This is the privacy notice GoFreelance. In this document, "we",
"our", or "us" refer to GoFreelance.
We are company number 2022 / 752424 /
07 registered in South Africa.
This privacy notice aims to
inform you about how we collect and process any information that we collect
from you, or that you provide to us. It covers information that could identify
you (“personal information”) and information that could not. In the context of
the law and this notice, “process” means collect, store, transfer, use or
otherwise act on information. It tells you about your privacy rights and how
the law protects you.
We are committed to
protecting your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information.
Our policy is not just an exercise in complying with the law, but a
continuation of our respect for you and your personal information.
We undertake to preserve
the confidentiality of all information you provide to us and hope that you
reciprocate.
Our policy complies with the
Protection of Personal Information Act 2013.
The law requires us to tell
you about your rights and our obligations to you in regard to the processing
and control of your personal information.
Except as set out below, we
do not share, sell, or disclose to a third party, any information collected
through our website.
We may collect, use, store
and transfer different kinds of personal information about you. We have
collated these into groups as follows:
Your identity includes information
such as first name, last name, title, date of birth, and other identifiable
information that you may have provided at some time.
Your contact information
includes information such as billing address, delivery address, email address,
telephone numbers and any other information you have given to us for the
purpose of communication or meeting.
Your financial information
includes information such as your bank account and payment card details.
Transaction information
includes details about payments or communications to and from you and
information about the products and services you have purchased from us.
Technical information
includes your internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time
zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system
and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this
website.
Your profile includes
information such as your username and password, purchases or orders made by
you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
Marketing information
includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us; communication
preferences; responses, and actions in relation to your use of our services.
We may aggregate anonymous
information such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Anonymous
information is information that does not identify you as an individual.
Aggregated information may be derived from your personal information but is not
considered personal information in law because it does not reveal your
identity.
For example, we may
aggregate profile information to assess interest in a product or service.
However, if we combine or
connect aggregated data with your personal information so that it can identify
you in any way, we treat the combined data as personal information, and it will
be used in accordance with this privacy notice.
Special personal
information is data about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical
beliefs, sex life, political opinions, trade union membership, information
about your health and biometric data.
It also includes
information about criminal convictions and offences.
We do not collect any
special personal information about you.
Where we need to collect
personal information by law, or under the terms of a contract, we have with
you, and you fail to provide that information when requested, we may not be
able to perform that contract. In that case, we may have to stop providing a
service to you. If so, we will notify you of this at the time.
When you create an account
on our website, buy a product or service from us, or otherwise agree to our
terms and conditions, a contract is formed between you and us.
In order to carry out our
obligations under that contract, we must process the information you give us.
Some of this information may be personal information.
We may use it in order to:
·
verify your identity for security purposes
·
sell products to you
·
provide you with our services
·
provide you with suggestions and advice on products, services and how to
obtain the most from using our website
We process this information
on the basis there is a contract between us, or that you have requested we use
the information before we enter into a legal contract.
We shall continue to
process this information until the contract between us ends or is terminated by
either party under the terms of the contract.
Through certain actions
when otherwise there is no contractual relationship between us, such as when
you browse our website or ask us to provide you more information about our business,
including job and freelancer posts, you provide your consent to us to process
information that may be personal information.
Wherever possible, we aim
to obtain your explicit consent to process this information, for example, by
asking you to agree to our use of cookies.
If you have given us
explicit permission to do so, we may from time to time, pass your name and
contact information to selected associates whom we consider may provide
services or products you would find useful.
We continue to process your
information on this basis until you withdraw your consent or it can be
reasonably assumed that your consent no longer exists.
You may withdraw your
consent at any time by instructing us at support@gofreelance.co.za However, if
you do so, you may not be able to use our website or our services further.
We may process the
information on the basis there is a legitimate interest, either to you or to
us, of doing so.
Where we process your information
on this basis, we do after having given careful consideration to:
·
whether the same objective could be achieved through other means
·
whether processing (or not processing) might cause you harm
·
whether you would expect us to process your information, and whether you
would, in the round, consider it reasonable to do so
For example, we may process
your information on this basis for the purposes of:
·
record-keeping for the proper and necessary administration of GoFreelance.
