Last updated: November 2025
Our priority is to make sure people can share their opinions and experiences in a safe, open and transparent way to effect positive social change at the individual, community and global level.
This Privacy Policy is designed to keep you safe and protected, enable you to give informed consent and give you confidence that we will handle your data sensitively and with the highest security measures. Thank you for taking the time to read it! If you have any further questions about our policies please contact us at info@talktoloop.org. You can write to us in any of the languages on the platform.
The only data you must share to submit feedback on Loop is the feedback itself, of 8 characters or more. You also have the option to share details about the feedback and about yourself.
Country
Knowing your location helps us better understand the context of your feedback and provide more relevant support. We automatically detect your country by using the IP address of your device (an IP address is a unique address that identifies a device on the internet or a local network). You can change or remove a country from your feedback before submitting it.
Location
Loop uses your approximate location to encourage organisations near you to respond to your feedback. Based on the location you enter, we use the Google Places API to identify the closest village/town/city. We never store more precise location information and will not collect, reveal or share your exact location with anyone. Only your approximate location will be displayed alongside your feedback if you choose to enter it.
Organisation
Adding an organisation to your post helps us encourage organisations to respond to you. It also helps us show who is listening and responding to feedback.
Name
You can share your full name, use a nickname or remain anonymous. If you share a name, it is displayed alongside your feedback.
Phone number
If you share your phone number, we will send you an SMS to let you know if your feedback is published and when anybody replies. Your number is never published online, and we will never share your number.
Email address
If you provide your email address, you will be notified of replies. You can unsubscribe from these notifications at any time. Sharing your email also allows a trained case manager to contact you if you have shared sensitive feedback. Your email address is not published online, and we will never share your email address.
Physical or mental health condition
People who have a physical or mental health condition often require specialised support. If we know about this, we can try to find an organisation that can better meet your needs. We also display an overview of this data in our statistics page. Data used on our statistics page helps us understand who is using Loop and what their specific needs and experiences are.
Gender
We display an overview of gender data in our statistics page.
Age
We display an overview of age data in our statistics page.
Any data you share with us is stored on Amazon Web Services (AWS) servers. We encrypt all the stored data, including your email and phone number, meaning that nobody apart from senior authorized Loop staff can access the information. We keep phone numbers and emails separate. We will never share or sell any of this information.
Nobody has the right to contact you apart from Loop, who will only do so to notify you if someone responds to feedback or to follow up on Sensitive Feedback.
Loop will display people's feedback and the data associated with them (time stamps and tags) for as long as Loop exists. Time stamps identify when feedback was posted. Tags identify what category feedback fits into.
If Loop ceases to exist and no longer pays for AWS to host the platform, we may export or download data to be stored safely for as long as is legally required and then delete it permanently.
You can publish two kinds of feedback on Loop: ‘Feedback’, and ‘Sensitive Feedback’. We use a higher level of security for Sensitive Feedback.
Feedback: If published, feedback is visible online for anyone to see, along with any details you have chosen to share.
Sensitive Feedback: relates to any of the following topics: Sexual exploitation, Abuse and sexual harassment; Gender-based Violence (GBV); child protection; corruption; fraud; any other breach of code of conduct; any other misconduct.
If your feedback is sensitive, it will not be shared online. Instead, a dedicated professional, Loop Sensitive Feedback Lead, will manage your feedback and your data sensitively and try to get the right organisation to investigate or take appropriate action including referrals to services.
If you share your contact information, we will contact you and update you on any progress. We will not share your personally identifiable information (PII) or contacts with anyone without your permission.
To create a safe place to listen and engage, a Loop Moderator reviews all feedback or replies and determines whether they are sensitive before they are posted on the open platform. The Moderator may add additional tags to categorize the feedback by type (e.g., thanks, suggestions) or thematic area (e.g., cash, ID cards, sexual and reproductive rights). The moderator will also translate it.
The Moderator will either publish the content, or reject it. In both cases, if we have the person's contact details, we will let them know using the channel that they chose to give feedback to Loop in. This might be: SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Email, etc. In Somalia, we do not let people know via IVR that their feedback has been posted as this has caused too much confusion. People will be informed if they receive a reply.
If posting feedback or a reply may put someone’s safety at risk, including potentially identifying them, three things can happen:
People may not publish or post other people's private information (such as their full name, home phone number and address) without their express authorization and permission. If they do then the information will either be redacted or the feedback will be rejected.
Loop is available on other platforms including SMS, Interactive Voice Response and Reply (IVRR) technology, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or via our website. We will be building on other platforms such as Telegram in future. However, the safest way to share feedback is through www.talktoloop.org, where we have full control of your data.
If you mark your feedback as sensitive when sharing it through another platform, it will be redirected to Loop, as we cannot guarantee how safely your data will be used on other platforms.
The data on Loop’s statistics page is publicly accessible and reflects aggregated information shared by users. While data on sensitive feedback is included, the actual content of such feedback is never accessible. We ensure that no data is published on the statistics page unless we are certain it cannot be used to identify individuals.
National laws may require Loop to reveal personal data upon a request of public authorities in certain circumstances. If this happens, Loop will inform you, and we will only reveal data that you have chosen to share.
We use the following services to host data and files that enable Loop to run:
Amazon Web Services (AWS) (Amazon Web Services, Inc.)
This is a hosting and backend service provided by Amazon Web Services, Inc. They process data in Frankfurt, Germany. Processing data includes collecting, recording, organising, storing, adapting, using, making available, erasing or destroying personal data. For more information visit the EU Website. Read more about the AWS Privacy Policy.
Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon)
Amazon Simple Email Service is an email address management and message sending service provided by Amazon.com Inc. We use this service to send account activation emails so you can set up a password. Read more about the Amazon Simple Email Service Privacy Policy.
MailJet
For other email communications, we use the Transactional and Marketing Platform of Mailjet, a CRM-suite. Mailjet is GDPR-compliant. Their Privacy Policy is clear that they do not share data or contacts except in legal situations where they are required to do so.
Airtable
Airtable is a digital operations platform used to hold structured data and exchange it with a variety of applications, much like a spreadsheet but with very advanced functionality. For more info, see Airtable’s Privacy Policy.
Twilio
Twilio is a cloud communications platform that allows applications to utilize voice, text messaging, and video. Loop’s IVR (Interactive Voice Response) solution is largely managed through Twilio. More details can be found in Twilio’s Privacy Policy.
TalktoLoop.org uses trackers, including cookies. Cookies are small text files that websites place on your device as you are browsing. They are processed and stored by your web browser. Loop only uses trackers directly managed by us and which are strictly necessary for making the platform run. We do not allow any third party trackers, so advertisers and analytic systems do not track Loop data. To learn more, please read our Cookie Policy, which states what trackers are active on Loop and for what purpose.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be reflected in the updated Privacy Notice published on our website, and this document will be adjusted accordingly.