Privacy Policy for Socii digital PTY LTD t/a My Side Shop

At My Side Shop, we are committed to protecting your privacy and complying with the Protection of Personal Information Act (4 of 2013) (POPIA) and other relevant laws and regulations in South Africa.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and disclose your personal information when you use our website.

The Information We Collect

We collect the following information from you when you use our website:

When you register to use our Platforms, we may collect the following Personal Information:

name and surname.

email address.

physical address.

gender.

mobile phone number.

online identifiers.

date of birth.

identification number.

• User Content: We collect the content you create, such as product listings and shop pages. This may include personal information about you or others, such as your name, location, and images.
• Usage Information: We collect information about how you use our website, including the pages you visit, the features you use, and the products you buy or sell.

How We Use Your Information

We use your personal information to:

Create and manage your account on our website

• Allow you to create product listings and shop pages
• Communicate with you about our products and services
• Provide customer support and respond to your inquiries
• Analyse how our website is used and improve our services

As a registered user, we also process your Personal Information in order to:

1. fulfill our contractual obligations to you when you have ordered goods in order for us to deliver those goods and process returns.
2. provide you with information, products or services you request from us.
3. communicate with you regarding our Platforms and provide you with information, products or services, including billing, customer support, resolving complaints and quality control.
4. notify you about changes to our Platforms, services and products, terms and conditions, privacy policy or notices, and any other changes that impact our Platforms, services and products.
5. send you information about competitions, products or services that may interest you (unless you have opted out of receiving such information). Please note that you may also receive newsletters based on your interests, recent orders and browsing behaviour. To unsubscribe from newsletters sent to you based on your recent orders and browsing behaviours, visit the Newsletter Subscriptions page under “My Account” or unsubscribe when receiving such a newsletter.
6. get feedback from you which we need to develop our products and services and grow our business.
7. comply with any legal or regulatory obligations such as tax or financial laws.
8. undertake research for statistical purposes. The research and statistics we get from this process do not include your Personal Information and cannot be linked to you, nor can you be identified from these statistics.

We may also use your personal information for other purposes that are compatible with the purposes we have disclosed to you in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (as amended) and other relevant legislation.

How We Share Your Information

We may share your personal information with:

1. Other users of our website, including vendors and influencers, when you create a product listing or shop page.
2. Service providers who help us operate our website and provide our services, such as payment processors, hosting providers, and customer support services.
3. Law enforcement or other government agencies if we are required to do so by law or if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to comply with the law or protect the rights, property, or safety of our users or others.

Sending your personal information outside south africa

We may transfer certain Personal Information outside the geographic borders of South Africa to service providers for purposes set out above (Why we process your Personal Information?), including for data storage and back-up purposes to ensure the integrity of our systems.

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.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Your Choices

You have the right to access, correct, or delete your personal information that we have collected. You can manage your personal information and preferences by logging into your account on our website. You can also choose not to provide certain information, but this may limit your ability to use certain features of our website.

USER TRACKING AND COOKIES

When you access and use our Platforms we may use various technological tools to improve your experience on our websites through the use of cookies and/or user tracking.

Cookies are small text files placed on the device that you use to access our Platforms. These files do not contain your Personal Information but allow us to associate you with a particular device. Many websites use cookies and we use cookies to:

1. make our Platforms more user friendly.
2. personalise your interactions with our Platforms, tailor our services and Platforms to your interests and needs, and ensure they work on your device.
3. 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.
4. 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.

 

Log Files

We collect statistical information about you from page hits. Every page, image or CGI program requested by your browser from our servers is logged in a log file, which also collects the following information: your remote IP address, the referring HTML page and the type of browser and computer that you are using. We use IP addresses to analyse trends, administer our site, track your movements, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. The statistical information we gather is used internally for marketing analysis. This information and IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.

RETENTION AND RESTRICTION OF RECORDS

We keep your Personal Information for as long as:

1. we need it to provide our Platforms, products or services to you.
2. it is required or allowed by law and is in line with our internal retention policies.
3. it is necessary to uphold the contract between you and us.
4. 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.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about our Privacy Policy or our data practices, you can contact us at [Your Contact Information]. We will respond to your request as soon as reasonably possible.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on our website. Your continued use of our website after the effective date of the revised Privacy Policy constitutes your acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy.

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.

PAIA – The Promotion of Access to Information Act and POPI – The Protection of Personal Information Act

THE REGULATION OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION – PAIA and POPI

The Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) was passed to give effect to the constitutional right of access to information that is held by a private or public body and that is required for the exercise or protection of any rights.

The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI) was enacted to give effect to the constitutional right to privacy by promoting the protection of personal information when processed by public or private bodies.

ACCESS TO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION / ACCESSING THE BUYER OR SELLER’S INFORMATION

Both Acts allow Socii digital (PTY) LTD t/a My Side Shop consumers to access certain information.

PAIA makes provision for consumers to access to their own information in the possession or under the control of Socii digital (PTY) LTD t/a My Side Shop. Consumers may also request access to the information of the buyer or seller in the event that:

1. The buyer or seller is no longer contactable pursuant to a sale or purchase;
2. Where the buyer or seller is not fulfilling their obligations in terms of a sale;
3. Where the buyer or seller is acting illegally or fraudulently.

In terms of the POPI Act, Socii digital (PTY) LTD t/a My Side Shop consumers may specifically request:

1. Confirmation of whether or not Socii digital (PTY) LTD t/a My Side Shop holds any personal information regarding the consumer;
2. A record or a description of the personal information about the consumer including information about all third parties who have had access to that information.

Socii digital (PTY) LTD t/a My Side Shop consumers can contact us to request access to information:

Name: Elmar Gouws, CEO

Address: 29 Blesbok Ave , Hutten Heights, Newcastle, 2940

Email: elmargouws10@gmail.com

Please note that all Socii digital (PTY) LTD t/a My Side Shop customers are allowed access to their own information without having to use the request for access to information procedure as set out in the Promotion of Access to Information Act, including, but not limited to:

• Account information
• Personal records
• Records of email correspondence

A request made for access to any information other than that specified above, any information of another buyer or seller or any information in terms of the POPI Act, must be made in accordance with the access to information procedure as set out in the Promotion of Access to Information Act.

Socii digital (PTY) LTD t/a My Side Shop customers can contact us to request access to their own information. (Please note that there may be administration costs associated with the retrieval of certain types of information.)

PROTECTION OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

All consumers are permitted to make a complaint to the Information Regulator in the event of any interference with the protection of your personal information.

The contact details of the Information Regulator shall be placed on this Site upon its establishment.