Privacy Policy

EastNet Media respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect when you use https://eastnetmedia.online, why we collect it, how long we keep it, and the choices available to you.

This policy applies to visitors, newsletter subscribers, contact-form users, commenters, story contributors, and members of the newsroom who access the website.

1. Information we collect

We collect information directly from you when you choose to provide it and limited technical information needed to operate and protect the service:

• Contact and tips: your name, email address, subject, and message when you use the contact form or send us a news tip, correction, complaint, or rights request.
• Newsletter: your email address and optional name when you subscribe. Subscription records are used to send the newsletter and process unsubscribe requests.
• Comments and reactions: information you submit, including your display name, email address, comment, and technical information such as an IP address used for moderation and spam prevention.
• Newsroom accounts: account details, profile information, login activity, and security records for authorised users. Passwords are stored as one-way hashes and are never shown in plain text.
• Technical information: IP address, browser and device type, referring page, pages requested, timestamps, and error information. This helps us maintain the website and investigate abuse.

Please do not send us sensitive personal information through public forms, including passwords, payment-card details, medical records, or identity-document copies.

2. How we use information

We use information for the following purposes:

• publishing, correcting, moderating, and distributing editorial content;
• responding to enquiries, tips, complaints, corrections, and rights requests;
• delivering newsletters and managing subscriptions;
• protecting the website, preventing abuse, and securing staff accounts;
• understanding broad site performance so we can improve navigation and readability; and
• complying with legal obligations and enforcing our Terms of Use.

We do not sell or rent personal information. We do not use reader information for unrelated marketing, and we do not knowingly build advertising profiles from information submitted to our newsroom forms.

3. Cookies and local storage

We use a limited number of cookies and browser-storage features to keep the site functional:

• Session cookie: maintains a secure session for newsroom staff and helps protect forms with anti-fraud tokens.
• Theme preference: remembers whether you selected light or dark mode.
• Cookie choice: remembers your cookie-banner preference.

If you play or follow embedded content from YouTube, or visit links to Facebook, X, Instagram, Telegram, or another external service, that provider may use its own cookies and technologies. Their use is governed by their own privacy policies, not this policy.

4. Sharing and disclosure

We do not share personal information with third parties for their own marketing. We may share limited information when reasonably necessary to:

• process a newsletter or an unsubscribe request;
• host or secure the website and its content;
• respond to a valid legal, court, or regulatory request;
• protect the rights, safety, and integrity of EastNet Media, our staff, readers, or the public; or
• publish a correction, clarification, or attribution where necessary.

We may disclose information when required by law or when disclosure is necessary to protect people from harm. We will limit disclosures to what is reasonably required.

5. Public comments and submissions

If you comment, submit a photo, video, story tip, or other material, you grant EastNet Media a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to review, publish, display, reproduce, and distribute that material for editorial and related website purposes. You confirm that you have the right to submit it and that doing so does not infringe another person’s rights.

We may edit submissions for clarity, safety, length, or house style. We may delay, reject, or remove material that is unlawful, misleading, offensive, defamatory, or unrelated to our editorial purpose. Publication does not create a professional relationship between you and EastNet Media.

6. How long we keep information

We keep information only as long as reasonably needed for the purpose collected, including:

• newsletter records while your subscription is active and for a reasonable period afterward;
• contact and submission records while we respond or retain an editorial record;
• comments while they are displayed, moderated, or retained for a limited archive; and
• security logs for a short period to investigate abuse and protect the service.

When information is no longer needed, we delete it, anonymise it, or retain only what is required by law or legitimate newsroom-recordkeeping practice.

7. Security

We use reasonable administrative and technical safeguards, including HTTPS in production, hashed staff passwords, protected newsroom areas, form security checks, restricted file types, and baseline web-security headers. No online system is completely secure, so please contact us promptly if you believe your information has been misused.

8. Your choices and rights

Depending on applicable law, you may ask us to confirm what personal information we hold, request a correction, ask for a copy, object to certain uses, or request deletion where there is no overriding legal or editorial reason to retain it. You may unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time using the link in a newsletter or by contacting us.

Some information is retained for legitimate editorial, security, or legal reasons even when a deletion request is made. We may explain when we cannot remove information and who to contact about the request.

9. Children’s privacy

The site is intended for a general audience. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children below the age of 13 without appropriate consent. If you believe a child has submitted personal information, contact us so we can review and remove it where appropriate.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when our services, technology, or legal obligations change. The date at the top shows the latest version. We will take reasonable steps to make material changes clear, and continued use of the site after an update means you accept the revised policy.

11. Contact us

For privacy questions, access requests, corrections, or complaints, contact EastNet Media at info@eastnetmedia.online, call +256 773773334, or write to Soroti City, Eastern Uganda. You can also use our contact page.