Privacy Policy
The African Knowledge Atlas is a reference work, not a service that needs to know who you are. This page explains, plainly, what the website and the Android app do and do not do with your information.
Last updated 2 September 2026.
What we collect
Nothing personal. The Atlas has no accounts, no sign-in, no forms, no comments and no advertising. We do not ask for, store or transmit your name, email address, contacts, location, photos or any other personal data.
The Android app requests a single permission, Internet access, which it uses only to load imagery as described below. It does not access your camera, microphone, storage, contacts or location.
Third-party services the Atlas contacts
Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia. Photographs shown on community, monument, hero and food pages are fetched directly from Wikimedia servers when a page is opened. Like any web request, this reveals your IP address and general device information to the Wikimedia Foundation, whose handling of that data is described in the Wikimedia privacy policy. We receive nothing back from Wikimedia about you.
Website hosting and analytics (website only). The website is served by Vercel and uses Vercel Web Analytics, which counts page views without cookies and without identifying individual visitors. This analytics script is not included in the Android app.
Data stored on your device
The Android app bundles the whole encyclopedia inside the app so it works without a connection except for imagery. The only thing written to your device beyond the app itself is the ordinary browser cache used to avoid re-downloading images. Uninstalling the app removes it. No identifiers are created or stored.
Children
The Atlas is an educational reference intended for a general audience aged 13 and over. Some documentary material covers warfare, initiation rites and traditional dress. We do not knowingly collect any information from anyone, including children.
Changes and contact
If the way the Atlas handles data ever changes — for example if a future version adds accounts or search hosted on our own servers — this page will be updated first and the date above will change.
Questions or corrections: write to the developer contact address shown on the app's Google Play listing, or see the About & Methodology page for how the Atlas is built and sourced.