Privacy Policy

The Ethiopian Economics Association (EEA, "we", "us") runs this membership platform at membership.eea-et.org. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. We handle personal information in line with Ethiopian law, including the Personal Data Protection Proclamation No. 1321/2024.

1. Information we collect

When you join, renew or use the platform, we collect:

• Account and contact details: your name, email address, phone number, gender, and city or town of residence.
• Professional and academic details: your title, highest qualification, area of specialization, institutional affiliation, academic rank, thesis title, research outputs and work experience.
• Documents you upload: your photo for the membership ID card, copies of diplomas or academic documents, student ID cards and, for institutions, registration certificates and logos.
• Membership records: your membership level, member number, join date, renewal and expiry dates, and your membership history, including records from the Association's earlier membership system.
• Payment records: amounts, dates, invoices, payment references and bank transfer slips. Card and mobile-money payments are processed by our payment provider, Chapa; we do not receive or store your card number.
• What you add to the community: your community profile and links, messages, group posts, reports, nominations, opportunity applications and questions you ask the Research Assistant.
• Technical information: sign-in cookies that keep you logged in, the last time you were active, and the IP address and browser details recorded in our server logs.

2. How we use your information

• To run your membership: process applications and payments, issue invoices and receipts, renew memberships and send your digital ID card or certificate.
• To confirm your membership to others: anyone who scans the QR code on your ID card sees your name, photo, membership level, member number and whether your membership is current.
• To communicate with you about your membership, renewals, events, trainings, publications, nominations, elections and the Association's work.
• To provide member services such as the Statistical Database, the resource library, the community and the Research Assistant.
• To improve our services and keep the platform secure.

3. Questionnaires and surveys

We may email you questionnaires and surveys, for example about your membership, our events and services, or the Association's research. Taking part is always voluntary.

4. Messages from our partners

We may send you information and promotional messages on behalf of the Association's partners, such as events, trainings, publications, scholarships and other opportunities we think are relevant to members. We send these ourselves; we do not sell your personal information or give partners your contact details without your consent. You can stop receiving partner messages at any time by writing to info@eea-et.org.

5. Photos and videos at our events

We take photos and videos at EEA events, conferences and trainings. These may be published on our websites and on our social media channels, including Telegram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X and YouTube, and in our publications. If you would rather not appear, please tell the photographer at the event or write to info@eea-et.org and we will remove the photo where we can.

6. Information other people can see

• Other members can see your community profile. You choose what it shows and whether other members can find you.
• The public can see the details on your ID card's verification page (see section 2). The Association may also feature selected members' names, photos, titles and fields on the platform's home page; you can ask us to remove you at any time.
• Nominations you make in an election are seen only by the Association's administrators and its nominating committee.

7. Who we share your information with

We use trusted service providers to run the platform and to communicate with members. They handle your information only to provide their service to us:

• Telecommunication providers, such as Ethio Telecom, to send SMS messages.
• Email services, including bulk email services, to deliver our emails.
• Chapa, to process online payments.
• Hosting and cloud providers, including our server host and Google, which stores files you upload with opportunity applications.
• AI service providers, which process the questions you type into the Research Assistant so it can answer them. Please do not include personal or sensitive information in those questions.

We may also share information when the law requires it, or with the Association's auditors and governing bodies when needed for their work. We never sell your personal information.

8. How long we keep your information

We keep your information for as long as you are a member. After your membership ends, we keep your basic membership and payment records for the Association's history and for as long as financial and legal rules require. You can ask us to delete your account; we then remove your personal details, but we keep payment records without your name where the law requires us to.

9. How we protect your information

The platform uses encrypted connections (HTTPS), stores passwords and secret keys in encrypted form, limits repeated sign-in attempts and is backed up regularly. Only authorised Association staff can see member records. No system is completely secure, so please keep your password private and tell us straight away if you think your account has been misused.

10. Cookies

We use cookies that are needed to keep you signed in and to remember your language and display choices. If we add website analytics, we will tell you here and use it only to understand how the platform is used.

11. Your rights

You can ask us to:

• see the personal information we hold about you;
• correct information that is wrong or out of date;
• delete your account and personal information, subject to section 8;
• stop sending you partner and promotional messages;
• withdraw any consent you have given us.

Write to info@eea-et.org. You can also update most of your details yourself in your dashboard.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top shows when it last changed. If we make an important change, we will tell members by email or on the platform.

13. Contact us

Ethiopian Economics Association
Lemi Kura Sub-city, Woreda 13, CMC area adjacent to St. Michael Church
P.O. Box 34282, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Email: info@eea-et.org · Phone: +251 11 645 3329 / +251 11 645 3200