Privacy & Data Protection Policy

1. Commitment to Creator Privacy

The Republic of Somaliland Brand Awards platform is committed to safeguarding the personal data and intellectual submissions of all designers, citizens, and institutions. This Privacy Policy details how personal information, uploaded visual assets, and voting ballots are collected, processed, and safeguarded.

2. Information We Collect

• Entrant Identity: Full name, verified email, phone contact, residency/diaspora status, and professional affiliations.
• Creative Assets: Master SVG/PNG files, design rationale, historical references, and tools utilized in creation.
• Voter Ballots: Anonymized cryptographic hashes and session tokens to ensure one-vote-per-citizen integrity without storing personal browser histories.
• System Logs: Standard server timestamps, IP addresses for rate limiting and DDoS prevention, and HTTP user-agent headers.

3. Utilization of Data

Collected data is utilized strictly for the administration of the National Brand Awards, including:

• Evaluation of entries by official Ministerial and Creative Jury Panels.
• Public display of approved designs in the National Asset Library for civic education.
• Issuance of verified digital certificates and ceremonial awards for finalists.
• Audit trails for tamper-proof public ballot calculations.

4. Non-Disclosure & Security

We never monetize, rent, or sell personal participant data to third-party advertisers or private brokers. All entry records and voting hashes are stored in encrypted databases protected by strict role-based access control (RBAC).