Privacy policy

PRIVACY POLICY FOR CUSTOMERS

1. Who is responsible for your personal information

This Privacy Policy applies to the personal information of Intellect Africa Group (Pty) Ltd customers using the Intellect Africa Group website.  References to “IAG”, “us”, “we” or “our” in this Privacy Policy mean Intellect Africa Group (Pty) Ltd, or one of its affiliates, subsidiaries or joint ventures. The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to set out how, why and when IAG uses your Personal Information so as to comply with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (“POPI”).

It is important that you read this Privacy Policy together with our other terms and conditions, privacy notices or policies we may provide from time to time when we collect or use your Personal Information. Further, please pay special attention to the clauses in this Privacy Policy that appear in similar text and style (i.e. bold) which:

  • May limit the risk or liability of IAG or a third party;
  • May create risk or liability for the user;
  • May compel the user to indemnify IAG or a third party; and/or
  • Serves as an acknowledgement, by the user, of a fact.

We respect your privacy and take the protection of Personal Information very seriously. We strive to deliver excellent service every time you shop with us, and to do this, we need to use some of your Personal Information. This Privacy Policy describes how we handle the Personal Information we collect about you and/or receive from you. By using our Platforms, you agree to the processing of your Personal Information as set out in this Privacy Policy.

2. Personal information we collect about you

When using the term “personal information” in this Privacy Statement, we mean information that relates to you and allows us to identify you, either directly or in combination with other information that we may hold. We obtain this information directly from you when you place an order, set up a customer account with us, or use our website. We may collect the following personal information about you:

  • Your name and contact details (title, surname, first name, any other name(s), postal address(es), e-mail address, telephone numbers)
  • Your date of birth
  • Information on your purchases from IAG, and information about your preferences for particular types of products
  • The communications you exchange with us (for example, your emails, letters, calls, or posts and messages on social media).
  • Information about how you use our website
  • Information on how you use our website, using cookies or similar identifiers. Cookies are small pieces of information stored by your browser on your computer’s hard drive. They enable you to navigate on our website and allow us to provide features, such as keeping you logged in to our website; they also allow us to assess the website so we can improve it, and provide us with information for marketing purposes. For more information on how we use cookies and how you can remove them, please refer below.
  • Identifiers such as your log information, your browser, operating system, your Internet Protocol address, geographic location and other information about you from third parties, such as social media.

Should your Personal Information change or you wish to amend and/or correct this Personal Information you can do this by updating your registered user information in your account profile.

You warrant that the information you have provided is accurate, current, true and correct and that does not impersonate or misrepresent any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with anyone or anything.

We use a third party payment gateway to take payment for any orders placed, but IAG does not process or store payment details.

If you choose to click through to third party websites via our website, third parties may collect information about your use of our website, using certain technologies available to them, for example cookies. Similarly, where you choose to interact with IAG content on social media, third parties may collect information about these interactions. Information collected by these third party services is governed by the privacy policies of those third parties. Where you are directed to a third party’s website by IAG, IAG is only responsible for the processing of your personal information by that third party, where the third party is processing your personal data on instructions from IAG.

3. If you are below the age of 18

If you are below the age of 18 years, you must always get permission from your parent or guardian before you use our Platforms or give us your Personal Information. We may check that your parent or guardian has given you such permission, for example by asking you to provide us with your parent’s or guardian’s contact details so we can contact them. We may also check that the contact details you have given us are correct and are the details of a person who is actually your parent or guardian. If we are not able to verify such permission or if a parent or guardian confirms that you do not have their permission, you may not use our Platforms.

4. How and why we use the personal information that we collect

We use your personal information for the following purposes:

  • To fulfil your order
    When you place your IAG order, we use your personal information to fulfil that order. We may contact you by email and/or SMS to send you confirmation of your order, payment and order status.  This is to meet our contractual obligations to you.
  • To inform you about our services and offers that you may like
    If you have signed up to our IAG Newsletter or purchased from us previously, we may send you email and/or SMS communications about our services and offers. Such marketing communications are sent on the basis of your consent, which you can withdraw at any time by contacting us as set out below. We may use the information we have about you (including your purchasing history) to build a profile about your preferences, and to send you services and offers tailored to you. You may also see advertising related to IAG services across the web on the basis of the information we hold about you. This is to meet our legitimate business interests in marketing our services effectively. If you do not want to receive marketing communications (e.g. emails) from us, please contact us.  Where you interact with IAG by posting or messaging on social media, we may use personal information included in social media posts for this purpose.
  • To improve our services, fulfil our administrative purposes and protect our business interests
    The business purposes for which we will use your personal information include accounting, billing, security and legal purposes (including to investigate complaints or claims, and to administer the IAG services guarantee and any other rights to reverse a service), statistical and marketing analysis, systems testing, maintenance and development. This will include the use of your personal information to comply with our legal obligations, for example, our obligation to maintain records for tax and audit purposes. Where there is no specific legal obligation we are required to meet, we process this personal information to meet our legitimate interests in managing our business and keeping our records accurate and up to date.
  • To request your participation in services reviews
    We may contact you to ask you to participate in services reviews.  This may be for a service you have purchased, a sample provided by IAG or a service we think you may be interested in.  We process this information on the basis of our legitimate interest to improve our services offering.  If you choose to participate, the processing of the information relating to your participation and review is carried out on the basis of your consent, which you can withdraw at any time by contacting us..

