Privacy notice

1. Who we are

SAFIC AgriIntel (“AgriIntel”, “the service”) is an agricultural intelligence service for Kenya. It is provided by Strathmore University, acting through the Strathmore Agri-Food Innovation Center (SAFIC)(“we”, “us”). Strathmore University is the data controller for the personal data described in this notice.

We process personal data in line with the Kenya Data Protection Act, 2019 and the Data Protection (General) Regulations, 2021. Where the EU or UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to you, we also respect the rights it gives you.

This notice covers the AgriIntel website and app, its public pages, and the emails we send about your account.

2. Personal data we collect

We do not ask for sensitive personal data (such as health, ethnicity, religion or biometric data). Please do not include personal details about yourself or others in your questions: AgriIntel does not need them to answer.

3. How we use it, and our legal basis

We only use personal data for the purposes below, each with a lawful basis under the Data Protection Act.

To tailor your Briefing, AgriIntel looks at the topics of your own recent questions (the last 60 days), such as crops, prices, fertilizer, rain or counties, to choose which indicators to show you first. This uses only your own chats, is worked out each time you open the page, is not stored as a profile and is not shared with anyone. It changes only which indicators you see first. Guests and members who have not asked questions see the standard Briefing; deleting your chats removes what it draws on. You can turn it off at any time with the “For you” switch on your Briefing or on the Your data page; while it is off, your questions are not read for this.

We do not sell or rent personal data, we do not use it for advertising, and we do not build marketing profiles. If we ever want to use your data for a new purpose, we will tell you first and, where the law requires, ask for your consent.

4. AI-generated answers

• Answers are produced by language models that we run on our own servers. Your questions are not sent to an outside AI provider, and we do not use them to train third-party models.
• When an answer needs recent information, the wording of your question (never your name, email or IP address) may be sent from our server to web search engines. See section 5.
• AgriIntel does not make decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects. Its answers are information for you to evaluate.
• Authorised members of our team may read questions and answers to investigate faults, check quality and respond to feedback. Access is limited to people who need it for these purposes.

5. Who we share it with

We share personal data only with the service providers we need to run AgriIntel, under contracts that require them to protect it and use it only on our instructions:

We may also disclose personal data:

• to people you choose to share with, when you create a shared link (anyone with the link can see that answer until you revoke it);
• within Strathmore University, to staff who support the service;
• to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, courts, law enforcement or other authorities where the law requires it;
• to protect the rights, property or safety of our users, the University or the public;
• to a successor organisation if the service is transferred, which will remain bound by this notice.

6. Transfers outside Kenya

Our servers are in the European Union (Sweden), and some providers listed in section 5 process data in other countries, including the United States. We transfer personal data outside Kenya only as the Data Protection Act allows: to countries with appropriate data protection safeguards, or under contractual safeguards such as the providers’ data processing terms and standard contractual clauses. You can ask us for details of these safeguards using the contact details in section 14, including our Data Protection Officer.

7. How long we keep it

We keep personal data only as long as we need it for the purposes in section 3, and never longer than 8 years after it was collected or, for an account, after you last used AgriIntel. We keep it for up to 8 years so that we can study how agricultural information is used across several farming seasons and policy cycles, and establish or defend legal claims. Wherever we can, we use aggregated or anonymised data instead. You can delete your own data at any time (section 9).

Deleted data may remain in backups for a short period until they are overwritten. We may keep information that has been anonymised so that it no longer identifies anyone.

8. How we protect it

We use technical and organisational measures appropriate to the risk, including:

• encryption of data in transit (HTTPS/TLS);
• passwords stored only as salted one-way hashes (Argon2 or bcrypt);
• role-based access, so staff see personal data only when their role needs it;
• network access controls, limits on sign-in attempts and monitoring for misuse;
• regular review of our security practices.

No system is perfectly secure. If a personal data breach puts your rights at risk, we will notify the Data Protection Commissioner within 72 hours of becoming aware of it, and tell you without undue delay, as the Data Protection Act requires. To report a security issue, email saficai@strathmore.edu.

9. Your rights

Under the Data Protection Act you have the right to:

• be informed about how your personal data is used (this notice);
• access the personal data we hold about you and get a copy;
• correct data that is inaccurate, out of date or incomplete;
• delete data that is false, misleading or no longer needed, or that we process unlawfully;
• object to processing based on our legitimate interests, including use of your questions to improve the service;
• restrict processing while a complaint or correction is resolved;
• data portability: receive the data you gave us in a common machine-readable format, or have it sent to another controller;
• withdraw consent at any time, for example to analytics cookies, without affecting earlier processing;
• not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing that significantly affects you.

You can do much of this yourself. On the Your data page (account menu) you can download a copy of all your data in a machine-readable file, and delete your account or guest session with everything in it. You can also delete conversations and revoke shared links in the app. For any other request, email saficai@strathmore.edu or Strathmore University’s Data Protection Officer at dpo@strathmore.edu, from the address on your account (or tell us how to verify your identity). We will respond free of charge within the time the Data Protection (General) Regulations, 2021 set, and in any case within 30 days. If a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive we may decline it, and we will explain why.

If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, please contact us first so we can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC), Kenya, at www.odpc.go.ke, or to the data protection authority where you live.

10. Cookies and browser storage

We keep browser storage to what the service needs, and use analytics cookies only if you agree.

Strictly necessary storage does not need consent; the service cannot work without it. Analytics cookies are set only after you choose “Accept analytics”. You can change your choice at any time: Cookie settings. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings.

11. Children

AgriIntel is intended for professionals and is not directed at anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

12. Other websites

Answers cite and link to sources published by others, such as government agencies and research institutions. Their websites have their own privacy policies, and we are not responsible for how they handle your data.

13. Changes to this notice

We review this notice at least once a year. When we change it we will post the new version here with a new effective date. If a change materially affects how we use your personal data, we will tell account holders by email or in the app before it takes effect and, where the law requires, ask for your consent.

14. Contact us

For questions about this notice or to exercise your rights, contact the AgriIntel team or Strathmore University’s Data Protection Officer: