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SVCS Company and Website Privacy Notice

SVCS Services Pty Ltd trading as SVCS Solar-SA (“SVCS”, “SVCS Group”, “we”, “us”) owns and operates the website located at www.solar-sa.co.za (“Website”) and other premises and interactive properties through which we supply our services (the “Service”). SVCS is the company or companies responsible for collecting or otherwise processing your personal information in the Republic of South Africa (“RSA”), having our registered address at 44 Francolin Street, Meyersdal Crest, Meyersdal, Alberton, Johannesburg, 1448.

This privacy notice (“Privacy Notice”) outlines the personal information that SVCS may collect, how SVCS uses and safeguards that information, and with whom we may share it. SVCS encourages our customers, visitors, business associates, and other interested parties to read this Privacy Notice, which applies to all users. By using our Service or submitting personal information to SVCS by any other means, you acknowledge that you understand that you will be bound by this Privacy Notice and that SVCS will collect, transfer, use, disclose and otherwise process your personal information as described in this Privacy Notice.

This privacy notice relates to SVCS Services (Pty) Ltd, which is a separate entity from its franchisees. Franchisees will process the information of their own customers and to this end will have their own privacy notice.

Personal Infromation

What personal information do we collect about you?

Personal information (also commonly known as personal data) is information that can be used to identify you, or any other individual or juristic person to whom the information may relate. SVCS collects and processes various information pertaining to its employees, shareholders, customers, and suppliers. At the point of collecting the information or as soon as reasonably possible thereafter, SVCS will inform the relevant party of the information required (mandatory) and which information is deemed optional. The employee, shareholder or customer will be informed of the consequence/s of failing to provide their personal information and any prejudice which may be incurred due to non-disclosure. For example, SVCS may not be able to employ an individual without certain personal information relating to that individual; or the organisation may not be in a position to render services to a customer in the absence of certain information which is required. The personal information that we collect directly from those registering for the Service, includes the following categories:

• • Name and contact information (e.g. phone number; email, fax, address);
  • Billing information (e.g. billing contact information);
  • Order information (e.g. current order/purchase information, purchase history);
  • Identity number and copy of identity document;
  • Company information (if a company, including VAT number, company registration number if applicable, company registered address);
  • Geographic or location information;
  • Financial information (e.g. bank account, credit history, personal income and expenses etc.);
  • Credit screening information obtained from a third party such as a credit bureau;
  • Information contained in posts you may like / follow on the public forums and interactive features of the Service;
  • Other information that may be exchanged in the course of engaging with the Service. You will be aware of any subsequently collected information because such information will be supplied directly by you where necessary. Such information could include municipal billing details and electricity meter numbers; and
  • SVCS has access to personal data through the Service application, including electrical energy consumption information through monitoring software.

Collection of User Generated Content

We may invite you to post content on the Website, including your comments and any other information that you would like to be available on the Website, which may become public (“User Generated Content”). If you post User Generated Content, all of the information that you post will be available to authorised personnel of SVCS. You expressly acknowledge that we may access in real-time, record, and store archives of any User Generated Content on our servers to make use of them in connection with the Service. If you submit a review, recommendation, endorsement, or other User Generated Content through the Website, or through other websites including Facebook, Instagram, Google, and other similar channels, we may share that review, recommendation, endorsement, or content publicly on the Website.

What are the sources of personal information collected by SVCS?

When providing personal information to SVCS as described in this Privacy Notice, that personal information is collected directly from you or a referring party (such as existing customers, for example your friends, family or colleagues), and you will know the precise personal information being collected by us. SVCS does not collect personal information from any other sources, except where it may automatically be collected as described in the section titled “Cookies, Device Data, and How it is Used”, if the information in that section is considered personal information.

Why does SVCS collect your personal information?

• • to market our products and services to you if you have opted-in to receiving our marketing communications or you are an existing customer of ours;
  • to arrange and carry out a site assessment at your home or office (premises);
  • to quote you on the relevant products and services;
  • to provide the Service to you;
  • to respond to your requests, expression of interests or complaints;
  • to distribute communications relevant to your use of the Service, such as system updates or information about your use of the Service;
  • as may be necessary to support the operation of the Service, such as for billing, account maintenance, and record-keeping purposes;
  • to send to you SVCS solicitations, product, or promotion announcements, and the like that we feel may be of interest to you;
  • in other manners after subsequent notice is provided to you and/or your consent is obtained, if necessary.

