Privacy Policy

Africa’s Very Own Magazine (“AVO”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is a digital publication owned and operated by Digital Thread Proprietary Limited. AVO is a brand and product of that company, not a separate company. This policy explains what personal information AVO collects through africasveryown.com and its newsletter, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the rights you have.

Who is responsible for your information

Digital Thread Proprietary Limited is responsible for the personal information described in this policy (in data protection terms, the controller or responsible party).

• Company registration number: to be added
• Registered address: to be added
• Privacy questions and requests: to be added

We are based in Botswana and handle personal information in line with Botswana’s Data Protection Act, 2024. Where we deal with readers, subscribers or contributors in South Africa, we also follow the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).

The short version

• You can read AVO without giving us any personal information.
• We collect personal details only when you give them to us: subscribing to the newsletter, sending a message, pitching a story, or working with us as a contributor or member of staff.
• Analytics that use cookies (Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity) run only if you allow them. Cloudflare Web Analytics counts visits without cookies.
• We do not sell personal information and do not use it for advertising.
• You can ask to see, correct or delete your information at any time.

What we collect and why

When you read the website

Cloudflare, which hosts and protects the website, processes the technical information every website receives: your IP address, the pages you request, your browser and device type, and the time of your visit. This is needed to deliver pages and to protect the site from attacks and abuse.

To stop abuse of our forms and sign-in, we keep short-lived rate-limit records. These hold a one-way hash of your IP address or email address, never the address itself, and are deleted after two days. We also keep daily counts of blocked attempts, which contain no personal information.

When you use a form, Cloudflare Turnstile checks that a person, not an automated script, is sending it. Cloudflare processes technical information about your browser and connection to do this.

If you choose light or dark display, or make a cookie choice, your browser remembers it. That stays on your device and is not sent to us. The Cookie Policy lists every cookie and similar technology the website uses.

Analytics

Cloudflare Web Analytics tells us how many people visit, which pages are opened, which sites send readers to us and how quickly pages load. It receives the address of the page, the referring page, your browser type and loading times. It sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device and does not identify individual readers. It is always on, except on newsletter confirmation and unsubscribe pages.

Only if you allow analytics in Cookie settings, we also use:

• Google Analytics 4, which measures visits, the pages you view, how you arrived, and information about your device, browser and approximate location, using cookies that recognise your browser on later visits. We send page addresses without anything after a question mark, and we have switched off Google signals and advertising features.
• Microsoft Clarity, which records how pages are used, such as clicks, scrolling and mouse movement, and produces heatmaps and session recordings. What you type into forms is hidden from these recordings.

We use this to understand which stories are read and to improve the website. We do not combine it with your newsletter subscription or anything you send us, and we do not use it to identify you. You can withdraw your consent at any time in Cookie settings; information already collected stays with Google or Microsoft for the period set in their services.

When you subscribe to the newsletter

We collect your email address, which sign-up form you used, the exact consent wording you saw and when you agreed, and when you confirmed. We send a confirmation email first, and you are subscribed only after you confirm. We then keep a record of your subscription status and its history (confirmed, unsubscribed, bounced emails and complaints), and which editions were sent to you and whether they were delivered.

We use this to send you the newsletter you asked for, to prove you asked for it, and to stop sending to you when you unsubscribe or when your address stops working. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe link. Our newsletter emails contain no tracking pixels and their links are not tracked.

When you contact us

The Contact form collects your name, your email address, the topic you choose and your message. We use these only to read and answer your message. The message is passed to the right member of the AVO team by email, and staff may add internal notes while dealing with it.

When you pitch a story

The Write for AVO form collects your name, your email address, the section you are pitching for, the headline you propose, your pitch and up to three links to your previous work. We use these to consider your pitch, reply to you and, if we commission you, to work with you. Editors may add internal notes while considering it.

Contributors and authors

When you write for AVO, we publish your name with your work and may publish an author page with a short biography, a photo and links you choose to share. We also keep your email address so editors can contact you; it is never shown on the website. You can ask us to update your author page at any time.

People in our stories

AVO is a magazine. Our stories, interviews and photographs can include information about the people they cover. We handle this as journalism, in the public interest and with care for accuracy. If you think something we have published about you is wrong, contact our editors through the Contact page and we will look at it.

