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MESH Privacy Policy

MESH is the first social media platform built for the hustle. Our mission is to connect young entrepreneurs to help unlock opportunities to grow their biz. Central to this mission is our commitment to be transparent about the data we collect about you, how it is used and with whom it is shared.

MESH is committed to protecting the online privacy of the users of our Services. As such, this Privacy Policy has been written in order to allow you to understand MESH’s policy regarding your privacy, as well as how your personal data will be handled when using the services. This privacy policy will also provide you with information so that you are able to consent to the processing of your personal data in an explicit and informed manner, where appropriate.

In general, any information and data which you provide to MESH in the context of the use of the MESH services (“Services”) as better defined in Section 2 below, will be processed by MESH in a lawful, fair and transparent manner. To this end, and as further described below, MESH takes into consideration internationally recognised principles governing the processing of personal data, such as purpose limitation, storage limitation, data minimisation, and confidentiality.

Our registered users (“Members”) share their biz identities, engage with their network, exchange knowledge and biz tips, post and view relevant content, learn and develop skills, and find business opportunities. Content and data on some of our Services is viewable to non-members (“Visitors”).

Before providing any personal data, we invite you to carefully read this Privacy Policy as it contains important information regarding the personal data protection and security measures adopted in order to ensure confidentiality and full respect for the applicable law.

1. Data controller

Player First Limited will be the controller of your personal data provided to, or collected by or for, or processed in connection with our Services under the Kenyan Data Protection Act (Act No. 24 of 2024) and its subsidiary legislations. As a Visitor or Member of our Services, the collection, use and sharing of your personal data is subject to this Privacy Policy and other documents referenced in this Privacy Policy, as well as updates. MESH is a social network and online platform for entrepreneurs owned by Player First Limited. Members use our Services to connect with each other, share information and build themselves and their businesses. Our Privacy Policy applies to any Member or Visitor to our Services.

2. Services

This Privacy Policy applies to Mesh.life, MESH-branded apps, and other MESH-related sites, apps, communications and services (“Services”), including off-site Services, such as our ad services and the “Apply with MESH” and “Share with MESH” plugins, but excluding services that state that they are offered under a different privacy policy.

This Privacy Policy, including our Cookie Policy applies to your use of our Services.

3. Personal Data processed

When you use our Services, we will collect and process information regarding you (as an individual) which allows you to be identified either by itself, or together with other information which has been collected.

This information may be classified as “Personal Data” and can be collected by MESH both when you choose to provide it (e.g. when you fill in your profile on MESH or when you subscribe to a newsletter or sign up to the use of other Services provided by MESH) or by analysing your behaviour on the Platform.

Personal Data which can be processed by MESH through the Website are as follows:

3.1. Data you provide to us

Registration

When you create an account, you will be asked to submit information about yourself, including your name and surname, e-mail address, phone number, date of birth and gender. Mandatory fields will be marked as such and it is not possible to process your registration if any of the mandatory fields are left incomplete.

Profile

You have choices about the information and personal data you display on your profile. All MESH users will automatically be able to see the following personal data: your first name, last name, your profile photo and your posts. If you don’t want other users to see your profile photo or posts, you can decide to leave your profile photo empty and not post on the platform. However, you can restrict, within the privacy settings who can see the following personal data, whether everyone or connections only: your profile banner images, your story, your location, your gender, your age, and your connections. However, profile information helps you to get more from our Services. It’s your choice whether to include personal data on your profile and to make that personal data public. Please do not post or add personal data to your profile that you would not want to be publicly available.

Posting and Uploading

Our Services may include free text fields, where you can write messages to MESH, or otherwise allow you to post various types of content on the Website, which may contain Personal Data. We collect personal data from you when you provide, post or upload it to our Services, such as when you fill out a form, (e.g. with demographic data), respond to a survey, or fill out an application for an offer on our Services, depending on the requirements of each opportunity.

You don’t have to post or upload personal data; though if you don’t, it may limit your ability to grow and engage with your network over our Services.

In addition, whenever you participate in surveys and other promotions which may be available on the Website, as well as whenever you communicate with MESH through the contact details provided in this Privacy policy or with Customer Service, MESH may collect additional information which you choose to provide.

Where the text fields are completely free, you may use them to disclose (inadvertently or not) more Sensitive Personal Data, such as data revealing your racial or ethnic origin, health status, conscience, belief, marital details, genetic data, biometric data, family details including names of children, parents, spouse or spouses, sex or the sexual orientation. MESH asks that you do not disclose any sensitive Personal Data on the Service, unless you consider this to be strictly necessary. As it is totally optional to provide this information, if you nonetheless choose to do so, you should refrain from providing Sensitive Personal Data without providing your explicit consent and if you decide to provide such information, you are fully responsible for any claims or damages that may arise as a result of the provision of such information and you fully indemnify MESH against any liability.

Opportunity applications

MESH creates a custom application form for gig or product/service opportunities and therefore the type of personal data collected for each opportunity varies on the necessity of processing personal data by the partners and the personal data may not be used for an incompatible purpose.

3.2 Data from others

Content and News

You and others may post content that includes information about you (as part of articles, posts, comments, reels) on our Services. We collect public information about you, and make it available as part of our Services (e.g. suggestions for your profile, or notifications to others of mentions in the news).

As mentioned in the previous Section, some areas of the Service include free text fields where you can write messages to MESH, or otherwise allow you to post various types of content on the Website. These messages and content may (inadvertently or not) include Personal Data related to other persons.

In any situation where you decide to share Personal Data related to other persons, you will be considered as an independent data controller regarding that Personal Data and must assume all inherent legal obligations and responsibilities. This means, among other things, that you must fully indemnify MESH against any complaints, claims or demands for compensation for damages which may arise from the processing of this Personal Data, brought by the third parties whose information you provide through the Website.

As MESH does not collect this information directly from these third parties (but rather collects them, indirectly, from you), you must make sure that you have these third parties’ consent before providing any information regarding them to MESH; if not, then you must make sure there is some other appropriate grounds on which you can rely to lawfully give MESH this information.

3.3 Service use

We log usage data when you visit or otherwise use our Services, including our sites, app and platform technology, such as when you view or click on content (e.g. watch reel) or ads (on or off our sites and apps), perform a search, install or update one of our mobile apps, share articles or apply for opportunities. We use log-ins, cookies, device information and internet protocol (“IP”) addresses to identify you and log your use.

3.4 Cookies and Similar Technologies

Cookies are small text files that may be sent to and registered on your computer by the websites you visit, to then be re-sent to those same sites when you visit them again. It is thanks to these cookies that those websites can “remember” your actions and preferences (e.g. login data, language, font size, other display settings, etc.), so that you do not need to configure them again when you next visit the website, or when you change pages within a website.

Cookies are used for electronic authentication, monitoring of sessions and storage of information regarding your activities when accessing a website. They may also contain a unique ID code which allows tracking of your browsing activities within a website, for statistical or advertising purposes. Some operations within a website may not be able to be performed without the use of cookies which, in certain cases, are technically necessary for operation of the website.

As further described in our Cookie Policy, we use cookies and similar technologies (e.g., pixels and ad tags) to collect data (e.g. device IDs) to recognize you and your device(s) on, off and across different services and devices where you have engaged with our Services. We also allow some others to use cookies as described in our Cookie Policy. 

Cookies are manually managed the first time you visit the website via a dedicated form. You can block or delete cookies used on the Website via your browser options. Your cookie preferences will be reset if different browsers are used to access the Website. For more information on how to set the preferences for cookies via your browser, please refer to the following instructions:

  • Chrome
  • Firefox
  • Internet Explorer
  • Safari

You may also set your preferences on third-party cookies by using online platforms such as AdChoice.

If you block or delete technical and/or function cookies used by the Website, the Website may become impossible to browse, certain services or functions may become unavailable or other malfunctions may occur.

3.5 Your Device and Location

When you visit or leave our Services (including some plugins and our cookies or similar technology on the sites of others), we receive the URL of both the site you came from and the one you go to and the time of your visit. We also get information about your network and device (e.g. IP address, proxy server, operating system, web browser and add-ons, device identifier and features, cookie IDs and/or ISP, or your mobile carrier).

