Effective date: October 24, 2026
Last updated: October 24, 2026
Your privacy is important to The Diaspora Academy. Please read this privacy notice carefully as it contains important information on who we are, how and why we collect, store, use, and share personal information, your rights in relation to your personal information, and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.
This policy applies to our websites, https://thediasporaacademy.com and https://ediseritrea.com, which forwards to https://thediasporaacademy.com/edis/. It also applies to our programs, courses, coaching, and events, including the Eritrean Diaspora Innovators Summit (EDIS).
The Diaspora Academy™ LLC (“The Diaspora Academy,” “we,” “us,” “our”) runs thediasporaacademy.com and EDIS. We are based in the United States, at 2001 L St. NW, Suite 500, #2095, Washington, DC 20036.
We decide how and why your personal information is used. That makes us the “controller” of your information under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and its UK version (UK GDPR).
Our website, products, and services are not intended for anyone under 13. Children under 13 may not use the interactive parts of this website, such as comments and forms. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If we learn that we have, we will delete it.
If you live in the EU or UK and are under 16, ask a parent or guardian before you sign up for our emails or create an account.
Children sometimes appear by chance in our event recordings. We take care that they are not shown in the clips we publish. See “Events, Recordings, and Speaker Content.”
We collect personal information you give us when you:
This may include your name, email address, phone number, mailing address, social media handle, job title, organization, and billing details. If you speak at EDIS, it also includes your photo, bio, and what you say in your session. When you pay, Stripe, our payment processor, handles your card details.
You are not required to provide any personally identifiable information to merely access or visit this website.
When you visit our website, our hosting and security providers collect some technical information automatically. This includes your IP address, browser and device type, operating system, the pages you request, and the time of your visit. If you allow analytics, Google Analytics also collects information about how you use the site, such as the pages you view and the links you click. See “Cookies and Analytics.”
If you are in the European Economic Area (EEA) or the United Kingdom (UK), the GDPR or the UK GDPR may apply to how we use your information.
We use your personal information for the purposes below. If you are in the EEA or UK, we must tell you the lawful basis for each one. We rely on four:
| What we do | Information we use | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Send our newsletter and marketing emails | Name, email address, where you signed up, whether you open or click our emails | Consent |
| Register you for EDIS and give you access to sessions and recordings | The details you give when you register | Contract |
| Sell and deliver memberships, courses, and products, and take payment | Name, email address, billing address, order history, payment status | Contract; Legal obligation for tax and accounting records |
| Book and deliver coaching | Name, contact details, booking details, and what you choose to share with us | Contract |
| Run your membership account and log-in | Name, email address, username, password, course progress | Contract |
| Manage contracts and invoices with vendors | Name, business contact details, contract and payment details | Contract; Legal obligation for tax records |
| Answer your questions and give support | Name, contact details, your message | Legitimate interests (responding to you); Contract if it relates to a purchase |
| Review EDIS speaker, sponsor, vendor, and volunteer interest, and plan the event | What you send us | Legitimate interests (planning and running EDIS); Contract once you agree to take part |
| Publish EDIS speaker names, photos, bios, quotes, and short clips | Speaker profile and session content | Consent (you agree to promotional use when you agree to speak) |
| Publish attendee testimonials, with initials or no name | Testimonial text, initials | Consent |
| Measure how people use our website with Google Analytics | Cookie IDs, IP address, pages viewed, device details | Consent |
| Keep the site secure, block attacks, filter spam comments, and prevent fraud | IP address, comment content, server and security logs | Legitimate interests (keeping our site and users safe) |
| Keep business, tax, and accounting records | Transaction records | Legal obligation |
| Enforce our terms, defend legal claims, and answer lawful requests | Information that relates to the matter | Legal obligation; Legitimate interests |
| If you enter a contest or promotion we run, run it and contact winners | Entry details | Consent |
| If you sign up for text messages, send them to you | Phone number | Consent |
We use Zapier to move information between the tools listed in section c. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. See “Your Rights.”
We do not sell your personal information. We share it with other companies for their own marketing only if you give us permission first. If we run a contest, special offer, or promotion with a partner, we will ask your permission before we share your information with that partner.
We share personal information with service providers that help us run our business. They receive it so they can provide their services to us.
| Service | What it does for us |
|---|---|
| Hostinger | Web hosting, content delivery network, and related hosting tools |
| WordPress and MemberPress | Our website, memberships, and courses |
| Stripe | Payments |
| Kit | Email newsletters and signup forms |
| Airtable | EDIS sponsor, vendor, volunteer, and testimonial forms; event planning |
| Formidable Forms | Website forms, stored in our WordPress database |
| Zapier | Automations between our tools |
| Google Analytics | Website measurement, only with your consent |
| Google Fonts | May load a font from Google’s servers, which receive your IP address |
| YouTube | Private hosting of full EDIS session recordings |
| RingCentral Events | The EDIS virtual event platform |
| HoneyBook | Coaching bookings, and vendor contracts and invoices |
| Akismet | Spam filtering for comments |
| Wordfence | Website security and firewall |
We may also share personal information:
We do not otherwise share your personal information without your consent.
Most of these providers are based in the United States. See “Use and Transfer of Your Information Out of the EEA, UK.”
In some instances, you may be required to provide personal data. For example, we may need your name and email address to provide customer support, or your street address to deliver a product, or billing information to complete a purchase. We will inform you when we collect it whether you are required to provide the information to us.
We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purpose we collected it for, or as long as the law requires. Then we delete it or de-identify it, so it no longer identifies you.
| Information | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Payment, invoice, and tax records | As long as tax law requires, generally up to 7 years |
| Newsletter subscriptions | Until you unsubscribe |
| Published speaker content and testimonials | Until you ask us to remove them |
| Google Analytics data | No more than 14 months |
| All other personal information | Only as long as we need it for the purpose we collected it for, then deleted or de-identified |
We may keep information longer if we need it for a legal claim or the law requires it.
