What we collect, and why
- Your questions
- To answer them, and to count what Nigerians ask about. Kept until 31 December 2027, when they will be reviewed. Names, phone numbers, email addresses, addresses, and account and ID numbers in a question are blanked out before it is answered or stored, and a question containing bank account details is not answered. Offensive words are masked.
- Your general location
- The state your network connects from, worked out from your internet address. Never your exact location. Your internet address itself is kept only in our server logs, for 14 days, for security.
- Your language
- To answer you in it. We count languages for the whole country only, never by state.
- A browser identifier
- A random number in a cookie, used only to apply the daily limit of questions. It says nothing about you.
- Voice questions
- The recording is turned into text by a speech service and then discarded. We never keep recordings.
- Your email address, only if you give it
- To email you once when your question is answered. Then deleted, at the latest after 90 days.
- Your WhatsApp number, only if you give it
- To send you the answer on WhatsApp when your question is answered. Kept encrypted; the link to your question is deleted at the latest after 90 days, and the number itself once the answer has been sent and 30 days have passed since your last message. Reply STOP on WhatsApp at any time.
- Your phone number — only if you join the call list
- So that Atiku Abubakar or his team can call you, personally or on a Town Hall day. Used for nothing else, kept encrypted, and removed when you ask (on the Talk to Atiku page) or when the campaign ends. If you also tell us your state, or that you are outside Nigeria, it is kept with your number to plan calls and Town Hall days near you, and removed with it.
- Survey answers — only if you choose to answer
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After some answers we ask up to four optional questions: your age band, gender, occupation and state (and, if you wish, your local government area). Every question has “Prefer not to say”, nothing is chosen for you, and skipping the survey changes nothing about your answer. We take your answers only after you tick the box confirming you understand how they are used.
How they are used. Each answer adds one to a count, for the topic your question was about. The campaign uses these counts for two purposes: to report which groups of people ask about which topics, and to plan what Atiku Abubakar and the campaign explain next. That second purpose is campaign planning, and we tell you so here and in the box you tick.
What is kept. Only the counts. Your survey answers are never stored with your question, with each other, or with your language, phone number or internet address, so they cannot be traced back to you. Counts by language and place together are never produced.
Your choices. You can decline every time, or choose “Don’t ask me again”. Because nothing links a submitted answer to you, a count cannot be withdrawn after you send it.
- Suggestions
- Read by the campaign team; the ideas raised most are summarised for Atiku Abubakar. Nothing about you is kept with them.
- WhatsApp, SMS and Messenger
- Your phone number or account identifier, kept encrypted, only to reply to you. A WhatsApp number is deleted 30 days after your last message, unless an answer you are waiting for has not been sent yet; then it is deleted once it has. Send STOP to stop.
What we never do
- Sell or rent your information.
- Guess your age, gender, tribe or religion. We only ever ask, and you may skip.
- Show your identity to the candidate or the campaign team, except your number on the call list, which you asked for.
- Combine your language with where you are.
How answers are prepared
These answers are prepared by computer from Atiku Abubakar's own words and plans, and show where each comes from.
Who else handles your information
Only what each needs, under contract:
- Hosting and storing the platform.
- Preparing and translating answers.
- Turning voice questions into text, and reading answers aloud.
- Security and delivery of the website, and counting visits.
- Sending email, SMS and Messenger messages.
On WhatsApp, your messages also pass through WhatsApp, under its own terms. Members of the Ask Atiku team read and answer WhatsApp messages: they see your message with personal details blanked out, and your number only to reply to you. A message is removed from their list two days after it is answered.
Some of these companies process information outside Nigeria.
Cookies
- aa_session: keeps your visit working; ends when you close the browser.
- aa_lang: remembers your language, for a year.
- aa_dev: the browser identifier for the daily limit, for a year.
Your light or dark display choice stays in your browser. We use no advertising or tracking cookies.
We count visits with web analytics that use no cookies and does not identify you: it tells us how many people visit which pages, and from which kind of device. If you tell us whether an answer helped, only the count is kept, never who answered.
Your rights
You may ask to see, correct or delete information about you, object to its use, or withdraw a consent you gave. Contact us at [email protected]. You may also complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission.
Changes
If we change this notice, we will update it here and change the date at the top.