Excellenta South Africa (Pty) Ltd (“Excellenta”) respects the right to privacy and confidentiality of our potential and existing client’s personal information. We are committed to protecting your privacy and to ensure that your personal information is collected and used properly, lawfully and transparently. This notice extends to all entities within the Excellenta group of companies.

This privacy notice explains:

  • Who we are
  • Overview
  • What is personal information
  • What type of personal information do we collect
  • Who we share your personal information with and why
  • How we keep your personal information secure
  • Where we store your personal information
  • Transfers of personal information
  • Retention of your personal information
  • Use of cookies
  • Your rights
  • Changes
  • How to contact us

Who we are

Excellenta South Africa Limited is the ultimate parent company of the Excellenta Group.

Overview

This privacy notice sets out how Excellenta ensures that your personal information is collected and used appropriately, lawfully and transparently.

The Excellenta website may contain links to other third party websites. We have no control over how your data is stored, or used by other websites, and we advise you to check the privacy notices of any such websites before providing any data to them.

Excellenta is responsible for your data in relation to your use of this website. We are the Data Controller of the personal information that we collect from you, and as such we control the way in which your personal information is collected and the purposes for which your personal information is used.

 

What is personal information?

POPIA describes personal information as information relating to an identifiable, living, natural person, and where it is applicable, an identifiable, existing juristic person.

Examples of personal information include, but are not limited to, contact information, financial information, information relating to race, gender, sexual orientation, age, contact details, identity number, religion, name, culture, language and nationality. The person to whom personal information relates is referred to as the “data subject”.

What type of personal information do we collect?

The type of information we collect will depend on the purpose for which it is collected and used. We will only collect information that we need for that purpose. When personal information is collected, Excellenta will indicate the purpose for the collection and whether the information required is compulsory or voluntary.

We collect the following categories and types of information:

  • We collect information about how you logged on and off of our website, including your IP address, information about your visit, your device information and how you use our website. This will includes location and traffic data, weblogs, resources you access and other communication data.
  • Information you supply to us directly – this includes the information that you provide when filling in forms on our site, registering to use our services, or corresponding with us through our site or by phone, email or otherwise.
  • Information received from other sources – this includes information we receive about you from third parties including business partners, sub-contractors, advertising networks and search information providers. We will notify you when we receive information about you from them and the purposes for which we intend to use that information.

This personal information about you may include:

  • your name
  • address and e-mail address
  • where relevant, your job title, your company name and your company’s address
  • data provided when you correspond with us
  • any updates to data provided to us

Who we share your personal information with and why

We share your information with trusted third parties, who perform tasks for us and help us to provide our products and/or services to you, and with other agencies where required by law, court order or regulation. These include:

  • Other companies within the Excellenta Group
  • A third party to verify your identity, in line with money laundering or other regulatory requirements
  • Organisations, including the police and fraud prevention agencies, to prevent and detect fraud
  • Regulatory or governmental agencies
  • Our service providers and sub-contractors, including but not limited to payment processors, and suppliers of technical and support services
  • Analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our website

Any third parties with whom we share your personal information is limited (by law and by contract) in their ability to use your personal information for any purpose other than to provide services for us. We will always ensure that any third parties with whom we share your personal information are subject to privacy and security obligations consistent with this privacy notice and applicable laws.

We will also disclose your personal information to third parties:

  • Where it is in our legitimate interests to do so to run and manage our business, such as:
    • if we sell or buy any business or assets, we may disclose your personal information to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets
    • if substantially all of our (or any of its affiliates’) assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal information held by Excellenta will be one of the transferred assets
  • If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal information in order to comply with any legal obligation, any lawful request from government or law enforcement officials and as may be required to meet national security or law enforcement requirements or prevent illegal activity.
  • In order to enforce or apply our terms and conditions or any other agreement or to respond to any claims, to protect our rights or the rights of a third party, to protect the safety of any person or to prevent any illegal activity.
  • To protect the rights of the Excellenta and our staff, shareholders or other persons. This may include exchanging personal information with other organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

How we keep your personal information secure

The main risk of our processing of your personal information is if it is lost, stolen or misused. This could lead to your personal information being in the hands of someone else who may use it fraudulently or make public information that you would prefer to keep private.

