Privacy Policy

This policy explains your privacy when you visit www.buysellswopdonate.co.za (which we’ll refer to as the "Site"). We'll refer to the Site, as the "Services". This policy does not apply to the practices of third parties who may also collect or receive data in connection with your use of the Services.

When you visit www.buysellswopdonate.co.za, we automatically collect certain information about your device, including information about your web browser, IP address, time zone, and some of the cookies that are installed on your device. Additionally, as you browse the Site, we collect information about the individual web pages or products that you view, what websites or search terms referred you to the Site, and information about how you interact with the Site.

When you register an account with BSSD we collect personal information (for example, buyer name, email address, and delivery address).That means we are responsible for the personal information we process in providing the Services. For example, if we accidentally disclose a buyer’s name and email address when fulfilling another buyer’s order, you agree to indemnify BSSD for any misuse of your personal information. 

If, BSSD is sued, fined, or otherwise incurs expenses because of something that was done that lead to compromised personal information, you agree to indemnify BSSD for the expenses it incurs in connection with the processing of personal information.

1. Our Privacy Policy

We process your personal information to run our business and provide our users with Services (buying, selling, swopping or donating). By accepting our Terms of Use, you confirm that you have read and understood this policy including how and why we use your information. If you don’t want us to collect or process your personal information in the ways described in this policy, you shouldn’t use the Services. We are not responsible for the content or the privacy policies or practices of any of our members, or third-party websites and apps.

By using the Services, you acknowledge that BSSD will use your information in the Republic of South Africa, where we operate.

2. Information We Collect or Receive

In the course of providing our Services, we collect or receive your personal information in a few different ways. We obtain the categories of personal information listed below from the following sources: directly from you, for example, from forms you complete or during registration; indirectly from you based on your activity and interaction with our Services, or from the device or browser you use to access the Services; from our vendors and suppliers that help provide BSSD services you may interact with (such as, for example, for payments or customer support), and from our third party advertising and marketing partners. Often, you choose what information to provide, but sometimes we require certain information to provide you with the Services. BSSD uses the personal information it receives and collects in accordance with the purposes described in this policy.

Registration and Service Usage: In order to use the Services, you will need to submit a valid email address. If you register, you will need to submit a name associated with your account. Additional information, such as a shop name, billing and payment information (including billing contact name, address, telephone number) is necessary in order for us to provide a particular service. For example, we need a physical/postal address if you are buying something on the Site for delivery. BSSD will contact individual shop owners to request more information about their shops or items listed through the Services, or may request information from buyers to ensure compliance with our policies. In order to use certain products or services on BSSD, you may be required to complete an application; information that you submit through the application process will not be displayed publicly and will only be used internally by BSSD and its service providers, unless otherwise specified.

Profile: You may provide your name and other personal information (such as birthday, gender, location) in connection with your account and activity. Other members may see ratings, reviews and information relating to items you review.

Automated Information: BSSD automatically receives and records information from your browser or your mobile device when you visit the Site, or use certain features of the Services, such as your IP address or unique device identifier, cookies, and data about which pages you visit and how you interact with those pages in order to allow us to operate and provide the Services. This information is stored in log files and is collected automatically. We may combine this information from your browser or your mobile device with other information that we or our advertising or marketing partners collect about you, including across devices. This information is used to prevent fraud and to keep the Services secure, and to provide advertising, including across your devices, and a more personalized experience for members and visitors. 

Location Information: We collect information about your use of the Services for advertising, for analytics, and to protect the Services. This can include your IP address, browser information (including referrers) and device information. We obtain location information you provide in your profile or your IP address.

Analytics Information: We use data analytics software to ensure Site and App functionality and to improve the Services. We do not link the information we store within the analytics software to any personally identifiable information that you submit. 

3. Messages from BSSD

On occasion, BSSD will need to contact you. Primarily, these messages are delivered by email or BSSD messages for a variety of reasons including marketing, transactions, and service update purposes. You can opt out of receiving marketing communications via email or Messages in your account settings or by following the unsubscribe link in any marketing email you receive. Every account is required to keep a valid email address on file to receive messages. BSSD may also contact you by telephone to provide member support or for transaction-related purposes. Additionally, and with your consent where required by applicable law, BSSD may send you an SMS (or similar) message, or reach out to you by telephone, in order to provide you with customer support, for research or feedback, or to provide you with information about products and features that you may find of interest.

Some messages from BSSD are service-related and necessary for members and Guest Checkout users. You understand and agree that BSSD can send you non-marketing emails, BSSD Messages, or messages, such as those related to transactions, your account, security, or product changes. Examples of service-related messages include an email address confirmation/welcome email when you register your account, notification of an order, service availability, modification of key features or functions, and correspondence with BSSD’s Support team.

When you register an account, or provide us with your email address or phone number such as for a Guest Checkout purchase, you receive notice of and agree to receive marketing emails and messages from us. You can unsubscribe at any time from marketing emails or messages through the opt-out link included in marketing emails or messages.

4. Marketplace

BSSD is a marketplace, be aware that any personal information that you choose to submit for example in a review can be read, collected, or used by others, or could be used to send unsolicited messages to you.

5. Sharing & Disclosure

We respect your privacy. BSSD will not disclose your name, email address or other personal information to third parties without your consent, except as specified in this policy.

