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Intelligent Community Dialogue Agent

Account & Data Deletion

Last updated: 2026 · ICDA, by Wits Mining Institute

Overview

ICDA is an AI-powered community engagement platform developed by Wits Mining Institute for the MASTERMINE EU Project, enabling communication between mining companies and local communities.

If you wish to delete your ICDA account and personal data, you have the right to request this under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Article 17 (right to erasure). This page explains how to submit a deletion request, what data is deleted, what is retained and for how long, and how long the process takes.

How to request account deletion

You can delete your account directly in the app, or by email.

Method 1 — In the ICDA app (recommended)

  1. Open the ICDA app and sign in with your email and password.
  2. Go to the Profile tab.
  3. Scroll to the data & privacy section and tap Delete Account (the red trash icon, labelled "Permanently delete your account and all associated data").
  4. On the first confirmation ("Delete Account?"), tap Delete Permanently.
  5. On the second confirmation ("Are you absolutely sure?"), tap Delete Permanently again.
  6. Your account is anonymized immediately and you are signed out. Full deletion completes within 30 days (see "Processing timeframe" below).

Tip: The same section offers Download my data, which lets you export a copy of your personal data without deleting your account.

Method 2 — By email (fallback)

If you cannot access the app, email your deletion request to:

Include:

  • Your full name
  • The email address registered with ICDA
  • A clear statement: "I request permanent deletion of my ICDA account and associated personal data under GDPR Article 17."

We will verify your identity and process the request within 30 days of receipt.

Delete some of your data without deleting your account

You can remove specific data and keep using ICDA.

Chat sessions

  1. Open the Chat tab.
  2. In your list of conversations, swipe left on the conversation you want to remove and tap Delete.
  3. Confirm with Delete on "Delete Conversation?".

The conversation and all its messages disappear from your account straight away.

Your issue reports

  1. Open the Issues tab and tap the report.
  2. Tap the ⋮ actions button in the top-right corner.
  3. Tap Delete Issue, then confirm with Delete on "Delete Issue?".

You can delete a report in the app while it is still a draft or has just been submitted. Once the mining operator has started working on it, email us at privacy@icda.app instead (see below).

Withdraw consent

  1. Open the Profile tab and scroll to the privacy section.
  2. Turn off any of AI assistant, Maps or Push notifications.

From then on, ICDA stops sending your data to the related third-party service. Turning off consent doesn't delete data you already shared. To remove past chats, delete them as described above.

By email

If you can't do any of this in the app, or you want other specific data removed, email privacy@icda.app from the address registered with ICDA. Say which data you want deleted. We will verify your identity and reply within 30 days.

Deleted chats and reports are removed from active systems on a rolling schedule and from backups within 35 days.

What data is deleted

When you delete your account, the following is removed or anonymized immediately:

  • Email address — replaced with an anonymized placeholder (deleted_<id>@deleted.local)
  • First and last name — replaced with "Deleted" / "User"
  • Phone number — removed
  • Avatar image and thumbnail — permanently deleted from storage
  • Registered devices — push-notification device records deleted
  • Chat sessions — your AI chat sessions are deleted
  • Authentication sessions — all sign-in sessions are revoked

Then, after a 30-day grace period, your user record is permanently hard-deleted from the database, and linked data is removed or detached via database cascade rules.

What data is retained (and for how long)

Some records are retained after your account is anonymized, for legal, safety, and community-integrity reasons. Where retained, your identity is anonymized (your name and email are replaced with placeholders).

  • Community issue reports — the issue title, description, category, and status remain part of the community record, but your authorship is anonymized and your message content is tombstoned. Reason: community issues form a shared record that mining partners and other community members rely on; removing the entire history would break that record.
  • Audit and compliance logs — records of key actions (e.g. account creation, deletion) are retained for 1 year (production default; subject to legal sign-off). These contain only your anonymized user ID and action timestamps, not your personal details. Reason: legal/audit obligations under GDPR and applicable regulations.
  • Anonymous crash and diagnostic data — reports of app errors and crashes, with device and app version details, are not linked to your account. They are kept for our app monitoring provider's retention period of 90 days, then deleted automatically.

No retained record continues to identify you after anonymization.

Processing timeframe

  • Anonymization: immediate (at the moment you confirm the request)
  • Permanent hard deletion: within 30 days of your request
  • Confirmation: where a contactable address is still on file, a deletion confirmation email is sent once the account is removed

Contact

Your rights under GDPR

  • Article 17 — Right to erasure ("right to be forgotten")
  • Article 20 — Right to data portability (export your data)
  • Article 7 — Right to withdraw consent at any time