We Value your Privacy
PRIVACY NOTICE IN TERMS OF THE
PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION ACT 4 OF 2013
Introduction:
TREE COTTAGE is an organisation that complies with the laws of South Africa and recognizes that a person’s constitutional right to privacy is of the upmost importance, therefore the protection of personal information is vital for sustainability and growth of our business.
This privacy notice applies to you as a customer or as a guest, namely a person who accesses or registers on our platforms, regardless of the device which you use to access it (e.g. a computer, mobile phone, tablet etc).
Where we refer to “personal information”, it has the same meaning as “personal information” as defined in the Protection of Personal Information Act 4, 2013 and the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000. “Process” and “Processing” has the same meaning assigned thereto in POPIA; “we”, “us” and “our” means TREE COTTAGE; “you” and “your” means the person whose details we collect and retain as part of our business relationship.
The type of personal information we collect:
Information collected and used by TREE COTTAGE in the conduct of its business to employ people, to log and fulfil client orders, and to manage all aspects of corporate finance. Access to this information is very restricted within TREE COTTAGE. The highest possible levels of integrity, confidentiality, and restricted availability are vital.
We collect information directly from you where you provide us with your personal details and process your personal information only for legitimate business purposes relating to our service and/or business activities. Where possible, we will inform you what information you are required to provide to us and what information is optional.
In limited instances, we will collect information from third parties and will only do so to serve a legitimate business purpose.
Website usage information may be collected using “cookies” which allows us to collect standard internet visitor
usage information. You can prevent us from doing this through a setting on your browser.
We may collect the following categories of personal information, depending on the purpose for which we need the personal information:
- Personal identifiers, such as name and address.
- Device and online identifiers and related information, such as telephone number and email address.
- Government identifiers, such as CIPC registration numbers, national identification numbers and/or driver’s license numbers.
- Financial information, such as annual financial statements, bank statements, credit and debit card numbers and claims information.
- Purchase history information.
- Location information, such as Physical and Postal address information.
- Employment information, such as occupation, title, licenses and professional memberships
How we get the personal information and what we use it for:
Purpose for Collection of Personal Information
Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons:
- To provide and maintain our service and/or business activities with you.
- To fulfil your order or requests for services and provide customer service.
- To create and maintain your account.
- To contact you by email, telephone calls or other equivalent forms of electronic communication regarding updates or communications related to contracted products and/or services.
- To update our operational and technical functionality.
- To conduct auditing and monitoring of transactions and engagement.
- To protect the security and integrity of our websites, mobile services and our business, and help prevent
fraud. - For statistical analysis.
- To conduct business analysis, such as analytics, projections and identifying areas for operational improvement.
- To conduct research and development; or
- In connection with legal proceedings and to fulfil our legal functions or obligations.
- Website usage information may be collected using “cookies” which allows us to collect standard internet visitor usage information. You can prevent us from doing this through a setting on your browser.
We also receive personal information indirectly, from the following sources in the following scenarios:
- To confirm and verify the identity of your company, directors, members or management.
- To confirm, verify and manage your account and credit worthiness.
- For the detection and prevention of fraud, crime or other malpractice.
- For audit, record keeping and regulatory purposes; or
All personal information that is supplied to the Company must be accurate, up-to-date, not misleading and complete in all respects. You undertake to immediately advise the Company of any changes to your personal information should any of these details change.
Our goal is to limit the information we collect to the information needed to support our business.
Sharing of Personal Information
All of the categories of personal information that we collect may be shared with other companies, including those within our corporate family, for a business purpose. We will not sell or rent your personal information for money.
We may share your personal information in limited circumstances, such as to conduct our business, in the event all or a part of our business is merged, sold or reorganized, when legally required, as described below, or with your consent.
We may disclose your personal information to our service providers who are involved in the delivery of products or services to you.
We may also disclose your information:
- Where we have a duty or a right to disclose in terms of law or industry codes.
- Where we believe it is necessary to protect our rights.
With Your Consent
In circumstances other than those described above, we will ask for your affirmative consent before we share your personal information outside of our corporate family of companies, and we also will not sell or rent your personal information for money.
Websites and Mobile Applications
By using our websites, mobile applications, Wi-Fi and/ or by providing your information to us at any of our physical premises, you expressly consent to our collection and use of the information you disclose to us in accordance with this policy, including but not limited to your consent for us to share your information as set out in this privacy policy. If you disclose any personal information relating to other people to us, you warrant that you have the
authority to do so and to permit us to use the information in accordance with this policy.
By using our websites, mobile applications, Wi-Fi and/ or by providing your information to us, you agree to the practices described in this policy and you agree to TREE COTTAGE, its directors, officers, employees, agents and/or contractors and/or other third parties to process (which will include collecting, using and disclosing) your personal information for the purposes stated in this policy.
If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use our websites, mobile applications, Wi-Fi and/ or provide your information to us.
Any use by you of our websites, mobile applications, Wi-Fi and/ or any provision by you of your information will be deemed to constitute your acceptance of the terms in this policy.
