Privacy Policy
Effective Date: April 23, 2025
South African Universities (“we,” “us,” or “our”) operates https://dev.south-africa.university (the “Site”). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal information in compliance with the South African Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other applicable laws.
1. Information We Collect
We collect information to operate the Site, personalize your experience and improve our services. The categories of data we gather include:
1.1 Personal Information You Provide
When you voluntarily submit information—such as signing up for our newsletter, contacting support, or posting Contributions—you may provide:
• Contact Data. Your name, email address and phone number.
• Account Credentials. Username, password and any profile details you choose to share.
• User Content. Comments, reviews, feedback or other materials you submit through forms or interactive features.
1.2 Automatically Collected Data
Each time you visit or interact with the Site, we may automatically collect:
• Device & Usage Data. Your IP address, browser type/version, operating system, device identifiers, pages visited, referral URLs, click-stream data and timestamps via our server logs.
• Analytics & Cookies. Cookies, web beacons, pixel tags and similar technologies that help us understand site traffic patterns, feature usage and user preferences. You can manage or disable cookies through your browser settings, but doing so may affect Site functionality.
1.3 Third-Party Sources
To enhance and streamline your experience, we may receive information from trusted third parties:
• Social Logins. If you choose to authenticate via Google, Facebook or other social providers, we will collect the profile data those services share in accordance with your privacy settings (for example, name, email address and profile picture).
• Integration Partners. Information you authorize from external services (e.g., calendar or payment platforms) when you link accounts or opt into certain features.
• Analytics Providers. Aggregated usage statistics and performance metrics from tools such as Google Analytics, which help us monitor Site health and usage trends.
All data we collect is governed by our Privacy Policy, which explains how we use, store and protect your information. If you have questions about the specifics of our data practices, please see Section X (Privacy Policy) or contact us directly.
2. How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect for the following purposes:
• Provide, operate and maintain the Site.
Your data enables us to host the Site, deliver content, manage user accounts and ensure that all features function correctly.
• Send newsletters, marketing or promotional materials (with your consent).
With your opt-in consent, we may use your contact information to deliver periodic email updates about news, events or special offers. You can unsubscribe at any time.
• Respond to your inquiries and support requests.
When you contact us via email, forms or social channels, we use your information to investigate and resolve your questions or issues.
• Improve Site content, features and user experience.
We analyze usage patterns, feedback and engagement metrics to refine our content, optimize navigation and enhance overall performance.
• Detect and prevent fraud, abuse or security incidents.
We monitor activity for suspicious behavior, enforce security measures, and address any unauthorized access or malicious activity.
• Comply with legal obligations.
We process and retain your information as required by applicable laws, regulations or court orders, including tax, accounting and audit requirements.
3. Disclosure of Your Information
We may share your personal information in the following circumstances:
• Service Providers.
We engage third-party vendors and contractors to perform services on our behalf. These service providers are only permitted to access, process and store your personal data as necessary to deliver their services and are bound by confidentiality and security obligations. Examples include:
৹ Hosting and cloud infrastructure providers
৹ Web analytics and performance monitoring platforms
৹ Email delivery and marketing automation services
• Legal Requirements.
We may disclose your personal information when required to do so by law, regulation, subpoena, court order or other government authority. This includes responding to lawful requests from public and government authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.
• Business Transfers.
In the event of a merger, acquisition, reorganization, divestiture, bankruptcy or other change in control involving South African Universities (or its assets), your personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will require any successor entity to honor the commitments we have made in this Privacy Policy.
In all cases, we limit the information disclosed to what is reasonably necessary to achieve the stated purpose and require recipients to maintain appropriate safeguards to protect your data.
4. Cookies and Tracking Technologies
We and our trusted service providers use cookies, web beacons, pixel tags, local storage and other tracking technologies to enhance your experience on the Site. These tools help us to:
• Remember your preferences and settings.
Retain language choices, layout preferences and other customization so you don’t need to reconfigure each visit.
• Measure Site performance and usage.
Collect aggregate analytics—such as pages viewed, session duration and navigation paths—to understand how the Site is used and identify areas for improvement.
• Provide personalized content and advertising.
Deliver recommendations, targeted articles or promotional offers based on your browsing behavior and interests.
You can manage or disable cookies and similar technologies at any time by adjusting your browser or device settings (e.g., blocking or deleting cookies). However, please note that doing so may degrade or disable certain Site features and prevent you from taking full advantage of all functionality.
5. Data Security
We take the protection of your personal information seriously and have implemented reasonable technical and organizational safeguards to help secure your data, including:
• Encryption. All sensitive data transmitted between your browser and our servers is encrypted using industry-standard TLS/SSL protocols.
• Access Controls. We restrict access to personal information to authorized personnel only, and require strong password policies, multi-factor authentication, and role-based permissions.
• Regular Security Assessments. We conduct periodic vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, and security reviews to identify and remediate potential risks.
Despite these efforts, no system can be guaranteed entirely secure. You acknowledge that transmission of data over the internet is inherently vulnerable, and we cannot warrant the absolute security of any information you transmit to us or from the Site.
6. Data Retention
We retain your personal information only for as long as is necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected (as outlined in Sections 2 and 3), unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. Specifically:
• Purpose-Driven Retention. We keep your data only while it remains necessary to:
৹ Provide, operate and maintain the Site and its services;
৹ Comply with our legal obligations (for example, tax, accounting or record-keeping requirements);
৹ Resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.
• Secure Disposal or Anonymization. Once personal information is no longer needed for any legitimate business or legal purpose, we will securely delete it or render it permanently anonymous.
• Exception for Aggregate Data. Information that has been aggregated or de-identified so that it can no longer be linked to you may be retained indefinitely for analytical and historical purposes.
You may contact us at any time to request deletion or anonymization of your personal data, subject to any obligations we have to retain certain records under applicable law.
7. Your Rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the following rights with respect to your personal information:
• Right of Access.
You can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you and obtain information on how we process it.
• Right to Rectification.
You may ask us to correct or update inaccurate or incomplete personal information.
• Right to Erasure (“Right to be Forgotten”).
You can request that we delete your personal data when it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, subject to any legal obligations requiring us to retain certain records.
• Right to Restrict or Object to Processing.
You may ask us to temporarily block (restrict) the processing of your data, or object outright to processing based on our legitimate interests or for direct-marketing purposes.
• Right to Withdraw Consent.
Where our processing is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time — this will not affect the lawfulness of processing before you withdrew it.
• Right to Lodge a Complaint.
If you believe our processing of your personal data violates applicable law, you may file a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us as described in Section 9 (Contact Us). We will respond to your request in accordance with applicable laws.
8. Children’s Privacy
The Site is not directed to individuals under the age of 18 (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction). We do not knowingly collect personal information from minors. If you believe we have inadvertently collected personal data from a child under 18, please contact us as set out in Section 10 to request deletion of that information.
9. Contact Us
For questions or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal data, contact:
• Email: info@south-africa.university
• Website: https://south-africa.university/
10. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy at any time to reflect changes in our data practices, new features or legal requirements. When we do, we will post the revised policy here and update the “Effective Date” at the top. Your continued access to or use of the Site following any such changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.