Privacy, consent and safeguarding

Matata is built and maintained by Origin Apex Solutions Africa Limited (trading as Origin), a company registered in Kenya (“we”). When we run Matata for a response, we are the data controller. When a partner (for example a county government or a Red Cross society) runs its own Matata instance, that partner is the controller for its data and this policy describes the minimum the software does.

Privacy and safeguarding contact: info@origin.co.ke

We do not ask for your name, ID number or phone number to send a report.

Before a photo is stored, we remove the hidden data that phones add to pictures (GPS position, device model, serial number). Free text you type is cleaned of web code. Your email address or phone number is never stored in readable form: we keep only a salted hash.

While you are offline, your report waits on your own phone (in the browser’s storage) and is sent when you are back online. It is deleted from your phone once it is sent.

We use report data only to help people affected by a disaster: to see where damage is, to decide where to send help, and to plan recovery. We do not sell data, show advertising, or use reports to build profiles of people.

Our legal basis is your consent, which you give in the report form before you send a report, and, during an emergency, the protection of people’s vital interests and tasks carried out in the public interest by the responders we work with.

• Trained analysts and responders working on the response see reports on the Matata dashboard, including photos. Regional responders see only reports inside their own area.
• Aid organisations and the public may receive exported data (for example on the Humanitarian Data Exchange). Exports never include photos, your email, your session code or analyst notes. Email addresses, phone numbers and web links typed into free-text fields are removed. For sensitive situations, such as conflict, locations can be rounded to about 110 m or 1.1 km before sharing.
• Analysts never see who you are. The dashboard shows only a trust level for each reporter, never an email or session code.

These services process data on our behalf. Matata runs on servers we operate, so report data, photos and translation stay on our own systems. Anthropic and Amazon Web Services are outside Kenya.

When a photo is added, an AI model may estimate how badly the building is damaged. The estimate is advice for analysts, not a decision about you. Estimates the model is unsure about are always sent to a person, and analysts can override any estimate.

• Photos are deleted 90 days after the report was sent, unless a newer report still uses the same photo.
• Report records (location, damage details, needs) are kept for as long as the response and recovery need them, and reviewed at the end of each response. They are then deleted or made anonymous, and are never kept more than 2 years after the response ends.
• Session codes expire on their own. Sign-in codes expire within minutes.
• Exports created on the dashboard expire after 24 hours.

Under the Kenya Data Protection Act, 2019, you can ask us to:

• tell you what data we hold about you and give you a copy;
• correct it;
• delete it, or stop using it;
• withdraw your consent at any time (this does not affect reports already shared before you withdrew it).

Write to info@origin.co.ke with the report reference shown after you sent the report. We will reply within 30 days. If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (odpc.go.ke).

Reports are about damage, not people. To keep everyone safe:

• Do not photograph people’s faces, children, injured or dead people, or ID documents. Point the camera at the building or road.
• Do not photograph police, military or other security sites.
• Do not type names or phone numbers (yours or anyone else’s) into the report. If you need help yourself, contact emergency services first.
• Only report if it is safe to do so. Never enter a damaged building or flood water to take a photo.
• Matata is not meant for children under 18 to use alone. A young person who needs to report damage should ask an adult to help.

When automatic content checking is switched on, every photo is checked for harmful content before it is stored. Analysts remove reports that break these rules. In conflict settings, locations can be rounded before data is shared. If you see a report that puts someone at risk, contact info@origin.co.ke and we will act within 24 hours.

Data travels between your phone and our server over an encrypted connection (HTTPS). Only provisioned staff accounts can open the dashboard. Personal identifiers are stored only as salted hashes. One limit: phone numbers have few possible values, so if both our database and our secret key were stolen, hashed phone numbers could be worked out. Moving the key to a managed key store is planned.

We will post any change to this policy here, with a new version date. If a change affects how reports you have already sent are used, we will say so on the report form.