SVCS does not sell, re-sell, or distribute for re-sale your personal information.

How do we share your Personal Information with third parties?

At SVCS, we do not share, rent or trade your personal information with other, third-party companies for their commercial or marketing use without your consent. When necessary, we may share information about you with the following recipients:
any of our SVCS companies, franchisees and subsidiaries and associated companies;
tax, audit, or other authorities, when we believe we are legally required to do so, where the relevant authority has asked us to assist (for example, because of a request by a tax authority or in connection with any expected litigation), or in order to help prevent fraud or to protect the rights of SVCS; or protect the personal safety of SVCS employees, third party agents or members of the public;
third party service providers such as external consultants and professional advisers (including law firms, auditors and accountants), technical support functions, and IT consultants carrying out testing and development work on our business technology systems);
third parties for the purposes of background screening checks, credit worthiness checks, order fulfilment, delivery, customer support services and storage services;
third party outsourced IT providers, including but not limited to email/text messaging providers; Cloud IT service providers, business suite solution providers; solar design software providers, data analytics agencies; IT strategic implementation partners; hosting service providers;
if it is proposed that an SVCS entity or business is to merge with or be acquired by another business in the future, we may share your personal information with potential purchasers, where this is necessary, or the new owners of the business or company.

In addition, we may release personal information: (i) to the extent we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with any applicable law; (ii) to enforce any provision of the Terms of Service, protect ourselves against any liability, defend ourselves against any claims, protect the rights, property and personal safety of any user, or protect the public welfare; (iii) when disclosure is required to maintain the security and integrity of the Service, or to protect any user’s security or the security of other persons, consistent with applicable laws (iv) to respond to a court order, subpoena, search warrant, or other legal process, to the extent permitted and as restricted by law; or (v) in the event that we go through a business transition, such as a merger, divestiture, acquisition, liquidation or sale of all or a portion of our assets.

Business Relationship

At SVCS, we need some information about you, such as your name, job title, company name and registration number, bank details, tax (VAT) details and contact details so we can work with you to manage the contract and relationship for the goods or services you supply to us, or we supply to you. In addition, as part of managing the business relationship, we may be legally required to conduct ‘know your customer’, or similar compliance screenings on you. In doing so we will use the information listed below. In the context of conducting compliance screenings, we will also check the personal information provided to us against public information.

Marketing Communications

We may communicate with you using email, SMS, WhatsApp and other channels (sometimes through automated means) as part of our effort to market our products or services, administer or improve our products or services, or for other reasons stated in this Privacy Notice. If you no longer wish to receive correspondence, emails, or other communications from us, you may opt-out by submitting a request by emailing us at info@svcs.co.za.

Further, you may express your communication preferences by:

• Noting your preferences at the time you make contact with us through the Website or telephonically; or
• Contacting us using the contact information provided below.

Please note that you may continue to receive non-marketing communications as may be required to maintain your relationship with SVCS, specifically in relation to the provision of the Service.

Data Retention

SVCS will also retain usage data for internal analysis purposes. Usage data is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of our Website and/or any associated product and service applications, or we are legally obligated to retain this data for longer periods.

Cookies

When you use our Service, we may record unique identifiers associated with your device (such as the device ID and IP address), your activity on the Website, and your network location. SVCS uses aggregated information (such as anonymous user usage information, cookies, IP addresses, browser type, clickstream information, etc.) to improve the quality and design of the Service and to create new features, promotions, functionality, and services by storing, tracking, and analysing user preferences and trends. Specifically, we may automatically collect the following information about your use of Service through cookies, web beacons, and other technologies:

• • domain name
  • browser type and operating system
  • web pages you view
  • links you click
  • IP address
  • the length of time you visit the Sites, Portals, and/or Services
  • the referring URL or the webpage that led you to the Sites