·
responding to unsolicited communication from you to which we believe you
would expect a response
·
protecting and asserting the legal rights of any party
·
insuring against or obtaining professional advice that is required to
manage GoFreelance’s risk
·
protecting your interests where we believe we have a duty to do so
Sometimes, we must process
your information in order to comply with a statutory obligation.
For example, we may be
required to give information to legal authorities if they so request or if they
have the proper authorization such as a search warrant or court order.
This may include your
personal information.
Our website allows you to
post information with a view to that information being read, copied,
downloaded, or used by other people.
Examples include:
·
posting a message on our forum
·
tagging an image
·
clicking on an icon next to another visitor’s message to convey your
agreement, disagreement or thanks
In posting personal
information, it is up to you to satisfy yourself about the privacy level of
every person who might use it.
We do not specifically use this information
except to allow it to be displayed or shared.
Once your information
enters the public domain, we have no control over what any individual third
party may do with it. We accept no responsibility for their actions at any
time.
Provided your request is
reasonable and there is no legal basis for us to retain it, then at our
discretion, we may agree to your request to delete personal information that
you have posted. You can make a request by contacting us at
support@gofreelance.co.za
Our website is a publishing medium. Anyone
may register and then publish information about himself, herself or some other
person.
We do not moderate or control what is posted.
If you complain about any
of the content on our website, we shall investigate your complaint.
If we feel it is justified
or if we believe the law requires us to do so, we shall remove the content
while we investigate.
Free speech is a
fundamental right, so we have to make a judgment as to whose right will be
obstructed: yours, or that of the person who posted the content that offends
you.
If we think your complaint
is vexatious or without any basis, we shall not correspond with you about it.
We store information about
your debit or credit card or other means of payment when you first provide it
to us.
We store this payment
information at your request in order to make payments
We take the following
measures to protect your payment information:
·
Access to your payment information is restricted to authorized staff
only.
·
If we ask you questions about your payment information, we only show
partial detail so that you can identify the means of payment to which we refer.
·
Bank details are stored only to allow GoFreelance
to pay freelancers.
·
To remove payment information, delete the bank details from your
profile.
If you send us information
in connection with a job application, we may keep it for up to three years in
case we decide to contact you at a later date.
If we employ you, we
collect information about you and your work from time to time throughout the
period of your employment. This information will be used only for purposes
directly relevant to your employment. After your employment has ended, we will
keep your file for seven years before destroying or deleting it.
When you contact us,
whether by telephone, through our website or by e-mail, we collect the
information you have given to us in order to reply with the information you
need.
We record your request and
our reply in order to increase the efficiency of GoFreelance.
We keep personally identifiable information
associated with your messages, such as your name and email address so as to be
able to track our communications with you to provide a high-quality service.
When we receive a
complaint, we record all the information you have given to us.
We use that information to
resolve your complaint.
If your complaint reasonably requires us to
contact some other person, we may decide to give to that other person some of
the information contained in your complaint. We do this as infrequently as
possible, but it is a matter for our sole discretion as to whether we do give
information, and if we do, what that information is.
We may also compile
statistics showing information obtained from this source to assess the level of
service we provide, but not in a way that could identify you or any other
person.
This is information given
to us by you in your capacity as an affiliate of us or as a business partner.
It allows us to recognize
visitors that you have referred to us, and to credit to your commission due for
such referrals. It also includes information that allows us to transfer the
commission to you.
The information is not used
for any other purpose.
We undertake to preserve
the confidentiality of the information and of the terms of our relationship.
We expect any affiliate or
partner to agree to reciprocate this policy.
Cookies are small text
files that are placed on your computer's hard drive by your web browser when
you visit any website. They allow information gathered on one web page to be
stored until it is needed for use on another, allowing a website to provide you
with a personalized experience and the website owner with statistics about how
you use the website so that it can be improved.
Some cookies may last for a
defined period, such as one day or until you close your browser. Others last
indefinitely.
Your web browser should
allow you to delete any you choose. It also should allow you to prevent or
limit their use.
Our website uses cookies.
They are placed by software that operates on our servers, and by software
operated by third parties whose services we use.
If you choose not to use cookies or you
prevent their use through your browser settings, you may not be able to use all
the functionality of our website.
