Privacy Policy

South Sudanese Equatorian Community of Dallas-Fort Worth (SSEC DFW)
Last Updated: March 20, 2026

The South Sudanese Equatorian Community of Dallas-Fort Worth ("SSEC DFW," "we," "us," or "our") respects the privacy of our members and website visitors. This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, how we protect it and your rights regarding that information.

1. Information We Collect

a. Membership Registration

When you register for membership, we collect:

Full name, date of birth and gender
Email address and phone number
Residential address (street, city, state, ZIP code, country)
Tribe, clan, marital status and profession
Spouse nationality and name (if applicable)
Number and names of children (if applicable)

b. Contact Form

When you contact us through the website, we collect your name, email address and message content.

c. Newsletter

When you subscribe to our newsletter, we collect your email address.

d. Donations

When you make a donation, we collect your name, email address, donation amount and payment method selection. Payment processing is handled by third-party providers (such as Stripe or PayPal), and we do not store your full credit card or bank account details.

e. Elections & Voting

If you participate in community elections, we record your vote to ensure one vote per member per position. Votes are linked to your membership record to prevent duplication but are not publicly displayed with identifying information.

f. Live Events & Chat

When you access live events, we verify your membership code. If you participate in live chat, your display name and messages are visible to other attendees during the event.

g. Automatically Collected Information

Our website may automatically collect standard technical information such as your browser type, IP address and pages visited through server logs and session cookies required for site functionality.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

Membership management — processing registrations, issuing membership codes and tracking membership status
Communication — sending membership confirmations, newsletters, event announcements and responding to inquiries
Community programs — facilitating elections, live events and community activities
Internal reporting — generating aggregated, anonymized reports on membership demographics (such as distribution by city, age group, or profession) to support community planning
Website operation — maintaining session state, authenticating users and ensuring site security

3. How We Protect Your Information

We take data protection seriously and implement the following safeguards:

Administrative passwords are stored using industry-standard one-way hashing (bcrypt) and are never stored in plain text
Admin access to member data in reports is masked by default — sensitive fields such as last names, membership codes, email addresses, phone numbers, ages and cities are obscured and require explicit action to reveal
Administrative actions are logged in an audit trail for accountability
Session data is transmitted over HTTPS with secure, HTTP-only cookies
Anti-forgery tokens are used on all forms to prevent cross-site request forgery

4. Information Sharing

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties. We may share information only in the following limited circumstances:

Payment processors — donation transactions are processed by third-party payment providers (e.g., Stripe, PayPal) subject to their own privacy policies
Email delivery — we use SMTP services to send newsletters and notifications
Legal requirements — if required by law, court order, or governmental regulation

5. Cookies & Session Data

Our website uses essential cookies and server-side sessions to:

Keep you logged in during your visit (admin and live event sessions)
Remember site preferences
Protect against cross-site request forgery

We do not use third-party advertising or analytics cookies. Sessions expire after 30 minutes of inactivity.

6. Your Rights & Choices

You have the following rights regarding your personal information:

Access & correction — you may view and update your membership information through the "Update My Info" page, or by contacting us directly
Membership code retrieval — you may retrieve your membership code using the "My Membership Code" page with your registered email
Newsletter unsubscribe — every newsletter email contains an unsubscribe link to opt out at any time
Data deletion — you may request deletion of your personal data by contacting us at the email address below. We will process your request within a reasonable timeframe, subject to any legal obligations to retain certain records

7. Data Retention

We retain your membership data for as long as your membership is active and for a reasonable period afterward for administrative and community record-keeping purposes. Contact messages and audit logs are retained for operational purposes. You may request early deletion as described above.

8. Children's Privacy

Our membership registration may include children's names and dates of birth as part of a family membership. This information is provided by the parent or guardian and is used solely for membership record-keeping. We do not knowingly collect information directly from children under 13.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with a revised "Last Updated" date. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

10. Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or your personal data, please contact us: