Privacy Policy

01Who we are and what this covers

Oozezi Creative Collective ("Oozezi", "we", "us") runs oozezi.com and the programmes on it. This policy explains how we handle personal data across the website, submissions, competitions, judge applications, our editors portal and our emails. It is in effect from 1 January 2025 and was last updated in October 2026.

Contact for anything privacy-related: info@oozezi.com.

02What we collect

Identity

Your name and pen name, and, where a prize requires verification, your date of birth and a copy of formal ID.

Contact

Email address, phone number, and social handles such as Instagram, when you give them to us. Judge applicants also tell us how they prefer to be contacted (WhatsApp, phone call or email).

What you submit

Your writing, registration details, the video link you share for The Last Word, judge application answers (background and notes) and the signed judge agreement, including the name typed as a signature, the time, your IP address and the agreement version.

Financial

Bank details you provide so we can pay a prize or a fee, and payment details handled by payment gateways. We do not keep full card numbers. If you buy Oozezi Words, we keep a record of each purchase: your email address, what you bought, the amount, and Flutterwave's reference for the payment. If you pay for a sponsorship online, we keep a record of the payment: your name and your business's (if you give it), your email address, your phone number (if you give it), the package, the amount, what you tell us about your prize, challenge or partnership, the name you asked to be credited under (if any), and Flutterwave's reference for the payment.

Comments and activity

The name you choose for a comment (blank means Anonymous), the comment itself, and the IP address and browser details WordPress records with it. We do not ask for an email address to comment. Likes, ratings and votes you cast on pieces are counted so we can show results and detect abuse.

Technical

IP address, device and browser type, and cookies, described in the cookies section below. Emails we send are logged (recipient, subject, time, delivery status) so we can support you and fix problems.

03How and why we use it

• To run the competition, challenge, collection or programme you entered, and to contact you about your submission, including acceptance, rejection, publication and problems with a video link
• To review and approve registrations, and to choose and contact judges
• To pay prizes and any amounts owed to you, and to send payment notices
• To publish and credit your work as described in our Terms
• To send newsletters and prompts, only if you opted in, and you can opt out any time
• To moderate comments, prevent spam and fraud, and keep the site secure
• To meet our legal obligations, including tax and anti-fraud rules

We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information, for marketing or anything else.

04Our legal basis

• Consent, given when you sign up, tick a box, or enter a challenge
• Contract, to provide the services and prizes you signed up for
• Legal obligation, including Nigerian tax and anti-fraud laws
• Legitimate interest, for security, spam prevention and keeping records of what was agreed

05Who sees your information

Only the people who need it to do their job. Our editorial team and admins use an internal editors portal to review submissions and registrations, including watching a registration video through the portal. We use service providers to operate the platform, and they process data on our behalf:

• Web hosting and email delivery, which store the site's data and send our emails
• Payment gateways and banks, to move money to and from you, including Flutterwave (and Mono, for paying from your bank app) for buying Oozezi Words and paying for a sponsorship
• Google, where you share a video from Google Drive, and for fonts loaded on our pages
• Automattic (Jetpack Stats), to count which pages are read, only if you allow it on our cookie notice
• Social platforms, only for what you consented to have shared there

We may disclose information where the law requires it. Where a service provider is outside your country, we take reasonable steps to protect the data.

06Keeping it, and deleting it

We keep only what is strictly necessary.

• ID copies are deleted within 30 days after verification
• Bank account details collected for a prize are used for that payment only and deleted once payment is confirmed
• Account and participation records are kept while your account or participation is active, and deleted on request, except where we must keep them by law or to show what you agreed to (for example a signed judge agreement or a payment record)
• Email logs are pruned automatically after a limited period
• Published work and credit stay on the site under the licence you gave, unless you ask us to remove it and we are able to

07Your rights

Under Nigeria's Data Protection Act (NDPA) and, where they apply to you, laws such as Canada's PIPEDA, you can ask us to:

• Show you the data we hold about you (access)
• Correct anything that is wrong (rectification)
• Delete your data (erasure)
• Give you your data in a portable format
• Stop using your data where you had consented (withdraw consent), including unsubscribing from emails at any time

Email info@oozezi.com and we will respond promptly. You can also complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission.

08Cookies

We use cookies and similar browser storage for things the site needs to work: keeping editors, judges, sponsors and staff signed in to their portals, remembering a poem you liked, and remembering your cookie choice. These don't need your permission. Our comment form does not set a "remember me" cookie.

The only optional one is visitor statistics. We use Jetpack Stats, run by Automattic, to count which pages people read. It only loads if you choose Allow on our cookie notice. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal, we treat that as a no and don't ask. We don't use advertising or marketing cookies.

You can change your choice at any time with Cookie Settings, which is also at the bottom of every page. You can also clear or block cookies in your browser, though portal sign-ins may then stop working.

09Security and breaches

The site uses SSL/TLS encryption, access to the editors portal and admin tools is restricted, and we limit who can see personal data. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your data, we will notify the Nigeria Data Protection Commission and the people affected within 72 hours of becoming aware of it.

10Children

Our competitions are for people 18 and over, or younger participants with a parent or guardian's permission, given through our Guardian Consent form. If you believe a child has given us data without that permission, tell us and we will delete it.

11Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as our programmes change. The "Last updated" date at the top shows when. Where a change is significant, we will say so on the site or by email. Questions: info@oozezi.com.