Privacy Policy
Introduction
Welcome to our privacy policy. We are Unifi Credit (PTY) LTD (Registration number 2010/019713/07) (“Unifi”/ “us” / “we”) and this is our plan of action when it comes to protecting your privacy. We respect your privacy and take the protection of personal information very seriously. The purpose of this policy is to describe the way that we collect, store, use, and protect information that can be associated with you or another specific natural or juristic person and can be used to identify you or that person (personal information).
- Please note that Unifi is a private limited liability company duly registered and operating in accordance with the laws of South Africa.
- For more information regarding your personal information lawfully stored or used by Unifi, please contact Nita Morgan who will gladly assist.
- Not all terms are necessarily defined in order or may be defined in our other agreements or policies.
- Please ensure that you read all the provisions below, and our other Unifi rules and policies which may apply from time to time and made available to you, to understand all of your, and our, rights and duties.
- This Privacy Policy complies with, and facilitates the obligations required from, the South African Protection of Personal Information Act, No. 4 of 2013 (“POPI”), as amended.
- Users with citizenships from jurisdictions other than of South Africa, please note that Unifi complies with all South African data protection laws when processing your personal information pursuant to the Services as we are a South African entity operating in the South African market. Should foreign law be applicable in any regard to your use of the Services and/or the Website in any way, including how we may process your personal information, please contact Unifi at clientcare@za.unifi.credit who will gladly engage you on its application and your rights.
- It is important that you read this Privacy Policy together with any other privacy policy or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you, so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This Privacy Policy supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.
Data Subjects covered by this Policy
This policy applies to you if you are:
- a visitor to our website; or
- a customer who has requested the services that we provide.
This policy applies to you under certain circumstances.
Our data processing roles and Information Officer
- Unifi is the “Responsible Party” and is responsible for your personal data in instances where we decide the processing operations concerning your personal data. We will also operate as an “Operator” of personal data on behalf of users/clients who make use of our Website and Services to process their data for their purposes.
- For clarity, parties who provide us with their own data subjects’ data via the Services/Website for processing will remain the Responsible Party for their data, where we will operate exclusively as the Operator for such data. Should we receive any engagements about our processing of such data, we will direct the relevant data subject to the client user to account for the processing as the data subject’s Responsible Party.
- We have appointed an Information Officer (“IO”) at Unifi who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the IO using the details set out below.
- Full name of legal entity: Unifi Credit (PTY) LTD
- Name of Information Officer: Michiel Le Roux
- Name of Deputy Information Officer: Nita Morgan
- Email address: nita@unifi.credit
- Postal address: Block A, The Vineyards, Devon valley rd., Stellenbosch
- Telephone number: 021 111 0888
- You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the South African regulator’s office (Information Regulator’s Office of South Africa). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach any such regulator, so please contact us in the first instance.
Changes to the Privacy Policy and your Duty to Inform us of Changes
- This Privacy Policy version was last updated in March 2022 and historic versions are archived and can be obtained by contacting us.
- We may change the terms of this policy at any time by updating this web page. We will notify you of any changes by placing a notice in a prominent place on the website or by sending you an email detailing the changes that we have made and indicating the date that they were last updated. If you do not agree with the changes, then you must stop using the website and our services. If you continue to use the website or services following notification of a change to the terms, the changed terms will apply to you and you will be deemed to have accepted those updated terms.
- We will try to keep the personal information we collect as accurate, complete and up to date as is necessary for the purposes defined in this policy. From time to time we may request you to update your personal information on the website. You are able to review or update any personal information that we hold on you by accessing your account online, emailing us, or phoning us. Please note that in order to better protect you and safeguard your personal information, we take steps to verify your identity before granting you access to your account or making any corrections to your personal information.
Third-Party Links on Website or otherwise
- The Website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. 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 or terms. When you leave our Website, or engage with such third parties, we encourage you to read the distinct privacy policy of every third-party you engage with.
The Personal information we Process
Personal information includes:
- certain information that we collect automatically when you visit our website.
- certain information collected on registration (see below);
- certain information collected on submission; and
- optional information that you provide to us voluntarily (see below);
but excludes:
- information that has been made anonymous so that it does not identify a specific person;
- permanently de-identified information that does not relate or cannot be traced back to you specifically;
- non-personal statistical information collected and compiled by us; and
- information that you have provided voluntarily in an open, public environment or forum including any blog, chat room, community, classifieds, or discussion board (because the information has been disclosed in a public forum, it is no longer confidential and does not constitute personal information subject to protection under this policy).
Personal information includes information we collect (i) automatically when you visit our website, (ii) on registration, (iii) on submission, and (iv) from you voluntarily. It excludes (i) anonymous, (ii) de-identified, (iii) non-personal statistical, and (iv) public information.
Common examples
Common examples of the types of personal information which we may collect, and process include your:
- identifying information – such as your name, date of birth, or identification number of any kind;
- contact information – such as your phone number or email address;
- address information – such as your physical or postal address; or
- demographic information – such as your gender or marital status.
