Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how the Uganda DNS Hackathon Secretariat—jointly administered by the Uganda DNS Forum and Infinity Computers & Communications Company (i3C / .UG ccTLD Registry)—collects, uses, stores, and safeguards your personal information when you use hackathon.dnsforum.ug, submit an application, or participate in our events.

• Statutory Compliance: All personal data processing is conducted in strict accordance with the Data Protection and Privacy Act, 2019 of the Republic of Uganda and the regulations of the Personal Data Protection Office (PDPO).
• Principal Office: 8th Floor Block B, Legacy Towers, Kyaggwe Road, Kampala, Uganda.

We collect only the minimum personal and technical information necessary to administer the Hackathon, verify participant eligibility, and coordinate teams:

• Application & Identity Data: Full name, email address, telephone number, city/country of residence, institutional affiliation (university, ISP, registrar, government agency, or innovation hub), technical specialty, and years of experience.
• Team & Technical Profile Data: Squad name, UGDNS-XXXX team invite codes, selected challenge track, GitHub/GitLab profile URLs, project repositories, slide decks, and technical skill tags.
• Venue & Portal Activity Data: In-person check-in timestamps at Legacy Towers / UIXP Hub, mentor consultation logs, jury scorecard evaluations, and standard security audit logs required to protect portal accounts.

Your personal data is processed exclusively for legitimate event administration and ecosystem development purposes:

• Evaluating participant, mentor, and jury applications and issuing official UDH-YYYY-XXX reference credentials.
• Facilitating squad formation, mentor pairing, and provisioning access to DNSSEC, Anycast, and UIXP lab sandboxes.
• Sending operational notifications regarding bootcamp schedules, track briefings, submission deadlines, and Demo Day logistics.
• Publishing winning and finalist project showcases in the official Uganda DNS Hackathon Archive Directory.

Under the Data Protection and Privacy Act, 2019 (Uganda), we process your personal data on the following lawful bases:

• Explicit Consent: Provided when you submit an application form, create a hacker portal account, or submit a contact inquiry.
• Performance of Participation Terms: Necessary to administer your team’s participation, judging evaluation, and eligibility for national awards and .UG Registry incubation.
• Legitimate Technical Interest: Ensuring the physical security of event venues and the network security of DNS lab infrastructure.

We never sell, rent, or trade participant personal data to commercial advertisers or unauthorized third parties. Limited information is shared strictly on a need-to-know basis with:

• Official Jury & Technical Mentors: Verified mentors and judges from the .UG Registry (i3C), Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), ICANN, AfTLD, Internet Society Uganda Chapter, and Refactory receive access to team project submissions and applicant profiles solely for mentorship and scoring.
• Public Project Archive: Team names, project titles, open-source GitHub links, and team leader names of finalist/winning squads are displayed in the public Hackathon Archive to recognize community contributions.

We implement administrative, cryptographic, and role-based access controls to protect your information against unauthorized access, alteration, or disclosure:

• Access Controls: Applicant contact records and review notes are restricted to authorized Secretariat administrators via WordPress capability checks and nonce-verified endpoints.
• Retention Schedule: Active application records are retained for the duration of the annual hackathon cycle and up to twenty-four (24) months thereafter to support post-hackathon incubation and alumni fellowship invitations, unless earlier deletion is requested.

Every applicant, participant, mentor, and visitor exercises full statutory rights over their personal data:

• Right of Access & Portability: Request a copy of all personal application or submission records held about you.
• Right to Rectification: Update inaccurate contact details, institutional affiliations, or repository links at any time.
• Right to Erasure & Withdrawal of Consent: Request deletion of your personal profile or withdraw your application prior to or after the event.

To exercise any of your data protection rights, request a record update, or raise a privacy question, please contact the Uganda DNS Forum Data Protection & Secretariat Team at info@dnsforum.ug, call +256 (0) 312 123 456, or visit us at 8th Floor Block B, Legacy Towers, Kyaggwe Road, Kampala, Uganda.