Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Updated 29 June 2021

This Policy Notice takes cognisance of the applicable laws and regulations, including the General Data Protection Regulation (2016 – EU) and the POPI Act (2013 – South Africa) to ensure that your personal information is collected and dealt with in the appropriate manners as required by law.

SOMS Digital (PTY) Ltd is committed to protecting your personal information. In this privacy policy we explain what information we collect, how we use it and the rights that you have.

If there are any terms in this policy that you do not agree with, please discontinue the use of our website.

How We Collect Your Information

We collect information about you, your business, and any other party whose details you provide us when you:

  • Contact us via email, phone, online chat or contact form. This may include your name, physical and postal address, email address, mobile number, telephone number, company name, VAT number and company number. We may also ask you to provide additional information about yourself and your preferences.
  • Subscribe to our emails and/or monthly newsletters from our website’s subscription forms.
  • Interact with us using social media platforms which may include Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media platforms.
  • Provide your contact details to us when accessing or registering to use any websites, applications, or services we make available, or when you update those details.
  • Contact us offline, for example, by telephone, SMS, email, whatsapp or post.
  • View or visit our website, with the use of cookies and analytics trackers from 3rd parties which may include Google, Bing/Microsoft, LinkedIn, Facebook, AddThis, ShareThis, HotJar, TawkTo, ClickUp, Google Tag Manager and UTMs. (Please view our Cookie Policy to find out more.) When you browse our site, we may also automatically receive and store certain personally non-identifiable information (“Log Data”). This Log Data may include your computer’s internet protocol (IP) address, browser type or the domain from which you are visiting, the site pages you visit, the search terms you use, and any advertisements on which you click. This information helps us learn about your browser and operating system. For most users accessing the Internet from an Internet service provider, the IP address will be different every time you log on. We do not associate your IP address with any other Personal Information to identify you personally, except in cases where we are asked to comply with a subpoena or other legal demand or where we suspect that there has been a violation of our policies, our Terms of Service and/or applicable law.

We may, from time to time, collect additional information from web-based resources that are free, publicly available or shared by you on any internet based social networks or directories. This information may include email addresses, mailing addresses, job titles, phone numbers, intent data (or user behaviour data), social media profiles, directories, social media urls and custom profiles for the purpose of targeted advertising. We can provide links to these sources on request (Please see: “Your Data Access, Updates and Removal”).

All personal information that you provide to use must be true, complete, and accurate. Please notify us of any changes to your personal information via one of our contact methods.

When you provide us with personal information via one of our online touch points (View “How We Collect Your Information“), you consent to our collecting it and using it only for the reason for which you sent us your information.

Where we ask for your personal information for a secondary reason, like marketing or research, we will either ask you directly for your consent, or provide you with an opportunity to say no.

How to Withdraw Your Consent

If you change your mind after you have opted in, you may withdraw your consent for us to contact you, collect more information, use, or disclose your information, at any time. (Please see: “Your Data Access, Updates and Removal”)

What We Do with Your Information

We may use your personal information, collected via our website, for several business purposes described below. We process this information for legitimate business interests to enter or perform a contract with you, with your consent.

Using electronic media (Email, Phone, Text, SMS, Whatsapp, Chat or Online Advertising), we may contact you based on the information you provide, to:

  • Provide any information and services that you have requested and any changes to our terms & conditions and policies
  • Manage our relationship with you (via customer services and support activities)
  • Monitor, measure, improve, and protect our content, website, applications, and services, and provide an enhanced, personal, user experience for you
  • Undertake internal testing of our website, applications, systems, and services to improve their security and performance. In these circumstances, we anonymise any information used.
  • Provide you with any information that we are required to send you to comply with our regulatory or legal obligations
  • Detect, prevent, investigate, or remediate crime, illegal, or prohibited activities, or to otherwise protect our legal rights (including liaison with regulators and law enforcement agencies for these purposes)
  • Monitor, carry out statistical analysis and benchmarking, provided that in such circumstances, it is on an aggregated basis, which will not be linked back to you or any living individual
  • Deliver targeted advertising, marketing (including in-product messaging), or information to you, which may be useful to you, based on your use of our applications and services
  • Deliver joint content and services with third parties with whom you have a separate relationship (e.g., social media providers)
  • Provide you with location-based services where we collect geo-location data
  • Post testimonials from you that may include your information. Before posting a testimonial, we will obtain your consent to use your name and the content of the testimonial
  • Keep our website safe and secure
  • Analyse data, view trends, review marketing campaigns and their effectiveness, improve our website, products, services. We may store this information with other user data in an anonymised form which will not include personal information.

Third-Party Services, Vendors and Consultants

In general, the third-party providers used by us will only collect, use, and disclose your information to the extent necessary to allow them to perform the services they provide us.

For these providers, we recommend that you read their privacy policies, so you can understand the way your personal information will be handled by these providers.

