Privacy and Data Protection Policy

1Summary at a glance

ACW only receives the data it needs to report the news, verify reports and protect people. We never sell data and never use it for advertising.

• You do not need to identify yourself or create an account to read our news.
• ACW uses no advertising trackers such as Google Analytics or the Facebook Pixel.
• Visitor statistics are recorded only with your consent, on ACW's own server, and IP addresses are anonymised before storage.
• The identities of people who report to us and of our sources are kept apart from their reports and are never published without their clear consent.
• Each kind of data is kept only as long as it is needed. Section 9 sets out the retention period for each.
• You have the right to see, correct or ask us to delete your data.

2Scope of this policy and who is responsible

This policy covers the websites acwnews.org and afghanchristianwatch.org, our email newsletter, news alerts, the report, testimony and prayer request forms, and any correspondence with ACW.

The data controller is Afghanistan Christian Watch (ACW), an independent news agency and human rights monitoring organisation. ACW follows the standards of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) when processing personal data.

For any question or request about your data, write to: contact@afghanchristianwatch.org

3The data we receive

ACW deliberately collects as little data as possible. The table below lists every kind of data that may reach us:

Reports and testimonies may reveal a person's religious belief or security situation. ACW holds this information under the highest level of protection.

4Purposes and legal basis

ACW never uses your data for targeted advertising, sells it to others, or builds advertising profiles.

5Protecting sources and people who report to us

Many of the people who contact ACW live in Afghanistan or in high-risk situations. ACW therefore commits to the following:

• The identity of a person who reports to us is stored separately from the report, and only a small number of senior team members can access it.
• No name, face, place of residence or other identifying detail is published without that person's clear and informed consent.
• In high-risk reports, details such as district, occupation or family relationships are removed or changed.
• ACW does not give the identity of its confidential sources to any government, official or group, and uses every legal means to resist any demand for disclosure.

To protect yourself further, please consider the following:

1. Use a safe deviceUse a phone or computer that other people cannot access.
2. Share only what is neededYou do not need to use your real name. Only send details that identify you if they are essential.
3. Clear your tracesAfter sending, clear your browser history and messages. Photos can contain location data; switch it off before sending.
4. Immediate dangerACW is not an emergency service. If you are in immediate danger, contact a trusted relief or protection organisation first.

To send a report or contact us confidentially, please use our secure contact page.

6Cookies and visitor statistics

Without your consent, ACW only uses the cookies that are essential for the site to work securely. Every other category is switched on only with your consent and can be changed at any time.

If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, all non-essential categories stay switched off automatically.

Open cookie settings

7Sharing data with others

ACW does not sell your data or give it to advertisers. We use a small number of service providers to run the site. They access data only as far as necessary and only on ACW's instructions:

• Server hostingCloud infrastructure in the European Union; technical storage only, with no right to use the data.
• Email deliveryThe service that sends our newsletter and email confirmation messages.
• Browser alertsYour browser maker's push service (such as Google, Mozilla or Apple) delivers the encrypted message to your device.
• DonationsPayPal, a bank or a digital currency network, depending on the method you choose. Digital currency transactions are recorded on a public network that anyone can see.
• Social mediaWhen you interact with ACW's pages on Facebook, Instagram, X, Telegram or YouTube, that platform's own privacy policy applies.

ACW gives data to authorities only when clearly required by law. In that case we check that the request is valid, disclose the minimum possible, and tell you unless the law forbids it.

8International transfers

ACW's servers are located in the European Union. Some service providers, such as email, browser alert and social media services, may process data outside the European Union. In those cases ACW chooses providers that apply recognised safeguards, such as the European Union's Standard Contractual Clauses.

9How long we keep data

10Data security

• All connections to ACW's websites are encrypted with HTTPS.
• Passwords are stored only in one-way encrypted (hashed) form, and nobody, including the ACW team, can see them.
• Access to sensitive data is role-based and given only to people who need it for their work.
• ACW team members and partners are bound by confidentiality.
• If a security breach puts your rights at risk, ACW will inform the people affected and, where required, the supervisory authority as quickly as possible and within 72 hours.

11Your rights and how to make a request

You have the following rights over your data:

• Access: find out what data ACW holds about you and receive a copy.
• Correction: have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected.
• Deletion: ask for your data to be deleted.
• Restriction or objection: restrict or object to the processing of your data.
• Portability: receive the data you gave us in a usable format.
• Withdrawing consent: withdraw any consent you have given, at any time.

1. Send a requestEmail contact@afghanchristianwatch.org with the subject "Privacy request" and tell us what you would like.
2. Identity checkACW will only ask for the minimum information needed to make sure the request comes from you.
3. ResponseWe will respond within 30 days, free of charge.

If you are not satisfied with ACW's response, you have the right to complain to the data protection supervisory authority in the country where you live.

12Children, external links and changes to this policy

• ACW's services are not designed for children under 16, and ACW does not knowingly collect their data. If such data reaches us, it is deleted.
• ACW's websites link to other sites. ACW is not responsible for those sites' privacy policies.
• This policy is reviewed once a year and whenever ACW's working methods change. Every significant change is recorded on this page with a date and a new version number.

Version 1.0, 21 October 2026: replaces the previous ACW privacy statement.