01 Privacy Policy

1. Introduction
2. Information we collect
3. When Do We Collect Personal Information
4. How We Use Personal Information
5. Our Legal Justifications For Processing Your Personal Information
6. Original and Updated Purposes for Processing
7. How We Treat Your Personal Information
8. Cookies Provision
9. User Rights and Obligations
10. FinStock’s Rights Relating to Personal Information
11. Changes to Privacy Policy

 

 

 

1. Introduction:

1.1. FinStock Pty Ltd operates the https://www.finstock.co.za/ and its Managed Planning Services. FinStock Pty Ltd and its related entities shall be referred to herein as “FinStock”, or collectively referred to as “we”, “us” or “our” and in some instances, the “responsible party” (as defined in POPIA). The terms “user”, “you”, “data subject” and “your” are used interchangeably in this Policy and refer to all persons accessing the Website or engaging with FinStock for any reason whatsoever. The terms “service” and “solution” are also used interchangeably in this Policy and refer to all products associated with FinStock’s Managed Planning Services.

1.2. FinStock is committed to use Personal Information in a way that is fair, honest and responsible and to provide clear details about how we use Personal Information. We commit to promptly resolve concerns around the use of Personal Information and take reasonable steps to protect Personal Information from misuse and to keep it secure.

1.3. You may contact us directly, via email at info@finstock.co.za, at any time should you have any complaints or concerns regarding the use and accuracy of your Personal Information. You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the South African data regulator’s office. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach any such regulator, so please contact us in the first instance.

1.4. The Website may include links to third-party websites. By clicking on those links or enabling those connections, you may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control the third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements or terms. We encourage you to read the distinct privacy policy of every third-party you engage with when you leave our website.

 2. Information We Collect:

2.1. Information provided by the user or from a user’s other authorised responsible party:

2.1.1. We may collect Personal Information when voluntarily submitted by users with the use of our website, applications for any of our products or services, or requests for information of any products or services available through FinStock.

2.1.1.1. Personal Information refers to any information that identifies you or specifically relates to you. That is information such as first names, surnames, initials, titles, gender, ID numbers, date of birth, physical addresses, cellphone numbers, emails, occupations, employer names, employer industries, designations, bank details, service preferences and contact preferences that are not otherwise publicly available.

2.1.2. We collect and process Personal Information to provide information on or access to our products and services, to help us improve our offerings to you, auditing our products and services, to comply with Applicable Laws, and other specified and lawful purposes. We collect Personal Information provided to us by users of our website and applicants for our products or services. We may collect or receive Personal Information from other sources, where permitted or required, or if consent has been given by you for that information to be shared.

2.2. Automated information:

2.2.1. We may collect non-personal, website usage information automatically using “cookies” (described in clause 8 below) which allow us to collect standard internet visitor usage information and preferences, to enhance your experience on our website. This may include IP addresses, browser types, and device information.

2.3. FinStock is under no obligation to ensure that your Personal Information or other information supplied by you is correct. Should your Personal Information change, please inform us and provide us with updates to your Personal Information to enable us to update it. FinStock will, however, not be able to update any Personal Information of yours attained from another responsible party, where should you want to update the same, you must approach the relevant responsible party to do so.

2.4. We do not process Personal Information of any user under the age of 18 (eighteen). Do not provide us with such information where the provision of the same will constitute a material breach of this Policy and the Terms.

2.5. The user agrees to provide accurate and current information, and, generally, not to impersonate or misrepresent any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with anyone or anything.

3. When Do We Collect Personal Information:

We will only process your personal information under the following circumstances:

3.1. When you have consented thereto; and/or

3.2. When a person legally authorised by you, the law or a court, has consented thereto; and/or

3.3. When you contract with us for Services from us online or over the phone;

3.4. When the law requires or permits it; and/or

3.5. When it is required to protect or pursue your, our, or a third party’s legitimate interest; and/or

3.6. When you access our Website. Our Website also uses cookies; to find out more about the use of cookies and how you can manage them, please read our Cookie provision below;

3.7. When you register for our newsletter;

3.8. When you have been in contact with one of our sales representatives or account managers during presentations, conferences or roadshows;