AVO staff

For people who work on AVO in the studio, we keep a name, email address, password (stored only in a securely hashed form), role and permissions, sign-in sessions, and a log of actions taken in the studio, such as publishing a story or changing a setting. We use this to run the magazine securely and to know who changed what.

Our legal grounds

• Consent: the newsletter, optional analytics cookies and embedded media. You can withdraw consent at any time, and doing so does not affect what happened before.
• Your request: answering your messages and considering your pitches.
• Our legitimate interests, balanced against yours: keeping the website secure and free of abuse, counting visits without cookies, running the studio, and publishing journalism.
• Agreements with you: working with commissioned contributors.
• Legal obligations: keeping records the law requires and responding to lawful requests from authorities.

Who we share it with

We do not sell personal information. We share it only with service providers who run parts of AVO for us, and only what each one needs:

• Cloudflare: hosting, our database and file storage, security, the Turnstile check and Cloudflare Web Analytics.
• Zoho Corporation (ZeptoMail): sending account emails, newsletter confirmation emails and form notifications to the AVO team.
• Postmark (ActiveCampaign): sending the newsletter, when newsletter sending is switched on.
• Google: Google Analytics, only if you allow analytics.
• Microsoft: Microsoft Clarity, only if you allow analytics.

If you load an embedded player from YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud or Audiomack, that company receives information about your visit directly and handles it under its own privacy policy. The Cookie Policy links to each one.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, to protect people’s safety, or to defend legal claims. If the ownership of AVO changes, its information would pass to the new owner, who would have to respect this policy.

Where your information is processed

Our service providers operate internationally. Our database is hosted by Cloudflare in Western Europe, Cloudflare delivers the website from data centres around the world, and Google, Microsoft, Zoho and Postmark may process information in the United States and other countries. This means your information is processed outside Botswana and South Africa. We use providers that publish data protection terms for their customers, and we send each one only what its service needs.

How long we keep it

• Newsletter sign-ups that are never confirmed: deleted after 30 days.
• Newsletter subscribers: for as long as you are subscribed. If you unsubscribe or your address stops working, we keep your address and its status so that we never email you again by mistake, unless you ask us to erase it.
• Records of which editions were sent to you: 12 months, after which only the edition’s overall totals remain.
• Delivery reports from our email providers and our log of emails sent: 90 days.
• Contact messages and pitches: while we deal with them; once closed and archived, they are deleted 24 months later.
• Rate-limit records: two days. Daily counts of blocked attempts (no personal information): 90 days.
• Staff sign-in sessions: 30 days at most.
• Contributor and author details: for as long as their work is published on AVO, or until they ask us to remove them where we are able to.
• Analytics: Google, Microsoft and Cloudflare keep analytics data for the periods set in their services.

How we protect it

The website is served only over encrypted connections. Staff passwords are stored only as secure hashes, sign-ins are rate-limited and checked by Turnstile, and each member of staff sees only what their role allows. Subscriber and form data is visible only to staff whose role needs it, and changes made in the studio are logged. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and will act quickly if something goes wrong, including telling you and the authorities where the law requires.

Your rights

Under Botswana’s Data Protection Act, 2024 and, where it applies, South Africa’s POPIA, you can ask us:

• whether we hold personal information about you, and for a copy of it;
• to correct information that is wrong or incomplete;
• to delete information we no longer have a good reason to keep;
• to stop or limit using it, or object to how we use it, including for direct marketing;
• to withdraw consent you have given, at any time.

You can unsubscribe from the newsletter yourself with the link in any edition, and change your cookie choices yourself with Cookie settings. For anything else, email to be added. We may need to confirm your identity before acting on a request. We will reply as soon as we can and within the time the law allows. If we cannot do what you ask, we will explain why.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the data protection authority: in Botswana, the Information and Data Protection Commission; in South Africa, the Information Regulator.

Children

AVO is a general-interest magazine for adult readers. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has given us their details, contact us and we will delete them.

Changes to this policy

We will update this policy when AVO changes how it handles personal information, and change the date below. If a change affects choices you have made, we will ask you again.

Last updated: 8 October 2026.