Privacy Policy

CareerLink Africa is a career and hiring platform dedicated to connecting African professionals with meaningful employment and business opportunities across Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa, Ghana, Ethiopia, Zambia, and beyond. We are committed to being fully transparent about how we collect, use, store, and protect your personal information.

This Privacy Policy applies to all users of our platform — including jobseekers, employers, tender applicants, article authors, and visitors — and covers all interactions with our website at careerlinkafrica.com, our mobile-responsive web application, our email communications, and all AI-powered features.

By creating an account or using our services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this policy. If you are using CareerLink Africa on behalf of an organisation, you represent that you have the authority to bind that organisation to this policy.

We review and update this policy periodically and will notify registered users of any material changes by email at least 14 days before the changes take effect. The date at the top of this page reflects when the policy was last revised.

When you register as a jobseeker on CareerLink Africa, we collect the following categories of personal information:

Account and Profile Data:

• Full name, email address, and encrypted password.
• Country of residence, city, and phone number (if provided).
• Professional biography and profile headline.
• Profile photograph (if uploaded).
• LinkedIn profile URL (if provided).
• Visibility status: active, passive, or hidden from employers.

Career and Application Data:

• Curriculum vitae and resume files (PDF or Word format).
• Work experience details including job titles, organisations, and dates.
• Educational background including institutions, qualifications, and graduation years.
• Professional skills listed as tags.
• Certifications including issuing organisation and date.
• Job alert preferences including preferred industry, country, and job type.
• Application history including cover letters and submission dates.
• Saved job and tender listings.
• Video interview recordings submitted to employer invitations.

We also collect behavioural data generated by your use of the platform — such as which jobs you viewed, which jobs you applied to, time spent on each page, and features used. This data powers our AI matching system and improves the relevance of job recommendations shown to you.

When you register as an employer on CareerLink Africa, we collect the following information to enable you to post, manage, and hire effectively:

Account Data:

• Full name, email address, encrypted password, country, and phone number.
• The name of the company you represent.

Company Profile Data:

• Company name, description, logo image, and banner image.
• Website URL, industry sector, company size, city, country, and year founded.

Job and Tender Listing Data:

• Job title, full description, experience level, job type, salary range, currency, application deadline, location, and industry category.
• Tender title, description, scope, submission deadline, and budget range (if provided).
• Records of all applications and tender proposals received, including applicant identities, documents submitted, and your notes and status updates.

Billing Data:

• Subscription plan details, billing cycle, and payment history processed through Stripe.
• We do not store your full credit card number, CVV, or banking details — these are handled exclusively by Stripe in accordance with PCI DSS standards.

When you use CareerLink Africa, we automatically collect certain technical information through cookies and similar tracking technologies. This includes:

• Your IP address and approximate geolocation (country/city level only).
• Browser type, version, and operating system.
• Device type (desktop, mobile, or tablet) and screen resolution.
• Pages visited on our platform and the order in which you visit them.
• Time and date of each visit and the duration of each session.
• The referring website or link that brought you to our platform.
• Search queries entered on our jobs and tenders search pages.
• Feature interactions such as which filters you applied and which sections you opened.
• Error logs generated when technical issues occur.

This information is collected to ensure the platform functions correctly, to diagnose technical problems, to improve the user experience, to detect and prevent fraudulent activity, and to generate anonymised platform analytics.

We use the information we collect for the following specific, legitimate purposes:

• To create and manage your account and verify your identity during login.
• To power our AI job matching algorithm, which analyses your profile, skills, experience, and location to recommend the most relevant job opportunities.
• To display your profile to employers when you apply for a job or when your visibility is set to active or passive in the talent pool.
• To send you job alert emails when new positions matching your saved preferences are posted on the platform.
• To enable in-platform messaging between jobseekers and employers without exposing personal contact details.
• To process subscription and Pay-Per-Post payments for employer accounts through Stripe and send billing receipts.
• To send transactional emails including account verification, application confirmations, employer status updates, and plan expiry reminders.
• To generate AI-powered CV analysis and career coaching responses through the Groq API, using only the information you have added to your profile.
• To facilitate video interviews between employers and shortlisted candidates.
• To display tender listings to relevant businesses and process tender proposal submissions.
• To improve our platform features through anonymised usage analytics.
• To detect, prevent, and investigate fraudulent activity, spam, policy violations, and security threats.
• To comply with applicable legal obligations in the countries where we operate.

CareerLink Africa uses the Groq API to power several AI features. Understanding how your data is used in these features is important to us.

