without a login. If you gave us an email, we warn you 30 days before.
• Figures with no names attached are kept, because they are not personal information.

Cookies

We use one cookie, only when you fill in a form or log in, to keep your visit secure. We do not use tracking or advertising cookies, and we do not use Google Analytics.

Your rights

You can ask to see the information we hold about you, correct it, or have it deleted. You can withdraw your consent at any time. Community members can download their data and ask for their account to be deleted from their profile.

Some records must be kept for our funders' audit. Where that applies, we remove your name and contact details instead of deleting the record.

If you are not happy with how we handle your information, you can complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, or to the data protection authority in your own country.

Age

Our training and community are for people aged 18 and over.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update the version shown at the top of this page.