Privacy Policy
How we handle your personal information under POPIA.
ETC AGRO LTD (“ETC Agro”, “we”) respects your privacy. This policy explains what personal information we collect through this website and in the course of trading, why we collect it, and the rights you have under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA).
1. Responsible party and Information Officer
The responsible party is ETC AGRO LTD, company registration 2006/010581/07, VAT number 4180228050, Etg House, 62 Wierda Road East, Sandton, Johannesburg, 2196, South Africa.
Information Officer: [Name of Information Officer, to be confirmed and registered with the Information Regulator]. Contact: salesmanager@etcagroltd.com, +27 (0)67 163 9326.
2. What we collect
- Contact and quote forms: your name, company, job title, email address, phone or WhatsApp number, country, company website, and the details of your enquiry, such as products, quantities, ports and delivery dates.
- Newsletter: your email address and the date you signed up.
- Trading records: contact people, delivery and billing addresses, bank details needed for payments and refunds, and correspondence about offers, contracts and shipments.
- WhatsApp and email: the messages you send us and your phone number or email address.
- Technical data: IP address, browser type, pages visited and similar information collected by our hosting provider and, where enabled, by analytics tools.
We do not knowingly collect special personal information, and this website is not directed at children under 18.
3. Why we use it
- to answer your enquiry and prepare quotations;
- to conclude and perform sales contracts, arrange shipping, inspection and documents, and process payments and refunds;
- to meet legal duties, including tax, customs, export control and record-keeping obligations;
- to protect our business and our buyers against fraud;
- to send you market notes and product news, only if you have asked for them or are an existing customer, and always with an easy way to opt out.
4. Lawful grounds
We process personal information only where section 11 of POPIA allows it: with your consent, to conclude or perform a contract with you, to comply with the law, or where it is in our legitimate interest and does not override your rights. You may withdraw consent at any time; this does not affect processing that happened before.
5. Who we share it with
We do not sell personal information. We share it only as needed with:
- our branch in Mikocheni, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania;
- shipping lines, freight forwarders, clearing agents, inspection companies and laboratories involved in your order;
- banks and payment providers;
- IT service providers who host this website and our email, under confidentiality obligations;
- authorities, where the law requires it.
6. Cross-border transfers
Because we trade internationally, your information may be transferred outside South Africa, for example to our Tanzanian branch, to service providers whose servers are located abroad, or to logistics partners in your country. We only do so where section 72 of POPIA allows it, such as where the recipient is bound by laws or agreements giving an adequate level of protection, where you consent, or where the transfer is needed to perform a contract with you.
7. How long we keep it
Enquiries that do not lead to business are kept for up to 24 months. Contract and accounting records are kept for at least five years, as tax and company laws require. Newsletter details are kept until you unsubscribe. After that, information is deleted or de-identified.
8. Security
We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against loss, damage and unauthorised access, as section 19 of POPIA requires. These include encrypted connections to this website, access controls and confidentiality undertakings from staff and service providers. If a security compromise affects your information, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as POPIA requires.
9. Cookies and browser storage
- Essential: cookies needed for the website and forms to work, including spam protection.
- Quote cart: the products you add to your quote cart are stored only in your own browser (local storage). We do not receive them until you submit the quote form.
- Analytics: where enabled, Google Analytics through Google Site Kit, to understand which pages are useful. You can block these cookies in your browser settings.
- Third parties: the map on our Contact page is provided by Google Maps, and WhatsApp links open WhatsApp, each under its own privacy policy.
10. Your rights
Under POPIA you may ask us to confirm whether we hold your personal information, request a copy, ask us to correct or delete it, object to processing, and opt out of direct marketing at any time. Requests for records are handled under the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000; our PAIA manual is available on request. Email salesmanager@etcagroltd.com with your request and we will respond within a reasonable time.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa: inforegulator.org.za.
11. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The “last updated” date at the top shows the current version.