1. INTRODUCTION

• Possession of personal information carries with it the responsibility to ensure that it is used in accordance with legislative requirements as well as customer expectations. Personal information is vulnerable to a variety of risks, including loss, misuse, unauthorised access, and unauthorised disclosure. Secutel Technologies (Pty) Ltd’s (Secutel) privacy practices aim to inter alia respect privacy, safeguard personal information, and maintain trust.
• Where we refer to “process”, it means how we collect, use, store, make available, destroy, update, disclose, or otherwise deal with, inter alia, you, your employees, our employees  and/or clients’ personal information. As a rule, we will only process personal information if it is required to deliver or offer the services provided by Secutel. If clients use our other services, goods, products, and service channels, they agree that we may process this personal information as explained under this Privacy Policy. You further consent that any and all of your personal information was/shall be provided voluntarily and may be processed by Secutel on the terms and conditions contained in this Policy.
• We may combine this personal information and use the combined personal information for any of the purposes stated in this Privacy Policy and/or for the purposes detailed in our client agreement.
• This Privacy Policy will apply to the processing of personal information by any member of Secutel. Secutel’s principles align to internationally recognised privacy best practice which ensures privacy compliance across all the countries wherein Secutel operates.
• Secutel may change this Privacy Policy at its sole discretion from time to time if the law and/or business practices requires such change.
• This policy establishes a general standard for the appropriate protection of personal information within the Secutel environment. Furthermore, it provides principles regarding the rights of individuals to privacy and to reasonable safeguards of their personal information.

2. PURPOSE

The objectives of the policy are to ensure that Secutel collects, handles, stores, shares, uses and disposes of personal information in a manner which complies with all privacy and data protection regulations, meets the expectations of stakeholders and mitigates against the risk of failing to comply with data protection / privacy regulations and policy requirements. Secutel shall only use personal information for the purpose for which it was collected.

3. RESPONSIBILITIES & AUTHORITIES

This document is applied to all Management and staff who can influence confidentiality, integrity and availability of Secutel’s sensitive information.

 

4. REFERENCE DOCUMENTS
   • ISO 27001 clause 5.34
   • ISO 27701:2019
   • Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (“POPI”)
   • Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (“PAIA”) and
   • General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (GDPR)

 

5. POLICY

 

What is personal information?

Personal information refers to any information that identifies an individual or specifically relates to the individual. Personal information includes, but is not limited to, the following information about individuals:

• Marital status
• National origin
• Age
• Language
• Birthplace
• Education
• Relevant financial history
• Identifying number (such as an employee number, identity number or passport number)
• E-mail address; physical address (such as residential address, work address or your physical location); telephone number
• Biometric information (such as fingerprints, signature, or voice)
• Race; gender; sex; pregnancy status; ethnic origin; social origin; colour; sexual orientation
• Physical health; mental health; well-being; disability; religion; belief; conscience; culture
• Medical history; criminal history; employment history
• Personal views, preferences, and opinions
• Another’s views or opinions about you
• Full names and initials

We will only process this personal information for lawful purposes relating to our business if the following applies:

• If the client has consented thereto
• If a person legally authorised by the client, the law, or a court, has consented thereto
• If it is necessary to conclude or perform under a contract, we have with the client
• If the law requires or permits it
• If it is required to protect or pursue the clients’, their clients’ or a third party’s legitimate interest

What is special personal information?

Special personal information is personal information about the following:

• Race (for example reports to the Department of Labour where statistical information may be recorded)
• Ethnic origin
• Trade union membership
• Health (for example insurance policy applications)
• Biometric information
• Criminal behaviour and alleged commission of an offense

 

When will we process your special personal information?

We may process your special personal information in the following circumstances:

• If you have consented to the processing
• If the information is being used for any Human Resource or payroll related requirement
• If the processing is needed to create, use or protect a right or obligation in law
• If the processing is for statistical or research purposes and all legal conditions are met
• If the special personal information was made public by you
• If the processing is required by law
• We collect personal information from 3rd parties that are directly integrated with our software platform
• We collect information about you based on your use of our products, services or service channels (like our Platform, Applications, ESS, and MSS)
• We collect information about you based on how you engage or interact with us such as via our support desk, emails, letters, telephone calls and surveys
• We collect personal information from completed forms i.e. contact and billing information

If the law requires us to do so, we will ask for your consent before collecting personal information about you or your employees from third parties.