We run the Eritrean Diaspora Innovators Summit (EDIS), a two-day online summit. This section explains what happens to your information when you attend or speak.
Event platform. We run EDIS on RingCentral Events. When you register or join a session, RingCentral processes your information for us. RingCentral also has its own privacy notice.
Recordings. We record EDIS sessions. Registrants receive the session recordings for later viewing. We keep full recordings private, and we never publish them. We host them privately on YouTube.
If you turn on your camera or microphone, or post in the chat, your name, image, voice, or messages may appear in the recording.
What we publish about speakers. If you speak at EDIS, we may publish your name, photo, bio, and quotes from your session, along with short clips of 20 to 30 seconds. These may appear on our website and our social media accounts. When you agree to speak, you agree that we may use this content to promote EDIS and our work.
Testimonials. We publish attendee testimonials only with your initials or with no name.
Children. Children sometimes appear by chance in a recording. We take care that they are not shown in the clips we publish.
Changing or removing your content. If you are a speaker, you can ask us to change or remove your content at any time. Email edis@thediasporaacademy.com. We will act on your request within one month. We cannot remove copies that others have already shared.
Cookies are small text files that a website stores in your browser. We use only a few.
Necessary cookies. These make the site work. They keep you logged in and help process payments safely.
| Cookie | Set by | What it does | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
wordpress_logged_in_*, wordpress_sec_*, wordpress_test_cookie | WordPress | Keep you logged in and check that your browser accepts cookies | Until you close your browser, or up to 14 days if you choose “Remember me” |
| Membership log-in cookies | MemberPress | Keep you logged in to member pages and courses | Varies by cookie |
comment_author_*, comment_author_email_*, comment_author_url_* | WordPress | If you leave a comment and tick the box to save your details, remember your name and email for next time | Up to 1 year |
__stripe_mid, __stripe_sid | Stripe | Help prevent fraud when you check out | 1 year; 30 minutes |
You can block these cookies in your browser settings. If you do, you may not be able to log in or check out.
Analytics cookies. We use Google Analytics 4 to see how people use our website, such as which pages they visit and how they found us. We ask every visitor first. When you first visit, a pop-up asks whether you allow analytics. Google Analytics does not load until you choose “Yes, allow.”
If you allow it, Google Analytics sets cookies named _ga and _ga_ followed by an ID. They last up to 2 years. Google receives your IP address and usage data and may process them in the United States and other countries.
Your choice. We remember your choice for 12 months. To change it, select “Cookie settings” in the footer of our website. If you say no, we delete the Google Analytics cookies and stop measuring your visits. We store your choice in your browser’s local storage under the name tda_analytics_consent. This is not a cookie.
No advertising cookies. We do not use advertising cookies or social media pixels.
Fonts. Our site may load a font from Google Fonts. When it does, Google’s servers receive your IP address.
Most browsers also let you see, block, and delete cookies in their settings.
We are based in the United States, and most of our service providers are too. If you live outside the United States, your information will be transferred to and used in the United States. Some providers may also store or process it in other countries.
When your information moves from the EEA or UK to the United States, we rely on the safeguards our service providers offer, such as the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and its UK Extension, or the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses.
You can ask us for more detail about these safeguards. See “How to Contact Us.”
Emails. You can unsubscribe from our emails at any time. Each email we send includes instructions for unsubscribing.
Text messages. If you receive text messages from us, reply STOP to any message to stop them. You can also email info@thediasporaacademy.com to be removed from our text list. Your email and text choices are separate. Opting out of one does not change the other.
Your privacy rights. Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:
These rights are free. Some apply only in certain situations. You may also have the right to claim compensation if we break data protection law. To learn more, visit https://www.edpb.europa.eu (EU), https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/ (UK), https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa (California), or https://www.priv.gc.ca/en (Canada).
How to make a request. Email info@thediasporaacademy.com, or edis@thediasporaacademy.com for anything about EDIS. You can also call us at +1-646-926-7278 or write to us at the address in “How to Contact Us.” Tell us what you are asking for.
We may need to confirm who you are first. We will ask only for what we need, usually the email address linked to your account. We will not ask for a copy of an ID document unless we cannot confirm who you are another way.
We will reply within one month. If your request is complex, we may take up to two more months, and we will tell you why.
We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorized way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorized manner and may be subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable authorities of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so. It is important to understand that no security measures are absolute. We cannot guarantee the safety of any information you provide to us.
Any comment or information that you post on the website or social media page, or in any public or private participant area or group, may become public and third parties may use your information. We are not responsible for any unauthorized uses by third parties in such context. You disclose such information at your own risk.
You may see advertising or other content on this website that links to the sites and services of our partners, suppliers, advertisers, sponsors, licensors, or other third parties. Any products or services reached through a third-party link are subject to separate privacy policies. We are not responsible for or liable for any content on or actions taken by such third-party websites.
We hope that we can resolve any question or concern you raise about our use of your information. You can reach us at info@thediasporaacademy.com.
You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority at any time. In the UK, that is the Information Commissioner’s Office (https://ico.org.uk). In the EEA, it is the authority in the country where you live or work, or where you think the problem happened. The European Data Protection Board lists these authorities at https://www.edpb.europa.eu.
We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will change the “Last updated” date at the top. If we make a significant change, such as using your information for a new purpose, we will tell you by email or with a notice on our website before the change takes effect. If the law requires your consent for a change, we will ask for it.
If you have a question about this policy or the information we hold about you, or you want to use your rights, contact us:
If you would like this notice in another format (for example: audio, large print, braille) please contact us (see “How to Contact Us” above).
