Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Read to Impact, the literary community brand of Gemspread Limited ("the Company", "we", "us", "our"), collects, uses, stores, and protects the personal data you provide or generate when you visit and use this website (readtoimpact.org).

We have written this policy to be clear and straightforward. We reserve the right to update it at any time, and we will notify you by updating the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. We recommend checking this page periodically.

Gemspread Limited is a publishing and literary enterprise based in Nigeria. Registered address: 4, Ayodele Obisanya Crescent, Alagbaka GRA, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. 340223.

Read to Impact (RTI) is the literary community brand of Gemspread Limited. RTI connects and empowers booklovers across Africa and beyond through reading challenges, literary festivals, school outreaches, and community programmes. This Policy applies to all information collected through your use of this website.

You can browse the public areas of our website — including marketing pages, the impact report, events, and resources — without creating an account or submitting personal information. However, certain features (such as the RTI Lounge) require you to register an account.

We collect the following data:

We collect the data described above for the following purposes:

• To create and manage your account, authenticate your identity, and provide access to the RTI Lounge
• To verify that you meet the minimum age requirement (18 years) for using our platform, in compliance with applicable data protection laws
• To moderate access to gender-specific community spaces, ensuring that members are correctly matched to the communities they request to join
• To verify your identity when you request to join an RTI WhatsApp community group, by matching your WhatsApp phone number and country against your join request
• To support cultural diversity and inclusivity in our community programming by understanding the geographic distribution of our members
• To display your public profile to other community members
• To store your reading interests and preferences for a personalised experience
• To monitor and improve the performance and usability of this website
• To respond to enquiries submitted to us by email
• To comply with applicable legal obligations
• To detect and prevent fraud or misuse of our services

We do not collect sensitive personal data through this website. If that changes, we will update this policy and seek your consent where required.

Cookies are small files placed on your device by a website to store information about your visit.

Where we process your personal data, we do so under the following lawful bases:

• Contractual necessity — to create and maintain your account and provide access to the RTI Lounge, as requested by you when you register
• Legitimate interest — to moderate community access (gender-based spaces, WhatsApp group verification, country-based programming), to monitor and improve our website, respond to enquiries, and ensure platform security
• Consent — where you have explicitly agreed, such as accepting cookies on this website or signing in via Google
• Legal obligation — to verify minimum age requirements for platform access, and where we are otherwise required to process data by applicable law

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your data against unauthorised access, loss, or disclosure. These include encryption of data in transit, restricted access to systems, and regular review of our security practices.

Data breach notification: in the event of a personal data breach that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach, in line with section 40 of the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023, and will inform affected users without undue delay where the breach is likely to result in a high risk.

Some of the third-party processors we rely on to operate this website (Supabase, Cloudinary, Google, and Render) store and process data on servers located outside Nigeria, including in the European Union and the United States. By using this website and the RTI Lounge, you acknowledge that your personal data may be transferred to and processed in those jurisdictions.

Where we transfer personal data outside Nigeria, we rely on the safeguards required by section 41 of the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023, including the recipient being subject to a law, binding corporate rules, contractual clauses, or a code of conduct that affords an adequate level of protection.

• Account and profile data is retained for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, your data will be removed within 30 days, except where retention is required by law.
• Uploaded files (such as profile photos) are deleted when you remove them or when your account is deleted.
• Website analytics data is retained for up to 26 months in Google Analytics, after which it is automatically deleted.
• Email correspondence is retained for as long as necessary to resolve your enquiry, and no longer than 2 years unless a legal obligation requires otherwise.

We do not sell, rent, or lease your personal data to third parties.

We share your data with the following third-party processors, solely to provide our services:

• Supabase — authentication and database for your account and profile data
• Cloudinary — image hosting and delivery for profile photos
• Google (via Google OAuth) — if you choose to sign in with Google, your name, email, and profile picture are shared with us by Google at your request
• Google Analytics — for anonymous website usage statistics (see Cookies section above)
• Render — our hosting provider, which may process server logs containing IP addresses
• Law enforcement or regulatory authorities — where required by law, court order, or to prevent harm or fraud

Under applicable data protection law, you have the right to:

• Access personal data we hold about you
• Correct inaccurate data (you can update your profile at any time from the Lounge)
• Request deletion of your data, including your account and all associated profile data (right to be forgotten)
• Download or export your personal data (right to data portability)
• Restrict or object to our processing of your data
• Withdraw consent at any time (where processing is based on consent)
• Lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority

Our website is not directed at persons under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has submitted personal data to us, please contact us at info@readtoimpact.org and we will delete it promptly.

This website contains links to third-party websites including WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites and encourage you to read their privacy policies.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision. Where a change materially affects how we process your personal data, we will take reasonable steps to notify registered users by email or by an in-product notice in the RTI Lounge before the change takes effect.

For any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data: