Terms of Service

TERMS & CONDTIONS

1.General information

BAScic, Nairobi, Kenya (“BAScic“, “we“, “us“, or “our“) provides the services made available at www.bioafricascience.com and all other websites operated by BAScic and all associated applications, including mobile applications, and services (“Service“), as an information society service.

BAScic’s mission is to connect the world of science and make research open to all. Connections can only be established when potential connections and commonalities are known and connecting lines can be drawn. Openness can only be achieved with comprehensive accessibility. Our Service takes your work and activities on the Service into account to help connect you with other individuals who are relevant to you, and recommend relevant content. We also gather information from external sources, in order to disseminate as much relevant scientific content as possible to drive science forward. Any natural or legal person who, as a recipient of the Service, accesses or uses the Service for any purpose is a User (“User“, “you“). Our registered Users (“Members“) can, by way of example, and not as a limitation, share their professional identities, credentials, awarded grants, display their academic publications, engage and collaborate with their networks, exchange knowledge and professional insights, contact or be contacted by other Users (including recruiters), post and view relevant content, and discover business and career opportunities. Some content is also visible to unregistered and logged-out Users (“Visitors“).

2.Conclusion of agreement

These Terms constitute a legally binding agreement between BAScic and any of its Users. In some jurisdictions, you may be bound to these Terms if you access the Service. Furthermore, a Visitor may also be asked to assent to these Terms in order to use a certain limited number of features on the Service. The Terms become binding on Members once we accept your offer to enter into a binding agreement with us, e.g., once you have submitted the registration process and we have sent confirmation that you have successfully registered for the Service.

In addition, if you have previously had your membership restricted by us, you may not attempt to register for the Service again.

3.Scope of the Service

Among other things, the Service provides you with the ability to add, create, upload, submit, distribute, send, share, or post (“submit“, “submitting“, or “submission“) content, articles, data, text, photographs, images, illustrations, advertisements, job posts, or other information on or to the Service (collectively, the “Member Submissions“). By way of example, and not as a limitation, Member Submissions may be submitted when you request the Service to:

3.1.Identify, resolve, copy, or import content stored on your or a third party’s computer system;

3.2.Synchronize content such that the Service stores or “mirrors” content stored on your or a third party’s computer system by storing such content on equipment owned or operated by BAScic;

3.3.save or store your comments, edits, or annotations to content accessible through the Service; or

3.4.Share with another person any content stored on your or a third party’s computer system.

The Service also enables you to learn about other Members, get into contact with or be contacted by other Members and/or institutions, consume their work, their research, post and answer questions on various topics and interact with BAScic’s community. The Service also allows you to present, organize and manage scientific collaboration.

The Service also provides you with functionalities that support your scientific work, your professional life and development. To be as helpful as possible, the Service takes information about you as a Member, your Member Submissions and your activity on the Service into account in suggesting content and providing other aspects of the Service. This way we can make recommendations for connections, content, and features that may be useful to you. Also, by taking your work, research, career, experience, and other factors into account, we are able to provide you with opportunities, vacancies, information and helpful contacts. Keeping your profile information accurate and up-to-date helps us to make these recommendations more accurate and relevant.

For further information regarding our data processing, please refer to our Privacy Policy.

BAScic shall not be a contracting party to any agreements entered into by Users with other Users or with any third party via the Service. Users are solely responsible for the execution and/or fulfilment of agreements they enter into. BAScic shall not be held liable for breaches of duty in relation to such agreements. If there is a dispute between you and a third party, you agree that BAScic assumes no responsibility and is under no obligation to become involved.

The Service consists largely of information uploaded by and/or stored upon the request of Members. We do not manually or automatically preview or review or filter such information. Therefore, we do not and cannot have current knowledge of possible infringements, inappropriate content, or violations of law caused by information that is uploaded by and/or stored upon the request of Members. We are not liable for such information. We will, upon obtaining knowledge about or becoming aware of such infringements, act expeditiously to remove or disable access to such information.

In addition to Member Submissions, we also source bibliographical information from various publicly available sources. We do so to enrich our platform with information that is not a Member Submission. We want to promote scientific discourse by adding even more relevant information to our platform. To the extent that content collected from third-party sources, including personal data, is made available by BAScic on the Service, we are unable to control the legitimacy or accuracy of such content. However, we will review any issues that are reported to us.

4.User Obligations

BAScic strives to connect the world of science. It is essential for the credibility of the world of science and for the reputation of researchers that Members identify themselves using their real names and their true affiliations. You must therefore provide only true and non-misleading statements and use your real name; you may not use pseudonyms or pen names. You may not accept, adopt, or post content that falsely or misleadingly implies an incorrect identity, inaccurate biographical facts, or misleading information about your research, qualifications, work experience, awarded grants, or achievements.

You warrant and represent that all personal data you provide is accurate. You are obliged to update such data when it changes. If you choose to use a profile photo, you must use a photo where you can be clearly identified and for which you have the necessary usage/license rights; images of more than one person, other people, animals, text, graphics and inappropriate content are not permitted.

You are responsible for ensuring that the use or other exploitation of any Member Submissions by you as contemplated by these Terms does not infringe or violate the rights of any third party, including without limitation any privacy rights, publicity rights, patent, copyrights, contract rights, or any other intellectual property or proprietary rights. Except in the case of Member Submissions containing content exclusively in the public domain, you represent and warrant, and can demonstrate to our full satisfaction upon request that (i) you own or otherwise control any and all rights or licenses required in order to submit or share all content in your Member Submissions and you consent to the use of such content as contemplated by these Terms, and (ii) you have full authority to act on behalf of any and all owners of any right, title, or interest in and to any content in your Member Submissions to use such content as contemplated by these Terms.

You understand that all information publicly posted or privately transmitted through the Service is the sole responsibility of the person by whom such content was submitted. We will not be liable for any errors or omissions in any such content. We reserve the right to delete, modify, demote, or reformat any materials, content, or information submitted by you when, in our sole discretion, we deem it to be necessary or appropriate, including if we determine that the content may expose us to harm, potential legal liability, or is in breach of these Terms. We do not endorse and have no control over any content submitted to the Service. We cannot guarantee the authenticity of any Member Submission. You acknowledge that all content accessed by you in connection with your use of the Service is at your own risk and you will be solely responsible for any damage or loss to any party resulting from your access to or your inability to access such content.

You understand that depending on your settings, your profile information, account activity or Member Submissions may be publicly available. In such case you understand that it may be shared with third parties (including other Members, recruiters or Visitors) and that we cannot and do not control any such third parties. For further information, please refer to our Privacy Policy. As a Member you may change the visibility of your profile information and full-text content at any time when you are logged in.

You are obliged to keep your password confidential at all times. BAScic will not disclose your password to any third party, and will not ask for your password at any time other than during the login process. You are solely responsible for anything that happens through your account, unless you close it or report misuse.

You must not publish, share, sell, or make available information that is provided within the Service to any third party outside the Service, unless such a distribution or disclosure is intended within the scope of and in accordance with the Service. Information made available within the Service is not to be commercialized by Users in any way.

You must not store, process, or use any other User’s personal data for any other purpose than the natural purpose of such data being published within the Service by the respective User.

In connection with using or accessing the Service, you shall not:

• Post false, inaccurate, dishonest, misleading, manipulative, deceptive, defamatory or libelous content;
• Use the Service to annoy, harass, abuse, degrade, shame, insult, bully, personally attack, or send other unwelcome communications to others (including to BAScic), including but not limited to unwanted romantic advances, junk mail, offers to buy or sell, spam, chain letters, phishing schemes, and deceptive or excessive messages.
• Use the Service to harm others or their careers or business prospects or to air personal grievances and disputes;
• Post personal data about another person without a legal basis to do so (such as their email address, phone number, identification number or document, photograph, or medical records);
• Post confidential or proprietary information, private communications, or any information you do not have a right to publish;
• Post content which constitutes hate speech, including, but not limited to, that which attacks people based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, political or religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, age, immigration status, disabilities or diseases;
• Post or share any pornographic, intimidating, abusive, shocking, immoral, sexually inappropriate, or violence-glorifying materials or any content that violates any applicable legislation for the protection of minors or communicates in any sexually explicit or suggestive way;
• Transfer your BAScic account to another party without our consent, or operate an account under a false name or identity;
• Distribute or promote advertising or commercial promotional content, or send unsolicited promotional content, advertising, job offers, or business proposals, unless permitted by other BAScic terms to which you have agreed;
• Commercialize any BAScic application or any information or software associated with such application, except with the prior express permission of BAScic in writing;
• Post or fulfill requests for unauthorized copyrighted material (e.g. software, books, publications) or “pirated” or “cracked” versions of software;
• Post content whose primary purpose is to drive Users to web pages, domains and/or applications outside of the Service, unless permitted by other BAScic terms to which you have agreed;
• Act unprofessionally or inappropriately, including by posting broad, vague, irrelevant, untargeted, off-topic, or non-scientific content, potentially harmful or potentially dangerous content, or by misusing the Service and its features;
• Intentionally infect others with viruses, worms, or other software that can destroy, interrupt, or collect their data or computer devices;
• Post excessively within a short timeframe, interfere with the working of our Service, or impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure;
• Impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large administrative burden on BAScic, including by sending a disproportionate number of communications or reports to our Community Support Team;
• Use any robot, spider, scraper, data mining tools, data gathering and extraction tools, or other automated means to access our Service for any purpose, except with the prior express permission of BAScic in writing;
• Employ any mechanisms, software, or scripts when using the Service;
• Block, overwrite, modify, or copy any contents of the Service, unless said actions are necessary for the proper use of BAScic; or
• Encourage or enable any other individual to do any of the foregoing.

5.Export control laws

We do not represent that the materials made available in the Service are appropriate or available for use in any particular location. Those who choose to access or use the Service do so, on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with all applicable local laws, including, if you are in the United States, any applicable export control or foreign assets control regulations.

6.Copyright and other intellectual property rights

The software running the Service, the site design and content, the logos and other graphics, articles and other texts, as well as the database are protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws in multiple jurisdictions.

7.Changes to the Service

We reserve the right to modify the Service or to offer services different from those offered at the time of the User’s registration at any time, in particular under, but not limited to, the following circumstances:

7.1.We introduce new features that enhance the Service;

7.2.To the extent we are required in order to comply with applicable law, including in the event of a change in such laws;

7.3.To the extent we are required to do so because of a legal order or decision by a government authority;

7.4.To the extent the respective modifications are required to mitigate any potential security vulnerabilities;

7.5.If the modification is only beneficial to the Member; or

7.6.If the modification is of a purely technical or process-related nature without any material impact on the Member.

8.Changes to these Terms

8.1We may change the Terms at any time. You will become subject to the new terms if you explicitly agree to them, or we provide you with notice of the changes. We will provide such notice by sending you an email and/or notifying you on the Service. Unless we state otherwise, changes are effective thirty days from the time they are posted. In our notices, we will inform you of the new terms and the main changes to these Terms, your right to object and the importance of the deadline to object. You are obliged to check your account regularly for a notice about changes to these Terms. For the avoidance of doubt, if you continue to use your Account after the notice period, you agree that you are bound by the changes.

8.2.If you do not agree with the new terms you must close your account.

8.3.If you have a dispute with us, the version of the terms in effect at the time that we receive actual notice of your dispute shall apply.

9.Term, Termination

You may terminate the contractual relationship at any time without cause by deleting your account. In order to protect you from unauthorized deletion of your account, we may be required to perform an identity check before agreeing to delete your account at your request.

BAScic is entitled to immediate extraordinary termination for good cause at any time. Extraordinary termination for good cause is defined as an event which makes it unacceptable for the terminating party to continue the agreement until the end of the termination period, taking into account all circumstances of the individual case and weighing up the interests of both parties. A good cause for BAScic includes, but is not limited to, any of the following events:

• The Member fails to comply with any applicable legal provisions;
• The Member breaches a contractual obligation of these Terms;
• The reputation of the Service is potentially substantially impaired by the online presence of the Member;
• The Member promotes any communities or associations, or any of their methods or activities, which are accused of a crime, or under surveillance by authorities responsible for public safety or the protection of minors;
• The Member causes harm or poses a risk to any other User(s); or
• The Member exposes BAScic to potential risk or legal liability.

In the event of a good cause and notwithstanding our right to terminate, we are entitled to:

• Delete or modify Member Submissions;
• Issue a warning to the Member;
• Suspend, disable, restrict, or block the Member’s access to the Service;
• Take technical and/or legal steps to prevent the Member from using our Service.

If the Member relinquishes or loses the right to use the Service, the following shall survive termination:

• The ability of other Members and Visitors to use and share any content and information shared by the Member through the Service in accordance with the Terms and applicable laws, when appropriate;
• The Member’s ability to access the Service as a Visitor;
• Sections 3, 4, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 of these Terms.
• Liability

BAScic may be liable without limitation for damages resulting from injury to life, limb, or health which occur due to a breach of duty by BAScic or one of its legal representatives or vicarious agents. BAScic may also be liable without limitation for damages owing to a lack of a characteristic warranted by BAScic or due to malicious conduct by BAScic. In addition, BAScic may be liable without limitation for damages due to intent or gross negligence by BAScic or one of its legal representatives or vicarious agents.

Apart from the cases set out above, BAScic’s liability shall be limited to typical foreseeable contractual damages in the event of a breach of any of its cardinal contractual duties due to slight negligence. Cardinal contractual duties are an abstract description of those obligations whose fulfilment is indispensable for the proper implementation of an agreement and on whose fulfilment the contracting parties can usually rely. Any other liability on the part of BAScic is excluded.

10.Indemnity

You will indemnify and hold BAScic (including our affiliates and subsidiaries, as well as our and their respective officers, directors, employees, and agents) harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable legal fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of your breach of these Terms, your improper use of the Service, or your breach of any law or your violation of the rights of a third party.

11.Applicable law

Except as provided below in Section 17 with respect to U.S. Users, these Terms shall be governed by the laws of Kenya, except for its conflicts of laws principles and the CISG (United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods).

If the User is a consumer and has their habitual residence outside of Kenya, provisions which, in the absence of choice, would have been applicable and which cannot, by virtue of law, be derogated from by agreement, shall remain unaffected.

12.International jurisdiction / Venue for legal disputes / Consumer dispute resolution

Except as provided below in Section 17 with respect to U.S. Users, the courts of Kenya shall have sole jurisdiction over any disputes arising out of or in connection with these Terms.

If the User (i) is a merchant, a legal person under public law, or special funds under public law, and is either a resident of Kenya or resides outside of the Kenya, or (ii) has its residence outside of Kenya, the courts of Kenya, shall have sole jurisdiction over any disputes arising out of or in connection with these Terms.

Statutory provisions regarding exclusive jurisdiction shall remain unaffected.

13.Miscellaneous

Any administrative emails from BAScic will be sent to the Member’s current primary email address listed for their account. In the event that the last email address you provided is not valid, or for any reason is not capable of delivering you the notice, our dispatch of the email containing such notice will nonetheless constitute effective notice. For security and privacy reasons, non-personal email address (such as generic company email addresses) may not be listed as contact email addresses for an account.

We are permitted to transfer rights and duties to third parties, in whole or in part. Section 10 applies. If BAScic does not act to enforce a breach of these Terms, that does not mean BAScic has waived its rights to enforce these Terms.

If any provision or portion of these Terms is held to be or becomes invalid, illegal, unenforceable, or in conflict with the law of any applicable jurisdiction, the validity, legality, and enforceability of the remaining provisions shall not in any way be affected or impaired thereby.

These Terms are only available and binding in their English-language version.

Additional Terms of Service for United States residents only (“Additional U.S. Terms”)

The following Additional U.S. Terms apply only to United States residents and apply in addition to the Terms set out above. To the extent they are inconsistent with any previous Terms, the following Additional U.S. Terms shall prevail.

14.No warranty, release, and limitation of liability

The Service is provided “as is” and we disclaim any and all representations and warranties, whether express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of title, merchantability, fitness for any particular purpose, or non-infringement. We do not promise any specific results, effects, or outcome from the use of the Service. We do not represent or warrant that the Service and the data and information provided are accurate, up-to-date, complete, or reliable.

You acknowledge and agree that you assume full responsibility for your use of the Service and the data. Recognizing such, you understand and agree that, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, neither we (and our affiliates and subsidiaries, and our and their respective officers, directors, employees and agents) nor any of our suppliers or licensors will be liable to you for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive, exemplary, or other damages of any kind, including without limitation damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data or other tangible or intangible losses or any other damages based on contract, tort (including but not limited to negligence), strict liability, or any other theory (even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages), resulting from your use of or inability to use the Service and/or the data; unauthorized access to or alteration of your transmissions or data; any actions we take or fail to take as a result of communications you send us; human errors; viruses; or technical malfunctions. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained herein, our liability to you for any cause whatsoever and regardless of the form of action, will at all times be limited to the amount paid, if any, by you to us for use of the Service over the past twelve (12) months, or one hundred dollars ($100), whichever is greater. Some laws do not allow the limitation or exclusion of liability, so these limits may not apply to you. However, if you are a resident of the State of New Jersey, these limitations and exclusions do apply to you.

If you have a dispute with one or more Users, you release us (and our affiliates and subsidiaries, and our and their respective officers, directors, employees and agents) from claims, demands, and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown, arising out of or in any way connected with such disputes. In entering into this release, you expressly waive any protections (whether statutory or otherwise) that would otherwise limit the coverage of this release to include only those claims which you may know or suspect to exist in your favor at the time of agreeing to this release.