For this reason, Excellenta is committed to protecting personal data from loss, misuse, disclosure, alteration, unauthorised access, unavailability and destruction and takes all reasonable precautions to safeguard the confidentiality of personal data, including through use of appropriate organisational and technical measures. Organisational measures include access controls to our IT systems, implementing internal policies and staff training and ensuring confidentiality obligations are imposed on our employees and third parties. Technical measures include the use of secure cloud services, requiring passwords for access to our systems, and the use of encryption and anti-virus software. We are committed to ensuring the confidentiality of the personal information that we hold and we continue to review our security controls and related policies and procedures to ensure that your personal information remains secure.

In the course of provision of your personal information to us, your personal information may be transferred over the internet. Although we make every effort to protect the personal information that you provide to us, the transmission of information over the internet is not completely secure. As such, you acknowledge and accept that we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our website and that any such transmission is at your own risk.

Where we store your personal information

The data which we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the Republic of South Africa (“RSA”). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the RSA who works for us or for one of our suppliers. Such staff may be engaged in, among other things, the fulfilment of your order, the processing of your payment details and the provision of support services. By submitting your personal information, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

The information we collect from you and that we transfer to a third party outside of the Republic of South Africa shall only be to a third party who is subject to a law, binding corporate rules (as defined in POPI) or binding agreement (as defined in POPI) which provides an adequate level of protection that:

  • Is in accordance with this policy;
  • includes provisions that are substantially similar to what is contained in this privacy policy to the further transfer of your data.

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Any payment transactions will be encrypted. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Transfers of personal information

The personal information we process may be used, stored and/or accessed by staff working for us, other members of the Excellenta Group or third party partners providing services to us, or performing services on our behalf. Further details on to whom your personal information may be disclosed are set out above.

When we contract with third parties, we require that they have appropriate security, privacy and confidentiality measures in place to ensure that personal information is kept secure.

If we work with third parties in countries outside the EU, we ensure that these are countries that the European Commission has confirmed have an adequate level of protection for personal information, or the third party receiving the personal information has provided adequate safeguards and agrees to treat your information with the same level of protection as we would and as is required by applicable law.

Retention of your personal information

We keep your personal information for no longer than necessary for the purposes for which the personal information is processed or as required by law or regulation. The length of time we retain personal information for depends on the purposes for which we collect and use it and/or as required to comply with applicable laws and to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights.

Use of cookies

Our website uses cookies. A cookie is a piece of data stored on your computer’s hard drive that identifies your computer and your preferences while you are using our site.

We use cookies to learn how you interact with our content and to improve your experience when visiting our website(s). For example, some cookies remember your language or preferences so that you do not have to repeatedly make these choices when you visit one of our websites. Additionally, cookies allow us to serve you specific content, such as videos on our website(s). We may employ the learnings of your behaviour on our website(s) to serve you with targeted advertisements on third-party website(s) in an effort to “re-market” our products and services to you.

First-Party and Third-Party Cookies

We use both first-party and third-party cookies on our website.

First-party cookies are cookies issued from the www.excellenta.co.za domain that are generally used to identify language and location preferences or render basic site functionality.

Third-party cookies belong to and are managed by other parties, such as Excellenta business partners or service providers. These cookies may be required to render certain forms, such as the submission of a job application, or to allow for some advertising outside of the Excellenta website.

In respect of third party cookies, we have no control over how third party cookies act, or whether that third party uses any other cookies. We advise you to check the privacy notices of any such third parties before providing any data to them.

Session Cookies

Session cookies are temporary cookies that are used to remember you during the course of your visit to the website, and they expire when you close the web browser.

Persistent Cookies

Persistent cookies are used to remember your preferences within the website and remain on your desktop or mobile device even after you close your browser or restart your computer. We use these cookies to analyse user behaviour to establish visit patterns so that we can improve our website functionality for you and others who visit our website(s). These cookies also allow us to serve you with targeted advertising and measure the effectiveness of our site functionality and advertising.

How are cookies used for advertising purposes?

Cookies and ad technology such as web beacons, pixels, and anonymous ad network tags help us serve relevant ads to you more effectively. They also help us collect aggregated audit data, research, and performance reporting for advertisers. Pixels enable us to understand and improve the delivery of ads to you, and know when certain ads have been shown to you. Since your web browser may request advertisements and web beacons directly from ad network servers, these networks can view, edit, or set their own cookies, just as if you had requested a web page from their site.

