Privacy Policy
The Short Version
We keep it simple because your privacy matters:
1. Who We Are
NaijaHistory.com ("NaijaHistory", "we", "us") is a Nigerian online reference website publishing history, civic data, and government salary information for Nigeria's 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. The site is independently operated.
For questions about this policy or your data, contact us at naijahistory.com/contact.
2. What Data We Collect and Why
2.1 — Data You Give Us Directly
If you use our contact form, you provide:
- Your name — so we can address you properly in our reply
- Your email address — so we can respond to your message
- Your message — the content of your enquiry, correction, or suggestion
We use this data solely to respond to your message. We do not add you to any mailing list. We do not share your contact information with third parties. We do not use it for marketing.
We retain contact form submissions for up to 12 months to allow for follow-up on data corrections and content requests, after which they are deleted.
2.2 — Data Collected Automatically
Like every website on the internet, our web server automatically records:
- Your IP address
- The page you visited and the time of the visit
- Your browser type and version (from the HTTP User-Agent header)
- The referring page (how you arrived at our site)
This data is stored in server access logs. We use it to:
- Diagnose technical errors and ensure the site works correctly
- Identify and block malicious bots or denial-of-service attacks
- Understand which content is most useful to readers (in aggregate)
Server logs are retained for 90 days and then purged. We do not link log data to personally identifiable information unless investigating a security incident.
2.3 — Cookies
NaijaHistory uses minimal cookies:
| Cookie name | Purpose | Duration | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
PHPSESSID |
PHP session cookie — used to prevent cross-site request forgery (CSRF) on our contact form. Stores a temporary token, no personal data. | Session (deleted when you close your browser) | Strictly necessary |
We do not use analytics cookies (Google Analytics, Matomo, etc.), advertising cookies, or social media tracking pixels. There are no third-party cookies from ad networks.
Because we only use a single strictly-necessary session cookie, we do not display a cookie consent banner — this is consistent with guidance from the UK ICO, EU ePrivacy Directive, and equivalent frameworks that exempt cookies that are strictly required for security functions the user has explicitly requested (submitting a form).
3. How We Use Your Information
We use data collected from you only for the following purposes:
- To reply to messages you send via our contact form
- To verify and apply corrections to published data that you report
- To maintain the security and performance of our servers
- To understand — in aggregate, never at an individual level — which content is most useful
We do not use your data for profiling, automated decision-making, personalised advertising, or any commercial purpose.
4. Do We Share Your Data?
No, with narrow technical exceptions:
- Hosting provider — Our website is hosted on a shared server. The hosting provider processes server data as part of delivering the service. They do not receive your contact form data.
- Legal obligation — If we receive a valid legal order from a Nigerian court or law enforcement authority requiring us to disclose specific data, we would comply and, where legally permitted, notify you.
We do not sell, rent, lease, or otherwise commercially share any user data. We do not share data with advertising networks, data brokers, or social media platforms.
5. Security
We take reasonable technical measures to protect data:
- All pages are served over HTTPS (TLS encryption in transit)
- Contact forms include CSRF token verification and honeypot spam filtering
- Database access is restricted to the web application user with minimum necessary permissions
- Server access is limited and secured with key-based authentication
No system is completely secure. If you believe there has been a security incident affecting data you submitted to us, please contact us immediately.
6. Your Rights
Depending on your location, you may have rights over your personal data. For EU/UK residents these include rights under the GDPR and UK GDPR. For Nigerian residents these are informed by the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 (NDPA):
To exercise any of these rights, contact us with your request. We will respond within 30 days. For verification purposes we may ask you to confirm your identity.
7. Children
NaijaHistory is a general-audience educational reference site. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Our contact form requires users to be at least 13 years old. If you believe a child under 13 has submitted data to us, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.
8. Links to External Websites
Some of our pages link to official Nigerian government websites (state portals, NSIWC, NBS, INEC, NASS etc.), news publications, and Wikipedia for source verification. These are third-party sites with their own privacy policies. We are not responsible for their data practices. We recommend reviewing the privacy policy of any external site you visit.
9. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy when our data practices change. The "last updated" date at the top will reflect any changes. Material changes — particularly those affecting how we handle contact form data — will be noted prominently on this page for at least 30 days.
Continued use of NaijaHistory after a policy update constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.
10. Contact — Data & Privacy Questions
For any question about this policy, to exercise your data rights, or to report a privacy concern: