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SmartTender Privacy Policy

Last Updated: 2025/02/09

Welcome to SmartTender (“we,” “us,” or “our”). We are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring that any personal information we collect is handled in a safe and responsible manner, in compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) of South Africa and other applicable laws.

If you have any questions or concerns about our practices, please contact us at info@smarttender.co.za or visit our Contact Page.

1. Scope of This Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to:

  • Our website, SmartTender.co.za, including all subdomains and related services.
  • Any other websites, pages, features, or content owned and operated by SmartTender that include this Privacy Policy.
  • Interactions you may have with our emails and/or customer support.

By accessing or using our service, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy and our compliance with POPIA.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Personal Information You Provide

  • Registration Data: When you create an account or profile, we may collect personal information such as your name, email address, and business preferences.
  • Communication Data: If you contact us (e.g., by email or through our website), we may collect the contents of your message, your contact details, and any attachments you provide.

2.2 Automatically Collected Information

  • Usage Data: We may collect information automatically about your interactions with our website, such as your IP address, browser type, pages viewed, and the dates/times of your visits.
  • Cookies: We do not store any cookies on your device other than those that are technically required to run the website effectively. These essential cookies are necessary for functions such as secure login and session management.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes, in compliance with POPIA’s requirement for lawful processing:

  1. Service Provision: To provide, maintain, and improve the SmartTender service, including AI-based tender recommendations.
  2. Customer Support: To respond to your inquiries, troubleshoot issues, and improve customer experience.
  3. Email Communications: To send weekly email updates and important account notifications (only if you have opted in or if these emails are necessary to provide our service).
  4. Business Operations: To analyze usage trends, maintain security, and help us improve the functionality and user experience of our service.

We will not sell or share your personal information with third parties for direct marketing purposes without your explicit consent.

4. Third-Party Services

4.1 Amazon Web Services (AWS)

  • Hosting: Our website is hosted on AWS servers located in Cape Town, South Africa.
  • Emails: We also use AWS for sending emails; these services are hosted in the same region.
  • AWS Privacy Policy

4.2 Google Fonts

We use Google Fonts to display consistent and visually appealing text across our website. This service may collect certain information (e.g., your IP address) when fonts are requested from Google’s servers.

4.3 OpenAI

We use OpenAI’s API for integrating AI functionalities into our software.

4.4 Payment Providers (Stripe)

We use third-party payment providers to process subscriptions and payments. Currently, we use Stripe for payment processing. We do not store or process your payment information (e.g., credit card details) on our servers. Any payment information you provide is handled directly by these third-party payment processors.

We only share information with these third-party services as necessary to provide the service (e.g., processing payments or sending emails).

5. Legal Basis for Processing (POPIA Compliance)

Under POPIA, we process personal information based on the following grounds:

  • Performance of Contract: We process your data to provide our services as per the agreement when you create an account or use SmartTender.
  • Legitimate Interests: We process your data to optimize our services, ensure security, and maintain our business operations.
  • Consent: Where required, we obtain your consent for specific data processing activities (e.g., marketing emails).

6. Data Retention

We keep your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy or to comply with legal obligations. If you request deletion of your data, we will securely delete it unless we are required by law to keep it for a specified period.

For our internal business and service fulfillment, we may occasionally have customer information on our computers (e.g., for email communication). We do not keep this information longer than necessary.

7. Data Security

We take reasonable administrative, technical, and physical measures to protect the information we collect from loss, theft, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. These measures include:

  • Secure hosting with AWS
  • Encryption of data where applicable
  • Regular software updates and security patches
  • Limited access to personal data by employees on a need-to-know basis

However, no method of transmission or electronic storage is 100% secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. Children’s Privacy

Our services are not intended for children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we may have accidentally collected such information, please contact us immediately at info@smarttender.co.za, and we will delete it.

9. Your Rights Under POPIA

Under POPIA, you have the right to:

  • Access Your Information: Request confirmation of whether we hold your personal information, and request access to it.
  • Correct Your Information: Request that we correct or delete your personal information if it is inaccurate, irrelevant, or incomplete.
  • Object to Processing: Object to the processing of your personal information under certain circumstances.
  • Withdraw Consent: Where processing relies on your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time.
  • Complain: Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator if you believe your personal information has been processed unlawfully.

For more information on how to exercise these rights, please contact us at info@smarttender.co.za.

10. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. The updated version will be posted on this page with an updated “Last Updated” date. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Your continued use of our service constitutes acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.

11. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests related to this Privacy Policy or your personal information, please contact us:

We are committed to resolving any issues you may have regarding your privacy and data protection.

12. Information Regulator – South Africa

If you believe that we are not adequately addressing your concerns regarding the processing of your personal information, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa:

Thank you for entrusting SmartTender with your personal information.

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