We may also collect information regarding application-level events, such as crashes, and associate that temporarily with your account to provide customer service. In some circumstances, we may combine this information with personal information collected from you (and third-party service providers may do so on our behalf). In addition, we may use “cookies,” clear gifs, and log file information that help us determine the type of content and pages to which you link, the length of time you spend at any particular area of the Service, and the portion of the Service you choose to use. A cookie is a small text file that is sent by a website to your computer or mobile device where it is stored by your web browser. A cookie contains limited information, usually a unique identifier and the name of the site. Your browser has options to accept, reject or provide you with notice when a cookie is sent. Our cookies can only be read by SVCS; they do not execute any code or virus; and they do not contain any personal information. Cookies allow SVCS to serve you better and more efficiently, and to personalize your experience with the Website. We may use cookies for many purposes, including (without limitation) to save your password so you do not have to re-enter it each time you visit the Service, and to deliver content (which may include third party advertisements) specific to your interests. We may use third party service providers to help us analyze certain online activities. For example, these service providers may help us measure the performance of our online campaigns or analyze visitor activity on the Website. We may permit these service providers to use cookies and other technologies to perform these services for SVCS. We do not share any personal information about our customers with these third-party service providers, and these service providers do not collect such personal information on our behalf. Our third-party service providers are required to comply fully with this Privacy Notice.

External Links

The Website may contain links to other websites maintained by third parties. Please be aware that we exercise no control over linked sites and SVCS is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such sites. Each linked site maintains its own independent privacy and data collection policies and procedures, and you are encouraged to view the privacy policies of these other sites before providing any personal information. You hereby acknowledge that SVCS is not responsible for the privacy practices, data collection policies and procedures, or the content of such third-party sites, and you hereby release SVCS from any and all claims arising out of or related to the privacy practices, data collection policies and procedures, and/or the content of such third-party sites.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

South African Privacy Rights

If you are a South African resident, South African law provides you with certain rights regarding your personal information under the Protection of Personal Information Act (“POPIA”) and Promotion of Access to Information Act (“PAIA”) as well the Consumer Protection Act. Throughout this Privacy Notice you will find information required by POPIA regarding the categories of personal information collected from you; the purposes for which we use personal information, and the categories of third parties your data may be shared with. This information is current as of the date of the Privacy Notice and is applicable in the 12 months preceding the effective date of the Notice. As a South African resident, the POPIA and PAIA provide you the ability to make inquiries regarding your personal information. Specifically, the degree to which the information is not already provided in this Privacy Notice, you have the right to request disclosure or action your personal information, including:

• • If your personal information is collected by us.
  • The specific pieces of personal information collected about you.
  • The right to request access to the personal information about you which we collect.
  • The right to correct or delete certain personal information collected about you.
  • To right to object to processing of your personal information in certain circumstances based on reasonable grounds, or
  • Appeal any rejection of access to your personal information.

You may submit a request regarding your rights under POPIA or PAIA to�sales@svcs.co.za. If we receive a POPIA request from you, we will first make a determination regarding the applicability of the law, and we will then take steps to verify your identity prior to responding. The steps to verify your identity may vary based on our relationship with you, but, at a minimum, it will take the form of confirming and matching the information submitted in the request with information already held by SVCS and/or contacting you through previously used channels to confirm that you submitted the request (i.e. confirming identity through contact information that we have on file, and/or the contact information submitted to make the request). SVCS does not knowingly collect or process the special personal information such as your religious or philosophical beliefs, race or ethnic origins, trade union memberships, political persuasion, health or sex life, or your criminal behavior or biometric information. If you have a comment, question, or complaint about how we are processing your personal information, we request that you contact us atsales@svcs.co.za to allow us to resolve the matter.

In addition, if you are located in the Republic of South Africa, you may submit a complaint regarding the processing of your personal information to the Information Regulator at the following link:�https://www.justice.gov.za/inforeg/contact.html. Alternatively, the Information Regulator’s contact details are: JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg PO Box 31533, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001 Email:�POPIAComplaints.IR@justice.gov.za

Contact Us

Address: 44 Francolin Street, Meyersdal, Alberton, 1448

Email address: support@svcs.co.za

Telephone number: 011-083-6450