Legal Points

When you access or use the Services, we collect, use, share, and otherwise process your personal information for the purposes described in this policy. We rely on a number of legal bases to use your information in these ways. These legal bases include where:

Necessary to perform the contractual obligations in our Terms of Use and in order to provide the Services to you;

You have consented to the processing, which you can revoke at any time;

Necessary to comply with a legal obligation, a court order, or to exercise or defend any impending or asserted legal claims;

Necessary for the purposes of our or a third party’s legitimate interests, such as those of visitors, members, or partners (described in more detail below);

You have expressly made the information public;

Necessary in the public interest, such as to prevent crime; and

Occasionally necessary to protect your vital interests or those of others (in rare cases where we may need to share information to prevent loss of life or personal injury).

We principally rely on consent (which can be withdrawn at anytime) (i) to send marketing messages, (ii) for third-party data sharing related to advertising, and, to the extent applicable, (iii) for the use of location data for advertising purposes.

Our Legitimate Interests

Where we process your information on the basis of legitimate interests, we do so as follows:

Providing and Improving our Services: We use your information to improve and customise our Services, including sharing your information for such purposes, and we do so as it is necessary to pursue our legitimate interests of improving our Services for our users. This is also necessary to enable us to pursue our legitimate interests in understanding how our Services are being used, and to explore ways to develop and grow our business. It is also necessary to allow us to pursue our legitimate interests in improving our Services, efficiency, interest in Services for users, and obtaining insights into usage patterns of our Services. As a core part of our Services, we have a legitimate interest in customising your on-site experience to help you search for and discover relevant items and recommended purchases, including using this information to help us find the best ways to market and sell our sellers products on BSSD.

Providing Marketing Communications: We rely on our legitimate interest to send you marketing messages (where permitted independent of consent) and for BSSD’s advertising programmes (including BSSD’s on-site advertising and marketing).

Keeping our Services Safe and Secure: We use your information for safety and security purposes, which can include sharing your information for such purposes, and we do so because it is necessary to pursue our legitimate interests or those of a third party in ensuring the security of our Services, preventing harm to individuals or property, or crime, enforcing or defending legal rights, or preventing damage to BSSD’s systems, or those of our users or our partners.

Buying and Selling: As part of the buying and selling process, BSSD  may share information between the two members involved in the transaction, such as the other BSSD’s member's delivery address and payment status to enable us to provide the Service to you. Since this is an important part of the Services we provide, we need to do this in order to perform our obligations under our Terms of Use. We expect you to respect the privacy of the member whose information you have received. As described in BSSD’s Terms of Use, you have a limited license to use that information only for BSSD related communications or for BSSD-facilitated transactions. BSSD has not granted a license to you to use the information for unauthorised transactions or sending unsolicited commercial messages in violation of any applicable laws.

Legal Duty and Safety: BSSD may also retain, preserve, or release your personal information to a third party in the following limited circumstances: in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet legitimate law enforcement requirements; to protect, establish, or exercise our legal rights or defend against impending or asserted legal claims, including to collect a debt, or a material violation of our policies (including our Intellectual Property Policy); to comply with a subpoena, court order, legal process, or other legal requirement; or when we believe in good faith that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with the law, prevent imminent physical harm or financial loss, or investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, threats to our rights or property, or violations of BSSD's Terms of Use. In these cases, our use of your information may be necessary for the purposes of our interest or a third party’s legitimate interest in keeping our Services secure, preventing harm or crime, enforcing or defending legal rights, or preventing damage. Such use may also be necessary to comply with a legal obligation, a court order, or to exercise or defend legal claims. It may also be necessary in the public interest (such as to prevent crime) or to protect vital interests (in rare cases where we may need to share information to prevent loss of life or personal injury).

If BSSD receives a lawful, verified request for a member’s records or information in one of the limited circumstances described in the previous paragraph, BSSD may disclose personal information, which may include, but may not be limited to, a member’s name, address, phone number, email address, and company name.

Service Providers: BSSD also needs to engage third-party companies and individuals (such as research companies, and analytics and security providers) to help us operate, provide, and market the Services. These third parties have only limited access to your information, may use your information only to perform these tasks on our behalf, and are obligated to BSSD not to disclose or use your information for other purposes. Our engagement of service providers is often necessary for us to provide the Services to you, particularly where such companies play important roles like helping us keep our Service operating and secure.

Third Parties: Third-party plug-ins also collect information about your use of the Site. In addition, certain cookies and other similar technologies on the Site are used by third parties for targeted online marketing and other purposes. These technologies allow a partner to recognise your computer or mobile device each time you use the Services. These are third-party technologies, and they are subject to that third party's privacy policy.

6. Security

The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and after it is received). Unfortunately, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to protect your personal information, we can't guarantee its absolute security.

Your account information is protected by a password. It is important that you protect against unauthorized access to your account and information by choosing your password carefully and by keeping your password and computer/phone secure, such as by signing out after using the Services.

If you have any questions about the security of your personal information, you can contact us at legal@buysellswopdonate.co.za.

7. Retention

BSSD will retain your information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this policy, for as long as your account is active (i.e., for the lifetime of your BSSD member account), or as needed to provide the Services to you. If you no longer want BSSD to use your information to provide the Services to you, you may close your account. BSSD will retain and use your information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your information to comply with applicable tax/revenue laws), resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, and as otherwise described in this policy. In addition, we also retain log files for internal analysis purposes. These log files are generally retained for a brief period of time, except in cases where they are used for site safety and security, to improve site functionality, or we are legally obligated to retain them for longer time periods.

8. Privacy Policy Changes

We may amend or update this policy from time to time. If we believe that the changes are material, we’ll let you know by doing one (or more) of the following: (i) posting the changes on or through the Services, or (ii) sending you an email or message about the changes. We encourage you to check back regularly and review any updates.

9. Contact

If you have any questions: Contact us at Iwant2know@buysellswopdodate.co.za