The third parties from whom we may collect your personal information include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Our partners, your employer directly, any of our other bureau or channel partners and any connected companies, subsidiary companies, its associates, cessionary, delegates, assigns, affiliates or successors in title and / or appointed third parties (like its authorised agents, partners, contractors and suppliers) for any of the purposes identified in this Privacy Policy;
• your spouse, dependents, partners, employer, and other similar sources;
• people you have authorised to share your personal information, like a person that makes a travel booking on your behalf or a medical practitioner for insurance purposes;
• attorneys, tracing agents, debt collectors and other persons that assist with the enforcement of agreements;
• payment processing services providers, merchants, banks and other persons that assist with the processing of your payment instructions, like EFT transaction partners.
• insurers, brokers, other financial institutions or other organisations that assist with insurance and assurance underwriting, the providing of insurance and assurance policies and products, the assessment of insurance and assurance claims and other related purposes;
• law enforcement and fraud prevention agencies and other persons tasked with the prevention and prosecution of crime;
• regulatory authorities, industry ombudsman, governmental departments, local and international tax authorities;
• trustees, Executors or Curators appointed by a court of law;
• our service providers, agents and sub-contractors such as couriers and other persons we use to offer and provide products and services to you;
• courts of law or tribunals;

Reasons we need to process your personal information

We will process your personal information for the following reasons:

• to provide you with products, goods and services;
• to market our products, goods and services to you;
• to respond to your enquiries and complaints;
• to comply with legislative, regulatory, risk and compliance requirements (including directives, sanctions and rules), voluntary and involuntary codes of conduct and industry agreements or to fulfil reporting requirements and information requests;
• to develop, test and improve products and services for you;
• for historical, statistical and research purposes, such as market segmentation;
• to process payment instruments;
• to create, manufacture and print payment advice (such as a payslip);
• to enable us to deliver goods, documents or notices to you;
• for security, identity verification and to check the accuracy of your personal information;
• to communicate with you and carry out your instructions and requests;
• for customer satisfaction surveys, promotional offerings;
• to enable you to take part in and make use of value-added products and services;
• to assess our lending and insurance risks; and / or
• for any other related purposes.

Instances where your personal information will be used for marketing

• We will use your personal information to market our technology, and services rendered to you
• We will do this in person, by post, telephone, or electronic channels such as SMS, email and fax
• If you are not our customer, or in any other instances where the law requires, we will only market to you by electronic communications with your consent
• In all cases you can request us to stop sending marketing communications to you at any time

Where required, each member of Secutel may share your personal information with the following persons. These persons have an obligation to keep your personal information secure and confidential, in line with this privacy policy.

• Other members of Secutel, its associates, cessionary, delegates, assigns, affiliates or successors in title and / or appointed third parties (such as its authorised agents, partners, contractors and suppliers) for any of the purposes identified in this Privacy Policy
• Our employees as required by their employment conditions
• Attorneys, tracing agents, debt collectors and other persons that assist with the enforcement of agreements
• Payment processing services providers, merchants, banks and other persons that assist with the processing of your payment instructions, such as 3rd party EFT service providers
• Law enforcement and fraud prevention agencies and other persons tasked with the prevention and prosecution of crime
• Regulatory authorities, industry ombudsmen, governmental departments, local and international tax authorities and other persons the law requires us to share your personal information with
• Our service providers, agents and sub-contractors such as couriers and other persons we use to offer and provide products and services to you
• Persons to whom we have ceded our rights or delegated our obligations to under agreements, like where a business is sold
• Courts of law or tribunals that require the personal information to adjudicate referrals, actions or applications;
• Trustees, Executors or Curators appointed by a court of law
• Participating partners in our customer loyalty reward programmes, where you purchase goods, products and service or spend loyalty rewards; and / or our joint venture and other partners with whom we have concluded business agreements, for your benefit

We will only transfer your personal information to third parties in another country in any one or more of the following circumstances:

• Where necessary to do so in order to deliver our products and services to our clients
• Where your personal information will be adequately protected under the other country’s laws or an agreement with the third party recipient
• Where the transfer is necessary to enter into or perform under a contract with you, or a contract with a third party that is in your interest
• Where you have consented to the transfer; and / or
• Where it is not reasonably practical to obtain your consent, yet the transfer is in your interest and to your benefit

This transfer will happen within the requirements and safeguards of the law. Where possible, the party processing your personal information in the other country will agree to apply the same level of protection as available by law in your country or if the other country’s laws provide better protection the other country’s laws would be agreed to and applied.

An example of an instance where transferring your personal information to another country would be necessary is where foreign payments take place if you purchase goods or services in a foreign country, or request that we facilitate salary payments to your employees in the countries.

Your duties and rights about the personal information we have about you

• You must provide proof of identity when enforcing the rights below.
• You must inform us when your personal information changes.
• Please refer to our Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 Manual (PAIA Manual) for further information on how you can give effect to the rights listed below.
• You have the right to request access to the personal information we have about you by contacting us. This includes requesting:
• Confirmation that we hold your personal information
• A copy or description of the record containing your personal information; and
• The identity or categories of third parties who have had access to your personal information

We will attend to requests for access to personal information within a reasonable time. You may be required to pay a reasonable fee to receive copies or descriptions of records, or information about third parties. We will inform you of the fee before attending to your request.

Please note that the law may limit your right to access information.

You have the right to request us to correct or delete the personal information we have on record for you if it is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading, obtained unlawfully or if we are no longer authorised to keep it. You must inform us of your request in writing. Please refer to our PAIA Manual for further information in this regard, such as the process you should follow to give effect to this right. It may take up to 15 business days for the change to reflect on our systems. We may request documents from you to verify the change in personal information.

• A specific agreement that you have entered into with us may determine how you must change your personal information provided at the time when you entered into the specific agreement. Please adhere to these requirements. If the law requires us to keep the personal information, it will not be deleted upon your request. The deletion of certain personal information may lead to the termination of your business relationship with us.

• You may object on reasonable grounds to the processing of your personal information. We will not be able to give effect to your objection if the processing of your personal information was and is permitted by law; you have provided consent to the processing and our processing is done according to your consent or the processing is necessary to conclude or perform under a contract with you. You must inform us of any objection in writing.

• Where you have provided your consent for the processing of your personal information, you may withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we will attempt to explain the consequences to you. We may proceed to process your personal information even if you have withdrawn your consent if the law permits or requires it. It may take up to 15 business days for the change to reflect on our systems, during this time we may still process your personal information.
• You have a right to file a complaint with us or the Information Regulator within the jurisdiction about an alleged contravention of the protection of your personal information by us. We will address your complaint as far as possible.

How we secure your personal information

We will take appropriate and reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect your personal information according to the best industry practices. Our security measures (including physical, technological and procedural safeguards) will be appropriate and reasonable. This includes the following:

• Keeping our systems secure (through monitoring access and usage)
• Storing our records securely
• Controlling the access to our buildings, systems and/or records; and
• Safely destroying or deleting records
• Ensure compliance with international ISO 27001 security standards

How long we keep your personal information

We will keep your personal information for as long as:

• The law requires us to keep it
• A contract between you and us requires us to keep it
• You have consented to us keeping it
• We are required to keep it to achieve the purposes listed in this Privacy Policy
• We require it for statistical or research purposes
• A code of conduct requires us to keep it; and / or
• We require it for our lawful business purposes
• We may keep your personal information even if you no longer have a relationship with us, for the historical data that may be required by your employer or employee.

Children’s Privacy

Our Service does not generally address anyone under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your child has provided Secutel with Personal Data without your consent, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Data from anyone under the age of 13 without verification of parental consent, we shall take steps to obtain the relevant consent

If we need to rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your information and the relevant country requires consent from a parent, we may require parental consent before we collect and use that information.

Cookie policy

A cookie is a small piece of data sent from our websites or applications to your computer or device hard drive or internet browser where it is saved. The cookie contains information to personalise your experience on our websites or applications and may improve your experience on the websites or applications. The cookie will also identify your device, similar to a computer or smart phone.

By using our websites or applications you agree that cookies may be forwarded from the relevant website or application to your computer or device. The cookie will enable us to know that you have visited the website or application before and will identify you. We may also use the cookie to prevent fraud and for analytics.

Retention and Disposal of Personal Information

Secutel must limit its use of personal information to the purposes identified in the notice and for which the data subject has given consent. Secutel must retain personal information for only as long as necessary to fulfil the stated purposes or as required by regulations and thereafter must dispose of such information.

Disclosure to Third Parties

Secutel must disclose information to third parties only for the purposes identified and outlined within their contract with Secutel. Appropriate due diligence must be performed with the third parties wherever personal information is exchanged.

Employees who fail to observe this policy or any regulatory requirement may be disciplined in accordance with Secutel’s disciplinary procedures.

Consequences of incidents

The consequences of an incident in failure to follow the above-mentioned clauses may result in a 10 million rand fine or a 10-year prison sentence.

Carel Brink CEO