15.Applicable US law

The U.S. Federal Arbitration Act (including its procedural provisions) is the law that will be applied to determine whether Section 15 can be enforced and how it should be interpreted.

Apart from that, if you are a United States resident, these Terms and our relationship will be governed by Californian law, except for its conflicts of laws principles.

16.Venue for legal disputes not subject to arbitration

If you are a United States resident, judicial proceedings that are excluded from the Arbitration Agreement in Section 17 must be brought in state or federal court in San Francisco, California, unless we both agree to some other location. You and BAScic both consent to venue and personal jurisdiction in San Francisco, California.

Privacy Policy

PRIVACY POLICY

1.Introduction

BAScic based in Nairobi Kenya(“BAScic“, “bioafricascience” “we“, “us“, or “our“) provides the services rendered to you through the bioafricascience website available at https://www.bioafricascience.com, and through any of its web pages and associated applications which may be available on multiple devices, including mobile applications (“Service“).

This Privacy Policy sets forth the collection and use practices of BAScic for personal data we process in the course of providing the Service.

Our mission is to connect the African scientific community and make research open to all. Connections can only be established when potential connections and commonalities are known and connecting lines can be drawn. Openness can only be achieved with comprehensive accessibility. Our Service takes your work and activities on the Service into account to help connect you with other individuals who are relevant to you and recommend relevant content. We also gather information from external sources, in order to disseminate as much relevant scientific content as possible to drive science forward. Any natural or legal person who, as a recipient of the Service, accesses or uses the Service for any purpose is a User (“User“, “you“). Our registered Users (“Members“) share their professional identities and credentials, display their academic publications, engage and collaborate with their networks, exchange knowledge and professional insights, post and view relevant content, and discover business and career opportunities. Some content is also visible to unregistered or logged-out Users (“Visitors“). A User could be a Member or a Visitor. An Author (“Author“) is a natural person who, for the purpose of our Service, is a member of the scientific community by for example being an author/editor of a publication, being an advisor or recipient of scientific funding. An Author is not necessarily a User or Member of our Service.

BAScic reserves the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time, in particular, to reflect changes in market conditions affecting BAScic’s activities, changes in technology, changes in relevant laws and regulatory requirements, and changes in BAScic’s system capabilities. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we may notify Members by email or other reasonable means, including through notifications on our Service. If you object to any new version, you should stop using our Service and/or close your account. If you continue to use our Service after having been provided with such notice you will be deemed to have acknowledged the Privacy Policy.

2.Information we process and how we process it

2.1.Basic data processed
Certain data will be processed when you access the Service, to resolve the technical request of your device, display the site and maintain the safety and security of our systems. This data is stored in so-called logs and comprise the following:

• IP addresses and your mobile device’s Identifier for Advertising (IDFA);
• The type of computer or mobile device you are using including operating system and version;
• The types of browser you are using, the language, and your country;
• Referring and exit pages and URLs;
• Platform type;
• The number of clicks on a page or feature, pages viewed and the order of those pages, the amount of time spent on particular pages or parts of pages;
• Domain names and;
• Information collected for performance purposes (e.g. average load, render time of pages, etc.).

Even though IP addresses and mobile identifiers are generally considered personal data, we can not derive any direct conclusions about your identity from such data.
The data processed is very basic data, and does not contain directly identifiable information about you. We have a legitimate interest in being able to provide a functioning, reliable and accessible website and resolve your server-request in an appropriate manner.
All of our pages are secured using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) technology, which encrypts data transmitted between our servers and your end devices. We also apply other suitable technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data.

2.2.Personal data we process

In order to provide you with functionalities, we need to process certain data and/or information relating to you:

