Privacy | Add hope

INTRODUCTION
1. This Privacy Policy regulates Your (the User's) use of and access to any of the .thesocialcollective.co domains (or any other domain used to access Our Services) (the "Platform") or use any of the features and functionalities available through the Platform in connection with the Subscriber's Subscription Agreement with TSC. In using and accessing the Platform, You enter into an agreement with The Social Collective Proprietary Limited (Registration No. 2015/160496/07) ("We", "Us", "Our", "TSC") on the terms and conditions set out in these Terms of Service and Our Privacy Policy, (collectively the "Terms"), together and in connection with any applicable services agreement in place between You, or a third party, as subscriber to TSC software services ("Subscription Agreement").
2. In general, by using the Platform, You signify Your Consent to the Processing of Your Personal Information in accordance with this Policy, as well as warranting that You have the necessary Consent to submit Personal Information belonging to a third party onto the Platform.
3. We are committed to maintaining the privacy of Personal Information collected or received by Us when You use the Platform, as well as ensuring transparency between Ourselves and Yourself. This Privacy Policy describes how We treat Personal Information collected or received from You.
4. Accordingly, We encourage You to read this Policy carefully and contact Us with any questions or concerns in regard to Our privacy practices. We may amend this Policy at any time. All amended terms shall be effective immediately upon the posting of the revised Policy on the Platform and any subsequent activity in relation to the Platform shall be governed by such amended terms and conditions.
5. If You do not agree with any terms in this Policy, please do not submit any Personal Information on the Platform.
6. For enquiries, please contact the Administrator as per section 8 below.
DEFINITIONS
1. “Applicable Data Protection Laws” shall mean all legislation, regulations or guidance notes in the Republic of South Africa protecting the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals in respect of their right to privacy with respect to the Processing of Personal Information. This includes South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (“POPIA”) and the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (“PAIA”).
2. "Administrators" shall mean any persons granted access to the administrative rights and privileges of the Software by the Subscriber including the TSC who may receive specific mandates, which persons may have the ability to:
  1. access, disclose, restrict or remove Subscriber Data in or from Subscriber Accounts; and
  2. monitor, restrict, or terminate access to Subscriber Accounts.
3. "Competent Person” shall mean any person who is legally competent to Consent to any action or decision being taken in respect of any matter concerning a child.
4. "Consent” shall mean any voluntary, specific, and informed expression of will in terms of which You give Your permission to Us for the Processing of Your Personal Information in accordance with the terms set out herein.
5. “Data Subject” shall mean any natural or juristic person to whom the Personal Information relates.
6. "Deputy Information Officer" shall mean the relevant person appointed by the Information Officer to assist the Information Officer with his/her legal obligations under the POPIA and PAIA.
7. “Electronic Signatures” shall mean data attached to, incorporated in, or logically associated with other data and which is intended by the User to serve as a signature, as defined in the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002.
8. “Information Officer” shall mean in the case of a juristic person: the chief executive officer or equivalent officer of the juristic person or any person duly authorized by that officer; or the person who is acting as such or any person duly authorized by such acting person.
9. “Operator” shall mean a person who Processes Personal Information for a Responsible Party in terms of a contract or mandate, without coming under the direct authority of that party. In this instance, TSC is the Operator in respect of Personal Information received through the Platform.
10. “Personal Information” shall mean information relating to an identifiable, living, natural person and where it is applicable, to an identifiable, existing juristic person, including but not limited to:
  1. information relating to race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, national, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental health, well-being, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth of the person;
  2. information relating to the education or the medical, financial, criminal or employment history of the person;
  3. an identifying number, symbol, email address, physical address, telephone number, location information, online identifier, or other particular assignment to the person;
  4. the biometric information of the person;
  5. the personal opinions, views or preferences of the person;
  6. correspondence sent by the person that is implicitly or explicitly of a private or confidential nature or further correspondence that would reveal the contents of the original correspondence;
  7. the views or opinions of another individual about the person; and
  8. the name of the person if it appears with other Personal Information relating to the person or if the disclosure of the name itself would reveal information about the person.
11. “Platform” shall mean the software, owned by TSC, to which this Policy applies.
