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Privacy Policy

[Last updated: April 2026]

Welcome to DNB Stories Africa (“we”, “us”, or “our”). DNB Stories Africa is operated by Daniel Nkado, trading as DNB Stories Africa.

We are committed to protecting your personal information and respecting your privacy.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, store, and safeguard your information when you visit DNB Stories Africa and any related pages, features, newsletters, forms, services, or reader-revenue tools we make available through the site (collectively, the “Site”).

Given the nature of our work, including Black culture, queer-centred topics, and deeply personal narratives, we place particular importance on protecting the identity, safety, and dignity of our readers, contributors, and community members.

If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not access or use the Site.

1. Information We Collect

We collect information that you voluntarily provide to us and information that is automatically collected when you interact with the Site.

A. Personal Data You Provide

This may include:

  • Your name or chosen display name
  • Your email address
  • Your social media handles, if you choose to contact or engage with us that way
  • Content you submit through comments, contact forms, surveys, newsletters, reader registration forms, or story submissions
  • Information you include in correspondence with us
  • Subscription, membership, contribution, and reader-registration information, where you choose to support or engage with the Site through reader-revenue tools

You are not required to provide personal data beyond what is reasonably necessary to access public content or use a feature you choose to engage with.

B. Automatically Collected Data

When you access the Site, we may automatically collect certain technical and usage information, including:

  • IP address
  • Browser type and version
  • Operating system
  • Date and time of access
  • Pages viewed and referring URLs
  • General device information, such as whether you are using a mobile or desktop device

We use this information for security, fraud prevention, analytics, site performance, and improving the functionality and relevance of the Site.

2. Sensitive Data, Queer Topics, and Community Safety

Because DNB Stories Africa may publish or receive material relating to LGBTQ+ identity, sexuality, gender expression, relationships, health, mental health, migration, and lived experience, some information processed through the Site may amount to special category personal data under applicable data protection law.

Important points:

  • Public Comments: Any information you choose to post in a public comment area may become publicly visible. Please consider your safety carefully before posting identifying, intimate, or otherwise sensitive information.
  • Story Submissions and Sensitive Disclosures: You are not required to disclose special category personal data in order to read public content on the Site. If you choose to submit material that includes information about your sexual orientation, sex life, health, gender identity, or similarly sensitive matters, please do so only where necessary and only where you are comfortable for us to review it. Where required by law, we will seek explicit consent before processing special category personal data for publication-related, editorial, moderation, or correspondence purposes. Where explicit consent is required, we will seek it through the relevant form, submission flow, or other clear affirmative mechanism.
  • Anonymity and Pseudonyms: We strongly encourage readers and contributors discussing sensitive topics to use pseudonyms or nicknames where appropriate, especially where personal safety, immigration concerns, community stigma, or local legal risk may be relevant.
  • Moderation and Harm Reduction: We moderate comments, submissions, and other interactive areas of the Site to reduce harassment, hate speech, abuse, spam, and targeted harm, including harm directed at LGBTQ+ users and contributors.

3. Reader Revenue, Subscriptions, Contributions, and Payments

We may use Google Reader Revenue Manager and related Google services, including Subscribe with Google, Google Payments, reader registration tools, newsletter sign-up tools, surveys, and contribution or subscription features, to support and fund the Site.

Through these services, we may offer:

  • Paid subscriptions
  • Memberships or registered reader access
  • One-time or recurring voluntary contributions
  • Newsletter sign-ups
  • Surveys, offers, prompts, or other reader engagement features

For clarity, when this Privacy Policy refers to contributions or reader support payments, this includes one-time or recurring amounts voluntarily paid by readers to support DNB Stories Africa. Unless expressly stated otherwise, such contributions are not described by us as charitable donations.

Depending on the feature you use, the personal data processed may include:

  • Your name and email address
  • Google account-related identifiers, where applicable
  • Subscription, membership, or contribution status
  • Order, transaction, or purchase identifiers
  • Billing period, renewal status, and payment status
  • Newsletter sign-up or registration status
  • Survey responses and preferences
  • Interactions with paywalls, prompts, offers, or calls to action

Payment card details and certain payment-processing information are processed directly by Google or other relevant payment processors and are not stored directly by us unless expressly stated otherwise.

Where you use Google-powered reader-revenue or payment tools, Google and its related services may process certain information under their own privacy notices and terms. We recommend that you also review the relevant Google privacy information.

You can read Google’s Privacy Policy here: https://policies.google.com/privacy

Where enabled through Publisher Center or related Google services, we may be able to view, manage, or export certain member, order, subscription, contribution, registration, or newsletter-sign-up data made available through those tools.

4. Cookies, Consent, Advertising, and Analytics

We use cookies and similar technologies to operate the Site, remember user choices, analyse traffic, improve performance, support reader-revenue features, and display advertising.

Advertising and Analytics

We may use Google AdSense and related advertising or analytics services. Google and other third-party vendors or ad networks may use cookies or similar technologies to serve, measure, and personalise ads based on your interactions with this Site and other websites. These third parties may collect information directly from your browser or device and are governed by their own privacy policies.

Consent and Control

If you are located in the UK, EEA, or Switzerland, we will request consent for non-essential cookies and for personalised advertising where required by law. You may be able to manage or withdraw your consent through our cookie or privacy settings tool. You may also manage Google ad personalisation through Google ad settings. Where relevant, you may also be able to opt out of some third-party personalised advertising through industry opt-out tools such as aboutads.info.