AI features and the data they use:

• CV Builder — generates a professionally formatted CV from your profile data. Your profile information is sent to the Groq API to produce the output.
• CV Scorer — analyses your uploaded CV file and provides section-by-section improvement suggestions. Your CV content is processed via the Groq API.
• Career Coach — an interactive chatbot providing career guidance, interview preparation, and industry advice. Your conversation messages and selected profile data are sent to the Groq API per session.
• Job Match Feed — ranks job listings by relevance to your profile using AI scoring. Anonymised profile attributes are used to generate match scores.

Career Coach conversation history is stored in our database linked to your account so you can refer back to previous sessions. You can delete your conversation history at any time from your dashboard. Deleted conversations are permanently removed within 30 days.

When you participate in a video interview through CareerLink Africa's integrated video interview feature, the following data handling practices apply:

• Video recordings submitted by candidates are stored securely in encrypted cloud storage and are accessible only to the employer who issued the interview invitation.
• Video files are linked to your jobseeker account and the specific job application they relate to.
• Video recordings are not shared with any third party, used in marketing or promotional materials, or processed by AI analysis tools without your explicit consent.
• Video recordings associated with a closed job listing are automatically scheduled for deletion 90 days after the listing closes, unless you have consented to extended retention.
• If an employer downloads or screenshots your video outside the platform in violation of our terms, CareerLink Africa is not liable for that misuse — report violations to support@careerlinkafrica.com.
• You may request deletion of any video recording you have submitted by contacting our support team. Deletion will be processed within 30 days.
• Refusing to participate in a video interview will not affect your application status — this remains at the discretion of the employer.

CareerLink Africa does not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to any third party for marketing or commercial purposes under any circumstances. We share your data only in the following limited and necessary circumstances:

• With employers — when you submit a job application or tender proposal, we share your name, profile information, CV, cover letter, and any supporting documents with the specific employer who posted that listing.
• With Stripe — our payment processor, for secure handling of subscription and Pay-Per-Post payments. Stripe is PCI DSS Level 1 certified.
• With Supabase — our database and authentication infrastructure provider. Your data is stored in Supabase's secure cloud infrastructure with row-level security.
• With the Groq API — solely when you use AI-powered features on the platform. Your data is processed to generate your requested output and is not retained by Groq beyond the API request.
• With email delivery services — for sending transactional emails and job alert notifications. These providers process only the minimum data required to deliver the message.
• With law enforcement or regulatory authorities — when we are required to do so by applicable law, a valid legal order, or to protect the safety of our users.

In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of CareerLink Africa, your data may be transferred to the acquiring entity, and we will notify you by email before such a transfer occurs.

CareerLink Africa displays advertising on its platform through Google AdSense (publisher ID: ca-pub-6997613154555783), a programme operated by Google LLC. Google AdSense uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to serve personalised advertisements based on your browsing history and interests across websites.

• Google may use cookies such as the DoubleClick cookie to serve ads based on your prior visits to careerlinkafrica.com and other websites across the internet.
• These cookies collect data about your browsing behaviour and interests across multiple websites to deliver relevant advertisements.
• CareerLink Africa does not control the specific ads served or the data Google collects for this purpose — this is governed by Google's Privacy Policy at policies.google.com/privacy.
• You may opt out of personalised advertising at any time by visiting google.com/settings/ads or by using the NAI opt-out tool at optout.networkadvertising.org.
• Disabling personalised ads through Google's tools does not disable advertising on this platform — you will still see ads, but they will not be personalised based on your browsing history.

We take the security of your personal data seriously and implement multiple layers of technical and organisational protection:

• All data transmitted between your browser and our servers is encrypted using TLS 1.2 or higher.
• Passwords are never stored in plain text and are hashed using industry-standard bcrypt cryptographic algorithms.
• Our database uses Supabase's row-level security (RLS) policies, meaning each user can only access their own data and employers can only see applications submitted to their own listings.
• CV files, profile photos, and video interview recordings are stored in encrypted cloud storage with strict access controls.
• We conduct regular security reviews and monitor for unusual access patterns and suspicious activity.
• Access to production databases is restricted to a minimal set of authorised personnel only.
• All third-party integrations (Stripe, Supabase, Groq) are selected in part for their industry-leading security certifications and practices.