We use cookies in the
following ways:
·
to track how you use our website
·
to record whether you have seen specific messages we display on our
website
·
to keep you signed in to our website
·
to record your answers to surveys and questionnaires on our website
while you complete them
·
to record the conversation thread during a live chat with our support
team
Requests by your web
browser to our servers for web pages and other content on our website are
recorded.
We record information such
as your geographical location, your Internet service provider and your IP
address. We also record information about the software you are using to browse
our website, such as the type of computer or device and the screen resolution.
We use this information in
aggregate to assess the popularity of the webpages on our website and how we
perform in providing content to you.
If combined with other
information we know about you from previous visits, the information possibly
could be used to identify you personally, even if you are not signed in to our
website.
Re-marketing involves
placing a cookie on your computer when you browse our website in order to be
able to serve you an advert for our products or services when you visit some
other website.
We may use a third party to
provide us with re-marketing services from time to time. If so, then if you
have consented to our use of cookies, you may see advertisements for our
products and services on other websites.
Although we do not disclose
your personal information to any third party (except as set out in this
notice), we sometimes receive information that is indirectly made up from your
personal information from third parties whose services we use.
Third parties may advertise
on our website. In doing so, those parties, their agents or other companies
working for them may use technology that automatically collects information
about you when their advertisement is displayed on our website.
They may also use other
technology such as cookies or JavaScript to personalize the content of, and to
measure the performance of their adverts.
We do not have control over
these technologies or the information that these parties obtain. Accordingly,
this privacy notice does not cover the information practices of these third
parties.
To assist in combating
fraud, we share information with credit reference agencies, so far as it
relates to clients or customers who instruct their credit card issuer to cancel
payment to us without having first provided an acceptable reason to us and
given us the opportunity to refund their money.
Our websites are hosted in South
Africa
We may also use outsourced
services in countries outside South Africa from time to time in other aspects
of our business.
Accordingly, information
obtained within South Africa or any other country could be processed outside
South Africa.
For example, some of the software our website
uses may have been developed in the United States of America or Australia.
It is important that the
personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us
informed if your personal information changes.
At any time you may review
or update personally identifiable information that we hold about you, by
signing in to your account on our website.
To obtain a copy of any
information that is not provided on our website you should contact us to make
that request.
After receiving the
request, we will tell you when we expect to provide you with the information,
and whether we require any fee for providing it to you.
If you wish us to remove
personally identifiable information from our website, you should contact us to
make your request.
This may limit the service
we can provide to you.
When we receive any request
to access, edit or delete personal identifiable information we shall first take
reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting you access or
otherwise taking any action. This is important to safeguard your information.
We do not sell products or
provide services for purchase by children, nor do we market to children.
If you are under 18, you
may use our website only with consent from a parent or guardian
We collect information about all users of and
visitors to these areas regardless of age, and we anticipate that some of those
users and visitors will be children.
Such child users and visitors will inevitably
visit other parts of the website and will be subject to whatever on-site
marketing they find, wherever they visit.
We use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
certificates to verify our identity to your browser and to encrypt any data you
give us.
Whenever information is transferred between
us, you can check that it is done so using SSL by looking for a closed padlock
symbol or another trust mark in your browser’s URL bar or toolbar.
If you are not happy with
our privacy policy or if you have any complaint then you can contact us at
support@gofreelance.co.za.
If a dispute is not
settled, then we hope you will agree to attempt to resolve it by engaging in
good faith with us in the process of mediation or arbitration.
GoFreelance
reserves the right to keep
certain information relating to your login, ratings, and reviews for a period
of 3 years. If your account is deleted
and recreated, that information will be re-attached to your recreated profile.
Except as otherwise
mentioned in this privacy notice, we keep your personal information only for as
long as required by us:
·
to provide you with the services you have requested;
·
to comply with other law, including for the period demanded by our tax
authorities;
·
to support a claim or defence in court.
Our privacy policy has been
compiled so as to comply with the law of every country or legal jurisdiction in
which we aim to do business. If you think it fails to satisfy the law of your
jurisdiction, we should like to hear from you.
However, ultimately it is
your choice as to whether you wish to use our website.
We may update this privacy
notice from time to time as necessary. The terms that apply to you are those
posted here on our website on the day you use our website. We advise you to
print a copy for your records.
If
you have any question regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at
support@gofreelance.co.za.