Advertising Disclaimer

1. Why We Display Advertising

AfriWidget is a free platform committed to making AI-powered educational tools accessible to everyone, with no subscription fees, no premium tiers, and no paywalls. To sustain our operations — including web hosting, content development, tool maintenance, and future feature development — we display advertising on our website through Google AdSense and may incorporate other advertising networks in the future.

We believe that advertising, when done responsibly and transparently, is a fair and sustainable model for keeping high-quality online resources free for all users. We are committed to ensuring that the advertising on our Site is relevant, non-intrusive, and does not compromise the user experience or the accuracy of our tools.

This Advertising Disclaimer is intended to give you full transparency about how advertising works on AfriWidget, what data may be used by advertising partners, and what choices you have regarding advertising.

2. Google AdSense

AfriWidget uses Google AdSense, a service provided by Google LLC, to display advertisements on our Site. Google AdSense is one of the world's most widely used digital advertising platforms, operating on behalf of hundreds of thousands of publishers to deliver relevant ads to users based on page content and, depending on user settings, browsing history.

When you visit AfriWidget pages that display AdSense advertisements, Google may use cookies and similar tracking technologies to:

• Serve ads that are relevant to the page content you are reading (contextual advertising)
• If personalised advertising is enabled, use data about your browsing history across websites that use Google services to serve advertisements tailored to your interests
• Measure the performance of advertisements served on our Site
• Limit the frequency with which the same ads are shown to you
• Combat fraud and prevent invalid clicks on advertisements

Google's advertising cookies include the DoubleClick cookie and cookies associated with the Google Display Network. You can review Google's privacy practices and opt-out options at adssettings.google.com.

3. What Data AfriWidget Shares with Advertisers

AfriWidget does not share calculator inputs with Google AdSense or use them for advertising targeting. Most inputs are processed within your browser. If you request a Finance or Education AI insight, limited calculation context is sent to the secure Groq proxy for that feature; it is not sent to advertising partners.

What we do share with advertising platforms is standard anonymous browsing data that is collected automatically when you visit any website displaying AdSense: your IP address (which may be used to estimate your geographic location), the pages you visit on our Site, and general browser and device information. This data is aggregated and used for ad targeting and measurement purposes in accordance with Google's policies.

We do not share your name, email address, phone number, or any personally identifiable information with Google AdSense, as we do not collect such information as part of our core calculator Services.

4. Interest-Based Advertising

Google AdSense may serve interest-based advertisements — ads tailored to interests inferred from your browsing history across websites that use Google advertising services. This personalisation is governed entirely by your Google account and browser settings, not by AfriWidget.

You can opt out of interest-based advertising by visiting Google's Ads Settings at adssettings.google.com, by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, by adjusting your browser's cookie settings to block third-party cookies, or by using the opt-out mechanisms provided by the Network Advertising Initiative at optout.networkadvertising.org.

5. Affiliate Advertising

From time to time, AfriWidget may participate in affiliate marketing programmes, in which we earn a commission when a user clicks on a link to a third-party product or service and subsequently makes a purchase. Affiliate links will always be clearly identified in the relevant content. AfriWidget only promotes products and services that we believe are relevant and potentially useful to our users. Affiliate commissions do not influence the content, accuracy, or objectivity of our tools or editorial content.

6. Editorial Independence

Advertising revenue does not influence the content, tool design, or editorial decisions on AfriWidget. Our calculators use internationally validated formulas and are maintained independently of our advertising relationships. We do not allow advertisers to influence or modify our educational content. Advertisements are clearly separated from our informational and calculator content and are labelled as advertisements in accordance with applicable regulations.

7. Ad Content We Do Not Accept

While Google's AdSense programme controls the specific advertisements served on our pages, we have configured our AdSense settings to restrict certain categories of advertising that we consider inconsistent with our mission and values. We do not knowingly permit advertisements for predatory financial products, unverified health products making unsubstantiated claims, gambling services, or content inappropriate for a general audience including minors.

8. User Control

We respect your right to control your advertising experience. You can manage your cookie preferences, including advertising cookies, through our cookie consent banner when you first visit the Site or by revisiting your Cookie Policy page. You can also manage advertising preferences through your browser's cookie settings or through the opt-out mechanisms described in Section 4 above.

9. Contact Us About Advertising

If you have encountered an advertisement on AfriWidget that you believe is inappropriate, misleading, or in violation of any policy, please report it to us through our contact form. You can also report inappropriate ads directly to Google through the AdSense ad feedback mechanism (the "i" icon or the "X" button that appears on some Google ads). If you are interested in advertising directly on AfriWidget, please contact us using the "Advertising" subject option on our contact form.