Depending on your location and applicable data protection laws, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right of Access — request a copy of all personal data we hold about you by emailing privacy@careerlinkafrica.com.
• Right to Rectification — correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data directly through your dashboard profile settings.
• Right to Erasure — request deletion of your account and all associated personal data via your dashboard or by contacting support. We process deletions within 30 days.
• Right to Data Portability — request a machine-readable export of your personal data in a structured format.
• Right to Object — object to or restrict certain types of data processing, including marketing communications.
• Right to Withdraw Consent — withdraw consent for any data processing based on consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.
• Right to Opt Out of Job Alerts — use the unsubscribe link in any alert email or update your preferences in your dashboard.
• Right to Manage Notification Settings — update all platform notification preferences directly in your dashboard.

To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@careerlinkafrica.com. We will respond within 5 business days and fulfil requests within 30 days.

We retain different categories of data for different periods based on operational and legal requirements:

• Active account data — retained for as long as your account remains active.
• Job and tender applications — retained for 24 months after submission to allow for extended hiring and procurement processes.
• Video interview recordings — retained for up to 90 days after the associated listing closes, then automatically deleted unless consent for extended retention is given.
• Payment and billing records — retained for 7 years to comply with financial record-keeping requirements.
• Career Coach conversation history — retained until you delete it from your dashboard.
• Account deletion — your profile data, CV, saved jobs, messages, and applications are permanently deleted within 30 days of account closure.
• Anonymised analytics data — may be retained indefinitely as it cannot be used to identify you.

CareerLink Africa serves users across multiple African countries and is committed to complying with applicable data protection legislation in each jurisdiction. Key frameworks we operate in compliance with include:

• Kenya — Data Protection Act, 2019 (DPA 2019): Governs the processing of personal data in Kenya and gives data subjects rights including access, correction, objection, and erasure.
• Nigeria — Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) 2019 and the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) 2023: Establishes obligations for data controllers and processors handling Nigerian citizens' data.
• South Africa — Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) 2013 / 2021: Regulates the lawful processing of personal data and grants data subjects a range of enforceable rights.
• Uganda — Data Protection and Privacy Act, 2019: Sets out principles for the collection and processing of personal data of Ugandan residents.
• Rwanda — Law No. 058/2021 on the Protection of Personal Data and Privacy: Establishes data protection principles and data subject rights for Rwandan residents.
• Tanzania — The Electronic and Postal Communications Act and emerging data protection regulations.

Where our platform operates across borders, we apply the highest applicable standard of data protection as a baseline across all jurisdictions. We also maintain compliance with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for users accessing the platform from the EU or where EU data protection standards are contractually required by our infrastructure partners.

CareerLink Africa operates primarily for users across Africa. However, our infrastructure providers may process data in servers located in the United States or European Union. Specifically:

• Supabase — database and authentication services. Data may be processed in US or EU data centres.
• Stripe — payment processing. Data is processed in accordance with Stripe's global data processing agreement.
• Groq — Groq API for AI features. API requests are processed on Groq's infrastructure in the United States.

Where your data is transferred outside of your home country, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, including standard contractual clauses (SCCs) approved by relevant data protection authorities and data processing agreements with all sub-processors that bind them to the same level of data protection we commit to you.

For full details on how we use cookies and tracking technologies, please refer to our Cookie Policy. In summary, we use essential, analytics, preference, functionality, and advertising cookies. Advertising cookies are placed by Google AdSense to serve relevant ads to platform visitors. For details on each cookie category and opt-out options, please see our full Cookie Policy.

CareerLink Africa is intended exclusively for users aged 18 and above. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under the age of 18. Our registration process requires users to confirm they are 18 or older.

If we become aware that a user under 18 has created an account, we will immediately terminate that account and delete all associated data within 30 days. If you believe a minor has registered on our platform, please contact us at privacy@careerlinkafrica.com and we will investigate and act promptly.

Our platform may contain links to third-party websites in a number of contexts, including:

• Company website links in employer profiles.
• External resource links in career articles.
• Links to social media platforms in author profiles.

CareerLink Africa is not responsible for the privacy practices, content, or security of these external sites. Clicking an external link takes you away from our platform and you become subject to the privacy policy and terms of the destination site. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any third-party website you visit.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or platform features. Our commitment to transparency means we will always communicate changes clearly:

• Material changes will be communicated to all registered users by email at least 14 days before the changes take effect.
• The updated policy will be posted on this page with a revised last updated date.
• Non-material changes such as corrections of typos or minor clarifications may be made without notice.
• Your continued use of the platform after the effective date of any changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please reach out to our team:

• Privacy & data requests: privacy@careerlinkafrica.com
• General support: support@careerlinkafrica.com
• Employer enquiries: employers@careerlinkafrica.com

We aim to respond to all privacy enquiries within 5 business days and to fulfil data subject requests within 30 days of receipt.