What we collect, and why.

**Last updated: 9 October 2026**

This policy explains what personal data Balotiq collects, why, and how it's handled. It's written with Ghana's Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843) in mind, since Balotiq processes personal data of people in Ghana. PagezTech Ventures builds and operates Balotiq at balotiq.com. For account security, platform operations, and Balotiq's own service administration, PagezTech Ventures acts as data controller. Where an organization uses Balotiq to collect and decide membership applications or manage its member register, that organization determines the purpose of that processing and acts as controller, while PagezTech Ventures processes the records through Balotiq on its behalf.

What we collect

What we hold about you depends on how you use Balotiq:

• •Organization admins and members: an email address and a password (stored as a salted hash, never in plain text). We don't collect your name unless you choose to include it somewhere like an election's content.
• •Voters in a registered election: whatever identifying information the organization running that election uploads to its voter roll (typically a voter ID and/or email address), used only to verify you're eligible to vote in that specific election.
• •Engage voters: on the web, an optional contact (e.g. an email address or phone number) provided at checkout, used only for purchase/vote confirmation and support. On USSD (voting by dialing a code on any phone, no smartphone or data required), your phone number is required to place the vote, receive an SMS confirmation, and process a Mobile Money charge. Card details entered on the web are handled directly on Paystack's hosted payment page and never pass through Balotiq's servers; a USSD Mobile Money charge is instead initiated by Balotiq's server directly with Paystack, since there's no browser to redirect to a payment page.
• •Membership applicants and members: your name, email address, optional phone number and message, the organization and membership type you select, application status, approval or rejection record, and any rejection reason communicated by the organization. If approved, the organization may also maintain a member number, membership status, administrative notes, joining and termination dates, dues status, and payment references.
• •Ballot content: every vote is encrypted before it's stored, and is deliberately not kept linked back to the voter who cast it in any form we can reverse. This is a structural property of how ballots are recorded, not just a policy promise.

Why we process it

To run the service you've asked for: verifying you're eligible to vote, preventing double-voting, receiving and reviewing membership applications, maintaining organization member registers, administering renewals and dues, processing payments, sending service notifications, and keeping accounts secure. Where the law requires a specific legal basis, processing is based on consent, steps requested before entering a membership relationship, performance of that relationship, legal obligations, or legitimate interests in operating a secure and accountable platform, depending on the context.

Who we share it with

We use a small number of infrastructure and service providers to run Balotiq:

• •Paystack: payment processing for Governance flat fees, Engage vote-package purchases, and membership dues.
• •Arkesel: SMS delivery and the USSD gateway for Engage voters who vote by dialing a code on any phone, including delivering the vote confirmation SMS to your phone number.
• •Resend: transactional email (password resets, notifications).
• •Cloudflare and Vultr: network security and server hosting.

We don't sell personal data. Membership application and member data is available to authorized administrators of the organization you apply to or belong to. We don't share voter roll data or ballot content with anyone outside the organization running that specific election.

How long we keep it

Ballots and voter roll records are retained according to Balotiq's election-integrity schedule so results can be verified or audited after an election closes. Account data (like your login email) is kept while the account is active and as needed for security or legal obligations. Membership applications and decision records are kept while reasonably needed by the organization to administer applications, answer disputes, and meet its legal obligations. Approved member records remain available while membership is active; terminated member records become eligible for archival one year after termination unless a legal hold or other lawful retention requirement applies. Dues and payment records may be retained longer where needed for accounting, reconciliation, disputes, or legal compliance.

Your rights

Under Act 843, you can ask to access, correct, or request deletion of personal data held about you. For a membership application or member record, you may contact the organization directly or email [email protected] and we will route or assist with the request. We can't reverse ballot secrecy, and some records may need to be retained for election integrity, accounting, dispute resolution, audit, or other legal obligations.

Security

Ballots are encrypted at rest and chained so tampering is detectable. Every organization's data is isolated at the database level, not just in the application. Passwords are hashed, never stored in plain text, and two-factor authentication is available on every account. Sign-in attempts are rate-limited, and the highest-risk administrative actions require re-confirming your password even within an already-signed-in session.

Data Protection Commission registration

PagezTech Ventures' registration with Ghana's Data Protection Commission is currently in progress. We're noting that plainly here rather than overstating our status.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes materially, we'll update the date at the top of this page. Continued use of Balotiq after a change means you accept the updated policy.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your data? Email [email protected].