By using our Services from a mobile device, that device will send us data about your location based on your phone settings. We will ask you to opt-in before we use GPS or other tools to identify your precise location.

3.6 Other

Our Services are dynamic, and we often introduce new features, which may require the collection of new information. If we collect materially different personal data or materially change how we collect, use or share your data, we will notify you and may also modify this Privacy Policy.

4. Purposes of processing

How we use your personal data will depend on which Services you use, how you use those Services and the choices you make in your settings where applicable. We use the data that we have about you to provide and personalize our Services, including with the help of automated systems and inferences we make, so that our Services (including ads) can be more relevant and useful to you and others.

MESH intends to use your Personal Data, collected through our Services, for the following purposes:

4.1 Creation of user account

MESH uses your personal data to create a user and assist you, in case you lose or forget your login / password details for any of MESH’s registration services, to allow you to create a user account.

4.2 Service Provision

MESH uses your personal data to maintain a registered user profile, to send you newsletters you have subscribed to as a service (containing only informative content), and to provide any other Services which you may request.

4.3 Stay connected

Our Services allow you to stay in touch and up to date with other members who share your interests, business partners, clients, and other useful contacts. To do so, you can “connect” with the members who you choose, and who also wish to “connect” with you. Subject to your and their settings where applicable, when you connect with other Members, you will be able to see each others’ connections in order to exchange relevant opportunities.

We use data about you (such as your profile or profiles you have viewed) to help others find your profile, suggest connections for you and others (e.g. Members who share your contacts or interests) and enable you to invite others to become a Member and connect with you. You can also opt-in to allow us to use your precise location or proximity to others for certain tasks (e.g. to suggest other nearby Members for you to connect with).

It is your choice whether to invite someone to our Services, send a connection request, or allow another Member to become your connection. When you invite someone to connect with you, your invitation will include your network and basic profile information (e.g. name, profile photo, story). We will send invitation reminders to the person you invited.

4.4 Stay informed

Our Services allow you to stay informed about news, events and ideas regarding topics you care about. Our Services also allow you to improve your skills or learn new ones. We use the data we have about you (e.g. data you provide, data we collect from your engagement with our Services and inferences we make from the data we have about you) to personalize our Services for you, such as by recommending or ranking relevant content and conversations on our Services.

We also use the data we have about you to suggest skills you could add to your profile and skills that you might need to pursue your next opportunity. So, if you let us know that you are interested in a new skill (e.g. by watching a reel), we will use this information to personalize content in your feed, suggest that you follow certain members on our site, or suggest related learning content to help you towards that new skill. We use your content, activity and other data, including your name and photo, to provide notices to your network and others. For example, we may notify others that you have updated your profile, posted content, took a social action, used a feature, made new connections or were mentioned in the news.

4.5 Business growth

Our Services allow you to explore business opportunities, and seek out, and be found for, business opportunities. Your profile can be found by those looking to engage with you for peer to peer opportunities. We will use your data to recommend ideas, show you and others relevant contacts (e.g. those with certain skills and connections). We may use automated systems to provide content and recommendations to help make our Services more relevant to our Members, Visitors and partners keeping your profile accurate and up-to-date may help you better connect to others and to opportunities through our Services.

4.6 Productivity

Our Services allow you to collaborate with your connections, search for potential clients, customers, partners and others to do business with. Our Services allow you to communicate with other Members.

4.7 Customer support

We use data (which can include your communications) to investigate, respond to and resolve complaints and for Service issues (e.g. bugs).

4.8 Service delivery communications

MESH contacts you directly and enables communication between members. We will contact you through email, mobile phone, in-app notifications through our Services. We will send you messages about the availability of our Services, security, or other service-related issues. We also send messages about how to use our Services, network updates, reminders, suggestions and opportunity-related messages. Please be aware that you cannot opt out of receiving service messages from us, including security and legal notices.

4.9 Marketing

We market MESH to you and others. In addition to advertising our Services, we use Members’ data and content for invitations and communications promoting membership and network growth, engagement and our Services, such as by showing your connections that you have used a feature on our Services.

