Privacy Policy — SOBA BMC | SOBA BMC — Sasse Old Boys Association

1. Who We Are

This Privacy Policy applies to the website of the Sasse Old Boys Association (SOBA), Buea Chapter ("SOBA BMC", "we", "us", or "our"), a non-profit alumni association of Saint Joseph's College Sasse, headquartered in Buea, South West Region, Cameroon.

We are committed to protecting your personal data and respecting your privacy. This policy explains what personal information we collect when you use our website, why we collect it, how we use it, and your rights in relation to it.

For privacy-related enquiries, contact us at:
Email: privacy@soba-bmc.com
Postal address: SOBA BMC — Data Privacy, Buea, South West Region, Cameroon

2. Information We Collect

We collect information in the following circumstances:

2.1 Contact Form

When you submit a message via our contact form, we collect:

Full name
Email address
Phone number (optional)
Subject and message content

2.2 Newsletter Subscription

When you subscribe to our newsletter, we collect:

Email address
Name (optional)
Preferred language (English or French)

2.3 News Comments

When you post a comment on a news article, we collect:

Display name
Email address (optional, not publicly displayed)
Comment content
IP address and submission timestamp (for moderation purposes)

2.4 Shop Orders

When you place an order in our shop, we collect:

Full name
Email address
Phone number (optional)
Order details (product, quantity, and any notes)

We do not process or store payment card information on our servers. Any payment processing is handled by a third-party payment provider under their own privacy policy.

2.5 Donations

When you make a donation, we collect:

Donor name
Email address
Donation amount
Optional personal message

2.6 Automatic Technical Data

When you visit our website, our server automatically collects certain technical information, including:

IP address
Browser type and version
Operating system
Pages visited and time spent
Referring URL
Date and time of access

This data is collected for security, performance monitoring, and analytics purposes and is not used to identify individual users.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the personal information collected for the following purposes:

To respond to your enquiries — contact form submissions are used solely to reply to your message.
To send newsletters and updates — if you have subscribed, we send periodic updates about SOBA BMC activities, events, and news. You may unsubscribe at any time.
To moderate and display comments — submitted comments are reviewed before publication to maintain the quality of our community discussions.
To process and fulfil orders — order information is used to manage and deliver your purchase and to communicate order status.
To record and acknowledge donations — donation records allow us to issue acknowledgements and maintain financial transparency.
To improve our website — technical data is used to understand how our website is used and to improve its performance and usability.
To comply with legal obligations — we retain certain records as required by applicable law.

4. Legal Basis for Processing

We process your personal data on the following legal bases:

Consent — for newsletter subscriptions and optional comment submissions. You may withdraw consent at any time.
Contractual necessity — for processing shop orders and donations, where processing is necessary to fulfil your request.
Legitimate interests — for contact form responses, comment moderation, website security, and analytics, where our legitimate interests in operating the association do not override your rights.
Legal obligation — where applicable law requires us to retain or disclose information.

5. Data Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties. We may share your data only in the following limited circumstances:

Service providers — we engage trusted third-party providers (e.g., web hosting, email delivery services) who process data on our behalf under strict confidentiality obligations and only as directed by us.
Legal requirements — we may disclose your information if required to do so by applicable law, court order, or governmental authority.
Protection of rights — we may disclose information where necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of SOBA BMC, its members, or others.
Organisational transfer — in the unlikely event of a restructuring of SOBA BMC, personal data held may be transferred to the successor organisation, subject to equivalent privacy protections.

6. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes described in this policy:

Contact messages — retained for up to 2 years after the enquiry is resolved.
Newsletter subscriptions — retained until you unsubscribe or request deletion.
Comments — retained for the lifetime of the related article unless deletion is requested.
Orders — retained for 7 years for accounting and legal compliance purposes.
Donations — retained for 7 years for financial reporting and transparency requirements.
Technical logs — retained for up to 90 days for security purposes.

7. Cookies

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to improve your experience:

Session cookies — temporary cookies that expire when you close your browser. Used to maintain your language preference and session state.
CSRF token cookies — used to protect forms from cross-site request forgery attacks. These are strictly necessary for the website to function.
Analytics cookies — if analytics are enabled, we use anonymised data to understand traffic patterns. No personally identifiable information is stored in analytics cookies.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Disabling strictly necessary cookies may affect the functionality of the website.

8. Data Security

We take reasonable and appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These include:

HTTPS encryption for all data transmitted to and from the website
Restricted access to personal data on a need-to-know basis
Regular security updates and patching of our web infrastructure
Password hashing and secure storage of credentials

No method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your data, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

9. Your Rights

You have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

Right of access — you may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification — you may request that we correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
Right to erasure — you may request deletion of your personal data where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing.
Right to restrict processing — you may request that we limit how we use your data in certain circumstances.
Right to data portability — you may request a machine-readable copy of data you have provided to us.
Right to object — you may object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
Right to withdraw consent — where processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at privacy@soba-bmc.com. We will respond within 30 days. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request.

10. Children's Privacy

Our website is not directed at children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe we have inadvertently collected information from a child, please contact us immediately and we will take steps to delete it.

11. International Data Transfers

SOBA BMC is based in Cameroon. If you access our website from outside Cameroon, your personal data may be transferred to and processed in Cameroon or in the country where our hosting provider's servers are located. We take steps to ensure that any such transfers are subject to appropriate safeguards.

12. Third-Party Links

Our website may contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any third-party site you visit.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or applicable law. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of the website after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy.

14. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or complaints about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

Email: privacy@soba-bmc.com
General enquiries: Contact form
Postal address: Sasse Old Boys Association, Buea Chapter, Buea, South West Region, Cameroon