Although we do not use cookies to create a profile of your browsing behaviour on third-party sites, we do use aggregate data from third parties to show you relevant, interest-based advertising. We do not provide any personal information that we collect to advertisers. You can opt out of off-site and third-party-informed advertising by adjusting your cookie settings. Opting out will not remove advertising from the pages you visit, but, instead, opting out will result in the ads you see not being matched to your interests. This implies that the ad(s) you see will not be matched to your interests by those specific cookies.

How are third party cookies used?

For some of the functions within our websites we use third party suppliers, for example, when you visit a page with videos embedded from or links to YouTube. These videos or links (and any other content from third party suppliers) may contain third party cookies, and we encourage you to consult the privacy policies of these third party vendors on their websites for information regarding their use of cookies.

How do I reject and delete cookies?

You can choose to reject or block all or specific types of cookies set by virtue of your visit to the Excellenta website by clicking on the cookie preferences on our website(s). You can change your preferences for the Excellenta website and/or the websites of any third party suppliers by changing your browser settings. Please note that most browsers automatically accept cookies. Therefore, if you do not wish cookies to be used, you may need to actively delete or block the cookies. If you reject the use of cookies, you will still be able to visit our websites but some of the functions may not work correctly. You may also visit www.allaboutcookies.org for details on how to delete or reject cookies and for further information on cookies generally. By using our website without deleting or rejecting some or all cookies, you agree that we can place those cookies that you have not deleted or rejected on your device.

Your rights

You have the right to ask us:

  • For a copy of the personal information we hold about you: You have a right of access to any personal information we hold about you. You can ask us for a copy of your personal information; confirmation whether your personal information is being used by us and details about how and why it is being used.
  • To update or correct your personal information: You have a right to request an update to any of your personal information that is out of date or incorrect.
  • To delete your information, to the extent permitted by law: You have a right to ask us to delete any personal information which we are holding about you in certain specific circumstances.
  • To restrict processing of your personal information where appropriate: You have a right to ask us to restrict the way that we process your personal information. To update or correct your personal information

In certain circumstances, you also have the right to:

  • Withdraw your consent for the processing of your personal information: if we are relying on consent and have no other legal grounds for processing your personal information, you can withdraw your consent.
  • Object to the processing of your personal information: You have a right to ask us to consider any valid objections which you have to our use of your personal information where we process your personal information on the basis of our or another person’s legitimate interest, or where we use your personal information for profiling purposes.
  • Object to automated decision making and profiling.
  • Data portability: Where we use your personal information on the basis of your consent or performance of a contract, you have a right to ask us to provide your personal information to a third party provider of services.

We will consider all such requests and provide our response within a reasonable period (and in any event within the period allowed by applicable law). Please note, however, that certain personal information may be exempt from such requests in certain circumstances, for example if we need to keep using the information to comply with our own legal obligations or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

We may request you provide us with information necessary to confirm your identity before responding to any request you make. If an exception applies, we will tell you this when responding to your request. You can also exercise your rights at any time by contacting us at privacy.office@excellenta.co.za.

Changes to our privacy policy

We may change this privacy notice from time to time. We will post any changes on our website.

Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy notice. By continuing to use our website and interact with you are confirming that you have read and understood the latest version of our privacy notice.

Applicable law

This privacy policy will be governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. You consent to the jurisdiction of the South African Courts for any dispute which may arise out of this privacy policy.

How to contact us

If you would like any more information about the way we use your information, or if you wish to exercise the rights listed above, please contact us using the details below:

Group Information Officer
4th Floor, Sunclare Building,

21 Dreyer Street, Claremont,

Cape Town, South Africa

Email: privacy.office@excellenta.co.za

You have a right to complain to the Information Regulator if you think that your information has been misused. The contact details are:

http://www.justice.gov.za/inforeg/index.html
Tel: 012 406 4818
Fax: 086 500 3351
Email: inforeg@justice.gov.za

For users in the European Union, you have a right to complain to the data protection authority in the European Union country where you usually live or work if you think that your information has been misused. The UK Information Commissioner’s Office website is available at https://ico.org.uk. Alternatively, you may seek a remedy through local courts if you believe your rights have been breached.