Sensitive personal information
Depending on the services that you require, we may also collect sensitive personal information including your:
- financial information – such as your bank account details;
- sensitive demographic information – such as your race or ethnicity;
- employment information – including your membership of a trade union; and
Lawful Grounds for Processing
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to and for legitimate reasons, which you hereby expressly understand and consent to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
- where we have your express consent to do so;
- where we need to consult with you or perform on the Services contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you;
- where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests; and/or
- where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.
Consent to collection
We will obtain your consent to collect personal information:
- in accordance with applicable law;
- when you provide us with any registration information or optional information.
Acceptance
Acceptance required
You must accept all the terms of this policy when you request our services. If you do not agree with anything in this policy, then you may not request our services.
You may not request our services if you do not accept this policy.
Legal capacity
You may not access our website or request our services if you are younger than 18 years old or do not have legal capacity to conclude legally binding contracts.
Deemed acceptance
By accepting this policy, you are deemed to have read, understood, accepted, and agreed to be bound by all of its terms.
Your obligations
You may only send us your own personal information or the information of another data subject where you have their permission to do so.
Collection of your data
We have listed below the various methods for how we derive/collect personal data from you:
1. On registration
Once you register on our website, you will no longer be anonymous to us. You will provide us with certain personal information when you register on our website.
This personal information will include:
- your name and surname;
- your email address;
- your telephone number;
- your company name, company registration number, and VAT number;
- your postal address or street address; and
- your username and password.
We will use this personal information to fulfil your account, provide additional services and information to you as we reasonably think appropriate, and for any other purposes set out in this policy.
We collect certain information on registration, when you register on our website.
2. On request
When you request our services, you will be asked to provide us with additional information on a voluntary basis (services information).
We collect certain information when you request our services from us.
3. From browser
We automatically receive and record Internet usage information on our server logs from your browser, such as your Internet Protocol address (IP address), browsing habits, click patterns, version of software installed, system type, screen resolutions, colour capabilities, plug-ins, language settings, cookie preferences, search engine keywords, JavaScript enablement, the content and pages that you access on the website, and the dates and times that you visit the website, paths taken, and time spent on sites and pages within the website (usage information). Please note that other websites visited before entering our website might place personal information within your URL during a visit to it, and we have no control over such websites. Accordingly, a subsequent website that collects URL information may log some personal information.
We collect certain information from your web browser, including your Internet usage information when you visit our website.
4. Cookies
We may place small text files called ‘cookies’ on your device when you visit our website. These files do not contain personal information, but they do contain a personal identifier allowing us to associate your personal information with a certain device. These files serve a number of useful purposes for you, including:
- granting you access to age restricted content;
- tailoring our website’s functionality to you personally by letting us remember your preferences;
- improving how our website performs;
- allowing third parties to provide services to our website; and
- helping us deliver targeted advertising where appropriate in compliance with the applicable laws.
Your internet browser generally accepts cookies automatically, but you can often change this setting to stop accepting them. You can also delete cookies manually. However, no longer accepting cookies or deleting them will prevent you from accessing certain aspects of our website where cookies are necessary. Many websites use cookies, and you can find out more about them at www.allaboutcookies.org.
We collect certain information from cookies that we may send to your computer to try and give you a personalised experience.
5. Third party cookies
Some of our business partners use their own cookies or widgets on our website. We have no access to or control over them. Information collected by any of those cookies or widgets is governed by the privacy policy of the company that created it, and not by us.
6. Web beacons
Our website may contain electronic image requests (called a single-pixel gif or web beacon request) that allow us to count page views and to access cookies. Any electronic image viewed as part of a web page (including an ad banner) can act as a web beacon. Our web beacons do not collect, gather, monitor or share any of your personal information. We merely use them to compile anonymous information about our website.
We collect certain information from web beacons on our website to compile anonymous information about our website.
7. Optional details
You may also provide additional information to us on a voluntary basis (optional information). This includes content or products that you decide to upload or download from our website or when you enter competitions, take advantage of promotions, respond to surveys, order certain services, or otherwise use the optional features and functionality of our website.
We collect certain optional information, that you provide when you upload or download content from our website or when you enter competitions, take advantage of promotions, respond to surveys or register and subscribe for certain additional services.
8. Recording calls
We may monitor and record any telephone calls that you make to us.
Purposes for collecting your data
We may use or process any services information, or optional information that you provide to us for the purposes that you indicated when you agreed to provide it to us. Processing includes gathering your personal information, disclosing it, and combining it with other personal information. We generally collect and process your personal information for various purposes, including:
- services purposes – such as collecting requests for and providing our services;
- marketing purposes – such as pursuing lawful related marketing activities;
- business purposes – such as internal audit, accounting, business planning, and joint ventures, disposals of business, or other proposed and actual transactions; and
- legal purposes – such as handling claims, complying with regulations, or pursuing good governance.
We may use your usage information for the purposes described above and to:
- remember your information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you access the website;
- monitor website usage metrics such as total number of visitors and pages accessed; and
- track your entries, submissions, and status in any promotions or other activities in connection with your usage of the website.
We may use any of your personal information that you provide to us for the purposes that you indicated when you agreed to provide it to us.
Use of your data
Our obligations
We may use your personal information to fulfil our obligations to you.
Messages and updates
We may send administrative messages and email updates to you about the website. In some cases, we may also send you primarily promotional messages. You can choose to opt-out of promotional messages.
We may use your information to send you administrative messages and email updates to you regarding the website and for marketing purposes where lawful.
Targeted content
While you are logged into the website, we may display targeted adverts and other relevant information based on your personal information. In a completely automated process, computers process the personal information and match it to adverts or related information. We never share personal information with any advertiser, unless you specifically provide us with your consent to do so. Advertisers receive a record of the total number of impressions and clicks for each advert. They do not receive any personal information. If you click on an advert, we may send a referring URL to the advertiser’s website identifying that a customer is visiting from the website. We do not send personal information to advertisers with the referring URL. Once you are on the advertiser’s website however, the advertiser is able to collect your personal information.
We may use your information for targeted content in certain, specified instances.
Disclosure of your data to third parties
Sharing
"By virtue of the services we provide, we have to share some limited personal data with external third parties to assist in providing you with the Unifi Services. These contracted and secure third-parties are listed below, alongside the nature of the data transferred, as well as the reason for such transfer".
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Name
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Information
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Reason
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Experian
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RSA ID Number
First Name
Last Name
Gender
Date of birth
Address
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Credit assessment
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Intecon
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RSA ID number
First name
Last name
Bank details
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Bank account verification
Debit order collection
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Hyphen
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RSA ID number
First name
Last name
Bank details
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Disbursement of funds
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Regulators
We may disclose your personal information as required by law or governmental audit.
Law enforcement
We may disclose personal information if required:
- by a subpoena or court order;
- to comply with any law;
- to protect the safety of any individual or the general public; and
- to prevent violation of our customer relationship terms.
We may disclose personal information to third parties if required for legal reasons.
No selling
We will not sell personal information. No personal information will be disclosed to anyone except as provided in this privacy policy.
Marketing purposes
We may disclose aggregate statistics (information about the customer population in general terms) about the personal information to advertisers or business partners.
Opting Out
- You can ask us or authorised third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by contacting us or the relevant third party at any time and requesting us to cease or change your marketing preferences.
- Where you opt-out of receiving these marketing messages, this opt-out will not apply to other personal data of yours which we process for another lawful basis.
Employees
We may need to disclose personal information to our employees that require the personal information to do their jobs. These include our responsible management, human resources, accounting, audit, compliance, information technology, or other personnel.
Change of ownership
If we undergo a change in ownership, or a merger with, acquisition by, or sale of assets to, another entity, we may assign our rights to the personal information we process to a successor, purchaser, or separate entity. We will disclose the transfer on the website. If you are concerned about your personal information migrating to a new owner, you may request us to delete your personal information.
Security
We take the security of personal information very seriously and always do our best to comply with applicable data protection laws. Our hosting company will host our website in a secure server environment that uses a firewall and other advanced security measures to prevent interference or access from outside intruders. We authorize access to personal information only for those employees who require it to fulfil their job responsibilities. We implement disaster recover procedures where appropriate.
Our website is hosted on a secure server and uses security measures to prevent interference by intruders.
Retention
We will only retain your personal information for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purposes explicitly set out in this policy, unless:
- retention of the record is required or authorised by law; or
- you have consented to the retention of the record.
During the period of retention, we will continue to abide by our non-disclosure obligations and will not share or sell your personal information.
We may retain your personal information in physical or electronic records at our discretion.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data, any other South African applicable law requiring us to retain the data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available from us by contacting us.
In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data; see below for further information.
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.
We will only retain your personal information for as long as is necessary.
Transfer to another country
We may transmit or transfer personal information outside of the country in which it was collected to a foreign country and process it in that country.
Whenever we transfer your personal data out of either territory, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:
- We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the Information Regulator’s Office of South Africa; and/or
- Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts/clauses approved by the Information Regulator’s Office which give personal data the same protection it has in South Africa.
Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of South Africa.
We may transfer your personal information outside the country in which it was collected to a foreign country.
Your legal rights
In relation to our processing of your data, you have the right to:
- Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
- 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 data you provide to us.
- Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no valid reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data 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 communicated to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
- Object to 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 data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
- Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:
- if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy;
- where our use of the data is unlawful, but you do not want us to erase it;
- 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
- you have objected to our use of your data, but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
- Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, 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 on a contract with you.
- 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 Website access or Services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent. Please take note that regardless of your right to withdraw consent under POPI, other South African legislation applies and may require that we continue to process your data in order to comply with anti-corruption, crime-fighting and/or other national legislation, which you expressly understand and agree to.
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
Enquiries
If you have any questions or concerns arising from this privacy policy or the way in which we handle personal information, please contact us.
