1. Introduction
Pan Africa Football ("we," "us," or "our") operates the website panafricafootball.com (the "Service"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information when you visit our website, create an account, subscribe to our premium content, or otherwise interact with our Service.
By using the Service, you consent to the data practices described in this policy. If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not access or use the Service.
2. Information We Collect
We collect several types of information to provide and improve our Service:
Account Information
When you create an account, we collect your full name, email address, and a hashed version of your password. You may also provide optional profile information, including your preferred language (English or French) and your preferred African football regions of interest.
Payment Information
Premium subscription payments are processed securely by Wix Payments. We do not store your credit card number, CVV, or full card details on our servers. Wix Payments processes and retains your payment information in accordance with PCI-DSS standards. We receive only a tokenized reference, your billing name, and the last four digits of your card for record-keeping.
Usage Data
We automatically collect information about how you interact with the Service, including pages visited, articles read, time spent on each page, search queries, links clicked, and content shared. This helps us understand what content resonates with our audience and improve our editorial output.
Cookies and Tracking Technologies
We use cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies to collect information about your browsing activity. For detailed information on how we use cookies, see Section 4 of this policy.
Device and Browser Information
We collect technical information about the device and browser you use to access the Service, including your IP address, browser type and version, operating system, screen resolution, device type (mobile, tablet, or desktop), and referring URL.
Communication Preferences
We record your preferred language setting, region interests, newsletter subscription status, and email notification preferences. These allow us to personalize content delivery and respect your communication choices.
3. How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect for the following purposes:
- To provide and maintain the Service — delivering articles, match data, scouting reports, and other content across our platform.
- To manage your account and subscription — authenticating your login, managing your premium access, and maintaining your profile preferences.
- To send newsletters and content updates — delivering editorial newsletters, breaking news alerts, and match-day notifications that you have opted into.
- To personalize content — tailoring your feed based on your selected regions, preferred language, reading history, and expressed interests.
- To process premium subscription payments — facilitating monthly billing, handling subscription changes, and processing cancellations through our payment provider.
- To improve our website and content — analyzing aggregate usage patterns to inform editorial decisions, improve site performance, and develop new features.
- To communicate about account changes or security issues — notifying you of password changes, suspicious login attempts, subscription status changes, and material updates to our terms or policies.
- To enforce our Terms of Service — detecting and preventing fraud, abuse, or violations of our terms.
We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We do not use your data to build advertising profiles for resale.
4. Cookies and Tracking
We use three categories of cookies on our website:
Essential Cookies
These cookies are necessary for the Service to function properly. They handle login session management, authentication tokens, language preference persistence, and security protections such as CSRF tokens. You cannot opt out of essential cookies without impairing core site functionality.
Analytics Cookies
We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors navigate and interact with our website. These cookies collect information about page views, session duration, bounce rate, geographic location (country/region level), and traffic sources. Google Analytics data is aggregated and does not personally identify you. Google processes this data under its own privacy policy. You can opt out of Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.
Advertising Cookies
We display advertisements from sponsors and advertising partners on our free-tier content. Advertising cookies enable relevant ad placements and help our partners measure ad performance. Premium subscribers with an ad-free experience will not receive advertising cookies related to ad placements.
Managing Your Cookie Preferences
Most web browsers allow you to manage cookie settings. You can typically configure your browser to refuse all cookies, accept only certain cookies, or notify you when a cookie is set. Please note that disabling certain cookies may limit your ability to use some features of the Service. Refer to your browser's help documentation for instructions on managing cookie preferences.
5. Third-Party Services
We use the following third-party services to operate our platform. Each service processes data under its own privacy policy, and we encourage you to review them:
- Wix Payments — Handles payment processing for premium subscriptions and one-off article purchases. Wix Payments receives your payment details directly and stores them securely. Wix Privacy Policy.
- Google Analytics — Provides website analytics and audience insights. Collects anonymized browsing behavior data. Google Privacy Policy.
