Privacy Policy
How African Ranked processes website, newsletter, staff-account and optional analytics information.
Operator and contact
African Ranked operates https://africanranked.com and publishes articles, rankings and practical guides. Contact info@africanranked.com for privacy questions, correction requests or questions about personal information associated with the website.
Information used to operate the website
Hosting and application systems process technical request information to deliver pages, protect the service and investigate errors. This can include network addresses, requested URLs, browser information and service logs. Staff and contributor accounts also involve account details, access permissions, authentication information and an audit history of editorial activity. Staff accounts are separate from public newsletter subscriptions. When authorised staff request external research or writing assistance, draft content and research instructions can also be sent to configured editorial service providers. Those actions are separate from visitor analytics and newsletter registration.
If you email the official contact address, the message and reply address are used to handle your inquiry. Avoid including information that is unnecessary for the request.
Newsletter requests and confirmation
When newsletter registration is available, submitting the form records the supplied email address, selected edition and time of consent. A confirmation email is sent before the subscription becomes active. The confirmation link expires after 24 hours. Opening the link displays a confirmation page; activating the subscription requires an explicit confirmation action.
Ignoring the message does not activate a subscription. Repeated requests are limited to reduce unwanted messages. The application records confirmation and unsubscription status so that an opted-out address is not treated as an active subscriber. Any future newsletter campaign must respect those records and provide an unsubscribe option. Registration and confirmation functionality do not mean that an automated campaign service is currently operating.
Optional Google Analytics
When analytics is enabled and you choose Allow analytics, Google Analytics 4 receives browsing events to help African Ranked understand readership and improve the website. The configured Measurement ID is G-8XMRKYBLQ6. Google may use browser identifiers, cookies, device information and network information to provide its analytics service.
This integration does not load the Google Analytics tag before an analytics choice is granted. Reject analytics leaves the tag unloaded. The website's consent code keeps Google's advertising storage, advertising user-data consent and ad-personalization consent denied; it requests analytics permission only.
You can reopen Analytics preferences in the footer. Rejecting after a previous acceptance reloads the page so the analytics integration is no longer loaded. Cookies previously set by Google may remain until they expire or you clear them in your browser.
Cookies and browser storage
Necessary session and security storage supports functions such as staff authentication and form protection. The analytics choice is stored in the browser under ar.analytics.consent.v1. That preference is not submitted to the African Ranked server. The application does not set an automatic expiry for this local preference; it remains until you change it or clear the relevant browser storage.
Optional analytics cookies are controlled by Google and the configured analytics service. Browser settings can remove cookies or restrict storage, although restricting necessary storage may affect sign-in or form functionality. The Cookies & Analytics page describes the website's consent controls in more detail.
Services involved in processing
Railway hosts the application, PostgreSQL database and editorial media. Website confirmation and transactional emails use the configured SMTP2GO mail service. The official contact address uses the domain's email-forwarding arrangements. Google provides optional Analytics and the web fonts used by the design. Some photography is delivered from Pexels image servers. Loading a remotely hosted font or image involves an ordinary request to that provider, independently of the optional Analytics tag.
The configured editorial services include Google Gemini for writing assistance and OpenSEO for research. Their use involves the material submitted through those editorial workflows. They are not a public newsletter campaign service.
These services may process information outside a visitor's country. Hosting is configured in Railway's sfo region. Other providers' processing locations and retention settings depend on their services and account arrangements. Provider privacy information is available from Railway, SMTP2GO, Google and Pexels. Contact African Ranked about the arrangements relevant to a specific request.
Retention and account history
Unsubscribing changes subscription status; it does not automatically delete the stored email address, consent history or suppression record. Staff-access removal similarly preserves editorial attribution and audit history. There is no application-wide automatic deletion period configured for these records. The periods applicable to provider logs, email processing and Google Analytics depend on the relevant service and configured account settings.
The browser's analytics preference has the separate storage behavior described above. Requests concerning retained information should be sent to info@africanranked.com so that the relevant records and applicable obligations can be assessed.
Choices and privacy requests
You can decline optional analytics, change the stored analytics choice, and withdraw a newsletter subscription through its signed unsubscribe process. Where applicable, you may request access, correction, deletion or other rights concerning personal information. Availability and handling of a request depend on the information involved and applicable law. Email info@africanranked.com with enough detail to identify the request; do not send passwords or unnecessary identity documents.
Changes to this notice
We may update this notice as the website's information-handling practices change. Contact info@africanranked.com with questions about this notice or a change to it.