Privacy and POPIA Notice

Who we are

Binary Traits (Pty) Ltd, registration number 2016/142555/07, is the responsible party for the personal information described in this notice. We are a small IT services company based in Krugersdorp, Gauteng, and we work with businesses remotely.

Our Information Officer handles every privacy request. You can reach them at info@binarytraits.com with "POPIA request" in the subject line.

POPIA sections 1, 18 and 55

What we collect

We collect only what we need to set up, run and bill your services. Most of it comes directly from you.

Type	Examples
Contact details	Name, email address, phone number and the role of the person we deal with.
Business details	Business name, registration number and billing address.
Billing records	Quotes, invoices, payments received and your payment reference. Card payments are made on a secure payment page run by a licensed card payment provider. We never see or store your full card number.
Support records	Emails, ticket history and any WhatsApp messages you send us.
Technical details	Domain names, user names, device names, update status and server addresses needed to run the services you ordered.

Giving us your information is voluntary, but we cannot provide or bill a service without the details it needs. We do not ask for special personal information, such as health, religion or biometric details.

POPIA sections 10, 12, 18 and 26

Why we use it

To deliver your services: setting up accounts, licences, hosting, domains and devices, and answering support requests. This is needed to carry out our agreement with you.
To bill you: sending invoices, recording payments and following up on unpaid accounts.
To meet the law: keeping financial records for tax, and answering lawful requests from authorities.
To protect our systems and yours: keeping logs that help us detect misuse and fix faults.
To tell you about changes: price reviews, service changes and notices about your account.

We use your information only for the purpose it was collected for, or a compatible purpose. If we ever need it for something new, we will ask you first.

POPIA sections 11, 13 and 15

Data inside your services

Your email, files, websites and servers belong to you. For that data, you are the responsible party and we act as your operator. That means:

We access it only to set up, support or fix a service, or when you ask us to.
We do not read, copy or use your content for any other purpose.
During an email move, we copy your mailbox only to transfer it, and delete any working copies once the move is done.
We treat your data as confidential and protect it with the safeguards in section 7 of this notice.
We tell you as soon as reasonably possible if we believe your data has been accessed without permission.

If your business holds personal information about your own customers or staff, you remain responsible for meeting POPIA in how you collect and use it.

POPIA sections 20 and 21

Who sees your information

Only the two people who run Binary Traits, and only when they need to. We share information outside our business only in these cases:

Service suppliers who host or provide the services you buy from us, such as email, office apps, hosting, domain registries and fibre networks. They receive only what they need to provide that service.
Tools we run our business on: our email system, our support ticket system and our card payment provider.
Our accountant or legal advisers, under a duty of confidentiality.
Authorities, when a law or a court order requires it.

Every supplier that processes personal information for us must keep it confidential and secure. We never sell or give your information to anyone for their own marketing.

POPIA sections 20 and 21

Storage outside South Africa

Some of our suppliers, such as cloud email and office platforms and our support ticket system, store information in data centres outside South Africa. We use only suppliers that are bound by data protection laws or written agreements that give protection substantially similar to POPIA. Where possible, we choose South African hosting.

POPIA section 72

How we keep it safe

Multi-factor sign-in on every admin account we use.
Access limited to the people who need it for the task.
Encrypted connections for our website, email and remote support.
Passwords kept in an encrypted password manager, never in plain text.
We will never ask for your password by WhatsApp or phone. Please do not send passwords or ID numbers by WhatsApp.

If we have reason to believe personal information has been accessed or taken without permission, we will tell the Information Regulator and the people affected as soon as reasonably possible, and explain what we are doing about it.

POPIA sections 19 and 22

How long we keep it

Record	Kept for
Invoices, payments and quotes	5 years after the tax period, as SARS requires, or longer if an audit or dispute is open.
Support tickets and emails	While you are a client, and 2 years after you leave.
Data inside your services	Until your service ends, then as set out in our Terms and Conditions.
Marketing contact list	Until you opt out.

When records are no longer needed, we delete or destroy them so they cannot be rebuilt.

POPIA section 14 · Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011, section 29

Marketing messages

We send marketing by email, SMS or WhatsApp only to:

Existing clients, about services similar to those you already use, or
People who have given consent.

If you are not a client, we may ask for your consent once only. Every marketing message tells you how to opt out, and opting out is free. Service notices, such as invoices and price reviews, are not marketing and will still be sent while you are a client.

POPIA section 69

Your rights

You have the right to:

Ask whether we hold personal information about you, and get a copy of it.
Ask us to correct information that is wrong, out of date or incomplete.
Ask us to delete information we no longer have a lawful reason to keep.
Object to how we use your information.
Refuse marketing at any time.
Complain to the Information Regulator.

Email your request to info@binarytraits.com. We may ask you to confirm your identity first. We reply within 30 days. Copies of your own information are free, except where the law allows a fee for large requests, which we would tell you about first. You may also use the Information Regulator's Form 1 (objection) or Form 2 (correction or deletion).

POPIA sections 5, 11(3), 23 and 24 · Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000

This website

Our website does not use tracking cookies, analytics or advertising tools, and it has no forms that collect information. Our typefaces are loaded from Google Fonts, so your browser shares your IP address with that service when the page loads, as it would with most websites.

Our services are for businesses. We do not knowingly collect information about children under 18.

POPIA sections 34 and 35 · Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002, section 43

Contact and complaints

If you are unhappy with how we handle your information, please email us first so we can put it right.

Binary Traits Information Officer Email info@binarytraits.com Physical address for legal notices: 13 Armstrong Street, Dan Pienaarville, Krugersdorp, 1739

You may also complain to the regulator at any time:

Information Regulator (South Africa) Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191 Email enquiries@inforegulator.org.za · Phone 010 023 5200 Website inforegulator.org.za

Our PAIA manual, which explains how to request records we hold, is available free by email from our Information Officer.

Changes to this notice. We may update this notice when the law or our services change. The effective date at the top shows the latest version. Clients get notice by email of any change that affects how we use their information.

POPIA sections 74 and 76 · PAIA section 51