If you object to the use of your personal information to fulfil any of the purposes set out above, please contact us.  Whilst your decision to provide your personal information to IAG is generally voluntary, if you do not provide certain information IAG may not be able to accomplish some of the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy. For example, we may not be able to email services to you without knowing your email address.

5. How long we keep your personal information

We keep your Personal Information for as long as:

  • we need it to provide our Platforms or services to you.
  • it is required or allowed by law and is in line with our internal retention policies.
  • it is necessary to uphold the contract between you and us.
  • you have agreed to us keeping your Personal Information subject to your request for us to stop processing your Personal Information.

We will retain your Personal Information for as long as is necessary to achieve the purpose for which this information was collected or subsequently processed. If your Personal Information is used for more than one purpose, we will retain it until the purpose with the latest period expires but we will stop using it for the purpose with a shorter period once that period expires.

By accessing and using the Platform, you consent to us retaining records of your Personal Information for no longer than may be necessary to achieve the purpose for which the information was initially collected or subsequently processed.

6. Cookies Policy

What is a Cookie?

Cookies are small text files that are downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Other types of similar technologies either work in the same way, or by retrieving information which is already stored on your computer or mobile device when you visit that site (such as clear gifs, pixels and digital fingerprints. Together we refer to these technologies as “cookies”). They may be set by the website owner or a third party. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work in a better, more efficient way. They can do this because websites can read and write these files, enabling them to recognise you and remember important information that will make your use and navigation of a website more convenient. Some cookies, known as ‘session cookies’, expire at the end of your browser session. Other cookies, known as ‘persistent cookies’, are stored on your computer or mobile device between browser sessions.

What Cookies Do We Use?

Below are the main types of cookies:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are essential for the Website to work and enable you to move around it and to use its services and features. Without these cookies, the Website will not perform as smoothly for you would like it to and we may not be able to provide the Website or certain services or features that you have specifically requested.

Performance Cookies

These cookies collect information about how visitors use the Website. The information collected is anonymous and is only used to monitor the site and to improve how it works. For example, such cookies show us which are the most frequently visited pages on the Website, help us record any difficulties visitors have with the Website, and show us whether our advertising is effective or not. This allows us to see the overall patterns of usage on the Website, rather than the usage of a single person.

Functionality Cookies

These cookies allow the Website to remember choices you make when using the Website. Such cookies enable us to provide enhanced, more personal features, for example, they can remember your marketing preferences, such as opting in or out of marketing emails. These cookies can also be used to remember changes you have made to text size, fonts and other parts of the Website that you can customise. They may also be used to provide services you have asked for such as watching a video or commenting on a blog. The information these cookies collect may be anonymised and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites. 

Targeting or Advertising Cookies

We may use third party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Website. These companies may place or recognise a unique cookie on your computer or mobile device. These cookies are used to deliver advertisements more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They remember that you have visited a website and are linked to other pieces of information relevant to your interests to help ensure that content and advertisements are more relevant to you.

Cookies Uses

Many websites use cookies and we use cookies to:

  • Make our Platforms more user friendly.
  • Personalise your interactions with our Platforms, tailor our services and Platforms to your interests and needs, and ensure they work on your device.
  • Provide advertising that is relevant to you, limit the number of times you see the same advertisement and measure the effectiveness of the advertisements on our Platforms and other websites, based on your online activities such as the websites and apps you use or content you view, and information we have about you.
  • Send Opt-In marketing communication if you are not a registered user.

We will not use your Personal Information for any other purpose without your permission.

By accessing and using the Platform, you consent to our use of cookies.

7. Opt out from direct marketing

You have the right to request us not to contact you for purposes of direct marketing by any form of electronic communication such as automatic calling machines, email and/or SMS notifications by “opting-out” of any direct marketing communications we may send to you.

8. Who else processes your personal information

We do not sell your personal information to third parties for their marketing or any other purposes.

We may provide or make your Personal Information available to:

  • our employees, the staff of the companies in the Intellect Africa Group and/or third party service providers in order to enable them to assist us to interact with you via our Platforms for the ordering of goods or when delivering goods to you;
  • law enforcement, government officials, fraud detection agencies or other third parties when the disclosure of Personal Information is necessary or appropriate in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringements, or other activity that is illegal or may expose us to legal liability or financial loss, to report or support the investigation into suspected illegal activity;
  • third parties (such as a potential purchaser and its professional advisors) in the event of any reorganisation, merger, consolation, sale, joint venture, or other disposition of any or all of our assets;
  • our service providers (under contract with us) who help with parts of our business operations (fraud prevention, marketing, public relations, technology services etc). However, our contracts dictate that these service providers may only use your Personal Information in connection with the services they perform for us and not for their own benefit or any other purpose, and must treat such information as confidential information;
  • our suppliers in order for them to liaise directly with you regarding any goods you have purchased or for any other purpose which may require their involvement; and/or
  • the companies in the Intellect Africa Group in order for them to send you once-off opt-in direct marketing communications.

9. Sending your information outside South Africa

We may send your information to our professionals outside the geographic borders of South Africa for purposes of ensuring that your required services are delivered.

When we transfer your Personal Information outside of the geographic borders of South Africa, we will ensure that we do so in accordance with the requirements for lawful transfer outside of South Africa as set out in POPI.

By accessing and using our Platforms, you consent to us transferring your Personal Information outside of South Africa as set out in POPI.

10. Securing your personal information

We secure the integrity and confidentiality of your Personal Information in our possession or under our control by taking appropriate, reasonable technical and organisational measures to prevent loss of, damage to or unauthorised destruction of Personal Information; and unlawful access to or processing of Personal Information.

In order to implement and maintain such measures, we have in place policies, controls and related processes, which are reviewed and updated on a regular basis. Our policies, controls and procedures cover for example:

  • physical, technical and network security;
  • access controls and monitoring of access;
  • secure storage, destruction and encryption of records of Personal Information;
  • Personal Information breach reporting and remediation; and
  • by way of written agreements, imposition of security and confidentiality obligations on third parties (based within or outside the borders of South Africa) who process Personal Information as part of rendering services.

Should you disclose your Personal Information to any third party other than IAG, IAG shall not be liable for any loss or damage arising or suffered by you as a result of the disclosure of such Personal Information to any third party. This is because we do not regulate or control how that third party uses your Personal Information. You should always ensure that you read the privacy policy of any third party.

11. Your rights

Having provided adequate proof of your identity, you have the right to:

  • view, correct and/or amend your Personal Information we process. Please note that as a registered user, you can do this through your user account for the Personal Information reflected therein.
  • request a record or description of your Personal Information. IAG may charge a fee in order to provide you with this record of your Personal Information. Where requests to access and amend your Personal Information are manifestly unfounded, excessive or repetitive IAG may charge an additional administrative fee or refuse the request.
  • request to have your Personal Information corrected, destroyed or deleted. Please note that you can stop being a registered user by cancelling your account. In this instance IAG will retain your Personal Information subject to any legislative requirement and/or our internal retention policy.
  • us complying with your requests upon receipt unless we have credible reason why we cannot comply. 
  • us indicating where, if we cannot agree whether to correct or delete your Personal Information as requested, that a correction or deletion was requested but was not made.
  • inform you if reasonably practicable, should we change your Personal Information and this has an impact on decisions about you.
  • notify you of the action taken by us because of your request.
  • notify you of unauthorised access to your Personal Information.
  • provide you with reasonable evidence of our compliance with our obligations under this policy on reasonable notice and request.
  • Submit a complaint to the Information Regulator.

As a registered user, you can exercise all your rights set out above in terms of POPIA by navigating to the profile section of your account on the web, where you will be required to confirm your identity via email verification.

12. How to lodge a complaint with the information regulator

If you have any complaints about this Privacy Policy or our compliance with this Privacy Policy you can lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator. The contact details of the Information Regulator are available on its website at: https://justice.gov.za/inforeg/

This version of the Privacy Policy replaces any preceding privacy policy provisions on our website. We may occasionally update this Privacy Policy. When you use our Platforms the version of the Privacy Policy posted on this page applies to you.

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