Privacy policy

1. Our Commitment to Your Privacy

1.1. Welcome to Vertopia’s Privacy Policy. We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what we do with it.

1.2. This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, and what your rights are. This policy is in compliance with South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).

2. What Information We Collect

We collect information in a few different ways:

2.1. Information You Give Us: When you sign up for our services, contact us for support, or make a payment, you provide us with personal information. This typically includes:

• Your name and contact details (email address, phone number).

• Your company information.

• Billing and payment information.

2.2. Information We Collect Automatically: When you use our website or services, we may collect technical information, such as:

• Your IP address.

• The type of device and browser you are using.

• Information collected through cookies (see below).

3. How We Use Your Information

We use your information for specific purposes, including:

• To Provide Our Services: To set up your account, host your website, and provide the services you’ve ordered.

• For Billing: To process your payments and send you invoices.

• To Communicate With You: To send you important service updates, security alerts, and respond to your support requests.

• To Improve Our Services: To understand how our clients use our services so we can make them better.

• For Marketing: With your explicit consent, we may use personal information, such as your name and feedback, for testimonials on our website and in other marketing materials.

• For AI Solutions: When providing AI services, we may collect anonymous data about how users interact with the system. This data is used solely to improve the performance and accuracy of our AI models and contains no personal information.

4. Information We Process on Your Behalf

As a core part of our services, such as hosting and website maintenance, we store and process data that you have collected from your own users (“end-users”). In these situations:

• You are the “Responsible Party” (or Data Controller), meaning you control the data and are responsible for its lawful collection.

• We are the “Operator” (or Data Processor), meaning we only process this data on your behalf and according to your instructions.

We will never use your end-users’ data for our own purposes. Our responsibility is to keep this data safe and secure on our systems.

5. Who We Share Your Information With

We will never sell your personal information. We only share it with trusted third parties who help us provide our services. These include:

• Payment Processors: To securely handle your credit card payments.

• Domain Registrars: To register domain names on your behalf.

• Business Tools: We use standard business software for things like accounting and customer support.

We only share the minimum amount of information necessary and we have agreements in place to ensure these parties protect your data.

6. How We Protect Your Information

6.1. We take data security seriously. We use a combination of technical and administrative measures to protect your information from unauthorized access, loss, or misuse.

6.2. This includes things like SSL encryption for our website, firewalls, and access controls for our systems.

7. Data Retention & Deletion

7.1. Service Data: We retain data that is essential for the functioning of your active services (such as emails in a mailbox or files on a hosting plan) for as long as you keep the service active with us.

7.2. Account Data: We retain your personal account and billing information for as long as you are a client and for a reasonable period thereafter to comply with our legal and financial record-keeping obligations. After this period, this information will be securely deleted.

7.3. Communications Data: We may retain copies of communications you send to us, such as emails or support tickets, indefinitely for our internal business, legal, and operational record-keeping purposes.

8. Your Rights

Under POPIA, you have the right to:

• Access Your Information: You can request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.

• Correct Your Information: You can ask us to correct any information that is inaccurate or incomplete.

• Delete Your Information: You can request that we delete your personal information, provided we no longer have a legal reason to keep it.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at [Your Contact Email Address].

9. Cookies

9.1. We use cookies on our website to help it function correctly and to understand how visitors use it. Cookies are small text files stored on your device.

9.2. You can control and manage cookies through your browser settings.

10. Changes to This Policy

10.1. We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will change the “Last Updated” date at the top of the policy.

11. How to Contact Us

11.1. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.