Google Consent Requirements

Where required, consent choices for advertising and related technologies may be managed through a Consent Management Platform compatible with Google’s consent requirements. Where personalised ads are served to users in the UK, EEA, or Switzerland, applicable Google and IAB Transparency and Consent Framework requirements must also be met.

5. Who We Share Your Information With

We may share personal data with trusted third parties where reasonably necessary to operate, secure, improve, or fund the Site, including:

  • Website hosting and technical service providers
  • Analytics, security, and anti-spam providers
  • Newsletter and email delivery providers
  • Comment moderation or community management tools
  • Advertising providers and measurement partners, including Google AdSense
  • Reader-revenue and payment-related providers, including Google Reader Revenue Manager and associated Google services
  • Professional advisers, regulators, law enforcement, or courts where disclosure is required by law or reasonably necessary to protect rights, safety, or the integrity of the Site

We do not sell your personal data for money in the ordinary sense. However, we may share limited data with advertising, analytics, reader-revenue, and technical service providers as described in this Policy.

6. How We Use Your Information

We may use personal data to:

  • Operate, maintain, and secure the Site
  • Publish, review, and moderate user-submitted material
  • Respond to enquiries, support requests, and editorial correspondence
  • Send newsletters, updates, or reader communications where you have opted in or where otherwise permitted by law
  • Manage reader registration, subscriptions, memberships, voluntary contributions, and related support requests
  • Analyse usage trends and improve content, design, safety, and relevance
  • Prevent fraud, abuse, harassment, spam, unlawful activity, or security incidents
  • Comply with legal, tax, accounting, and regulatory obligations
  • Enforce our site policies, community standards, and terms

7. Lawful Bases for Processing

Depending on the context, we process personal data on one or more of the following lawful bases:

  • Consent, for example, where you opt in to newsletters, surveys, optional cookies, or certain sensitive disclosures
  • Performance of a contract, for example, where you purchase, manage, or cancel a subscription, membership, or recurring contribution
  • Legal obligation, where we must process data to comply with applicable law
  • Legitimate interests, including our interests in operating, securing, improving, sustaining, and funding the Site, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms

Where we rely on legitimate interests, those interests may include editorial administration, reader support, abuse prevention, analytics, product improvement, and basic service communications.

Where special category personal data is involved, we will rely on an additional condition for processing where required by law, including explicit consent where appropriate.

You may withdraw consent at any time where consent is the lawful basis, although this will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

8. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy, including:

  • Publication, moderation, and editorial review
  • Subscription, contribution, payment, and reader-support administration
  • Responding to enquiries and reader support requests
  • Legal, tax, accounting, or regulatory compliance
  • Fraud prevention, security, record-keeping, and dispute resolution

Retention periods may vary depending on the type of information and the purpose for which it was collected. When personal data is no longer required, we will delete it, anonymise it, or securely store it only where continued retention is legally required.

9. International Data Transfers

Your personal data may be transferred to, stored in, or processed in countries outside your country of residence, including countries that may not provide the same level of legal protection as your home jurisdiction.

Where required by applicable law, we will use appropriate safeguards for such transfers, including reliance on adequacy decisions, contractual safeguards, or other recognised legal mechanisms. You may contact us for more information about the safeguards we rely on, where applicable.

10. Your Data Protection Rights

Depending on your location and the applicable law, you may have the right to:

  • Access personal data we hold about you
  • Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data
  • Request deletion of your personal data
  • Withdraw consent at any time, where consent is relied upon
  • Object to certain processing
  • Request restriction of processing
  • Request data portability, where applicable
  • Complain to a relevant supervisory authority

To exercise your rights, you can contact us at:

We aim to respond within one month, subject to any lawful extensions or verification requirements. If you are in the UK, you may also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). If you are elsewhere, you may complain to the relevant supervisory authority in your jurisdiction.

11. Artificial Intelligence and Automated Processing

A. Use of AI Tools

Our editorial articles are primarily written by human authors. We may use AI tools for limited support functions such as grammar checks, proofreading, formatting assistance, workflow support, or image generation for certain graphics or illustrations. Where content is fully or substantially AI-generated, we aim to label that clearly.

B. Automated Moderation and Recommendation Tools

We may use automated tools for:

  • Spam detection and comment moderation
  • Hate speech or abuse filtering
  • Content recommendations, such as related-story suggestions
  • Advertising personalisation through third-party advertising services, where consent and applicable law permit

C. Human Review

We do not intend to make solely automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects on individuals through ordinary site moderation or recommendations. If you believe a comment, submission, or moderation decision was made unfairly, you may contact us and request human review where appropriate.

12. Security of Your Information

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organisational measures designed to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. However, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure. We therefore cannot guarantee absolute security.

13. Children’s Privacy

The Site is intended for adult users aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 18. If you believe that a child under 18 has provided personal data to us in breach of this Policy, please contact us, and we will take appropriate steps to investigate and, where necessary, delete the information.

14. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect legal, operational, editorial, or technical changes. When we make material changes, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, take additional steps to bring the changes to your attention.

15. Contact Us

DNB Stories Africa is operated by Daniel Nkado, trading as DNB Stories Africa. If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, our privacy practices, or wish to submit a privacy-related request, you can contact us at:

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