Privacy Policy

Who we are

The Okuapemman Association of Massachusetts ("the Association", "we") is a non-profit community association of Okuapem people and friends in Massachusetts, affiliated with OKUSACA. This policy explains how the member platform and public website handle personal information.

Information we collect

- Membership details you or an officer provide: name, email, phone, home address, chapter, lineage/hometown, date of birth, emergency contact, dependents, and a profile photo. 
- Dues, levies, and payment records, including offline payment claims (Zelle, Cash App, cash, or check) and receipts. 
- Welfare claims and supporting documents you submit, and payouts recorded by officers. 
- Meeting attendance, RSVPs, election ballots (stored anonymously from your identity) and nominations. 
- Sign-in security data: hashed passwords, device fingerprints, session cookies and — only if you enroll — Face ID / Touch ID passkey public keys. We never receive your biometric data; it stays on your device.
 - Communication preferences and delivery logs for email, SMS and push notifications.

How we use it

- To administer membership, dues, good-standing status, welfare benefits and elections in line with the Constitution and By-Laws. 

- To send meeting reminders, dues reminders, welfare and governance notices by email, SMS, in-app, and push notification. You can adjust SMS and push preferences in your portal profile. 

- To publish a members-only directory. Only your name, role, chapter, and photo are visible to other signed-in members; contact details appear only where you have allowed them. 

- To keep an audit log of officer actions for accountability to the membership.

Who can see your data?

Officers see only what their role requires: finance roles see payment records, welfare roles see claims, and the Electoral Commissioner sees nominations. The public website shows no contact details; the only member information shown publicly is the "Akwaaba" new-member strip (first name, hometown and photo of recently joined members), which you can switch off at any time from your profile. We do not sell or rent member information.

Service providers

We use trusted providers to run the platform: email delivery (Resend), SMS (Twilio), secure file storage, and — when enabled — card payment processing (Stripe). Stripe handles card details and never stores them.

Cookies

The portal uses strictly necessary, httpOnly cookies to keep you signed in. Display preferences (language, list sizes, in-app tips, cookie notice acknowledgment) are kept in your browser only. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies, so there is nothing to opt in or out of; you can reopen the cookie notice from the "Cookies" link in the footer.

Retention

1. We retain membership, financial, and governance records for as long as required by the Constitution and applicable law, then archive or delete them. You may ask to correct your details at any time from your profile or by contacting an officer.

Your choices

You can update your profile, opt out of SMS, remove passkeys, and sign out of all devices from the portal. To request a copy or deletion of your data, contact the General Secretary at the contact address shown on the Contact page.

Changes

We may update this policy as the platform evolves. The date of the latest revision is shown above.