1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy forms part of our standard Terms & Conditions of Service and applies to all registered or non-registered Users of our Services (as defined in our standard Terms & Conditions of Service) including visitors to our website (User, you or your). All references herein to us, our or we are to Connect Mobile Communication. Your privacy is important to us. The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to help you understand how we collect, use, store and share personal data about you. Personal data means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified and does not include anonymous data. PLEASE NOTE that where you use our Services to communicate messages to third parties such as your customers (message recipients), we are the data processor and you are the data controller. This means that you determine the purpose and means of the processing of information about message recipients. It is your responsibility to ensure that message recipients’ data that is uploaded to our platform, along with the content of the messages, is compliant with all applicable local and international data protection laws and regulations, including but not limited to the General Data Protection Regulation Directive (GDPR) and South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). Please refer to our Standard Terms of Service for further details.

2. The personal data we gather about you and where we get it from

• 2.1. We collect relevant and minimal personal data about you for the purpose of managing your affairs with us.
• 2.2. We collect data about you when you register for an account, create or modify your profile on our website, purchase Services from us, raise a query with our support team, contact us over the phone, by email sign up to any of our mailing lists, request marketing to be sent to you, take part in any surveys or give us some feedback.
• 2.3. We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you, which we have grouped together as follows:
2.3.1. Contact details – your name, title, billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers;
2.3.2. Payment information* – your bank account and branch number;
2.3.3. Purchase history – this includes details about the Services you have purchased from us;
2.3.4. Marketing preferences – this includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences;
2.3.5. Customer service history – this includes interactions with us over the phone or website.

* Note that all credit card and electronic funds transfer payment processes are redirected to and managed directly by a third party payment service provider. We do not hold your credit card details.

3. How your personal data is used

• 3.1. We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to and for the purposes for which we collected it.
• 3.2. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
3.2.1. Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you, including to process transactions with you, authenticate your account when you log in, provide customer support, to operate and maintain the Services and to protect the safety and security of the Services;
3.2.2. To protect our Legitimate Interests (or those of a third party) and your interests where fundamental rights do not override those interests (Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service and the best and most secure experience);
3.2.3. Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation; and
3.2.4. Where you have given us your consent to do so for a specific purpose.
• 3.3. You will only receive marketing communications from us if you have requested the same, purchased Services from us or told us that we can send them to you. You can inform us that you want to stop receiving marketing communications from us at any time, via email or phone, or where we have supplied the appropriate tools online.
• 3.4. We may use cookies on our website. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of the website user experience may differ.

4. Keeping your personal data secure

• 4.1. In addition to our local environment, we use data centre service providers in South Africa to host the information we collect.
• 4.2. We have put in place all appropriate security measures to secure your personal data. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to employees, agents, service providers and other third parties. They will only process your personal data upon our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
• 4.3. While we implement safeguards designed to protect your information, no security system is impenetrable and due to the inherent nature of the Internet, we cannot guarantee that data, during transmission through the Internet or while stored on our systems is absolutely safe from intrusion by others. We strongly recommend that you take the necessary steps and implement your own safeguards to prevent interception of data transmitted over networks and to restrict access to databases and other storage points used.
• 4.4. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

5. How we share the personal data we hold about you

• 5.1. We do not sell any of your personal data to any third party.
• 5.2. We do, however, share and/or store your data with our third party hosting, backup, storage and/or virtual infrastructure service provider(s) who help us run our business. Some of these third parties may be situated outside of your country and you consent to your personal data (and that of any data subjects you provide to us) being transferred cross-border so that we can provide the Services to you. In this regard, we only engage third party service providers who have security and privacy policies and procedures providing at least the same level of protection as we do ourselves. You warrant that you have all necessary permissions to give us the above consent.
• 5.3. We do not allow our third party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
• 5.4. In exceptional circumstances we may share data about you with a third party if reasonably necessary to:
5.4.1. Comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or government request;
5.4.2. Enforce our agreements, policies and terms of service;
5.4.3. Protect the security and/or integrity of our Services;
5.4.4. Protect ourselves, our customers and/or the public from harm or illegal activities; or
5.4.5. Respond to an emergency which we believe in good faith requires us to disclose information to assist in preventing the death or serious bodily injury of any person.
• 5.5. We also share data about you with third parties when you give us consent to do so, for example, when we display personal testimonials of satisfied customers on our public website.
• 5.6. We may share or transfer the information we collect under this Privacy Policy in connection with any merger, sale of company assets, financing or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company, in which event you will be notified via email of the transaction as well as any choices you may have regarding your information.
• 5.7. Please note that our website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications for example, our payment service provider’s gateway. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.
• 5.8. Certain communications to be intercepted and monitored while travelling over telecommunication networks (for system health and forensic reasons). Subject to the provisions of the Regulation of Interception of Communications Act 70 of 2002 (RIC Act), you consent to the interception and monitoring of all communications sent by you to us. You acknowledge and agree that such consent meets the “writing” requirement as detailed in the Electronic Communications and Transaction Act 25 of 2002 and the RIC Act.

6. How long do we keep your personal data?

• 6.1. Generally, we will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose for which we collected it.
• 6.2. We retain your account information for as long as your account is active and a reasonable period thereafter in case you decide to re-activate the Services. If your account is deactivated or disabled, some of your information and the content you have provided will remain in order that your team members or other users can make full use of the Services.
• 6.3. We also retain some of your information as necessary to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, to resolve disputes, to enforce our agreements, to support business and for the purposes of satisfying any accounting or reporting requirements.
• 6.4. In some circumstances, you can ask us to delete your personal information (see Section 7 below).
• 6.5. In some circumstances, we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

7. Accessing and controlling your personal data

• 7.1. You have the right to:
7.1.1. Request access to your personal data. This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
7.1.2. Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new information you provide to us.
7.1.3. Request removal of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing, where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal information to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
7.1.4. Object to the processing of your personal data where we are relying on a Legitimate Interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
7.1.5. Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal information in the following scenarios:
(a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy;
(b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it;
(c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or
(d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
7.1.6. Request the transfer (portability) of your personal data to you or to a third party in a structured, common and machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you and it must not prejudice the rights and freedoms of others, for example, the right to privacy, the right to access and information.
7.1.7. Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.
• 7.2. If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above or if you have any questions or complaints, please contact us. We try to respond to all legitimate requests within 18 business days.
• 7.3. Access and update your information. Our services and related documentation give you the ability to access and update certain information about you from within the Service for example your profile information.
• 7.4. Deactivate your account. If you no longer wish to use our Services, your administrator may be able to deactivate your account. Note that deactivating your account does not however delete your information.
• 7.5. Opt out of communications. You may opt out of receiving promotional communications from us by using the unsubscribe link within each email, updating your email preferences within your Service account settings menu, or by contacting us as provided below to have your contact information removed from our promotional email list or registration database. Even after you opt out from receiving promotional messages from us, you will continue to receive transactional messages from us regarding our Services.

8. Age Restriction

Our website is not intended for persons under the age of 18 and we don’t knowingly collect data relating to persons under the age of 18. If it is discovered that we have unintentionally collected personally identifiable information from a minor other than for a legitimate purpose associated with the Services, we will delete that information immediately.

9. Amendments to this Privacy Policy

We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect how we are processing your personal data. We will post any Privacy Policy changes on this page and, if the changes are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice by adding a notice on the homepage, login screens, or by sending you an email notification.

10. Termination

If you terminate your agreement with Connect Mobile, portions of your personal information may be retained in back-ups and archives for as long as is reasonably necessary to assist us in meeting our legal compliance obligations.

11. Contact us

If you have questions, comments, concerns or feedback regarding this Privacy Policy, please send an email to compliance@connect-mobile.co.za