12. “Process/Processing” shall mean any operation or activity or any set of operations, whether or not by automatic means, concerning Personal Information, including- the collection, receipt, recording, organisations, collation, storage, updating or modification, retrieval, alteration, consultation or use; dissemination by means of transmission, distribution or making available in any other form, or merging, linking, as well as restriction, degradation, erasure or destruction of information.
13. “Responsible Party” shall mean a public or private body or any other person which alone or in conjunction with others determines the purpose and means for Processing Personal Information. In this instance, the Subscriber is the Responsible Party in respect of Personal Information.
14. "Service Analyses" shall mean any statistical, historical or analytical information generated by TSC through the Processing of Subscriber Data, reports and measurement monitoring and evaluation specifics together with usage information, security incidences and any other information relevant to the use of the Software. All Service Analyses consist of de-identified information that cannot be used to identify any individual Subscriber and is used for the sole purpose of improving or upgrading the Software and Services.
15. "Services" shall mean the Software provided to Users to facilitate the collection, storage, management and reporting on data.
16. "Settings" shall mean the intangible area of the Software which enables Administrators to perform the functions described in section 1.2.
17. "Software" shall mean a framework and database solution comprising a platform, framework, communication gateway and reporting monitoring and evaluation (monitoring and evaluation) tool for use by Subscribers which manage Social Impact/ESG (Environment Social Governance)/Integrated Reporting.
18. “Special Personal Information” shall mean Personal Information concerning the religious or philosophical beliefs, race or ethnic origin, trade union membership, political persuasion, health or sex life or biometric information of a Data Subject; or concerning the criminal behaviour of a Data Subject to the extent that such information relates to the alleged commission of an offence by the Data Subject;, or to any proceedings (or the disposal of any proceedings) in respect of any offence allegedly committed by the Data Subject.
19. "Stored Data" shall mean any and all file and structured data submitted through the Services by the Subscriber or Users and which is stored in the cloud by TSC in accordance with TSC's storage policies and procedures.
20. “Subscriber" shall mean the party entering into a Subscription Agreement with TSC and granted a license by the TSC in order to gain access to and use of the Services.
21. “Subscription Agreement” shall mean, the software as a service agreement entered into between TSC and the Subscriber, whereby TSC grants a license to the Subscriber to gain access to and use of the Services.
22. "Subscriber Data" shall mean, collectively, User Data, Account Data, Stored Data, measurement monitoring and evaluation specifics and reports.
23. "User" shall mean the users of the Subscriber’s account including, but not limited to, any natural or juristic person(s) who are authorised by the Subscriber to use the Services.
24. "User Data" shall mean any and all account and contact information submitted to the Services or inputted to the Software by the Subscriber or Users and any data related to the Users which is collected by the Subscriber through the Services or submitted to the Services by the Subscriber or any User. This shall include information about third parties (either adults or children).
WHO WE ARE
1. The Social Collective Proprietary Limited (Registration No. 2015/160496/07), a private company registered in the Republic of South Africa, with our registered office being at Unit 23, 17 Owl Street, Braamfontein Werf, Gauteng, 2094.
2. The Platform is aimed at providing a User with software to facilitate the collection, storage, management and reporting on data.
3. Personal Information submitted to the Platform is Processed in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
4. In the event that You experience any issues with the Service, please contact Your Administrator.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
1. Consent For Collection and Processing
  1. By accessing, visiting, submitting Personal Information on, or otherwise using the Platform, You agree to the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy. You expressly Consent to the Processing of Your Personal Information and analytics according to this Privacy Policy and You warrant that You have the necessary Consent in respect of any third-party Personal Information that You submit on the Platform. Where You submit Personal Information regarding any person below the age of 18, You warrant that You have the necessary Consent from a Competent Person to do so.
  2. You understand that Consent to the Processing of Personal Information by Us relates strictly to the Purposes specified below. Processing shall include the collection, receipt, recording, organisation, collation, storage, updating or modification, retrieval, alteration, consultation, use, dissemination by means of transmission, distribution or making available in any other form, or merging, linking, as well as blocking, degradation, erasure or destruction of information.