- Wix — Provides content management and hosting infrastructure for portions of our platform. Wix Privacy Policy.
- ConvertKit / Mailchimp — Powers our email newsletter delivery. These services store your email address and track open rates and click-through rates for newsletters you receive. ConvertKit Privacy Policy / Mailchimp Privacy Policy.
- YouTube — We embed YouTube video content on our pages. YouTube may set cookies and collect data when you interact with embedded videos. YouTube/Google Privacy Policy.
- Social Media Platforms — We offer sharing features for platforms such as X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. When you use these sharing buttons, the respective platform may collect data about your interaction. Please review the privacy policy of each platform you use.
6. Data Retention
We retain your personal data according to the following guidelines:
- Account data — Retained for as long as your account remains active. If you delete your account, we will remove your personal data within 30 days, except where retention is required by law.
- Payment records — Transaction records and billing history are retained for a minimum of 7 years to comply with applicable tax and financial reporting laws.
- Analytics data — Aggregated and anonymized analytics data is retained for up to 26 months. After this period, the data is automatically deleted from Google Analytics.
- Email communication records — Newsletter subscription data is retained until you unsubscribe. Transactional emails (e.g., password resets, subscription confirmations) are retained for 12 months.
- Server logs — Access logs containing IP addresses and request data are retained for 90 days for security and debugging purposes.
You may request deletion of your personal data at any time by contacting us at the email address listed in Section 12.
7. Your Rights
Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the following rights regarding 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 any inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
- Right to erasure — You may request that we delete your personal data, subject to legal retention requirements.
- Right to opt out of marketing — You may unsubscribe from marketing communications at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any newsletter or by updating your account preferences.
- Right to data portability — You may request an export of your personal data in a commonly used, machine-readable format.
- Right to withdraw consent — Where we rely on your consent to process data, you may withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at panafricafootball@gmail.com. We will respond to your request within 30 days. We may ask you to verify your identity before processing your request.
8. Data Security
We take the security of your personal data seriously and implement reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect it, including:
- SSL/TLS encryption — All data transmitted between your browser and our servers is encrypted using industry-standard SSL/TLS protocols.
- Secure payment processing — All payment transactions are handled by Wix Payments, which is PCI-DSS Level 1 compliant, the highest level of certification in the payment industry.
- Password hashing — User passwords are stored using strong one-way hashing algorithms. We never store passwords in plain text.
- Regular security audits — We conduct periodic reviews of our security practices and infrastructure to identify and address potential vulnerabilities.
- Access controls — Access to personal data is restricted to authorized personnel who require it for legitimate business purposes.
While we strive to protect your personal information, no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security, but we take all reasonable measures to minimize risk.
9. Children's Privacy
The Service is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect, solicit, or maintain personal information from anyone under 13 years of age. If we become aware that we have collected personal data from a child under 13, we will take prompt steps to delete that information from our servers.
If you are a parent or guardian and believe that your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at panafricafootball@gmail.com so we can take appropriate action.
10. International Data Transfers
Pan Africa Football operates across the African continent and serves an international audience. Your personal data may be transferred to and processed in countries other than the country in which you reside. These countries may have data protection laws that differ from the laws of your country.
When we transfer your data internationally, we ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your information, including standard contractual clauses, data processing agreements with our service providers, and compliance with applicable data protection frameworks.
By using the Service, you acknowledge that your data may be processed in multiple jurisdictions, including countries in Africa, the European Economic Area, and the United States, where our third-party service providers may operate.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make material changes to this policy, we will:
- Update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.
- Notify registered users of material changes via email at least 14 days before the changes take effect.
- Display a prominent notice on our website when significant changes are made.
Your continued use of the Service after any changes to this Privacy Policy constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy. We encourage you to review this page periodically.
12. Contact Us
If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:
- All inquiries (including data protection requests): panafricafootball@gmail.com
- Contact page: panafricafootball.com/contact
We aim to respond to all privacy-related inquiries within 30 days of receipt.