• Registration and maintenance of your Member account
  If you choose to create a Member account on our Service, you will be required, during the registration process, to provide your first and last name, username, an email address, and a password. You will receive a confirmation email. Your Member account will be confirmed after you have clicked on the respective link in the account activation email. You may also be invited to associate certain information we present to you with your account, such as articles, institutional affiliation, and biographical information.
• Other personal data
  During the registration process or when updating your profile, you can choose to provide other information that can be used to identify and/or contact you, including for example, a profile picture or your city of residence. You may also be invited or required to provide information about you, including, for example, demographic information, such as occupation, and research vita, education, authorship of articles, academic or research expertise or interests, conferences you have attended, groups of which you are a member, information regarding your professional and academic career, academic degree, your previous roles and jobs.
• Communications with us
  When you communicate with us, you may provide us with your name, contact details, and other personal data as part of your communication, as well as the content of your message itself. Similarly, when we communicate with you, we will process your personal information, such as your email address. For some of our emails, we also process information indicating whether you have opened the email.
• Communications through the Service
  Many communications that you initiate through our Service (e.g. invitation sent to a non-Member) will list your name in the header of the message. Other communications that you initiate through the Service, like a request for a full-text, will list your name as the initiator but will not include your personal email address. Once you have mutually connected with an individual, contact information you choose to include in your researcher profile will be shared with that individual.
• Recommendations
  In order to provide our recommendation features, we process contact and bibliographical data, information pertaining to your work, usage frequency, type of devices you use to use the Service, including browser, operating system and mobile device, research items you consulted, interaction with particular pages or parts of pages, and number of clicks on a page or feature, in order to provide the Service in a way that is tailored to your interests. Also, based on the personal data you provide, statistical evaluations, mathematical operations, and predictions may help us infer other information about you and support our recommendation features. For example, if you were to add several research items to the Service over the course of several years, we may infer that you are not a junior researcher anymore.
• Third party providers
  When you choose to benefit from a service or offer presented by BAScic on behalf of a third party, you may share personal data with BAScic to enable us to pass it on to the third party. The nature of personal data will depend on the particular service or offer, but might include your name, email address and affiliation. We do not share any of this personal data with any third party unless you explicitly allow us to do so.
• Payment data
  If you choose to purchase a premium product or service from BAScic that is subject to a fee, we will process the personal data that you provide in order to complete your order, such as your billing address. BAScic does not process any credit card information itself, however we do retain your name and address so we may generate and send you an invoice. Credit card information is collected and processed by a third-party provider, namely Stripe, Paypal, Flutterwave. These companies process this data as an independent controller to process the payment.
• Security
  We process the number of profile pages users view to detect and prevent data harvesting. We also process your IP address to filter out suspicious requests. If you are a Member, we store your full IP address in connection with your account registration request and your current last login. Otherwise, your login activities are only stored in connection with your truncated IP addresses. Also, we process information about the device, its operating system and the browser you are using for your current session.
• Statistics
  We use activity data, such as number of read publications, projects and number of citations, to generate statistics, which pertain to reading behavior or achievements. For example, we may use such activity data in order to calculate and display a read count on an individual publication page.

3.How we use data we collect about you

The following explanations will provide you with information about how we use the personal data that we collect about you, and our legal basis for doing so.

• to provide and improve our Service;
• to perform internal quality checks;
• to prevent, detect, process and investigate malfunctions, incidents, fraudulent or other illegal activities, or mitigate the risk of occurrence of the aforementioned events;
• to ensure network and information security;
• to create statistics on access channels and the use of our Service;
• to contact you, if requested by you or if necessary to fulfil the contract or permitted by law;
• enforcing obligations owed to us, and contractual terms and conditions and;
• accounting, risk management and record keeping

Also, we may use your data to comply with legal obligations, e.g. to observe retention periods required by trade or tax law or to comply with obligations to disclose data based on a legally binding court decision or official order.

More specifically, we may use your data for the following purposes.

• BAScic account
  The personal data you provide in connection with registering for your Member account will be used to create, maintain, and secure your account. By creating a Member account, you will benefit from functionalities and services that are not available to Visitors. Any personal data you provide in addition to the required data to register for an account, will facilitate your ability to get into contact with other Members, promote yourself and your research.
• Communications
  Depending on the way you are communicating with us, we may use your name, email address, telephone number, and the content of your previous correspondence to respond to you and provide assistance.
• Transactional emails
  Provided you have not opted out from receiving transactional emails from us, we will use your email address to send you emails about relevant developments on the Service concerning for example, your network, new features, publications, projects, updates from the Q&A section, and emails regarding your professional career.
  You can opt out from receiving transactional emails at any time by clicking the “unsubscribe” link within an email where available.
• Sponsored emails
  Where you have provided your prior consent to receiving sponsored emails, we will use your email address to send you such emails. Where legally allowed, we will also use your email address to send you sponsored emails without your prior consent.
  In any case, you can opt out from receiving sponsored emails at any time by clicking the “unsubscribe” link within an email.
• Ensure the security of your personal data
  We process your personal data in order to avoid its accidental or unlawful destruction, as well as its loss, alteration, or unauthorised disclosure.
• Generate statistics
  We use your personal data to generate statistics which pertain to reading/search behavior and achievements. We also generate statistics for internal purposes in order to constantly improve the Service and its features. We also conduct research and development to maintain quality and improve our Service and the User experience.

