Privacy policy
What Acad collects when you join the waitlist, why, how long we keep it, and how to have it removed.
Last updated 31 October 2026
Who we are
Acad is a communication platform for Rwandan universities, designed and built in Kigali, Rwanda. In this policy, "Acad", "we" and "us" means the team that runs acad.rw and the Acad waitlist. For the personal data described here, we are the data controller under Rwanda's Law No. 058/2021 of 13/10/2021 relating to the protection of personal data and privacy.
You can reach us at hello@acad.rw.
What this policy covers
This policy covers this website and its waitlist form. It does not describe the Acad app, which will have its own policy before it opens to the public.
What we collect
| Data | How we get it |
|---|---|
| Full name | You type it into the form. |
| Email address | You type it into the form. |
| University | You type it into the form. |
| Role | You choose student, lecturer or university staff. |
| Phone number | Optional. You type it only if you want to. |
| Sign-up time and source | The time you submitted the form, and, if the link you followed carried one, a short label saying which link it was. |
| IP address and browser identifier | Sent automatically when you submit the form. Used only to detect and block spam and abuse. |
What we do not collect. This website sets no cookies, runs no analytics, loads no advertising or tracking scripts, and serves its fonts from its own server rather than from a third party. Visiting the page without submitting the form leaves nothing with us beyond the ordinary technical logs of our hosting and network provider.
Why we use it
- To keep your place on the list and to contact you when Acad opens at your campus. Our legal basis is your consent, which you give by submitting the form.
- To see where interest is concentrated, by counting sign-ups per university and per role, so that we know which campuses to open first.
- To talk to universities. If you are a lecturer or member of staff, we may write to you about a pilot at your institution.
- To protect the form from abuse. The IP address and browser identifier are used for this and for nothing else.
We do not use your details for advertising, we do not sell them, and we do not make decisions about you by automated means.
Who sees it
Only the Acad operators who need the list to do the work above. We share your details with no one else. We may quote totals, such as how many students from a university are on the waitlist, to that university or in conversation. We never share names, emails or phone numbers.
We use infrastructure providers to host this website, to protect it from attack and to store the waitlist. They process data on our instructions and for no purpose of their own.
How long we keep it
- Waitlist entries (name, email, university, role, phone, sign-up time and source): for up to 24 months after you join, or until you ask us to delete them, whichever comes first.
- IP address and browser identifier: deleted 90 days after you join.
Your rights, and how to use them
Under Law No. 058/2021 you can ask us to show you the data we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, to stop using it, and you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing consent does not affect anything we did before.
To use any of these rights, write to hello@acad.rw from the email address you signed up with, or message us on WhatsApp and tell us which email address to look for. We answer within 30 days. A deletion removes your entry from the waitlist entirely.
If you believe we have handled your data unlawfully, you also have the right to complain to Rwanda's data protection supervisory authority.
Security
The form sends your details to our server over an encrypted HTTPS connection. Access to the waitlist is limited to named Acad operators, and most of them can only read it. Removing an entry is a deliberate action reserved for the operators who handle deletion requests.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top of this page. If a change affects how we use details you already gave us, we will not apply it to your entry without asking you first.
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