At times, we may be required to engage with certain third-party service providers, agents or venders who provide specific services including digital agencies, financial service providers, analytical service providers, courier services, technical service providers such as online hosting and/or data storage service providers, customer relationship management service providers, events management service providers, and/or the providers of any related services.

We may share your information with third-party platform and software providers (such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, Pinterest, ClickUp, Microsoft/Bing, Yahoo, Sage, QuickBooks, Sendinblue, Mailchimp, YouTube and Twitter) to serve targeted advertising and/or content to you via the relevant third-party platform, based on your profile and interests. Your information is used by the third-party platform provider to identify your account and serve advertisements to you. You can control what advertisements you receive via the privacy settings on the relevant provider’s platform, and you should consult the third party’s help / support centre for more information.

We may also share and store your information with third-party hosting providers like Unlimited Web Hosting (United Kingdom), Xneelo (South Africa), AfriHost (South Africa) and Siteground (USA).

Once you leave our website or are redirected to a third-party website or application, we are not responsible for the privacy practices of these other sites and encourage you to read their privacy statements.

SOMS Digital (PTY) Ltd may share your information with our United Kingdom partner (SOMS Digital LTD) depending on your service requirements and your international location to better serve your requirements. Please review their GDPR Policies for more information on how they process your personal information.

SOMS Digital (PTY) Ltd may be required to share personal information with by virtue of a legal requirement. Any such sharing or disclosure shall only be made if we believe we are obligated to do so by law, that doing so may be reasonably necessary in order to comply with a legally binding process, will be required by relevant law enforcement authorities (including in instances to investigate violations of law and/or actions of fraud), necessary for us to respond to any claims made against us, necessary to prevent breaches of security and/or this Privacy Notice, or may be necessary to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of SOMS Digital (PTY) Ltd, its customers or any members of the public.

Information from Minors (Under the age of 18)

We do not knowingly solicit data from or market to children under the age of 18 years of age. By using this website, you represent that you are at least 18 or that you are the parent or guardian of a minor and consent to their usage of our website. If we learn that we have collected information from a user that is under the age of 18, we will take measures to promptly delete such data from our records. If you become aware of any data, we may have collected from children under the age of 18, please contact us to let us know.

Business Transfer

We may share or transfer your information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company.

Protecting Your Information

To protect your personal information, we follow industry best practices to make sure it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed.

We keep your information secure by taking appropriate technical and organisational measures against its unauthorised or unlawful processing and against its accidental loss, destruction, or damage. We do our best to protect your personal information, but we cannot guarantee the security of your information if it is transmitted to our website, applications, or services, or to other websites, applications, and services, via an internet or similar connection.

If you provide us with your personal information, the information is encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL). Although no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, we follow and implement additional generally accepted industry standards.

Information Breach, Leak or Security Compromise

Should your personal information be accessed or acquired by any unauthorised business or person, SOMS Digital (PTY) Ltd will as soon as possible notify the Regulator and the user unless the information is unidentifiable.

Should any personal information be leaked, you will be notified in writing in at least one of the following ways:

  • mailed to your last known physical or postal address
  • email to your last known email address
  • placed in a prominent position on the website of the responsible party
  • published in the news media
  • or as may be directed by the Regulator

The notification will allow you to take protective measures against the potential consequences, including:

  • a description of the possible consequences of the security compromise
  • a description of the measures we intend to take or have taken to address the security compromise
  • a recommendation regarding the measures to be taken by you to mitigate the possible adverse effects of the security compromise
  • if known, the identity of the unauthorised person who may have accessed or acquired the personal information

How Long Do We Keep Your Information?

We will only retain your information for as long as is necessary for the purpose set out in this privacy policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. We may retain information for longer periods of time for historical reference, research and additional statistical analysis that may be published in the form of case studies or to better our own products, services, content, and website structure. Although we may use this data for reference, we will not include any personal identifiable information within our own or third-party publications unless we have your consent. Information may also be retained for tax, accounting, or other legal requirements.

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your information, we will either delete or anonymize your information.

Changes To This Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently. Changes and clarifications will take effect immediately upon their posting on the website. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated, so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we use and / or disclose it.

Your Data Access, Updates and Removal

If you would like a copy, access, correct, amend, or delete any personal information we have about you, or simply want more information, contact us via the information below. Please ensure to provide adequate proof of identity to request details to your information.

If you choose to have your information removed from our databases, they will be permanently removed from all of our databases and unrecoverable. Please note that if your information is publicly available from other sources, there may be a chance that the information gets resubmitted or included as there will be no record that the data was previously on our database. (Please review the information within “How we collect your information” as a reference.)

If you would like to have your information transferred to a party of your choice, you will need to provide adequate proof of identity before we can release your information.

How To Contact Us Regarding This Policy

If you have any questions or comments with regard to this policy, please contact us via:

Contact Form

Telephone:

+27 11 568 7419

Email:

info@somsdigital.co.za

Address:

SOMS Digital (PTY) Ltd
9th Floor, Atrium on 5th
5th Street
Sandton
Gauteng
South Africa
2196

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