Your information, handled with purpose.

This Privacy Policy explains how Africa Energy Youth Forum, powered by Africa Energy Technology Centre, the organisation behind the Africa Energy Technology Conference (“AEYF”, “we”, “us” or “our”), handles personal information through this website, application routes, enquiries and related programme administration. For the processing described here, AEYF acts as the data controller or equivalent responsible organisation.

This Policy applies to website visitors, applicants, delegates, speakers, venture representatives, sponsors, exhibitors, partners, media contacts and people who communicate with us. It does not govern an external website or platform linked from this Site.

The information collected depends on how you interact with AEYF. It may include:

• Identity and contact data: name, email address, telephone or WhatsApp number, country and professional profile links.
• Professional and organisation data: employer or institution, role, venture details, website, sector, region, ownership or leadership status and partnership interests.
• Application and evaluation data: motivations, experience, policy positions, speaking proposals, solution descriptions, traction, capital needs, pitch-deck links, travel-support requests and reviewer notes.
• Accessibility data: participation or accessibility needs that you voluntarily choose to provide. This may reveal health-related or other sensitive information.
• Communications data: enquiries, correspondence, submission references, follow-up messages and records of how a matter was resolved.
• Technical and usage data: page URL, referrer, approximate location derived from connection data, device type, browser, operating system, timestamps and security logs. If you consent, privacy-focused Vercel Web Analytics processes page-view data as described below.
• Consent and preference data: your analytics choice, the consent-policy version, and the date of your choice.

Please do not include national identity numbers, payment-card details, account passwords or unrelated sensitive information in a free-text field or linked document.

Most information comes directly from you when you use a form, send an email or communicate with the team. We may also receive information from an organisation you represent, a programme partner involved in a selection process, a person you authorised to contact us, or publicly available professional sources where verification is reasonably necessary.

If you provide information about another person, you should ensure that you are authorised to do so and that they understand how AEYF will use it.

Where the GDPR or a similar law requires a legal basis, we rely on the basis that best fits the specific activity:

• Steps at your request and performance of an agreement: receiving applications, assessing eligibility, corresponding about selection, registering participation and delivering agreed programme or partner benefits.
• Legitimate interests: operating and improving AEYF, routing enquiries, evaluating programme fit, preventing fraud and abuse, maintaining appropriate records, protecting the Site and measuring aggregate audience use. We balance these interests against the rights and expectations of the people concerned.
• Consent: optional Vercel Web Analytics, optional communications where consent is required, and voluntarily supplied accessibility or health-related information. Consent can be withdrawn at any time without affecting prior lawful processing.
• Legal obligation: responding to lawful requests, maintaining records required by law, protecting rights, and meeting tax, accounting, safeguarding or regulatory obligations where applicable.
• Vital interests: exceptionally, using or sharing necessary information to protect someone’s life or physical safety.

We do not sell personal information. We do not use application answers for unrelated advertising, and we do not use solely automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects. Human reviewers make or supervise selection decisions.

Some delegate forms allow you to describe accessibility or participation needs. Providing this information is optional. Where it reveals health or disability information, we use it with your explicit consent and only to assess and arrange reasonable participation support, protect your safety, or comply with an applicable legal obligation.

Access is limited to personnel and service providers who need the information to arrange support. Please provide only what is necessary. You may withdraw consent, although doing so may limit our ability to arrange the requested support.

If you choose “Accept all” or enable the analytics category, the Site loads Vercel Web Analytics. It records aggregate page-view information such as the page visited, timestamp, referrer, general location, device type, browser and operating system. Query strings and URL fragments are removed before transmission to reduce the risk that form or campaign parameters are included.

Vercel states that Web Analytics does not use third-party cookies, does not retain a visitor identifier beyond 24 hours and is designed to provide anonymous, aggregated statistics. We nevertheless treat loading the analytics service as optional and rely on your consent. Rejecting analytics does not affect access to the Site or any application route.

Learn more in Vercel’s Web Analytics privacy documentation. You can withdraw consent at any time through “Cookie settings” in the footer.

We disclose personal information only where reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy:

• AEYF and AETC personnel: authorised programme, partnerships, speaker, events, operations and safeguarding teams.
• Selection and delivery partners: authorised reviewers, programme partners, advisers or event suppliers who need information for evaluation or delivery and are subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations.
• Technology providers: Twilio SendGrid for routing submission emails and acknowledgements; Vercel for hosting and, only after consent, Web Analytics; and infrastructure or security providers needed to operate the Site.
• Professional advisers and authorities: auditors, lawyers, insurers, regulators, courts, law-enforcement bodies or public authorities where disclosure is legally required or necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal rights.
• Organisational changes: a successor or reorganised entity, subject to appropriate confidentiality and continued protection of the information.

We do not publish application materials or share them with prospective investors, media or unrelated sponsors without a separate lawful basis and appropriate notice.

AEYF is based in Ghana and works with participants and service providers across multiple countries. Information may therefore be processed outside your country, including in Ghana, the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Where required, we use recognised safeguards for restricted transfers, such as adequacy decisions, contractual protections based on approved standard contractual clauses, provider data-protection terms and proportionate security measures. Twilio’s published terms state that SendGrid transfers may use EU Standard Contractual Clauses. You may contact us for information about the safeguard relevant to your data.

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose collected, taking account of the programme cycle, the status of a submission, legal limitation periods, safeguarding, dispute resolution and record-keeping obligations. Our working retention framework is:

• general enquiries: normally up to 24 months after the last substantive contact;
• unsuccessful or withdrawn applications: normally up to 24 months after the relevant programme cycle closes, unless a shorter period is requested and no overriding need applies;
• selected participant, speaker and partner records: for the programme relationship and normally up to 6 years afterwards where needed for contractual, financial, safeguarding or dispute records;
• accessibility details: deleted or de-identified as soon as participation support and any related safeguarding need have ended, unless law requires longer retention;
• consent preferences stored on your device: up to 180 days, after which the Site asks again; and
• security and rate-limit records: retained for a short operational period unless an incident requires investigation.

When retention ends, information is securely deleted, de-identified or aggregated. Backup copies may persist for a limited period before being overwritten.

We use proportionate technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information, including server-side validation, origin checks, request-rate controls, restricted access, credential separation, encrypted transport and reputable service providers. Access should be limited to people who need the information for an authorised purpose.

No internet service is completely secure. If a personal-data breach creates a risk to individuals, we will investigate, mitigate harm and notify the appropriate authority and affected people where required by law.

Depending on where you live and which law applies, you may have the right to:

• be informed about processing and obtain access to your personal information;
• correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
• request deletion or restriction of processing in qualifying circumstances;
• object to processing based on legitimate interests or to direct marketing;
• receive information you provided in a portable format where applicable;
• withdraw consent at any time;
• not be subject to qualifying solely automated decisions; and
• complain to a competent data-protection authority.

Send a request to info@aetconference.com. We aim to respond within one month where the GDPR applies, subject to lawful extensions for complex requests. Rights are not absolute; if an exception applies, we will explain our decision.

We encourage you to contact us first so we can investigate and address a concern. You may also complain to the Data Protection Commission of Ghana. If the GDPR applies to your circumstances, you may complain to the supervisory authority in the EEA country where you live, work or believe an infringement occurred.

The general Site may be read by people of different ages, but application routes are intended for people who meet the stated programme criteria and are ordinarily at least 18. We do not knowingly use the Site to collect personal information from a child who cannot lawfully provide it. If you believe a child has submitted information without appropriate authorisation, contact us so it can be reviewed and deleted where required.