3.9. When you contact us or we contact you to take part in surveys;

3.10. When you contact our customer service team, online or telephonically, or at live events; and/or

3.11. When you engage with us on social media

4. How We Use Personal Information:

4.1. Any processing of your personal information will be reservedly for our legitimate business purposes and as a necessary function of your engagement with the Website and/or our Services, and you have expressly consented to this by using the Services and/or Website, but we will not, without your express additional consent:

4.1.1. Use your personal information for any purpose other than as set out below:

4.1.1.1. In relation to the provision to you of the Services and/or access to the Website;

4.1.1.2. To fulfil orders for Services;

4.1.1.3. For internal record keeping of responsible party third parties and the development of metrics of third-party searches;

4.1.1.4. To contact you regarding current or new Services or any other product offered by us or any of our divisions and/or partners (unless you have opted out from receiving marketing material from us, possible through that same correspondence to you);

4.1.1.5. To inform you of new features, special offers and promotional competitions offered by us or any of our divisions and/or partners (unless you have opted out from receiving marketing material from us, possible through that same correspondence to you); and

4.1.1.6. To improve our product selection and your experience on our Website by, for example, monitoring your browsing habits, or tracking your activities on the Website;

4.1.1.7. For operational purposes; or

4.1.2. Disclose your personal information to any third party other than as set out below:

4.1.2.1. To our employees and/or third-party service providers who assist us to interact with you via our Website, email or any other method, for your use of the Services, and thus need to know your personal information in order to assist us to communicate with you properly and efficiently. Same third-party service providers include the parties who have to process your personal information in order to provide you with their ancillary services to the FinStock Services.

4.1.2.2. To external responsible parties who already have your express consent to process and/or attain such personal information from and/or with us;

4.1.2.3. To our divisions and/or partners (including their employees and/or third party service providers) in order for them to interact directly with you via email or any other method for purposes of sending you marketing material regarding any current or new Services, new features, special offers or promotional items offered by them(unless you have opted out from receiving marketing material from us, possible through that same correspondence to you);

4.1.2.4. To our professional services providers (such as our insurers or lawyers where we believe that it is required under our contractual relationship with our insurance provider to do so);

4.1.2.5. To top law enforcement, government officials, fraud detection agencies or other third parties when we believe in good faith that the disclosure of personal information necessary to prevent physical harm or financial loss, to report or support the investigation into suspected illegal activity or the contravention of an applicable law, or to investigate violations of this Policy and/or the Website’s other policies; and

4.1.2.6. To our service providers (under contract with us) who help with parts of our business operations (fraud prevention, marketing, technology services etc). However, our contracts dictate that these service providers may only use your information in connection with the services they perform for us, not for their own benefit and under the same standards as how we operate.

4.2. We are entitled to use or disclose your personal information if such use or disclosure is required in order to comply with any applicable law, subpoena, order court or legal process served on us, or to protect and defend our rights or property. In the event of a fraudulent online payment, FinStock is entitled to disclose relevant personal information for criminal investigation purposes or in line with any other legal obligation for disclosure of the personal information which may be required of it.

5. Our Legal Justifications For Processing Your Personal Information:

5.1. Your use of the Website and/or any of our Services constitutes your explicit opt-in consent to our processing of your personal information. Further, we also rely on our contractual arrangements with you as the lawful basis on which we collect and process your personal information when you sign-up for and use our Services. Alternatively, in some cases, we rely on our legitimate interests as a business (for example, to measure customer satisfaction and troubleshoot customer issues). Where we rely on our legitimate interests, we will always make sure that we balance these interests against your rights.

5.2. Subject to the other provisions in this Policy, the following constitutes our reasons for processing your personal information:

5.2.1. To make our products and Services available to you

5.2.1.1. We use your personal information to provide you with information, products and Services that you request or purchase from us (i.e. to complete certain tasks, processes or orders on our Website or within our apps, take payment online (where applicable) and deliver your Services), and to communicate with you regarding those Services that you purchased from us and respond to your questions and comments.

5.2.1.2. We may also use your personal information to measure how satisfied our customers are and provide customer service (including troubleshooting in connection with purchases or your requests for Services or when you ask us questions on social media).

5.2.1.3. When we need explicit consent from you, in order for you to freely opt-in to our Services and offering, we will ask it from you in a clear and transparent manner, and ask it for very specific purposes only, which will be communicated to you in all transparency. You can withdraw this consent at any time.

