Privacy Policy
The Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPI Act), is South African legislation designed to protect any personal information which is processed by both private and public bodies (including government). Some exceptions exist, but every person who collects, stores and otherwise modifies or uses information (i.e. processes information) is responsible under POPI and must comply with the conditions required for the lawful processing of personal information.
South Africa’s Information Regulator has released draft regulations, and these are currently being finalised. This act has not yet been promulgated and a commencement date has not yet been established. We are in the process of ensuring all our policies and procedures will comply with POPI, once promulgated.
Your privacy is important to us. We strive to ensure your experience with the National Oceans and Coastal Information Management System (OCIMS) suite of systems, is one that you will want to repeat and share with your friends. Part of our commitment to you is to respect and protect the privacy of the personal information you provide to us. The information below is designed to inform you of what information we collect, why we collect such information, and how we use the information we collect. Any reference to our “Site” includes our OCIMS website, mobile applications and other software, and any reference to our “Services” includes our Site and product services offered through OCIMS.
We will occasionally update this Privacy Policy. By using our Services, or sharing your information with us, you are consenting to and accepting this Privacy Policy, including any changes or updates. We may make additional features, functionality, offers, activities, or events available to you subject to additional or different privacy rules that we disclose in connection with those opportunities.
At various times, you may decide to provide us with your personal information. You should know that we receive and may store all personal information (whether written or oral) that you provide to us. This includes personal information provided to us through any means, including, without limitation, through our Site, via e-mail, over the telephone, and through a social media service (for example Twitter). You can choose not to provide certain information, but then you might not be able to access some of our services purchase products or take advantage of many of our promotions or services. In this policy, “personal information” means any information by which you may be identified or contacted, including, but not limited to, a first and last name, phone number, physical address or email address.
Information We Collect Through Cookies
A cookie is a small file that resides on your computer, mobile phone, or other device, and allows us or our business partners to recognise your device when you return to our Service and record information about your usage of our Services.
We use cookies for the general purpose as follows
- Essential operations: Cookies are necessary to allow us to operate our Services. For example, they are required to help you access secure areas.
- Performance and functionality: Cookies help us enhance the performance and functionality of our Services. For example, cookies help us identify you or your device when you come back to our Service.
- Analytics and customisation: We use analytics and customisation cookies, including third party cookies, to gather information on how our Services are being used by our visitors and to measure how popular our marketing campaigns are. We use the data we get to help customise our Services for you and make the content you see as relevant as possible. We also use the date to track visits from our affiliates or partners.
- Social networking cookies: Cookies allow visitors to share our pages and content through third-party social networking websites.
You are always free to decline cookies if your browser permits; although, by declining the use of cookies you may not be able to use certain features on our Site. Also, because information we or third parties obtain may be combined, we or third parties may still be able to identify your web browser, computer or mobile device when you access our Services even if you disable cookies.
Use of your personal information
We may use the information we collect about you to
- Facilitate and provide the services you request,
- Respond to your comments, inquiries and requests,
- Compare and review your information for errors, omissions and accuracy,
- Provide and improve our services and product offerings,
- Improve marketing and promotional efforts, and overall customer experience,
- Identify your product and service preferences,
- Understand our user demographics, preferences, interests, and behaviour,
- Administer and fulfil our promotions
Links
Our Site may provide links to third-party websites which are outside our control and not covered by this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to review the privacy policies posted on these (and all) websites.
Security
We utilise a combination of physical and electronic security technologies, procedures, and organisational measures to help protect your personally identifiable information from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. While we strive to safeguard your personal information, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you disclose or transmit to us.
We’ll greatly value any comments and feedback you may have.
The National OCIMS is the result of collaborative partnerships led by the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries and managed by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. The project has drawn from the expertise of government, labour, business, academia and other sectors. It serves under the premise of Operation Phakisa a national government project.
