1. The short version
- We collect what you give us (your account, posts, and anything you enter in tools like My money) and basic information about how the site is used.
- Your My money figures are private. They are never shown to other members, never sold and never used for adverts.
- We share your contact details with a fund manager, insurer or other provider only when you ask us to, for example by requesting a call back about a product.
- We do not sell your personal data.
- You can ask to see, correct or delete your data at any time by writing to info@moneyversations.co.ke.
The rest of this policy explains this in detail. It is written to meet the Data Protection Act, 2019 of Kenya and the Data Protection (General) Regulations, 2021.
2. Who we are
MoneyVersations ("we", "us", "our") runs the website moneyversations.co.ke, the MoneyVersations community and the related email updates. MoneyVersations is a Kenyan personal finance education platform.
For the personal data described in this policy, MoneyVersations is the data controller: we decide why and how it is used. You can reach us about anything in this policy at info@moneyversations.co.ke.
3. What we collect
Information you give us
- Your account: name, username, email address and password. We store your password only in a scrambled (hashed) form that we cannot read. You may also add a profile photo, a short bio, a location and a website.
- What you post in the community: posts, comments, photos, reactions, polls, circles you join, posts you save and reports you make.
- My money and other tools: budgets, income and spending entries, recurring items, net worth items, goals, money check-up answers and calculator inputs you choose to save.
- Courses: lessons completed, quiz answers and scores, and certificates issued in your name.
- Product enquiries and reviews: when you ask about a product or request a call back, your name, email, phone number, preferred contact time, the product and the amount you are interested in, and your consent. If you write a product review, its content and rating.
- Email preferences: your choices for the weekly digest, weekly rates email, rate alerts, reminders and the monthly My money summary.
- Messages to us: anything you send us by email or through the site.
Information collected when you use the site
- Usage information: pages visited, the page that referred you, the type of device (phone, tablet or computer) and browser, and simple events such as signing up. Our own analytics collects this and does not run if your browser sends a "Do Not Track" signal. It does not record what you type into forms.
- Technical and security information: like almost every website, our servers keep logs that include your IP address, browser details and the time of each request. We use these to keep the site working and secure, for example to stop spam, abuse and break-in attempts.
- Cookies and similar storage: see section 7.
We do not ask for, and you should never send us, your M-Pesa PIN, bank passwords, card numbers or ID number. MoneyVersations does not connect to your bank or M-Pesa account.
4. How we use it, and why
The law requires a lawful basis for each use of personal data. Ours are:
| What we do | Why we are allowed to |
|---|---|
| Create and run your account, show your posts and profile, run My money, goals, courses and other tools you use | To provide the service you signed up for |
| Pass your details to a product provider when you ask for information or a call back | Your consent, given at the time |
| Send emails you opted into (weekly digest, weekly rates, rate alerts, reminders, monthly summary) | Your consent. You can switch any of them off at any time |
| Send account and security emails (verification, password reset, sign-in codes, important changes) | To provide the service and keep your account secure |
| Keep the community safe: moderation, preventing spam, scams and abuse | Our legitimate interest in a safe platform, and our legal obligations |
| Understand which pages and tools are useful so we can improve them, using usage statistics | Our legitimate interest in improving the site |
| Show product providers how many people they reach and how many enquiries they receive | Our legitimate interest. We use totals that do not identify you, unless you made the enquiry and agreed to it being shared |
| Keep records and respond to lawful requests | Legal obligations |
We do not use your My money figures for advertising, and we do not make automated decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects.
6. My money: your private data
Budgets, transactions, recurring items, net worth items and goals you enter are visible only to you when signed in. They are not shown on your profile or in the community, and they are not used for analytics or adverts. They are only emailed to you, and only if you turn on the monthly summary.
You can download everything you have entered in My money as a CSV file, or delete all of it, from the bottom of the My money page.
8. Where your data is kept
Your data is stored on servers run by our hosting provider, and emails pass through our email service. Some of these servers may be outside Kenya. Where data leaves Kenya, we only use providers that protect it to a standard consistent with the Data Protection Act, 2019, and we take the safeguards the Act requires.
9. How long we keep it
- Your account and community content: for as long as your account is open. If you ask us to delete your account, we delete or anonymise your personal data within a reasonable time, except where we must keep something by law.
- My money data: until you delete it, or delete your account.
- Product enquiries: for up to two years, so we can follow up and keep a record of your consent.
- Usage statistics and server logs: for as long as they are useful to run and secure the site, and then deleted or kept only as totals.
- Backups: copies of the site are kept for a limited time for recovery and are then overwritten.
10. How we protect it
We use encrypted connections (HTTPS) across the site, store passwords in hashed form, offer two-step sign-in for extra protection, limit who on our team can see personal data, and keep regular backups. No website is completely secure, so please use a strong password that you do not use anywhere else, and turn on two-step sign-in from your account security page.
If a breach puts your personal data at real risk, we will tell the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner and, where required, you, as the law requires.
11. Your rights
Under section 26 of the Data Protection Act, 2019 you have the right to:
- be informed of how your personal data is used (this policy);
- access the personal data we hold about you;
- object to all or part of how we use it;
- correct data that is false or misleading;
- delete data that is false, misleading, or no longer needed;
- receive your data in a format you can take elsewhere, where this applies;
- withdraw your consent at any time, for example to emails or to sharing with a provider. This does not affect what was done before.
Many of these you can do yourself: edit your profile, change your email choices, download or delete your My money data. For anything else, email info@moneyversations.co.ke from the address on your account. We may ask you to confirm who you are. We aim to give you access within 7 days and to correct or delete data within 14 days, in line with the regulations.
If you are not happy with how we handled your request, you can complain to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (www.odpc.go.ke).
12. Children
MoneyVersations is meant for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has created an account, please contact us and we will remove it.
13. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the site grows or the law changes. We will change the "last updated" date at the top and, for important changes, let members know by email or on the site.
14. Contact us
For questions, requests or complaints about your personal data, email info@moneyversations.co.ke.