Afara expert privacy notice
Activity-specific supplement to Think Africa’s Privacy Notice
1. Controller and scope
Think Africa ry, Business ID 2656503-4. Contact: info@thinkafrica.fi. Postal address stated in its published notice: Espoo, Finland.
This notice covers expert applications, assessment, matching, introductions, public profiles and participation records. It supplements Think Africa’s Privacy Notice which is made available here. A privacy notice explains processing; it is not a blanket consent request or an assignment contract.
2. Information and sources
We use information you provide about identity and contact details, professional title, biography, skills, experience, languages, availability, capacity, engagement preferences, rates, sectors, markets, regional knowledge, certifications, work examples, portfolio links, references, conflicts and professional boundaries. We also record relevant review decisions, introduction responses, assignment history, feedback and publication choices.
We may receive relevant information from a referring partner, a commissioning company, a reference you identify or a source used to check your claims. We identify the source and provide the required information when your personal data comes from elsewhere. Unnecessary identity documents, sensitive data and confidential third-party material should not be included in an application.
3. Purposes and legal bases
The allocation below is proposed for controller approval before publication. It does not establish that every existing field is necessary or that a historic checkbox provided valid consent.
Purpose
Proposed legal basis
Private application, assessment and requested expert participation
Article 6(1)(b) where you personally request and are party to the service relationship. Article 6(1)(f) for necessary representative/referral administration, subject to a recorded balancing assessment.
Matching, introductions and necessary participation records
The applicable basis above, limited to the requested activity. A separate consent is used only where the particular disclosure genuinely relies on consent.
Public expert profile
Article 6(1)(a), separate publication consent for the identified public information.
Security and handling participation complaints
Article 6(1)(f): protecting people, records and the integrity of the service.
Legal accounting records and data-rights handling
Article 6(1)(c), with the particular legal obligation and record category identified.
Optional promotional communications
Separate Article 6(1)(a) consent under the approved communications notice.
4. Public information and private information
The public profile field list for approval is: name and profile address; professional title; biography; skills; experience level and years; capabilities; sectors; market and regional expertise; languages and language skills; availability; hourly rate; engagement types; capacity; track record; certifications; public portfolio; image; location; time zone; verification, featured and completeness indicators; rating and review count; and view count. Only completed or displayed fields within the approved public list are covered.
This list is taken from the 8 September 2026 implementation evidence and must be reconciled with the current public view before publication of this notice. Remove this editorial sentence after that check and record the approved field list beside the publication choice.
Private application evidence, private contact details, reference correspondence, banking information and identity documents are not authorised for public display by the profile choice. A link labelled as a public portfolio must not expose private evidence stored behind it.
Public information can be read worldwide and may be copied or indexed by others. Withdrawing consent ends our future publication of the affected information. Where erasure obligations apply, we take reasonable steps concerning recipients and copies, but removing our page does not itself remove every independently held copy.
5. Matching and human review
The proposed matching notice describes comparison of company requirements with relevant expertise, skills, sectors, markets, languages, availability, rates, experience and other documented suitability information. The system can use rules-based scoring and local comparison of narrative text to generate suggestions.
In the route documented for this notice, approved published profiles form the candidate pool. Publication refusal or withdrawal therefore removes a profile from that matching route, not from ordinary membership. A score is not a guarantee of suitability or future work.
An operator reviews suggestions, the company and expert decide whether to proceed, and an authorised person approves the assignment. No solely automated assignment decision with legal or similarly significant effects is authorised by this notice. Contact Think Africa to correct information or request explanation and human review. The controller must validate this description and the Article 22 assessment before release.
6. Recipients and confidentiality
Relevant information is available to authorised Think Africa personnel and supervised support volunteers, necessary technical service providers, and the company or partner involved in the particular activity. Accountants, professional advisers or authorities receive information only where justified for their task or legally required. Public visitors receive the authorised profile fields.
For a specific introduction, we identify the recipient and share only necessary information. Private application files are not an unrestricted talent database for companies, partners or other members. Think Africa does not sell personal data.
7. Providers, transfers and retention
Use the approved recipient and transfer inventory in Think Africa’s main Privacy Notice. Before this notice is issued, specify the relevant providers, processing or access countries outside the EEA, and the actual adequacy decision or other safeguard. A Finland or EU hosting location alone is not a promise that all access and processing stays in the EEA. Information about applicable safeguards can be requested at info@thinkafrica.fi.
Record
Retention rule to complete before release
Incomplete or unsuccessful applications and private evidence
[Approved period and trigger under R03, with separate rules for incomplete and rejected applications.]
Active expert records
During active participation, subject to accuracy review; [approved review cycle and end-of-participation deletion rule under R03].
Public profile
Until publication consent is withdrawn or the approved listing otherwise ends. Private retention is assessed separately.
Introductions, assignments and complaints
[Approved closure-based period under R04/R05 and justified claim-record exception.]
Consent, withdrawal and suppression evidence
[Approved minimal evidence period under R06/R10; no continued promotional use after withdrawal.]
Accounting, security records and backups
The approved record-specific schedule in the main notice [version/sections]. Do not retain a whole profile merely because an invoice must be kept.
If a specific legal obligation or justified legal hold requires longer retention, we restrict the retained information and its use to that reason. The approved deletion and backup-expiry rules must also cover copies and processors.
8. Required information and choices
Information genuinely needed to assess your requested expertise must be provided or the application may not progress. The form must distinguish that information from optional fields. Public publication and promotional messages require their own choices. Withdrawing publication consent does not cancel a signed project, erase necessary accounting records or resign your membership.
9. Your rights
You can request access, correction, erasure, restriction or portability where the legal conditions apply. You can object to processing based on legitimate interests for reasons relating to your situation, and to direct marketing at any time without giving a reason. You can withdraw consent at any time without making earlier lawful processing unlawful.
Contact info@thinkafrica.fi. A website account, membership payment or acceptance of service terms is not required to exercise data rights. We may request proportionate information to resolve reasonable doubts about identity. We respond without undue delay and within one month. A necessary extension of up to two further months will be explained within the first month. Requests are normally free; any lawful refusal or permitted charge will be explained.
You may complain directly to Finland’s Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman or the competent supervisory authority where you live or work in the EU, or where the alleged infringement occurred. You do not have to complete our complaints process first. Your judicial remedies remain available.