Privacy Policy

Change Liberia (“we”, “our”, or “us”) operates changelib.org, a civic petition platform dedicated to empowering Liberians to raise issues, gather trusted community support, and drive real change. This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use and protect it, and the rights you have over your information.

By using Change Liberia you agree to this policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the platform.

1. Information We Collect

a) Information you provide directly

• Account registration: full name, email address, and password (stored as a secure hash).
• Profile details: county of residence, optional biography, and profile photo.
• Petitions you create: title, description, category, target goal, and any supporting documents you upload.
• Signatures: your name (or anonymous preference) and the date you signed.
• Donations: donation amount and payment method details processed securely by Stripe. We never store raw card numbers.
• Communications: messages you send to our support team or feedback forms.

b) Information collected automatically

• Log data: IP address, browser type, operating system, pages visited, and timestamps.
• Device information: device identifiers and screen resolution to improve responsiveness.
• Cookies and local storage: session tokens, theme preferences, and analytics identifiers (see Section 5).

c) Information from third parties

• Google OAuth: if you sign in with Google we receive your name, email, and profile photo from Google. We do not receive your Google password.

2. How We Use Your Information

• Create and manage your account and authenticate you securely.
• Display your name on petitions you create or sign (unless you choose “Anonymous”).
• Send email notifications about petitions you have signed, milestones reached, or responses from officials — you may unsubscribe at any time.
• Process donations and issue receipts via Stripe.
• Detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and spam.
• Moderate content to ensure petitions comply with our community guidelines and Liberian law.
• Analyse aggregate, anonymised trends to improve the platform (e.g., which counties are most active).
• Comply with legal obligations.

We will never sell your personal data to advertisers or third parties.

3. Legal Basis for Processing

We process your data on the following legal grounds:

• Contract performance: to provide the services you signed up for.
• Legitimate interests: to improve the platform, prevent abuse, and ensure security.
• Consent: for optional marketing emails (you may withdraw consent at any time).
• Legal obligation: where required by applicable law.

4. How We Share Your Information

We share personal information only in the following limited circumstances:

• Service providers: we use trusted third-party vendors (Stripe for payments, Railway for cloud hosting, Vercel for web delivery) who process data solely on our behalf under data processing agreements.
• Public petition data: petition titles, descriptions, signature counts, and signer names (unless anonymous) are publicly visible as that is the nature of a civic petition platform.
• Government officials: petitions addressed to specific government bodies may be delivered to those officials as a core feature of the platform. Your name will appear on delivered petitions unless you signed anonymously.
• Legal requirements: we may disclose information if required by Liberian law, court order, or to protect the safety of our users or the public.
• Business transfers: in the event of a merger or acquisition your data would transfer to the new entity, which would be bound by this policy.

5. Cookies

We use the following types of cookies:

You can disable cookies in your browser settings, although some features (such as staying logged in) will not work without essential cookies.

6. Data Retention

• Account data is retained for as long as your account is active.
• Petition and signature records are retained for the lifetime of the platform as they form part of the civic record.
• Payment records are retained for 7 years as required for financial compliance.
• Server logs are deleted after 90 days.
• If you delete your account, your name will be replaced with “Deleted User” on petitions you signed; petition content you created may remain for the public record.

7. Security

We implement industry-standard security measures including TLS encryption in transit, bcrypt password hashing, JWT-based authentication, and Stripe’s PCI-DSS-compliant payment infrastructure. Our servers are hosted on Railway with automated backups. Despite these measures, no internet service is completely secure — please use a strong, unique password and report any security concerns to privacy@changelib.org.

8. Children’s Privacy

Change Liberia is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us at privacy@changelib.org and we will delete it promptly.

9. Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Correct inaccurate data via your account settings or by contacting us.
• Delete your account and associated personal data (subject to retention obligations above).
• Object to processing for marketing purposes and withdraw consent at any time.
• Data portability: request an export of your data in a machine-readable format.

To exercise any of these rights, email us at privacy@changelib.org. We will respond within 30 days.

10. International Transfers

Change Liberia is operated from Liberia, but our infrastructure providers (Railway, Vercel) may store data on servers in the United States or Europe. By using the platform you consent to this transfer. We ensure all providers maintain appropriate data protection standards.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the “Last updated” date above and, for material changes, notify you by email or via a banner on the platform. Your continued use of Change Liberia after a policy update constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or your data, please contact: