Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Definations

In this Privacy Policy, unless the context indicates otherwise, the words and expressions set out below shall have the meanings assigned to them and cognate expressions shall have a corresponding meaning, namely:

Ownership

Vertus Pro is a collection of Platforms owned and managed by Bodyshop Equipment Solutions Proprietary Limited (Registration number: 2004/003260/07).

Purpose

The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to set out when and why we require your Personal Information and how we handle the Personal Information we collect about you and/or receive from you. Vertus Pro will use your Personal Information to comply with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (“POPI”).

We respect your privacy and take the protection of Personal Information very seriously. We strive to deliver excellent service every time you shop with us, and to do this, we need to use some of your Personal Information.

By using our Platforms, you agree to the processing of your Personal Information as set out in this Privacy Policy.

Acceptance upon use of our Platforms

This Privacy Policy applies to all users of our Platforms, which are used to access and purchase our goods and services.

Deemed acceptance

By accepting this Privacy Policy, you are deemed to have read, understood, accepted, and agreed to be bound by all its terms. If you do not agree with anything in this Privacy Policy, then you may not order our goods or request our services.

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.

Legal capacity

If you are below the age of 18 years, you must always get permission from your parent or guardian before you use our Platforms or give us your Personal Information. We may check that your parent or guardian has given you such permission, for example by asking you to provide us with your parent’s or guardian’s contact details so we can contact them. We may also check that the contact details you have given us are correct and are the details of a person who is actually your parent or guardian. If we are not able to verify such permission or if a parent or guardian confirms that you do not have their permission, you may not use our Platforms.

Personal Information

General

Personal Information includes:

  • certain information that we collect automatically when you visit our Platforms;
  • certain information collected on registration;
  • certain information collected on submission of orders; and
  • optional information that you provide to us voluntarily;

    • 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 Privacy Policy).

    • 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
  • financial information – such as your bank account details.

    • Why we process your Personal Information

    We process the Personal Information we collect and receive to:

  • identify you;
  • verify your identity;
  • create a user account for you; and/or
  • enter into a contract with you.

    • As a Registered User, we also process your Personal Information in order to:

  • Fulfil our contractual obligations to you when you have ordered goods in order for us to deliver those goods and process returns.
  • Provide you with information, goods or services you request from us.
  • Communicate with you regarding our Platforms and provide you with information, goods or services, including billing, customer support, resolving complaints and quality control.
  • Notify you about changes to our Platforms, services and goods, terms and conditions, privacy policy or notices, and any other changes that impact our Platforms, services and goods.
  • Send you information about discounts, goods or services that may interest you (unless you have opted out of receiving such information).
  • Get feedback from you which we need to develop our goods and services and grow our business.
  • Comply with any legal or regulatory obligations such as tax or financial laws.
  • Undertake research and 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.

    • What Personal Information we collect and process

    Vertus Pro processes Personal Information in a manner that is reasonable, adequate, relevant, non-excessive and purpose specific. For users to access and use our Platforms we collect and process some Personal Information. When you become a Registered User, we must collect and process your Personal Information to render our services to you.

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

  • name and surname;
  • email address;
  • physical address;
  • billing address;
  • mobile phone number;
  • job title; and/or
  • online identifiers.

    • Should your Personal Information change or should you wish to amend and/or correct this Personal Information you can do this by updating your Registered User information in your account profile.

    You warrant that the information you have provided is accurate, current, true and correct and that does not impersonate or misrepresent any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with anyone or anything.

    Collection

    On registration

    Once you register on our Platforms, you will no longer be anonymous to us. You will provide us with certain Personal Information when you register on our Platforms.

    This Personal Information will include:

  • your company’s registered name;
  • your company’s registration number;
  • your company’s VAT number;
  • your company’s physical address;
  • your name and surname;
  • your job title;
  • your email address;
  • your telephone number; 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 Privacy Policy.

    On order or request

    When you order our goods, or request our services from us, you will be asked to provide us with additional information on a voluntary basis (goods or services information).

    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 our Platforms, and the dates and times that you visit our Platforms, paths taken, and time spent on sites and pages within our Platforms (usage information).

    Please note that other websites visited before entering our Platforms 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.

    Optional details

    You may also provide additional information to us on a voluntary basis (optional information). This includes when you take advantage of promotions, order certain additional goods or services, or otherwise use the optional features and functionality of our Platforms.

    Recording calls

    We may monitor and record any telephone calls that you make to us unless you specifically request us not to.

    Purpose for collection

    We may use or process any goods or 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:

  • goods or services purposes – such as collecting orders or requests for and providing our goods or 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 our Platforms;
  • monitor Platform 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 our Platforms.

    • 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.

    • Use

    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 our Platforms. In some cases, we may also send you primarily promotional messages. You can choose to opt-out of promotional messages.

    Disclosure

    Sharing

    We may share your Personal Information with:

  • other divisions or companies within the group of companies to which we belong so as to provide joint content and services like registration, for transactions and customer support, to help detect and prevent potentially illegal acts and violations of our policies, and to guide decisions about our goods, services, and communications (they will only use this information to send you marketing communications if you have requested their goods or services);
  • an affiliate, in which case we will seek to require the affiliates to honour this Privacy Policy;
  • our goods or services providers under contract who help provide certain goods or services or help with parts of our business operations, including fraud prevention, bill collection, marketing, or technology services (our contracts dictate that these goods or services providers only use your information in connection with the goods or services they supply or services they perform for us and not for their own benefit);
  • credit bureaus to report account information, as permitted by law;
  • banking partners as required by credit card association rules for inclusion on their list of terminated merchants (in the event that you utilise the services to receive payments and you meet their criteria);
  • our third party suppliers who provide us with their goods; and
  • other third parties who provide us with relevant services where appropriate (for example our couriers).

    • 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.

    • No selling

    We do not sell your Personal Information to third parties for their marketing or any other purposes.

    Marketing purposes

    We may disclose aggregate statistics (information about the customer population in general terms) about the Personal Information to advertisers or business partners.

    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 our Platforms. 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 Platforms 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.

    Accurate and up to date

    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 Privacy Policy. From time to time we may request you to update your Personal Information on our Platforms. 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.

    Retention and restriction of records

    We keep your Personal Information for as long as:

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

    Opt out from direct marketing

    You have the right to request us not to contact you for purposes of direct marketing by any form of electronic communication such as automatic calling machines, email and/or SMS notifications by “opting-out” of any direct marketing communications we may send to you.

    Transfer to another country

    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.

    Know your rights

    Having provided adequate proof of your identity, you have the right to:

  • View, correct and/or amend your Personal Information we process. Please note that as a Registered User, you can do this through your user account for the Personal Information reflected therein.
  • Request to have your Personal Information corrected, destroyed or deleted.
  • Us complying with your requests upon receipt unless we have credible reason why we cannot comply.
  • Us indicating where, if we cannot agree whether to correct or delete your Personal Information as requested, that a correction or deletion was requested but was not made.
  • Notify you of the action taken by us because of your request.
  • Notify you of unauthorised access to your Personal Information.
  • Provide you with reasonable evidence of our compliance with our obligations under this Privacy Policy on reasonable notice and request.
  • Submit a complaint to the Information Regulator.

    • You may choose to correct or update the Personal Information you have submitted to us, by clicking the relevant menu in any of the pages on our Platforms or contacting us at support@vertuspro.com.

    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/.

    Changes

    We may change the terms of this Privacy Policy at any time by updating this Platform page. We will notify you of any changes by placing a notice in a prominent place on our Platforms 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 our Platforms and our goods or services.

    If you continue to use our Platforms or our goods 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.

    Choice of law

    This Privacy Policy is governed in accordance with the laws of South Africa.

    Limitation

    We are not responsible for, give no warranties, nor make any representations in respect of the privacy policies or practices of linked or any third-party websites.

    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 at support@vertuspro.com.