Privacy policy

Who we are

Ankos is run by cannykaystudios in Ghana. In this policy, "we" and "us" mean Ankos. "Group" means a masquerade group or a band that uses Ankos.

You can reach us at ankos.org@gmail.com. We follow Ghana’s Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843).

Who is responsible for what

For your Ankos account (your name, email, phone number, password and sign in records), Ankos decides how the data is used. We are the controller.

For a group’s member records (applications, membership details, dues records, events and posts), the group decides what is collected and why. Ankos stores that information and works on the group’s behalf. We are the processor for the group. The group’s officers are responsible for how they use it.

What we collect

• Your account: name, email and or phone number, and your password. We store the password in scrambled (hashed) form, so nobody at Ankos can read it. If you sign in by phone, we send a code by SMS.
• Sign in records: a session for each device you are signed in on, with the device type and internet address, so we can keep accounts safe.
• When you join a group or band: your photo (required), full name, date of birth, gender, shirt and trouser sizes, phone, email, your town and branch, and anything you add about your experience or notes.
• For children under 12: a guardian’s name, phone number and relationship to the child. Children of any age can join, and a guardian is needed under 12.
• Membership card: your membership number and a QR code. When someone scans a card, it shows whether the card is real and active. Officers can check members in to events.
• Dues records: when you tell the app you have paid your branch or group by MoMo, we keep the amount, the transaction ID, the date, an optional screenshot you add, and what the treasurer confirmed or declined.
• Posts and activity: what you post, who you follow, claps and reports.
• Your location, only in the live map situation described below.
• Your phone’s notification address (a push token) if you allow notifications.

What officers can see

When you apply to a group or band, its officers see your application and the details above so they can approve you and manage membership. Officers only see what their role needs, for example a treasurer sees dues and a branch officer sees their branch. Officers who check members in can see that a card is valid.

Please remember that your group is a separate organisation. Ask them if you want to know how they use your details.

Dues and money

Ankos never receives or holds anyone’s money. Members pay their branch or group directly by MoMo. Ankos only records what members say they paid and what treasurers confirm.

Groups can buy a Season Pass from Ankos, paid by MoMo to Ankos. For that we keep a record of the payment the group tells us about.

The live map and your location

During a group’s outings (an event, or when an officer starts the live map), phones of members who allowed location share it in the background. This only happens inside those times, and your phone shows its normal location indicator while it does.

Ankos shows only one point per group, where most of its members are together. Individual members are never shown, listed or sent to anyone, not even to officers.

Raw locations are deleted within 24 hours. The group’s route (the trail of group points) is kept for up to 48 hours. We never keep a history of one person’s movements.

You can switch this off at any time in your phone’s settings (Location for Ankos). If you do, you are simply not counted.

To show a street name, we look up the group point (never a person’s location) with OpenStreetMap Nominatim. Map pictures come from OpenFreeMap.

Messages and notifications

We tell you things inside the app. Depending on the group and your settings we may also send email (through Resend), SMS (through Arkesel) and phone push notifications (through the Expo push service, and Apple and Google, who deliver them).

In Settings you choose which phone alert topics you want. Security messages, such as sign in codes and password resets, are always sent.

Who else handles your data

• Cloudflare runs our servers, database and file storage. Cloudflare may store data outside Ghana.
• Resend (email), Arkesel (SMS) and Expo, Apple and Google (push notifications) receive only what is needed to deliver a message to you.
• OpenStreetMap Nominatim and OpenFreeMap, as described above. They never receive a person’s location.
• Our web pages load fonts and some page code from outside servers (such as Google Fonts and public code libraries), which can see your device’s internet address, as with most websites.

No ads, no selling, no tracking

We do not show ads, we do not sell your data, and we do not track you across other apps or websites. The Ankos app has no advertising or analytics tools in it. On the web we use only the cookies needed to keep you signed in and remember your light or dark choice.

How long we keep things

• Raw live locations: within 24 hours. Group routes: up to 48 hours.
• Your account and a group’s member records: for as long as the account or membership exists, and after that only as long as the group or the law needs them.
• Dues and payment records stay with the group’s records, because treasurers and groups need them.

Deleting your account

In the app, go to Settings and choose Delete account. You can also write to us at the address below and we will do it for you.

When you delete your account, it happens straight away and cannot be undone. Your name, email, phone number and password are erased, you are signed out everywhere, and we remove your phone notification address, alert choices, follows, claps, live map locations, notifications and any officer roles. Applications you sent that were still waiting are removed.

Each group or band you belonged to keeps only a bare record that you were a member: your name, membership number, branch, dates and any dues already recorded, because groups need these for their own books. Your photo, date of birth, gender, contact details, sizes and guardian details are erased from those records, your card stops working and the membership becomes inactive.

If you want even that bare record removed, write to us and to the group. Where a group has a legal reason to keep it, we will tell you.

Your rights

Under the Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843), you can ask to see the information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, and object to how it is used. Write to us at the address below and we will reply.

If you are not happy with our answer, you can complain to Ghana’s Data Protection Commission.

Children

Children of any age can join a group, and a guardian is needed under 12. A parent or guardian can write to us to see or delete a child’s data. Please write from the guardian’s phone number or email that the group has on record, so we can check it is you.

Keeping data safe

Passwords are hashed, files such as member photos are kept private, and officers only see what their role allows. No system is perfect, so if something goes wrong that affects you, we will tell you and the Data Protection Commission as the law asks.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will put the new version here with a new date. For big changes we will also tell you in the app.

Contact us

Write to ankos.org@gmail.com. Ankos is run by cannykaystudios in Ghana.