Privacy Policy

1. What we collect

When you create an account: your username, email address and password (stored scrambled, so we can't read it). If you sign in with a social account such as Google, Facebook or X, we receive your name, email, profile picture and the details that service chooses to share, which can include your gender, profile link and language setting.

When you fill in your profile: anything you choose to add, such as your full name, a short bio, your website, your phone number and the languages you speak.

When you play Mizizi: your date of birth, nationality and time zone, which we use to show the history that falls in your lifetime.

When you contribute: definitions, example sentences, translations, festival details, stories and photos, mchongoano lines, tongue twisters, hero lists, votes, flags and reports. We keep a record of who added what and when.

Recordings of your voice: when you record a pronunciation, a tongue twister attempt or a mchongoano line, we store the audio. Section 2 covers recordings in detail.

When you save or play: the festivals, vessels and other items you save, your game progress and scores, and your badges and points.

When you apply to translate for us: your experience, education, certifications, location, availability, rates, CV and work samples.

When you hire us for translation: your name, email, phone number, country, the languages and instructions for the job, and any file you send us. Payments are handled by a secure payment provider; we see whether a payment worked, never your full card details.

When you sign up for emails: your email address and what you asked to hear about, such as a language, a word, Today in History or our newsletter.

When you contact us: your name, email and message.

When you use the site: what you search for, which pages you open, your IP address, your approximate location (country), your browser and device type, the page that sent you to us, and identifiers stored in cookies so we can tell visits apart. Visitors who aren't signed in get a temporary ID so that games can remember their progress. Our Cookie Policy explains more.

2. Recordings of your voice

Your voice is personal information, and we treat it that way.

• Pronunciations are checked by our team before they appear on a word's page. Once approved, anyone can play them, and your username is shown next to them.
• Tongue twister attempts are published at a shareable link as soon as you save them, so you can send them to friends. Your username is shown with them. Our team can hide an attempt at any time.
• Mchongoano recordings are checked before they're shown, and show your name unless you choose to stay anonymous.

While a recording is waiting to be checked, only you and our team can play it. If we decline a recording, it comes off the site.

We use recordings to teach languages on Lughayangu. We will never sell your recordings on their own to anyone.

3. What is public

Lughayangu is a shared encyclopaedia, so most of what you contribute is public and carries your name. Your public profile at lughayangu.com/author/your-username shows your username, your full name if you added one, your bio, when you joined, the languages you speak, your hero list, your badges, and counts of what you've contributed. It never shows your email, phone number or website.

You can mark any of your definitions as anonymous, and it will no longer show your name or appear on your profile. Notes on your hero picks are private unless you choose to share them.

4. How we use your information, and why

• To run your account and the features you use, because you asked us to.
• To show your contributions and give you credit for them.
• To review contributions so Lughayangu stays accurate and welcoming.
• To deliver translation jobs you've paid for, and keep the records the law requires.
• To send you the emails you've signed up for, with your consent, plus messages about your account and contributions (for example, when your definition goes live).
• To understand which parts of the site help people, and improve them.
• To keep Lughayangu and its users safe: stop spam, bots, scraping and abuse, and investigate problems.
• To meet our legal duties and protect our rights.

Depending on where you live, the law may ask us to name our reason for each use. Ours are: your consent, the agreement between us (our terms), our legitimate interest in running and improving an encyclopaedia of African languages and history, and our legal duties.

We may also use information in a combined or de-identified form that can't identify you, for example to count how many people search for a word. We may keep using that kind of information after you update or delete your own.

5. Who we share it with

We never sell your personal information or share it with advertisers. We share it only with service providers who help us run Lughayangu, and only what each one needs to do its job:

• hosting, storage and security providers;
• email delivery and newsletter services;
• payment providers, for translation orders;
• analytics services, which help us understand how the site is used (see our Cookie Policy);
• spam and bot protection;
• error monitoring;
• the tools our team uses to communicate and respond to you.

These providers may only use your information to provide their service to us. Some pages also include content from other services, such as videos and maps, which may collect information when you use them under their own privacy policies.

We may also share information when the law requires it, to protect someone's safety, to enforce our terms, or to deal with fraud, security problems or abuse. If Lughayangu is ever merged into or sold to another organisation, your information would move with it, and we would tell you first.

6. Where your information is stored

Because Lughayangu is used around the world and relies on international service providers, your information may be stored and processed in Kenya and in other countries, including in Europe and the United States. Whenever it moves across borders, we take steps to make sure it stays protected to the standard Kenyan law requires and that the law where you live expects.

7. How long we keep it

• Your account: until you ask us to delete it.
• Your contributions: they stay on Lughayangu after you leave, with your name removed (see section 9).
• Search and visit logs: at least 12 months.
• Payment records: at least as long as tax law requires.
• Translation job files: as long as we need them to finish the job and handle any follow-up questions. Ask us and we'll delete them sooner.
• Translator applications: while we review them and for as long as you work with us. Ask us and we'll delete them.
• Backups: deleted information can stay in our backups for a limited time before it is overwritten.

When you change information, we may keep a copy of the earlier version for our records. If an email to you bounces permanently, we keep a note of the address so we never send to it again.

8. Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us to:

• give you a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
• correct anything that's wrong;
• delete your account and personal information;
• stop or limit how we use your information, such as for emails;
• withdraw consent you've given us, at any time;
• remove your name from things you've contributed.

Depending on where you live, you may have other rights too, such as receiving your information in a portable format. We'll honour the rights your local law gives you.

Write to [email protected] from the email address on your account. We'll reply within 2 working days and finish within 14 days. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, you can complain to Kenya's Office of the Data Protection Commissioner at odpc.go.ke, or to the data protection authority where you live.

You can unsubscribe from any newsletter at any time using the link at the bottom of it, or ask us to stop any other emails.

9. Deleting your account

Email [email protected] from the address on your account and ask us to delete it. We will:

• delete your account, profile, email address, password, sign-in links, email settings and activity history;
• keep the definitions, stories and other entries you contributed as part of Lughayangu, with your name removed, so learners can keep using them;
• remove recordings of your voice if you ask us to;
• keep records the law requires us to keep, such as payment records;
• email you when it's done.

10. Keeping it safe

We use technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections, scrambled passwords, private storage for documents, limited team access and regular backups. No system is perfectly secure, and we can't guarantee that information will never be accessed, changed or lost by accident or by someone breaking the rules. If a breach puts your information at risk, we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

You can help by choosing a strong password you don't use anywhere else, keeping it private, and signing out on shared devices. If you sign in through another service, its security settings also protect your account.

11. Children

You need to be at least 13 to create an account. If you're under 18, you need permission from a parent or guardian. Translation work is for adults (18 and older). We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn that we have, we delete it straight away; if you believe this has happened, please tell us.

12. Other websites and services

Lughayangu links to other websites and lets you sign in with other services. Their own privacy policies apply to what they collect, and we aren't responsible for their practices.

13. Changes to this policy

We update this policy when Lughayangu or the law changes. When we make a meaningful change, we'll update the date at the top and put a notice on the site. For big changes, we'll also email account holders.

14. Contact us

LUGHA YANGU LIMITED
Email: [email protected]
Post: P.O. Box 7944-40100, Kisumu, Kenya

Copyright © 2026 LUGHA YANGU LIMITED