Privacy policy

GINKGO AGENCY (PTY) LTD (“BEAUTIFUL NEWS”)

This Privacy Policy should be read together with our Website Terms and Conditions. All terms and conditions, including defined terms, of our Website Terms and Conditions, are incorporated by reference into this Privacy Policy and have the same meaning unless the context indicates otherwise. In the event of any conflict between any terms in our Website Terms and Conditions and the terms of this Privacy Policy, this Privacy Policy shall prevail.

“Personal Information” means any information that we have about you and that identifies or relates specifically to you as an individual.

1. GENERAL TERMS

BEAUTIFUL NEWS receives Personal Information from Users who access the Website. BEAUTIFUL NEWS makes every effort to protect Personal Information received by it, and in this regard, the Privacy Policy set out below applies. 

Despite all security measures taken, it is possible for Internet-based communications to be intercepted. Without the use of encryption, the Internet is not a secure medium and privacy cannot be ensured. Internet e-mail is vulnerable and susceptible to interception and forging. BEAUTIFUL NEWS will not be responsible for any damages the User or any third party may suffer as a result of the transmission of confidential or personal information that the User submits to BEAUTIFUL NEWS  through the Internet, or that the User expressly or implicitly authorises BEAUTIFUL NEWS to receive, or for any errors or any changes made to any transmitted information.

We are committed to the protection of your privacy and will take all reasonable steps to protect any Personal Information that you may provide us with from time to time via the Website or any other channel or medium. Our Privacy Policy indicates what we do with your Personal Information and what you can do to protect that information.

Where you submit Personal Information to us via our Website, we may store and use such information for the purposes that you provided it.

We will take reasonable measures to delete Personal Information that has become obsolete. Over the period that your Personal Information is being used and for a period of at least one year thereafter, or such longer period as we may be required or entitled in terms of any law, we will keep a record of your Personal Information and the purpose for which it is stored.

Should you so request, in writing, we will delete your Personal Information save where we are required or entitled to preserve same in terms of any law.

You acknowledge and accept that we cannot take any responsibility for any of your Personal Information that is collected outside the scope of this agreement by any intermediary or other third party.

You give permission that if there is a change of ownership at BEAUTIFUL NEWS, then your Personal Information can be transferred to the new owner, provided that the new owner will not dilute your rights and obligations regarding the Personal Information as set out in this privacy policy that had been collected before such transfer.

Your Personal Information will not be sold, divulged or made available to any third party except as mentioned in this policy and unless required or permitted by law.

You as the User hereby acknowledge and agree as follows:

  • you authorize BEAUTIFUL NEWS to retain your Personal Information records for as long as it is reasonably necessary;

  • you relieve BEAUTIFUL NEWS of the duty to inform you each time of the fact that your Personal Information is being collected and whether the provision of this information is voluntary or mandatory and what law requires such collection; and

  • if any of your Personal Information which is sought to be processed falls within the definition of ‘special personal information’ as defined by any law, you hereby give your consent to the processing of such information.

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside South Africa or the country in which you are located. It may also be processed by staff operating outside South Africa or the country in which you are located. This includes staff engaged in, among other things, the fulfilment of your contact requests, the processing of your contact details and the provision of support services. By submitting your Personal Information, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. BEAUTIFUL NEWS will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

All information you provide to us is stored on secure servers. Any information will be encrypted using SSL technology. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our content creation, development and distribution networks and their affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

2. INFORMATION WE COLLECT FROM YOU

The Personal Information that we collect and process about you includes the following:

  • Information you give us. This is information about you that you give us by filling in forms on our Website or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise. It includes information you provide when you engage with content, subscribe to our products and services, search for information, participate in discussion boards or other social media functions on our Website, enter a competition, promotion or survey, and when you report a problem with our Website. The information you give us may include but is not limited to your name, address, e-mail address and phone number, personal description and photographs.

  • Information we collect about you. With regard to each of your visits to our Website we will automatically collect the following information:

    • technical information, including your IP address, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform;

    • information about your visit, including the full URLs, clickstream to, through and from our Website (including date and time), content you viewed or searched for, page response times, errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), methods used to browse away from the page, and any phone number used to call our customer service number.

    • information we receive from Google Analytics Demographics and Interest reports combined with information we receive from your Google profile that you have enabled in your Google account. The policy that you have accepted in your Google account (located at https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/ads/) governs the data you share with Google and with us.

    • Information we receive from other sources. This includes data from social media profiles. We also work closely with other third parties (including, for example, business partners, sub-contractors in technical services, analytics providers, search information providers).

3. WHAT WE DO WITH YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We use your Personal Information in the following ways:

  • Information you give to us. We use this information:

    • to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us and to provide you with the information, products and services that you request from us;

    • to provide you with information about other products and services we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about;

    • to provide you with, information about products and services we feel may interest you. If you are a new customer we will only contact you if you have consented to this. If you do not want us to use your Personal Information in this way, please indicate this on the form we use to collect your Personal Information;

    • to notify you about changes to our products and services; and

    • to ensure that content from our Website is presented in the most effective manner.

  • Information we collect about you. We will use this information:

    • to administer our Website and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;

    • to improve our Website to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;

    • to allow you to participate in interactive features of our products and services, when you choose to do so;

    • as part of our efforts to keep our Website safe and secure;

    • to measure or understand the effectiveness of content we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant content to you;

    • to make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our Website about products or services that may interest you or them.

  • Information we receive from other sources. We will combine this information with information you give to us and information we collect about you. We will use this information and the combined information for the purposes set out above (depending on the types of information we receive).

4. DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION

You agree that we have the right to share your Personal Information with:

  • Any member of our group, which means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries, or any company under common control.

  • Selected third parties including:

    • business partners, suppliers and sub-contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into with them or you;

    • content creation, development and distribution partner networks that require the data to select and serve relevant content to you and others. We do not disclose information about identifiable individuals to our content creation, development and distribution partner, but we will provide them with aggregate information about our users. We may also use such aggregate information to help content creation, development and distribution partners reach the kind of audience they want to target; and

We will disclose your Personal Information to third parties:

  • In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we will disclose your Personal Information to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.

  • If BEAUTIFUL NEWS or substantially all of its assets are acquired by, or merged with, a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.

  • If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our Website Terms and Conditions or any applicable End-User Terms and Conditions and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of BEAUTIFUL NEWS, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

5. CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes.

6. COOKIES

Our Website may make use of electronic cookies and web analytics tools to optimise page loading speeds, record Website visitor preferences, monitor the success of advertising campaigns and enhance our Website’s overall usability. “Cookies” are files that are stored by your browser on your computer’s hard drive and can be deleted by clearing your browser cache memory.  Cookies may be used, for example, to limit the amount of times you see a particular advert or to help remember your personal settings and preferences. If you block cookies from being stored on your computer, the functionality of the service may be negatively affected. For further information, please see our more detailed Cookie Policy.