5.2.2. For administrative and internal business purposes

5.2.2.1. We may use your personal information for our internal business purposes, such as administrative fulfilment of Services, administrative fulfilment of invoices, project management and internal reporting. We may also use your data to monitor the use of our Website and ensure that our Website is presented in the most effective and relevant manner for you and your device and setting default options for you.

5.2.2.2. It is in our legitimate interests as a business to use your personal information this way. For example, we want to ensure our Website is customer friendly and works properly and that our products and Services are efficient and of high quality. We also want to make it easy for you to interact with us. Where we rely on our legitimate interests, we will always make sure that we balance these interests against your rights.

5.2.3. For security and legal reasons

5.2.3.1. We use your personal information to:

5.2.3.1.1. ensure the personal and financial information you provide us is accurate;

5.2.3.1.2. conduct fraud checks or prevent other illegal activity;

5.2.3.1.3. protect our rights or property (or those of others); and

5.2.3.1.4. Fulfil our legal and compliance-related obligations.

5.2.3.2. In some cases we will use your personal information because it’s necessary for us to comply with a legal obligation (such as if we receive a legitimate request from a law enforcement agency). In other cases (such as the detection of fraud) we will rely on our legitimate interests as a business to use your personal information in this way.

5.2.4. In relation to your FinStock customer relationship

5.2.4.1. We use your personal information to personalise your experience with FinStock to:

5.2.4.1.1. provide you with marketing information via SMS, post and/or email if you have given us your consent to this;

5.2.4.2. We rely on your consent to send direct SMS, postal and/or email marketing messages to you based on the consent we acquired from you when you signed up, as amended by you from time to time. In other cases (for example, measuring the effectiveness of our marketing), we will rely on our legitimate interests as a business to communicate with you in an engaging and efficient way.

6. Original and Updated Purposes for Processing:

6.1. We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

7. How We Treat Your Personal Information:

7.1. We will ensure that all of our employees, third-party service providers, divisions and partners (including their employees and third-party service providers) having access to your personal information are bound by appropriate and legally binding confidentiality obligations and process your personal information at standards equal to or higher than FinStocks’ in relation to your personal information.

7.2. We will:

7.2.1. Treat your personal information as strictly confidential, save where we are entitled to share it as set out in this Policy;

7.2.2. take appropriate technical, security and organisational measures to ensure that your personal information is kept secure and is protected against unauthorised or unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction or damage, alteration, disclosure or access;

7.2.3. Provide you with reasonable access to your personal information to view and/or update personal details;

7.2.4. Promptly notify you if we become aware of any unauthorised use, disclosure or processing of your personal information;

7.2.5. Provide you with reasonable evidence of our compliance with our obligations under this Policy on reasonable notice and request; and

7.2.6. Upon your request, promptly correct, transfer, return or destroy any and all of your personal information in our possession or control, save for that which we are legally obliged or entitled to retain (acknowledging that some Website and/or Service functionality might be lost if certain personal information is amended or destroyed).

7.3. We will not retain your personal information longer than the period for which it was originally needed, unless we are required by law to do so, or you consent to us retaining such information for a longer period. In some circumstances, other applicable national laws require us to retain your data beyond your request for its deletion, or beyond your direct engagement with FinStock. As such, we may retain your personal information in adherence with compulsory instructions from other applicable national laws, notwithstanding your application to have it deleted or amended.

7.4. Whilst we will do all things reasonably necessary to protect your rights of privacy, we cannot guarantee or accept any liability whatsoever for unauthorised or unlawful disclosures of your personal information, whilst in our possession, made by third parties who are not subject to our control, unless such disclosure is as a result of our gross negligence or fraud.

7.5. If you disclose your personal information to a third party, such as an entity which operates a website linked to the Website or anyone other than FinStock, FinStock shall not be liable for any loss or damage, howsoever arising, suffered by you as a result of the disclosure of such information to the third party, including another user. This is because we do not regulate or control how that third party uses your personal information. You should always ensure that you read the privacy policy of any third party.

