Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how The Go-To Guy ("we", "us", "our") collects, uses, stores and protects personal information on our websites and services, in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 4 of 2013 ("POPIA"). It covers thegotoguy.co.za and all of its subdomains, including the Business Directory, The Gazette, the Job Board, Events, Daily Deals, the Property Board, the Service Delivery reporting hub and the business and organiser portals (together, "the Platform").

1. Who we are

The Go-To Guy is a community platform operated from Mia Meent, Unit 5, 17a Palmiet Street, Potchefstroom, North West, South Africa. For anything related to your personal information, contact us at guy@thegotoguy.co.za. We are the "responsible party" for personal information processed on the Platform, as defined in POPIA.

2. What information we collect

Depending on how you use the Platform, we may collect:

• Contact details — your name, email address and phone number when you send an enquiry to a business, contact us, buy a ticket, apply for a job, report a service delivery issue or create an account.
• Content you submit — reviews you leave on business listings, messages you send through enquiry forms, and job applications, including your CV if you upload one.
• Business information — if you list a business, organisation, event, deal, property or job: your business details, logo, photographs, descriptions and contact information, which are published on the Platform by design.
• Payment-related information — payments are processed by Paystack, our payment provider. We do not see or store your card number. We keep records of what was purchased (for example ticket orders and subscriptions), the amount, and payment references.
• Usage information — pages visited and actions taken on the Platform (for example viewing a listing or clicking a contact button), together with a randomly generated visitor identifier. We use this in aggregated form to measure how the Platform is used.
• Technical information — information your browser sends, such as device type, stored through cookies and similar technologies described in section 7.

3. How we use your information

• To operate the Platform and deliver its services — for example delivering your enquiry or job application to the business you chose, issuing your event tickets, or displaying your review.
• To bill and manage paid services (subscriptions and once-off purchases) through our payment provider.
• To send transactional messages, such as ticket confirmations and enquiry notifications, through our email service provider.
• To keep the Platform safe — including preventing spam and abuse of our enquiry systems.
• To understand usage of the Platform through aggregated statistics.
• To comply with our legal obligations.

We process personal information on the lawful bases recognised by POPIA, principally: performing a contract with you, your consent, our legitimate interests in operating and protecting the Platform, and compliance with law. We do not sell personal information.

4. When we share information

• With the business or organiser you contact. When you send an enquiry, apply for a job, or buy a ticket, your details are shared with that business, employer or event organiser so they can respond and deliver the service. They must handle your information lawfully, but their use of it is their own responsibility.
• With our service providers who help us run the Platform: Supabase (database and file storage), Vercel (website hosting), Paystack (payment processing), EmailJS (email delivery), Google (analytics, and advertising on The Gazette — section 6) and Meta (advertising measurement — section 6). These providers process information on our behalf and some are located outside South Africa; where that is the case, transfers are made to providers subject to appropriate protection as contemplated in section 72 of POPIA.
• Where the law requires it — for example a lawful request by a competent authority.

5. Public content

Some information is public by design: business listings, published articles, events, deals, property listings, approved reviews (shown with the reviewer name you provide) and approved service delivery reports (shown without your contact details). Think carefully before including personal information in content that will be published.

6. Advertising and measurement

We use Google Analytics to understand how the Platform is used, and the Meta (Facebook) Pixel to measure the effectiveness of our advertising and to show relevant adverts to people who have visited the Platform on Meta's services. These tools set cookies and may receive information such as the pages you visit and your device type. You can opt out of Meta's interest-based advertising at facebook.com/ads/preferences and of Google Analytics via tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

The Gazette displays advertisements served by Google AdSense. Google and its partners may use cookies and similar technologies to serve ads based on your visits to this and other websites. You can manage ad personalisation at adssettings.google.com, and read Google's policy at policies.google.com/technologies/ads.

7. Cookies and similar technologies

The Platform uses a small amount of browser storage to function: session storage for a random visitor identifier used in our own usage statistics, and local storage where a feature needs to remember something on your device. Our payment and advertising providers may set their own cookies when you use those features. You can clear or block storage in your browser settings; parts of the Platform may not work correctly without it.

8. How long we keep information

We keep personal information for as long as needed for the purposes above: enquiries and applications for as long as the receiving business needs to respond and for our records; transaction records for as long as financial and tax law requires; published content until it is removed by you, the business, or us. You may ask us to delete information as described in section 10.

9. Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information, including access controls that restrict sensitive records to authorised staff, encrypted connections (HTTPS) across the Platform, and payment processing handled entirely by our PCI-DSS compliant payment provider. No system is perfectly secure; if a data breach occurs that affects you, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as required by POPIA.

10. Your rights

Under POPIA you may, at any time and free of charge where the law provides:

• ask what personal information we hold about you and request a copy;
• ask us to correct or update your information;
• ask us to delete your information, subject to records we must keep by law;
• object to processing, or withdraw consent where processing is based on consent;
• lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa) — inforegulator.org.za, complaints.IR@inforegulator.org.za.

To exercise any of these rights, email guy@thegotoguy.co.za.

To delete your account and the personal information linked to it, use our account deletion request page. It explains exactly what is removed, what we are obliged to keep, and how long it takes.

11. Children

The Platform is not directed at children under 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children without the consent of a competent person. If you believe a child's information has been provided to us, contact us and we will remove it.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version will always be available on the Platform with its effective date. Material changes will be highlighted on the Platform.