  3. You expressly Consent to Us keeping Your Personal Information once Your use of the Services has been terminated (either by You ceasing to use the Services, or by way of the termination of the Subscription Agreement), as required by law, and/or for historical, statistical or research purposes. We have appropriate safeguards in place to ensure that any Personal Information on the Platform that is retained as required by law, and/or for historical, statistical or research purposes cannot be Processed for any other purpose without the requisite Consent.
  4. By using Our Platform, You confirm that You are an authorised User and authorised to use the Platform. You represent that You are of the age of 18 or older and that You have the necessary Consent to submit Personal Information through the Platform. If You submit Personal Information of a person below the age of 18, You warrant that You have the necessary Consent of a Competent Person to do so. If We become aware that We have Processed Personal Data from someone under the age of 18 without verification of Consent by a Competent Person, We will take steps to remove that information from our servers as soon as possible.
2. Purpose For Collection and Processing
  1. We may use Personal Information submitted by You to:
    1. provide the Services;
    2. report on Your use of the Services to various stakeholders, including, but not limited to, Your employer;
    3. personalise Your use of the Platform;
    4. develop new services or to conduct analysis of Services;
    5. review usage and operation of the Platform;
    6. contact You for:
      1. marketing from Us and the Subscriber (only where We have Your express Consent and You will still have the option to opt-out at a later stage);
      2. responding to Your queries;
      3. other legitimate business purposes;
      4. verifying Your identity; and/or
      5. any other reason, with Your express Consent.
  2. We may also use non-personally identifiable information in an anonymous manner to analyse the use of the Platform in general, and to:
    1. improve the Services;
    2. compile statistical and other information related to the performance, operation and use of the Services and of any equipment, machinery or other assets managed using the Services;
    3. measure monitoring and evaluation specifics and reports in aggregated form for security and operations management, to create statistical analyses, and for research and development purposes.
  3. We use cookies which is a tracking technology to collect information for the purpose of tracking traffic to and understanding User interaction with Our Platform. The information collected is kept confidential. Kindly refer to section 10 below for more information.
  4. We expressly acknowledge and undertake to not use any Personal Information for any other purposes without Your Consent or as required by law.
WHAT WE COLLECT, WHEN AND HOW
1. Information You Provide
  While using the Services, We may ask You to provide Us with certain Personal Information that can be used to contact or identify You. Personal Information may include, but is not limited to, Your email address, name, phone number, identity or passport number, location, race, gender, physical address, details of the categories and subcategories, interests, evaluation of experiences, details of responses to enquiries via online communication, any Subscriber Data or other information You share on the Platform and/or any unsolicited information provided to the Platform that could have otherwise been lawfully collected and other information. When You submit Personal Information to Us via the Platform, You or the owner of the Personal Information retain ownership, but Consent to Us Processing same. This Consent may be withdrawn at any time, save where We are required to continue to use such information in order to perform Our contractual obligations to You, or where such information is needed for Our legitimate business interests.
2. Where There is a Legal Basis to Do So
  We Process Personal Information only where We have a lawful basis to do so. Accordingly, We will only Process Personal Information submitted by You where:
  1. You provide Consent for Us to do so (which Consent can be freely withdrawn at any time);
  2. it is necessary for Us to perform any contractual obligations to You;
  3. We have a legitimate interest in Processing the information in order for Our Platform to function, and for Our legitimate business purposes (for example, to communicate with You, to use data for analytics purposes, to combat fraud); or
  4. We are under a legal obligation to do so.
3. Information Collected Automatically
  When You visit the Platform or receive correspondence from Us, We may passively collect and store information from You, including, Your IP address, what browser software and operating system You are using and Your ISP carrier information. You can control the technologies We use by utilising the settings in Your browser or third-party tools, however, refusing or deleting some cookies may make it impossible for Us to provide the Services to You.
4. Location Information
  We may use and store information about Your location, if You give Us permission to do so. We use this information to provide features of Our Services, to improve and to customize Our Services. You can enable or disable location services when You use Our Services at anytime through Your device settings.
5. Correspondence Information
  We may Process Personal Information when We receive correspondence from You via email, social media and phone calls. This includes Your sender information, the content of the message and the metadata pertaining to the message. We use this information to communicate with You and to improve the Services.
