Privacy Policy

Afriranks (“Afriranks”, “we”, “us”) publishes rankings, profiles and reports on African university research and national economic performance. This policy explains what personal information we collect when you use the Afriranks website and services, why we collect it, and the choices you have.

Questions about this policy can be sent through our customer support form.

You can browse every published ranking, country profile and insight without an account. We collect personal information only when you give it to us or sign in:

• Account details. Your email address, name and a password (stored by our hosting provider in hashed form), or the basic profile shared by Google, Microsoft, Facebook or Apple if you sign in with one of those providers.
• Access requests. When you request a paid plan: your organisation, country, chosen plan and how you intend to use Afriranks.
• Data requests. When you request an institutional data package: institution name and type, contact name, email, phone number, country, the regions, countries and formats you select, and your description of scope and purpose.
• Watchlist. The countries and institutions you choose to follow, and any notes you add.
• Support enquiries. When you use the support form: your name, email, optional organisation, the topic and your message, plus the page you sent it from.
• Technical information. A sign in token kept in your browser so you stay logged in, and standard server logs (such as IP address, browser type and time of request) kept by our hosting provider for security and reliability.

We do not use advertising trackers and we do not sell personal information.

The rankings are built from openly licensed public records: World Bank Open Data (economic indicators), the Research Organization Registry (institution identities) and OpenAlex (publication and citation metrics). These records describe countries and institutions, not private individuals.

If you believe a published record about an institution is inaccurate, tell us through the support form and we will review it. Corrections to the underlying source records may also need to be made with the original provider.

• To create and secure your account and keep you signed in.
• To review, quote, provision and deliver the plans and data packages you request, and to contact you about them.
• To answer your support enquiries and keep a record of the conversation.
• To show your watchlist and keep its figures up to date.
• To operate, maintain and protect the service, including preventing abuse.
• To meet legal, accounting and record keeping obligations.

Where data protection law requires a legal basis, we rely on: performing our agreement with you (accounts, plans and data requests); our legitimate interest in running a secure and reliable service; your consent, where we ask for it; and compliance with legal obligations. Applicable laws may include the Nigeria Data Protection Act, the Kenya Data Protection Act, South Africa’s POPIA, the EU and UK GDPR, and similar laws, depending on where you are.

We share personal information only as needed to run the service:

• Hosting and infrastructure. Afriranks runs on the Base44 platform, which stores account and request data on our behalf.
• Sign in providers. If you choose Google, Microsoft, Facebook or Apple sign in, that provider processes your login under its own privacy policy.
• Legal requirements. Where required by law, court order or to protect the rights and safety of users or the public.
• Business changes. To a successor if Afriranks is reorganised, merged or sold, subject to this policy.

We never share your details with the institutions or countries we rank.

Our service providers may store and process data outside your country. Where this happens we rely on the safeguards those providers offer, such as contractual commitments, to protect your information.

We keep account data while your account is active. Access and data request records are kept for as long as needed to deliver the service and meet accounting and legal obligations, typically up to seven years for billing records. You can ask us to delete your account at any time; we will remove or anonymise your personal information unless we must keep it by law.

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• access the personal information we hold about you;
• correct inaccurate information;
• have your information deleted;
• object to or restrict certain processing;
• receive your information in a portable format;
• withdraw consent where processing is based on consent;
• complain to your national data protection authority.

To exercise any of these rights, send a request through our customer support form using the email address linked to your account. We will respond within the time required by applicable law.

Data is transmitted over encrypted connections and access to administrative functions is restricted to authorised staff. No online service can be completely secure, so please use a strong, unique password and let us know promptly if you suspect unauthorised access to your account.

Afriranks is intended for researchers, institutions and professionals. It is not directed at children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information.

We may update this policy as the service evolves. The date at the top of this page shows when it last changed. If we make material changes we will give notice on the site or by email before they take effect.