Should you refuse to provide us with your personal information which is required by us for the purposes indicated above and the required consent to process such personal information accordingly, then we will be unable to engage with you or enter into any agreement or relationship with you.
Email Policy
All emails sent from us are for legitimate business purposes relating to our service and/or business activities and will clearly state who the email is from and provide clear information on how to contact the sender.
Email is not recognised as a secure medium of communication. For this reason, we request that you do not send sensitive or private information such as credit card information, etc. to us by email. Doing so will be at your own risk.
If you choose to correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses. We provide the same protections for electronic communications that we employ in the maintenance of information received via mail and telephone.
We are committed to keeping your email address confidential. We do not sell, rent or lease our contact lists to third parties and will not disclose your email address to any third parties except as allowed in the section on Disclosure of Information.
We do not currently maintain a subscriber list and do not send automatic emails such as newsletters and email marketing.
Security
How we store your personal information:
The security and confidentiality of your personal information is important to us. We have implemented technical, administrative, and physical security measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access or disclosure and improper use.
Access to your personal information is restricted to only to those employees who need the personal information to perform a specific job / task. All employees with access to Personal Information are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices. After a new policy is added, these employees are notified and/or reminded about the importance we place on privacy, and what they can do to enhance protection for our customer’s personal information.
We are committed to ensuring that our security measures which protect your personal information are continuously reviewed and updated where necessary.
It is important for you to protect yourself against unauthorized access to your account password. Be sure to log out of your account or to close your browser after you have completed your visit to the website or mobile application.
Whilst we will do all things reasonably necessary to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee nor do we accept any liability of whatsoever nature for any unauthorized or unlawful disclosure and/or use of your personal information, either by employees and/or made by any third parties (including third party service providers) who are not subject to our control, unless such disclosure and/or use is as a result of our gross negligence.
When will we process your personal information:
In terms of the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), the justification ground which we base our processing on consists out of the following:
- The data subject or a competent person where the data subject is a child consents to the processing. Kindly note that you have the right to withdraw your consent.
- The processing is necessary to carry out actions for the conclusion or performance of a contract to which the data subject is a party.
- The processing complies with an obligation imposed by law on the business.
- The processing protects a legitimate interest of the data subject.
- The processing is necessary for the proper performance of a public law duty by the business; or
- The processing is necessary for pursuing the legitimate interests of the business or of a third party to whom the information is supplied.
Retention Periods
Your personal information will only be kept for as long as we reasonably consider necessary for achieving the purposes set out above and as is permissible under applicable laws. We will, in any case, retain your personal information for as long as there are statutory retention obligations or potential legal claims.
We will then dispose your information securely when no longer required.
Your data protection rights:
Upon reasonable request and in accordance with POPIA, we will grant customers reasonable access to their personal information and will permit them to correct, amend or delete personal information that is incomplete or inaccurate.
You are entitled to access your personal data by sending a written request to info@vivit.co.za or using the Contact Us form provided on our website. We may charge you a fee for this service as set out in terms of Condition 8 of POPIA.
You may also request TREE COTTAGE to correct or supplement any of your personal data which TREE COTTAGE will undertake as soon as practicable.
Request the destruction of your personal data. Our Information Officer/Deputy Information Officer will consider your request in light of any other laws or regulations prohibiting TREE COTTAGE from destroying your personal data.
If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.
Please contact us at info@vivit.co.za or using the Contact Us form provided on our website if you wish to make a request.
Should you so request, we will provide you with the record or a description of the personal information which we have about you, including information about the identity of all third parties who have, or have had, access to the personal information: (i) within a reasonable time; (ii) at a prescribed fee, if any; (iii) in a reasonable manner and format; and (iv) in a form that is generally understandable.
We will take reasonable steps to ensure that all personal information is kept as accurate, complete and up-to-date as reasonably possible but may not always expressly request you to verify and update your personal information, unless this process is specifically necessary. We expect that you will notify us from time to time in writing of any updates required in respect of your personal information.
Contact details:
Information Officer: Sylvia Pfuhl
Address: 129 10th Avenue, Edenvale, 1609
Contact Number: 011 452 6730
E-mail: sylviap@vivit.co.za
Lodging a Complaint:
If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to our Information Officer.
Should you not be satisfied with the outcome, you also have the right to lodge a complaint regarding the processing of your personal information with the Office of the Information Regulator, South Africa.
The Information Regulator (South Africa)
33 Hoofd Street
Forum III, 3rd Floor Braampark
P.O Box 31533
Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2017
Complaints email: complaints.IR@justice.gov.za
Policy Changes
The Company reserves the right to amend this policy at any time. All amendments to this policy will be posted on the website.
It is our policy to post any changes we make to our privacy policy on this page. If we make material changes to how we treat your personal information, we will notify you by email to the email address specified in your account.
You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date active and deliverable email address for you and for periodically visiting our website and this privacy policy to check for any changes.