6. Non-personally Identifiable Information
  We may aggregate and analyse ‘de-identified' information (i.e. stripped of all uniquely identifiable attributes and that cannot subsequently be re-identified) with that of other customers and information received from other sources. This includes any statistical, historical or analytical information generated by TSC through the Processing of Subscriber Data, reports and measurement monitoring and evaluation specifics together with usage information, security incidences and any other information relevant to the use of the Software (Service Analyses). We will do this to develop market insights, troubleshoot problems, detect and protect against error, fraud and other criminal activity, identify behaviour/usage patterns and improve Our Services generally. We own the Information once it has been de-identified, and We may publish or share any insights We discover through analysing Your de-identified information.
ACCURACY
1. You undertake to ensure that any of Your Personal Information and any other Personal Information (such as that found in Subscriber Data) submitted by You to the Platform is accurate and up to date.
2. To the fullest extent permitted by any applicable laws, We shall not be liable for any inaccuracies, errors, misrepresentations, or faults in any outputs generated by or through use of the Services or Software. You acknowledge and agree that the outputs generated by or through use of the Services or the Software are products of the Subscriber's Data (including Subscriber Data and User Data). You acknowledge that You should always seek professional advice before making any decision based on the outputs, and that We shall not be liable for any reliance placed on such outputs by You or any third party.
FURTHER PROCESSING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
1. We do not and will not sell, rent out or trade Personal Information on the Platform. We will only share Personal Information with third parties, as required by law or in the manner set out in this Policy and in accordance with Applicable Data Protection Laws. Note that the term ‘share’ includes the act of ‘disclosing’; ‘transferring’; ‘sending’ or otherwise making Your Personal Information available or accessible to another person or entity.
2. In the event that We enter into a business transition (including the sale of TSC, or the merger and acquisition of TSC by another company which involves the sale of all or a portion of Our assets), Your Personal Information may be among the assets transferred. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur and are permitted by this Privacy Policy, and that such an acquirer may continue to Process Your Personal Information as set forth in this Privacy Policy.
3. We will not Process Personal Information on the Platform for purposes other than those mentioned in this Policy.
DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
1. We may disclose Personal Information to:
  1. Organisations
    We may share Your contact details with organisations, related to Your indication of interest (by applying to a “session”, or other available options), subscribing to an organisation to make a donation, to end communications, related interested and automated communication based on Your requests and actions taken on the Services.
  2. Our Staff
    Our staff are bound by comprehensive confidentiality obligations and are given access only to information they are required to see in order for them to fulfil their responsibilities. In all cases We provide access to the minimum amount of information. Given their role, Our customer support team has access to most of Your Personal Information to enable them to answer Your support questions. In addition, to service usage information, Our internal systems provide them with secure access to other Personal Information such as Your name and email address.
  3. Service Providers
    We may share Personal Information submitted by You with Our authorised administrative service providers (“Service Providers”) to assess performance and statistical data to improve operations, to provide Us with business, professional, or technical support, for instance, to host and run Our servers, send emails, manage support requests, to provide feedback, updating of records on Your contact details, process complaints, facilitate updates regarding business developments and sessions, provide marketing material, and enrich information. They Process Personal Information strictly in accordance with Our instructions and only for the purpose for which such Personal Information has been disclosed to them. They will always be under obligation to protect Personal Information on terms that provide the same or equivalent protection as set out in this Privacy Policy and will not use or disclose Your Personal Information for any other purpose.
  4. Partners and/or affiliates
    We may share Personal Information submitted by You with selected partners and/or affiliates We believe may have offers of interest to You, only insofar as You have provided Your instruction or Consent for Us to do so..
  5. Legal obligations
    We may access or share Personal Information submitted by You in any manner necessary in order to comply with any law, regulation legal process or governmental request. We may also access and/or disclose such Personal information if it is necessary for an investigation relating to public safety, or as otherwise required by law.
  6. Security
    We may disclose Personal Information submitted by You to protect the security of the Platform, Our servers, network systems, and databases, only insofar as We are required to do so by law. We may also disclose such Personal Information as necessary where there has been a violation of any legal document or contract related to the Platform, or the rights of any third party, only insofar as We are required to do so by law.
