Data Privacy
The Question We Knew Was Coming
Section titled “The Question We Knew Was Coming”“Are you selling farmer data to Europeans?”
The short answer is no. The longer answer requires distinguishing between two fundamentally different types of information.
Provenance Data vs Personal Data
Section titled “Provenance Data vs Personal Data”What travels to a European buyer is provenance data about a commodity — not personal data about a person.
| What travels to Europe | What stays in Uganda |
|---|---|
| GPS polygon proving the farm is deforestation-free | Farmer name |
| EUDR DDS compliance statement | Phone number |
| Coffee batch weight, grade, processing dates | Credit score (linked to wallet address, not name) |
| UCDA cooperative licence reference | Income data |
The GPS polygon describes where a commodity was grown — the same function as a country-of-origin label or a Rainforest Alliance certification audit. It is not a medical record.
What Is On-Chain and What Is Not
Section titled “What Is On-Chain and What Is Not”| Data | Location | Access |
|---|---|---|
| GPS polygon hash | Mantle (on-chain) | Public — content-addressed hash only |
| Raw GeoJSON coordinates | IPFS | Requires content hash; not freely browsable |
| Credit score | Mantle (on-chain) | Public — linked to cooperative wallet address, not name/ID |
| Phone number | Supabase (off-chain) | AsiliChain internal only |
| MAAIF national farmer ID | Mantle (on-chain) | Public — government-issued identifier |
| Financial transaction amounts | Mantle (on-chain) | Public — cooperative level, not individual |
Five Audiences, Five Answers
Section titled “Five Audiences, Five Answers”Cooperative manager: Your farmers’ GPS data stays in Uganda’s government registry. What goes to Europe is a compliance document confirming the farm is deforestation-free. Your farmers’ names, phone numbers, and credit scores are not shared with European buyers.
MAAIF official: The GPS data originates in your national registry. AsiliChain reads from the government’s system via API. The government retains control of the underlying data — revoking API access closes AsiliChain’s primary data path.
Journalist: The GPS polygon is a farm boundary record, not a surveillance instrument. It is the same data Rainforest Alliance certification requires. The on-chain record stores a hash of the government’s data, not a parallel private database controlled by AsiliChain.
Farmer directly: Your data helps prove your coffee is worth more in Europe and can unlock a loan if you want one. The record of your farm stays in Uganda’s government system. Your name is not on the compliance document that travels with your coffee.
Activist: There are genuine privacy tradeoffs in any system that creates verifiable records. AsiliChain minimises them — hashed data on-chain, raw coordinates on IPFS with access controls, credit scores linked to addresses not names. The alternative is paper-based opacity that excludes these farmers from European markets entirely under EUDR and denies them formal credit. Privacy protection is not binary.
Uganda Data Protection Act 2019
Section titled “Uganda Data Protection Act 2019”AsiliChain processes personal data of Ugandan citizens. A data processing agreement with Kotani Pay under the Uganda Data Protection Act 2019 is required before Phase 1 mainnet. Data minimisation principle: AsiliChain collects only what EUDR compliance and lending operations require.