Privacy Policy

The Afghan-American Professional Network (“APN,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, how long we keep it, and the choices available to you. By interacting with our website at afghanamericanpro.net or submitting a nomination request, you acknowledge this policy.

Data We Collect

We collect information in the following contexts:

Nomination Requests

When you submit a nomination request, we collect: full name, email address, phone number, LinkedIn URL, professional background (current title, organization, field of practice), professional category, location, and a fit statement describing your alignment with APN’s mission. A referral code from an existing member may also be collected if provided.

Contact, Partnership, and Mentorship Inquiries

When you submit a contact, partnership, or mentorship interest form, we collect your name, email address, the type of inquiry, and your message. Partnership inquiries also include your organization name and partnership type.

Analytics

We use Plausible Analytics, a cookieless, privacy-friendly analytics service. Plausible does not collect or store personal data, does not use cookies, and does not require a cookie consent banner. See the section below on Analytics for details.

Professional Information

When you submit a nomination request, we collect professional information including your LinkedIn URL, professional background, field of practice, current title, organization, fit statement, and professional-standing information. This data is collected solely for membership eligibility review by the APN Membership Committee, Chair, and Secretary.

Your professional information is:

• Never sold to any third party, for any purpose.
• Never made public without your explicit written consent.
• Accessible only to the Membership Committee, Chair, and Secretary for the purpose of evaluating your eligibility.
• Not used for marketing, profiling, or any purpose unrelated to the membership review process.

How We Use Your Data

• Nomination requests: to evaluate membership eligibility, communicate status updates, and maintain accurate records of the review process.
• Contact and partnership inquiries: to route your message to the appropriate APN committee and follow up with a response.
• Mentorship inquiries: to connect you with APN members who can provide mentorship guidance.
• Transactional email: to send confirmation and notification emails related to your inquiry or nomination request. We use Resend to deliver these emails.
• Analytics: to understand aggregate site usage and improve the user experience. We use Plausible, which collects no personal data.

We do not use your data for advertising, sell it to data brokers, or share it with third parties except as described in the “Third Parties” section below.

Data Retention

We retain your data only as long as necessary:

• Rejected or withdrawn nomination requests: We retain rejected or withdrawn nomination request data for 24 months from the rejection date, after which it is permanently deleted. This period allows candidates to submit a new nomination request and ensures the integrity of the review record.
• Approved members: Member records are retained for the duration of active membership plus any applicable alumni period.
• Organizational records: Financial, governance, and operational records are retained for at least seven years in compliance with APN’s governance document and applicable law.
• Contact and inquiry records: Retained for a reasonable period to allow follow-up, then deleted.

Your Rights and Choices

You have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Access: You may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction: You may request correction of inaccurate data.
• Deletion: APN will honor verified deletion requests within 30 days of receipt, except where retention is required by law or governance (e.g., the seven-year organizational record requirement). To submit a deletion request, contact us at the address below.
• Withdrawal: If you submitted a nomination request and have not yet been admitted, you may withdraw your request at any time by contacting us.

Analytics

We use Plausible Analytics to understand how visitors use our site. Plausible is a privacy-friendly analytics platform with the following characteristics:

• Cookieless: Plausible does not set any cookies on your device.
• No personal tracking: Plausible does not collect or store any personally identifiable information. It measures aggregate traffic patterns only.
• No consent banner needed: Because Plausible collects no personal data and uses no cookies, no cookie consent banner is required under applicable privacy frameworks.
• Data is hosted in the European Union and Plausible is GDPR-compliant by design.

We do not use Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, or any other third-party advertising or behavioral tracking scripts on our website.

Third-Party Service Providers

We work with a limited number of trusted service providers to operate the website:

• Resend, transactional email delivery. Nomination confirmations and committee notifications are sent via Resend. Resend processes email addresses solely to deliver messages.
• Sanity CMS, content management for editorial content (articles, events, founder stories). No personal nomination or inquiry data is stored in Sanity.
• Vercel, website hosting and edge delivery. Vercel may process server access logs (IP addresses, request paths) as part of standard web hosting operations.
• Neon (PostgreSQL), secure database hosting for nomination requests, member records, and audit logs. Data is encrypted at rest and in transit.
• Stripe, payment processing for dues (planned for a future phase). Stripe will process payment information in compliance with PCI-DSS; APN will not store card data.

None of these providers are authorized to use your data for their own marketing or to sell it to third parties.

Security

We implement technical and organizational measures to protect your data, including: encrypted connections (TLS), HTTP-only and Secure session cookies, role-based access controls limiting who can view sensitive data, and an append-only audit log for all data access events. No system is perfectly secure; if you believe your data has been compromised, please contact us immediately.

Children’s Privacy

Our website and membership are intended for professional adults aged 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If you believe a child has submitted personal data to us, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as our practices evolve or applicable law requires. Material changes will be noted with an updated “Last updated” date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

Contact Us

For questions about this Privacy Policy, to exercise your data rights (including deletion requests), or to report a concern, contact us at: