Effective Date: July 2026
The African Urban Observatory (“AUO,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) respects the privacy of individuals who visit, access, interact with, or provide information through its website and analytical platform.
This Privacy Policy explains how we may collect, use, store, disclose, and protect personal information.
The African Urban Observatory is powered by Veridian Urban Systems, a data analytics platform of Veridian Intelligence Group.
This Policy applies to the AUO website, African Urban Index, institutional portals, dashboards, assessments, communications, reports, and associated digital services.
AUO primarily analyzes information concerning cities and urban systems.
This can include:
Most of this information concerns cities, institutions, policies, infrastructure, and public conditions rather than private individuals.
Personal information may nevertheless arise where urban or institutional data relates to identifiable persons.
This Policy applies when you:
A separate Data Processing Agreement or institutional contract may apply where AUO processes information on behalf of another organization.
We may collect information you choose to provide, including:
When you use the Service, certain technical information may be collected automatically.
This may include:
AUO may obtain information from legitimate third-party sources, including:
Where such information contains personal data, AUO seeks to process only information reasonably relevant to its analytical purpose.
AUO is designed principally to analyze urban systems rather than sensitive personal characteristics.
AUO does not ordinarily seek to collect:
Where sensitive personal information is required for a specific authorized project, additional legal, contractual, security, and data-protection measures may apply.
AUO may use personal information to:
Where applicable data-protection law requires a legal basis, AUO may rely upon:
Contract
Where processing is necessary to provide a service requested by a user, client, partner, or institution.
Legitimate Interests
Where processing is reasonably necessary for purposes such as:
Consent
Where consent is required, including for certain:
Consent may be withdrawn where applicable.
Legal Obligation
Where processing is necessary to comply with applicable law, regulation, judicial process, or other legally binding requirement.
Other Lawful Bases
Where applicable law permits processing of public information, research data, institutional information, or other information under an additional lawful basis.
AUO is supported by Veridian Urban Systems and may use artificial intelligence and automated technologies.
Personal information may therefore be processed by automated systems where reasonably necessary to:
AUO primarily uses these systems for urban and institutional analysis.
AUO does not ordinarily use automated processing to make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant consequences for individuals without appropriate safeguards.
Where appropriate, AI-generated or automated outputs may be subject to human evaluation.
Human review may include:
authorized quality-control personnel.
AUO seeks to collect and process information reasonably necessary for a defined purpose.
Where personal identifiers are unnecessary for urban analysis, AUO may use:
other techniques that reduce exposure of personal information.
AUO may share personal information with limited categories of recipients where necessary.
These may include:
Technology and infrastructure providers
For hosting, storage, cybersecurity, authentication, and technical operations.
Analytics providers
For understanding website performance and platform usage.
Communications providers
For delivering legitimate account, institutional, or authorized communications.
Payment providers
Where subscriptions or paid services are offered.
Professional advisers
Including legal counsel, auditors, accountants, and security advisers.
Institutional clients or partners
Where information is processed as part of an authorized assessment or engagement.Authorities
Where disclosure is required by applicable law or valid legal process.
AUO does not sell personal information for monetary consideration.
AUO does not provide personal information to third parties for their own independent commercial marketing merely because an individual uses the AUO platform.
Third-party providers may process information on AUO’s behalf.
Where appropriate, such providers are expected to:
delete or return information when no longer required.
AUO has a pan-African and international orientation.
Information may therefore be processed in jurisdictions other than the country where it originated.
Where applicable law requires safeguards for international transfers, AUO may use:
other lawful methods.
AUO seeks to apply technical, administrative, and organizational safeguards appropriate to the nature of the information processed.
Measures may include:
No digital system can provide an absolute guarantee of security.
Where AUO becomes aware of a personal-data breach, it will assess the nature and seriousness of the incident.
Where legally required, AUO will notify affected persons, institutional clients, or relevant authorities within applicable statutory requirements.
AUO retains personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for legitimate purposes.
Factors considered may include:
Information may subsequently be:
Urban analysis frequently requires longitudinal information.
AUO may retain de-identified, aggregated, statistical, methodological, or historical information for longer periods where it no longer identifies an individual or where continued retention is otherwise lawful.
Depending upon applicable law, individuals may have rights to:
Not every right applies in every jurisdiction or circumstance.
Privacy requests should be sent to:
info@africanurbanobservatory.net
Please describe the request sufficiently for us to identify the relevant information.
AUO may request reasonable verification of identity before providing or modifying personal information.
Where applicable, California residents may have rights under relevant California privacy legislation, including rights relating to:
AUO does not sell personal information for monetary consideration.
Where applicable law requires recognition of a valid privacy preference signal, AUO will address such signals in accordance with applicable requirements.
Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, eligible individuals may have rights of:
Requests will be handled within applicable legal timeframes.
AUO operates with a continental focus and recognizes that African jurisdictions increasingly maintain national data-protection frameworks.
Where the personal information of individuals in an African jurisdiction is subject to applicable national privacy or data-protection legislation, AUO seeks to process that information consistently with applicable legal requirements.
AUO is designed principally for:
AUO does not knowingly solicit personal information directly from children in circumstances where parental or lawful authorization is required.
Where we learn that information has been collected contrary to applicable children’s privacy requirements, we will take appropriate steps.
A city, government, institution, or client may provide information for an assessment or other engagement.
Depending on the circumstances, that institution may determine why and how personal information is processed.
Where AUO, Veridian Urban Systems, or Veridian Intelligence Group processes personal data solely on instructions from such an institution, the relevant parties may operate under a separate Data Processing Agreement.
Urban governance research may legitimately involve information concerning public officials or institutional representatives.
AUO may process publicly available professional information where relevant to legitimate urban analysis.
AUO does not treat the public status of an individual as permission to collect unrelated private information.
AUO may link to third-party websites.
Their privacy practices are governed by their own policies.
AUO is not responsible for privacy practices of websites it does not control.
We may revise this Policy as:
The revised effective date will appear at the beginning of this Policy.
Where required, material changes may also be communicated directly.
Questions, privacy requests, or concerns should be sent to:African Urban Observatory
Email: info@africanurbanobservatory.net