8. Cookies Provision:

8.1. The Website may make use of “cookies” to automatically collect information and data through the standard operation of the Internet servers. “Cookies”are small text files a website can use (and which we may use) to recognise repeat users, facilitate the user’s on-going access to and use of a website and allow a website to track usage behaviour and compile aggregate data that will allow the website operator to improve the functionality of the website and its content, and to display more focused advertising to a user by way of third party tools. The type of information collected by cookies is not used to personally identify you.

8.2. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to deny or accept the cookie feature. Please note that cookies may be necessary to provide you with certain features available on our Website, and thus if you disable the cookies on your browser you may not be able to use those features, and your access to our Website will therefore be limited. If you do not disable “cookies”, you are deemed to consent to our use of any personal information collected using those cookies, subject to the provisions of this Policy and the Website’s other policies.

9. User Rights and Obligations:

9.1. The user is entitled to request access to any relevant personal information held by FinStock and where such access is necessary for you to exercise and/or protect any of the user’s rights. For any personal information held by any third-party responsible party, the user must approach that responsible party for the realisation of the user’s personal information rights with them, and not with FinStock.

9.2. Under POPI, you have rights in relation to your personal information. Please contact us to find out more about, or manifest, these rights:

9.2.1. Have your data processed in fair, lawful and transparent way;

9.2.2. be informed about how your personal information is being used, an example being this privacy policy;

9.2.3. Access personal information we hold about you;

9.2.4. Require us to correct any mistakes in your personal information;

9.2.5. Require us to delete personal information concerning you in certain situations where there is no good reason for us to continue to process it;

9.2.6. Request that we transfer your personal information to you or another service provider in a simple, structured format;

9.2.7. object at any time to processing of your personal information for direct marketing purposes;

9.2.8. object to automated decision making which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you;

9.2.9. object in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal information; and/or

9.2.10. otherwise restrict or temporarily stop our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

9.3. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

9.4. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

9.5. We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one week. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

9.6. Users with citizenships from jurisdictions other than of South Africa, please note that FinStock complies with all South African data protection laws when processing your personal information pursuant to the Services. Should foreign law be applicable in any regard to your use of the Services and/or the Website in any way, including how we may process your personal information, please contact FinStock directly at info@finstock.co.za to engage you on its application and your rights.

9.7. Users acknowledge that any content provided by users on the Website, including via a messaging system, enters an open, public forum, and is not confidential, where the author of which will be liable for that content, and not FinStock.

9.8. Users understand that there are risks involved in sharing personal information. By disclosing personal information such as the user’s name and email address, users acknowledge and understand that this information may be collected and used by a third party to communicate with you.

9.9. By accepting this Policy, you have opted-in to receive emails from FinStock, where your email address will be used to contact you from time to time and may also use it for security reasons to confirm your identity.

9.10. You have the right to opt-out of receiving email communication by following the directions posted on every email communication.

10. FinStock’s Rights Relating to Personal Information:

10.1. FinStock will disclose the user’s personally identifiable information if it reasonably believes that it is required to do so by law, regulation or other government authority or to protect the rights and property of FinStock, its affiliates or the public. FinStock may also cooperate with law enforcement in any official investigation and may disclose the user’s personally identifiable information to the relevant agency or authority in doing so.

10.2. Circumstances may arise where, whether for strategic or other business reasons, FinStock decides to sell, buy, merge or otherwise reorganise its business. Such a transaction may involve the disclosure of personal information to prospective or actual purchasers, or the receipt of it from sellers. It is FinStock’s practice to seek reasonable protection for information in these types of transactions and notify you prior to any disclosure of personal information. Such disclosure will also be subject to this Policy.

10.3. FinStock strives to keep the user’s personal information accurately recorded. FinStock provides a user with the reasonable ability to review and correct it or ask for anonymisation, blockage, transfer or deletion, as applicable. Please contact info@finstock.co.za to engage FinStock on such actions or requests.

10.4. We also collect, use and share aggregated data or de-identified data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Such de-identified or aggregated data may be derived from your personal information but is not considered personal information in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your usage data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific Website feature. However, if we combine or connect aggregated data with your personal information that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal information which will be used in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

11. Changes to Privacy Policy:

We reserve the right to update or modify this Privacy Policy at any time. The most recent version will be posted on our website. Continued use of the website after changes constitutes acceptance of the new terms.