MESH processes your personal data for future marketing, promotional and publicity purposes, including to carry out direct marketing, market research and surveys, via e-mail, SMS, over the phone, through push notifications / pop-up banners, instant messaging, through MESH’s official social media pages, regarding MESH’s products and services, as well as those of selected third parties.

We target (and measure the performance of) offers and promotions to Members, Visitors and others both on and off our Services directly or through a variety of partners, using the following data, whether separately or combined:

  • Data from advertising technologies on and off our Services, pixels, ad tags, cookies, and device identifiers;
  • Member-provided information (e.g. profile, contact information, business sector);
  • Data from your use of our Services (e.g. content you read, connections, opportunities you apply to, page visits, videos you watch, clicking on an ad, etc.).
  • Information from advertising partners, vendors and publishers; and
  • Information inferred from data described above using your feed activity to infer your interests; or using device data to recognize you as a Member.

Info to Ad Providers

We do not share your personal data with any third-party advertisers or ad networks except for:

  • hashed IDs or device identifiers (to the extent they are personal data in some countries);
  • with your separate permission (e.g. in a lead generation form) or
  • data already visible to any users of the Services (e.g. profile).

4.10 Profiling

To create a profile of you as a Service user, through the use of profiling cookies and by collecting and analysing information on the preferences you select and choices you make in the use of our Services, as well as your general activities on the Services. This profile will be used to give you information about other products / services which MESH believes you may be interested in, and to show you information and advertisements which may be relevant to you and your interests. All algorithms involved in this processing are regularly tested, to ensure the processing’s fairness and control for bias.

4.11 Developing Services and Research

MESH continually develops its services and conducts user research.

a. Service Development

We use the personal and other data you provide to us and any public feedback to conduct research and development for our Services in order to provide you and others with a better, more intuitive and personalized experience, drive membership growth and engagement on our Services, and help connect members to each other and to business opportunities.

b. Other Research

We seek to create economic opportunities for Members and to help them be more productive and successful. We use the personal data available to us to research social, economic trends, such as business opportunities availability and skills needed for these opportunities and policies that help bridge the gap in various industries and geographic areas. In some cases, we work with trusted partners to perform this research, under controls that are designed to protect your privacy. We publish or allow others to publish economic insights, presented as aggregated data rather than personal data.

We use your data to produce and share insights that do not identify you. For example, we may use your data to generate statistics about our members, their business sector, to calculate offer and promotion impressions served or clicked on, or to publish visitor demographics for a Service or create demographic insights.

c. Surveys

Polls and surveys are conducted by us and others through our Services. You are not obligated to respond to polls or surveys, and you have choices about the information you provide.

4.12 Compliance

MESH processes your data in compliance with laws which impose upon MESH the collection and/or further processing of certain kinds of Personal Data.

4.13 Misuse/ Fraud

MESH uses data for security, fraud prevention and investigations. We use your data (including your communications) for security purposes or to prevent or investigate possible fraud or other violations of our User Agreement and/or attempts to harm our Members, Visitors or others.

4.14 Win-back campaigns

MESH may use your personal data to conduct win-back campaigns. These campaigns are designed to re-engage customers who have previously interacted with our products or services but have become inactive. The purpose of these campaigns is to remind you of the value we offer and encourage you to return.

5. Grounds for processing and mandatory / discretionary nature of processing

MESH’s legal bases to process your Personal Data, according to the purposes identified in Section 4, are as follows:

  • Creation of user : processing for this purpose is necessary to provide the Services and therefore, is necessary for the performance of a contract with you - Section 30(1)(b)(i) of the Data Protection Act (Act No. 24 of 2019). It is not mandatory for you to give MESH your Personal Data for these purposes; however, if you do not, MESH will not be able to provide any Services to you.
  • Service Provision : processing for this purpose is necessary to provide the Services and, therefore, is necessary for the performance of a contract with you. It is not mandatory for you to give MESH your Personal Data for these purposes; however, if you do not, MESH will not be able to provide any Services to you.
  • Marketing : processing for this purpose is based on your consent - Section 30(1)(a) of the Data Protection Act (Act No. 24 of 2019). It is not mandatory for you to give consent to MESH for use of your Personal Data for these purposes, and you will suffer no consequence if you choose not to give it (aside from not being able to receive further marketing communications from MESH). Any consent given may also be withdrawn at a later stage (please see Section 8 for more information).
  • Profiling : processing for in platform content personalization is based on the legitimate interest of MESH in the provision of a networking service that better enables MESH to offer its services. MESH may use information provided by you, and information inferred from you and your network to personalise content and recommendations. This may often involve profiling techniques and may include seeing posts and profiles on your feed that MESH think might interest you. You are allowed to object to this, and also to ask for more information on content personalization by sending us a support request (please see Section 8, below, for more information). Processing for the purpose of behavioural advertising is based on your consent, collected by means of the cookie pop-up banner and/or a specific tick box. It is not mandatory for you to give consent to MESH for use of your Personal Data for these behavioural ads, and you will suffer no consequence if you choose not to (aside from not being able to benefit from receiving more relevant ads in your user experience regarding the Service). Any consent given may also be withdrawn at a later stage (please see Section 8 for more information).
  • Research : processing for this purpose is generally based on MESH’s legitimate interests - Section 30(1)(b)(vii) of the Act, namely, in understanding how users interact with MESH through collected browsing data and to improve them accordingly, with the aim to provide a better user experience. You are allowed to object to this, and also to ask for more information about MESH’s reliance on legitimate interests by sending us a support request (please see Section 8, below, for more information).
  • Compliance : processing for this purpose is necessary for MESH to comply with its legal obligations - Section 30(1)(b)(ii) of the Act. When you provide any Personal Data to MESH, MESH must process it in accordance with the laws applicable to it, which may include retaining and reporting your Personal Data to official authorities for legal obligations.
  • Misuse/Fraud : Information collected for this purpose is used exclusively to prevent and detect fraudulent activities or misuse of the Website (for potentially criminal purposes).
  • Win-back campaigns : We process your data for win-back campaigns based on our legitimate interests or your prior consent, as applicable. We ensure that our interests do not override your privacy rights. For these campaigns, we may use information such as your name, email address, and interaction data. You have the right to opt-out of receiving win-back communications at any time. Instructions for opting out are included in each communication or you can contact us directly.

6. Recipients of Personal Data

a. Your Personal Data may be shared with the following list of persons / entities (“Recipients”):

  • Persons, companies or professional firms providing MESH with advice and consultancy regarding e.g. maintenance, analysis, audit, legal, payments, fraud detection, marketing and development related to the provision of the Services and which act typically as data processors on behalf of MESH
  • Entities engaged in order to provide the Services (e.g. hosting providers or e-mail platform providers);
  • Persons authorised to perform technical maintenance (including maintenance of network equipment and electronic communications networks);
  • Persons authorised by MESH to process Personal Data needed to carry out activities strictly related to the provision of the Services, who have undertaken an obligation of confidentiality or are subject to an appropriate legal obligation of confidentiality (e.g., employees of MESH); and
  • Public entities, bodies or authorities to whom your Personal Data may be disclosed, in accordance with the applicable law or binding orders of those entities, bodies or authorities.

b. Any data that you share on MESH, including on your profile and any content that you post will be seen by others on MESH, consistent with your chosen privacy settings where applicable.

  • Profile: Your profile is fully visible to all users and partners of our Services, subject to your privacy settings.
  • Your settings impact the availability of your profile and whether other users can view certain fields in your profile.
  • Posts, Comments: Our Services allow viewing information including through posts and comments. When you share a post (e.g. an update, images) publicly it can be viewed by everyone and re-shared anywhere. Members will be able to find and see your shared content, including your name (and photo if you have provided one). Any information you share through companies’ or other organizations’ pages on our Services will be viewable by it and others who visit those pages. When you share or comment on another user’s content (including ads), others will be able to view these “social actions” and associate it with you (e.g. your name, profile and photo if you provided it).

c. Third-party providers of websites and online platforms, to carry out processing activities related to Marketing (in particular, displaying MESH advertisements on their websites / online platforms):

  • Google (Privacy Policy);
  • Facebook/Instagram (Privacy Policy)
  • YouTube (Privacy Policy)
  • TikTok
  • Mailchimp
  • X

7. Transfers of Personal Data

In light of MESH’s business operations, your Personal Data may be transferred to Recipients located in several different countries. MESH implements appropriate safeguards to ensure the lawfulness and security of these Personal Data transfers, such as by relying on the safeguards provided for under Section 48 of the Kenyan Data Protection Act (Act No. 24 of 2019) and its subsidiary legislation.

