Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

Voter Naija (voternaija.com) is an independent, community-run platform that allows Nigerian citizens to share their voting intentions for federal and state elections. We are not affiliated with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), any government body, or any political party.

2. Information We Collect

2a. Information you provide

• Your voting intention (party choice and election type) when you submit a vote.
• Your state of residence — required for all five races to enable regional breakdowns.
• An optional reason or comment you choose to share with the community.
• Whether you wish your comment to be attributed as anonymous.

2b. Information collected automatically

• Your IP address and browser user-agent string — used solely to prevent duplicate votes (one vote per race per device). This combination is hashed with SHA-256 and never stored in plain text.
• Standard server access logs (timestamp, HTTP method, path, response code) retained for up to 30 days for security and debugging.

2c. Local storage (your device only)

We store your vote choices and saved ("favourited") community voices in your browser's localStorage. This data never leaves your device unless you explicitly share it.

3. How We Use Your Information

• To display aggregated, anonymised vote tallies on the platform.
• To show community comments (attributed only as "Community member" or "Anonymous").
• To prevent duplicate submissions per race per device.
• To send internal notifications (e.g. lead-change alerts) to platform administrators — never to third parties.
• To maintain platform security and investigate abuse.

We do not sell, rent, or share your personal data with any third party for marketing or commercial purposes.

4. Data Retention

• Vote tallies — retained indefinitely as aggregate counts; no individual vote is stored with identifying information beyond the hashed fingerprint.
• Hashed fingerprints — retained for the duration of the election cycle to enforce the one-vote-per-race rule.
• Community comments — retained until the platform removes them or the cap of 500 entries is reached (oldest entries are removed first).
• Server logs — deleted after 30 days.

5. Cookies & Tracking

Voter Naija uses a single httpOnly session cookie for the admin dashboard only. We do not use advertising cookies, third-party tracking pixels, or analytics services that identify individual users. A cookie-consent banner is shown on first visit for transparency.

6. Sponsored Content & Third-Party Advertising

Voter Naija displays sponsored content cards from carefully selected community-aligned partners. As of the date of this policy, our active sponsor is MyEventsSpace (myeventsspace.com), a Nigerian community events platform.

What sponsored content does

• Sponsored cards are clearly labelled "Sponsored" and identify the advertiser by name so they are never mistaken for editorial content.
• Clicking a sponsored link opens the advertiser's website in a new tab. All outbound sponsored links carry the rel="sponsored noopener noreferrer" attribute.
• Sponsored cards are dismissible — clicking the ✕ button removes the card for the remainder of your browser session via sessionStorage. No personal data is transmitted to the advertiser when you dismiss an ad.

What sponsored content does NOT do

• Sponsored cards do not set cookies, tracking pixels, or any persistent identifier on your device.
• We do not share your voting intention, state, IP address, or any other personal data with our sponsors.
• We do not receive any data from sponsors about your behaviour on their websites after you click through.
• Sponsors have no influence over editorial content, vote tallies, or community voices displayed on Voter Naija.

Advertiser selection criteria

We only accept sponsors whose mission is aligned with civic empowerment, community awareness, or voter education. Sponsors are vetted to ensure they do not represent political parties, government bodies, or organisations that could compromise the platform's neutrality.

If you have concerns about a sponsored partner, contact us at [email protected].

7. Your Rights

Under applicable Nigerian data protection law (NDPR) and general best practice, you have the right to:

• Access information we hold about you.
• Request deletion of your comment or vote record (where technically feasible given the anonymised aggregate structure).
• Object to processing of your data.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at [email protected].

8. Security

We use HMAC-SHA256 token signing, rate limiting, CSRF protection, and security headers to protect the platform. However, no internet transmission is 100% secure. We encourage you not to share sensitive personal information beyond what is needed to express your voting intention.

9. Children

Voter Naija is intended for users aged 18 and over (the minimum voting age in Nigeria). We do not knowingly collect data from persons under 18.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page will reflect any changes. Continued use of the platform after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

11. Contact

Questions about this policy? Email us at [email protected].