4.How we use relevant publicly available data

We also process personal data relating to Authors that is publicly available and relevant for our Service.

We may obtain a variety of information about Authors from publicly available sources, such as information regarding previous research published, the publication itself (including personal data too) and other functions or references of an Author related to a publication. We may also process information related to an Author, to create a record of their body of scientific contributions, or that might help understand professional connections between Authors and Members. Where an Author’s scientific work was publicly or privately funded, we may also process this publicly available information.

When we collect publicly available materials we do not have a way to ensure that personal data in such materials has been processed in accordance with the applicable laws. However, if you notify us that your personal data contained in such materials is inaccurate or has been processed in violation of applicable data protection laws, we may delete it upon verification of your identity.

The public data processed may be associated with an account when an Author chooses to become a Member.

• The data processed is publicly available data. Also, the data processed has to be processed to provide a correct and complete scientific picture. Our legitimate interest is to provide a comprehensive and accurate repository of scientific work, contributions and success. Without processing additional public data, we could not achieve these aims. Furthermore, since we offer the possibility to connect this data with an account, we provide Members a convenient way to establish an account that is as complete as possible, without the effort of manually adding the information themselves.

5.Information we process when using technologies like cookies and pixels

We and service providers acting on our behalf store log files and use tracking technologies such as cookies, web beacons, tracking pixels, and local shared objects, also known as flash cookies, to collect information relating to you and your use of the Service.

5.1.Basics
“Cookies” are small files that enable us to store and collect specific information related to you and your use of the Service on your computer or other end devices. They help us to analyse the number of people who use the Service, usage frequency, User behaviour and advertising effectiveness, to increase security and to tailor our Service and advertisements to your needs and preferences.

• This website uses so-called “session cookies” which after your session on the website session ends, will automatically be deleted.
• This website also uses “persistent cookies” to record information about repeat Users of the Service. Persistent cookies are designed to help us continually improve the products and services we offer you and to ensure the quality of our services. “Persistent cookies” remain for a certain pre-defined period of time and are recognized by us when you return to the Service (or one of our partner sites).
• You can edit the settings of your browser to prevent cookies from being stored, to limit the storage of cookies to certain websites, or such that your browser informs you every time a cookie is sent. You can also delete cookies at any time. However, please note that if cookies are deactivated you will not be able to take advantage of some of BAScic’s features. For specific help on how to delete Cookies with the help of your browser, please consult respective help sections, such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Safari.

6.Third party services for analytics, measurement and ad delivery

6.1.Google Services
Google Analytics: We use Google Analytics to evaluate the usage behaviour on our Service. Google Analytics is a web analysis service provided by Google Ireland Ltd, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland. For this web analysis service, Google uses cookies on our website to systematically evaluate the interactions of Users on our Service. The information generated by the cookie about the use of our Service by the user (e.g. truncated IP address, website currently visited, referrer, duration of stay, and frequency of the call of the website) is transferred to a Google server in Ireland. In addition, a transfer of the data to another Google server in the USA is possible. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the Service, compiling reports on website activity for us, and providing other services relating to website activity and Internet usage. The processed data can be used to create pseudonymous user profiles of Users. The data is deleted after 26 months. By activating IP anonymization on our website, your IP address is truncated before it is forwarded within the member states of the European Union or other states party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will your full IP address be forwarded to a Google server in Ireland and possibly the USA and shortened there. Google will not combine your IP address collected via Google Analytics with other data that Google holds. Google has subjected itself to the US Privacy Shield.
In addition, each of the following services is provided by Google Ireland Ltd, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland. You can opt out from the following Google services using this link:

• Google Tag Manager is a solution that allows us to manage website tags through one interface. The Tag Manager itself is a cookie-less domain and does not collect personal data. The tool triggers other tags that may collect personal data. Google Tag Manager does not access this data.
• We use Google DV 360, including the tool “Display & Video” to be able to recognize you on third-party websites. For this purpose, the Google Display & Video 360 will place cookies on your device which will enable recognition of you in the Google advertising network. We are subsequently able to present you advertisements on the basis of your surfing behaviour on third-party platforms. This service also enables us to evaluate delivered advertisements and optimize them.
• Google Ad Manager enables the control and optimization of advertisements on our Service. It also helps to create campaign performance reports and prevents advertisements being displayed to you multiple times. Google Ad Manager also uses cookies for this purpose.