More information on these transfers is available upon written request to MESH at the following address: help@mesh.life

8. Retention of Personal Data

  • Personal Data processed for Service Provision will be kept by MESH for the period deemed strictly necessary to fulfil such purposes – in any case, as these Personal Data are processed for the provision of the Services, MESH may continue to store this Personal Data for a longer period, as may be necessary to protect MESH’s interests related to potential liability related to the provision of the Services. If you choose to close your MESH account, all your personal data will be deleted and your personal data will generally stop being visible to others and you will be unable to access our Services immediately.
  • Personal Data processed for Marketing and Profiling will be kept by MESH from the moment you give consent until it is withdrawn. Where it is not withdrawn, consent will be renewed at fixed intervals. Once consent is withdrawn (or not given, following a renewal), Personal Data will no longer be used for these purposes, although it may still be kept by MESH, in particular as may be necessary to protect MESH’s interests related to potential liability related to this processing.
  • Personal Data processed for Compliance will be kept by MESH for the period required by the specific legal obligation or by the applicable law.
  • • Personal Data processed for preventing Misuse/Fraud will be kept by MESH for as long as deemed strictly necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected.

9. Data subjects’ rights

As a data subject, you are entitled to exercise the following rights before MESH at any time:

  • Access your Personal Data being processed by MESH (and/or a copy of that Personal Data), as well as information on the processing of your Personal Data;
  • Correct or update your Personal Data processed by MESH, where it may be inaccurate or incomplete;
  • Request erasure of your Personal Data being processed by MESH, where you feel that the processing is unnecessary or otherwise unlawful. You can delete your account by visiting your privacy settings.
  • Request the restriction of the processing of your Personal Data, where you feel that the Personal Data processed is inaccurate, unnecessary or unlawfully processed, or where you have objected to the processing;
  • Exercise your right to portability: the right to obtain a copy of your Personal Data provided to MESH, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, as well as the transmission of that Personal Data to another data controller;
  • Object to the processing of your Personal Data, based on relevant grounds related to your particular situation, which you believe must prevent MESH, from processing your Personal Data; or
  • Withdraw your consent to processing (for Marketing and Profiling).

Please note that most of the Personal Data you provide to MESH can be changed at any time, by accessing, where applicable, your user profile created on the Services.

When requesting Services via the Website, you may have selected one or more means of communication via which Personal Data processing for Marketing purposes may be carried out (for communications received via e-mail or SMS). You may withdraw your consent to this processing for all selected means of communication, or you can choose to block specific means only (e.g., if you only withdraw consent for SMS marketing communications, you will not receive further communications via SMS, but may continue to receive them via e-mail), by means of your user profile created on the Website, where applicable. The same applies to the Website’s newsletter which you may have subscribed to and receive as a Service.

Aside from the above means, you can always exercise your rights described above by sending a written request at the following address:help@mesh.life.

In any case, please note that, as a data subject, you are entitled to file a complaint with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) for the protection of Personal Data, if you believe that the processing of your Personal Data carried out through the platform is unlawful.

10. Amendments

You acknowledge that your continued use of our Services after we publish or send a notice about our changes to this Privacy Policy means that the collection, use and sharing of your personal data is subject to the updated Privacy Policy, as of its effective date. This Privacy Policy entered into force on 27/11/2024.

MESH reserves the right to partly or fully amend this Privacy Policy, or simply to update its content, e.g., as a result of changes in applicable law. We will inform you of such changes as soon as they are introduced, and they will be binding as soon as they are published through our Services. MESH therefore invites you to regularly visit this Privacy Policy in order to acquaint yourself with the latest, updated version of the Privacy Policy, so that you may remain constantly informed on how MESH collects and uses Personal Data.

If you have questions or complaints regarding this Policy, please contact MESH via email on help@mesh.life.