  7. Fraud
    We may disclose Personal Information submitted by You in order to combat fraud, only insofar as We are required to do so by law.
  8. Non-personally identifiable or anonymised data
    We may also share non-personally identifiable, aggregate or anonymous information with third parties for their marketing or analytics uses. You hereby agree that TSC may make Service Analyses publicly available; however, Service Analyses will not incorporate User Data and Subscriber Data, measurement monitoring and evaluation specifics and reports or confidential information in a form that could serve to identify the Subscriber or any individual (including but not limited to any User), and Service Analyses do not constitute Personal Information.
2. Unless required to do so by law, We will not disclose Personal Information to any third-Parties other than Operators who are authorised to Process Personal Information on Our behalf. Any other disclosure of the Personal Information that You Provide to Us, We may disclose to third parties only in accordance with Applicable Data Protection Laws.
3. By virtue of the third-party service providers that We use to host Our Platform, Personal Information submitted by You may be stored on servers outside of South Africa. You hereby expressly warrant that You have the necessary Consent for Us to transfer and store Personal Information outside of South Africa, understanding that foreign countries will have different laws and regulations concerning the Processing of Personal Information that may be less stringent than the laws in South Africa. In such an instance We endeavour to transfer such Personal Information only to a jurisdiction that provides similar or stricter Personal Information protections than South Africa.
4. In the event that You are a European Union or United Kingdom citizen, the EU GDPR or the UK GDPR respectively, will apply to Your Personal Information.
YOUR POINT OF CONTACT WITH US AND DATA SUBJECT RIGHTS
1. The Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (“POPIA”) places a duty on Us to appoint an Information Officer. This position is automatically filled by the CEO or equivalent officer, or another authorised person appointed as such.
2. We have appointed Nadine Whitelaw-Kausch as Our Information Officer. Her contact details are:
  "hello@thesocialcollective.co"
3. Our Information Officer's duties under the Applicable Data Protection Laws are:
  1. Liaising with the Administrator in respect of Your questions about Your Personal Information;
  2. Assisting the Administrator with any requests and enforcing Data Subject rights in respect of Personal Information submitted by You;
  3. Making sure that the Subscriber and We are compliant with the Applicable Data Protection Laws and that Process Personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
4. You may choose when You wish to provide Your or a third party's Personal Information to Us. You also have the right to withdraw Your Consent, and/or warrant that You will notify the Subscriber immediately in the event of a third party withdrawing their Consent. However, if You choose not to provide certain details, or if You withdraw Consent, Your experience with some, or all of the Platform features and/or Services, may be affected. To the extent provided for in law, Data Subjects have certain rights in respect of Personal Information. In particular:
  1. Withdrawal of Consent: You may withdraw Your Consent at any time by sending a written request to the Administrator. You warrant that You will notify Us of a third party withdrawing their Consent in respect of their Personal Information that You submitted on the Platform. Upon receiving notice of revoked Consent, We will stop using such Personal Information within a reasonable time, which will vary depending on what information We have collected and for what purpose, and We will send You a confirmation email stating same.
  2. Access or obtain a Copy of Your Personal Information: You have the right to examine any of Your Personal Information that We collect. Should You wish to examine the Personal Information We hold about You, or obtain a copy thereof, please send a written request to the Administrator and Our Information Officer. You warrant that You will notify Us of any requests from a third party whose Personal information was submitted by You on the Platform. As per the Promotion of Access to Information Act, We may charge a nominal fee should You request any physical records.
  3. Update, Modify, Rectify, Erase: You can request that the Administrator Instructs Us regarding the Personal Information that We hold on You. You warrant that You will notify Us of any requests from a third party whose Personal information was submitted by You on the Platform.; and
  4. Object: to the Processing of Your Personal Information or restrict or stop Us from using any of the Personal Information which We hold on You, including by withdrawing any Consent You have previously given to the Processing of such information. You warrant that You will notify Us of any requests from a third party whose Personal information was submitted by You on the Platform.
5. You also have the right to request Us to stop contacting You for marketing purposes: when You receive promotional communications from Us, You may indicate a preference to stop receiving further promotional communications from Us and You will have the opportunity to "opt-out" by following the unsubscribe instructions provided in the promotional e-mail You receive or by contacting the Administrator.
6. These rights are not absolute, and We therefore reserve the right to refuse any requests in terms of the above-mentioned rights, for any reason permitted under POPIA.
7. In the event that You wish to enforce any of the above rights, You can request this by contacting the Administrator , who will contact Our Information Officer. Furthermore, You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the South African Information Regulator.
THIRD-PARTY SITES
1. The Services may contain links to other sites that are not operated by Us. If You click on a third-party link, You will be directed to that third-party's site. We strongly advise You to review the privacy policy of every site You visit. We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third-party sites or services.
USER ANALYTICS AND TRACKING
1. “Cookies” are small files stored on Your computer during Your use of the Platform and which contain data about Your use of the Platform. We may use session Cookies (which expire when You close Your browser) or persistent Cookies (which stay on Your computer until You delete them) to understand more about Your activity on the Platform or on other Platforms, including for:
  1. authenticating users;
  2. remembering preferences and settings;
  3. determining the popularity of Platform content;
  4. delivering and measuring the effectiveness of advertising campaigns;
  5. analysing site traffic and trends; and/or
  6. operating our content management system.
2. We also use Cookies and other technologies to collect information about Your visit to the Platform, such as the date and time of Your visit, the information You searched to find the Platform, or Your activity on the Platform.
3. You may adjust Your browser or operating system settings to limit or to decline or delete Cookies, but this may affect Your use of certain areas of the Platform. Check the settings menu of Your browser or operating system to learn how to change Your tracking settings or Cookie preferences. On Your mobile device, You can adjust Your privacy and advertising settings to limit Your tracking for advertising or control whether You receive more relevant advertising.
SECURITY OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
1. We are committed to and will implement and maintain appropriate technical and organisational measures to safeguard any Personal Information Processed on the Platform from accidental or unlawful destruction or accidental loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure or access, in particular where the Processing involves the transmission of data over a network, and against all other unlawful forms of Processing. We have various security measures in place to protect the Personal Information Processed on the Platform and We will review these processes regularly and improve them when required. We will delete or de-identify Personal Information once We no longer have a legal basis to retain such Personal Information or upon any instruction by You to delete or de-identify Your Personal Information.
2. Notwithstanding the above, it is emphasised that even though We have taken significant steps to protect Personal Information on the Platform, You are alerted to the inherent risk of digitally Processing Personal Information and have accepted that risk by using Our Platform.
RETENTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
1. We retain Personal Information, Stored Data and Service Analyses data for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy. When determining how long to retain Personal Information and Service Analyses data, We take into account the necessity of the Personal Information for the provision of the Services, as well as the requirements of other third-parties, any applicable laws, regulations and legal obligations. We may also retain records to investigate or defend against potential legal claims.
2. When retention of the Personal Information is no longer necessary, the information will either be deleted or aggregated for analytics purposes by the User or TSC will be instructed to do so, in which We case We will de-identify the Personal Information.
3. Where the Subscription Agreement between the Subscriber and TSC is terminated, We shall delete any and all User Data and Subscriber Data relating to the Subscriber's account withing 30 days of such termination, unless otherwise required by law to retain such information.
OBJECTIONS, COMPLAINTS AND QUERIES
1. Should You require a correction to be made to any Personal Information submitted by You on the Platform, or You would like Us to delete any of Your Personal Information or if You would like to object to the collection, use or Processing of such Personal Information, kindly contact Your Administrator with Your request. We shall act on the instruction We receive from the Administrator.
2. We will endeavour to make the requested correction, provide You with the record (We reserve Our right to charge a small fee if You require a physical copy), cease Processing of Your Personal Information and/or delete it, in accordance with Your request.
3. We will treat all requests or complaints with confidentiality.
CHANGES TO THIS POLICY
We may change this Policy at any time, in which case any amended terms shall be effective immediately upon the posting of the revised Policy and any subsequent activity in relation to the Platform shall be governed by such amended terms. We therefore recommend that the Data Subjects review this Policy regularly.