7.Recipients and safeguards

7.1.Recipients
BAScic does not sell any of your personal data. The personal data that BAScic collects from you and that you provide to BAScic is processed in Kenya and stored on servers in America. Some of your personal data is accessible to other Users of our platform who may, for example, visit your publication pages or profile. Your personal data may also be transferred to third parties as described in this Privacy Policy and where applicable to those third parties listed in our consent modal. 

These parties might be advertisers or companies that help us disseminate advertisements, measure the performance of our advertisements and/or analyse your use of the Service. These third parties will not receive data that directly personally identifies you. The data shared is limited to identifiers such as IP addresses and cookie IDs. Your name, email address, and other directly identifying data will only be shared with third parties if you explicitly allow us to share this data.

We may also disclose personal data in response to legal process or when the law requires it (for example, in response to a court order) or, to the extent permitted by applicable law, to protect the rights, property, or safety of BAScic, the Service, Users of the Service (including you), and others.

We may use third party service providers, in particular for technical and business services, tax advisors and legal counsel. These service providers receive personal data solely for the performance of their services for us on our behalf. They are contractually obliged not to use personal data for other purposes.

7.2.Safeguards
Some of the third parties with whom your personal data will be shared are located outside of the Kenya, in countries whose data protection laws may not be as extensive as those which apply to us. If we transfer your personal data to countries outside of Kenya or which do not offer adequate and similar protection, we will ensure that we do this in accordance with applicable data protection regulations. We will do this with a view to ensuring that the level of protection applied to the processing of your personal data in these countries is similar to that applied within the European Economic Area.

8.Closing your account and retention of personal data

For Members, we generally store their personal data as long as their account is active.

If you have created an account, you can close it yourself in your ‘Account Settings’. If you request that we close your account for you, we might ask for proof of identity before doing so.

We may also close inactive accounts or accounts that are used in violation of our Terms & Conditions or any applicable law.

Immediately after closing an account, it will not be accessible/visible anymore. Please note that closing an account is irreversible.

For Members, we will retain personal data from closed or inactive accounts to the extent and as long as it is necessary and relevant for our operations and/or to comply with law, prevent fraud, collect any fees owed, resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, enforce our Terms & Condition and/or take other actions otherwise permitted by law.

In general, personal data from closed or inactive accounts will be deleted or anonymised from our system backups one year after the account is closed or deactivated.

We only keep personal data for the time strictly necessary in order to enable the use of our Service and/or to fulfil the purposes identified above, and/or to comply with any legal or regulatory obligations. In all other cases, we delete your personal data with the exception of such data that we are required to retain for the purpose of contractual or statutory (e.g., taxation or commercial law) retention periods. In particular, we keep payment and invoice related information or support inquiries to the extent required by trade and tax law for the statutory retention periods (ten, respectively six years).

9.Automated decision-making

We do not engage in automated individual decision-making, including profiling.

10.Data subject rights

In addition to your rights to withdraw any consent you may have granted or exercise any opt out option we provide, you may be entitled to exercise some or all of the following rights:

• Right of access by the data subject. In particular, you can obtain information about the purposes of processing, categories of personal data, categories of recipients to whom your data has been or will be disclosed, planned storage period, and origin of your data if it was not collected directly from you.
• Right to correct inaccurate personal data or complete incomplete data.
• Right to obtain deletion of your personal data stored with us, subject to legal or contractual retention periods or other legal obligations or rights which must be observed.
• Right to restrict the processing of your personal data in the event that: you contest the accuracy of the data; the processing is unlawful but you oppose its deletion; we no longer need the personal data for the purposes of the processing but you need it for your assertion; it may be relevant to the exercise or defense of legal claims; or you have lodged an objection to the processing.
• Right to data portability, to receive the stored personal data concerning you in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format or request the transfer of this data to another responsible party.
• Right to lodge a complaint with your competent supervisory authority. Your competent authority is the authority at your usual place of residence or the authority competent for us.

You have the right to object to all types of processing, based on grounds relating to your particular situation. To the extent we process your personal data pursuant for direct marketing purposes, you can object to such processing at any time without giving a particular reason.

You may (i) exercise the rights referred to above or (ii) pose any questions or (iii) make any complaints regarding data processing by contacting using the method below.

11.Contact information

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please email our Data Protection Officer at info@bioafricascience.com