Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies NPC (“TIPS”) Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy details how TIPS collects and processes Personal Information (PI) from users of its websites, social media, and services. It is guided by South African law, specifically the Protection of Personal Information Act and the Promotion of Access to Information Act.
This Policy applies to any person, including a natural person, a company, a body corporate, an association, a joint venture, a partnership, a trust and any entity capable of suing and being sued, who visit and/or use TIPS’ websites or social media pages, attendees at TIPS events, funders and prospective funders and their representatives, suppliers (including their representatives) and any/all TIPS’ employees (hereinafter referred to as “you/your”) and potentially in turn, the PI of your clients.
The scope of this policy is limited to TIPS-owned offerings and does not apply to third-party websites or services linked through their platforms. Additionally, PI does not include anonymous or statistical data that cannot be linked back to an identifiable person or entity.
TIPS reserves the right to update this policy at any time, with important changes communicated through website statements or pop-up notices. Continued interaction with TIPS services after such updates constitutes your consent to the current version of the policy. The primary goal is to ensure you understand who you are sharing your PI with and how it is being utilized.
What We Collect
TIPS collects information through your interactions with their platforms, specifically:
- Identity & Company Info: Your IP address (location/company), your company logo, and details about your employer (size, industry, and public officers).
- Device Details: Type, OS, browser, language settings, and unique device identifiers.
- Usage & Behaviour: How you navigate their sites, pages visited, time spent, content downloaded, and search terms used to find them.
- Account Activity: Support logs, transaction history, and products or services you’ve inquired about.
- Demographics & Metrics: Behavioural attributes linked to your identity and aggregated data on feature usage or errors.
Note: If TIPS combines any general data with your Personal Information (PI), we treat the entire set as PI.
How we use this Information
We use your information to deliver and improve our services, ensure security and legal compliance, and communicate relevant updates and marketing (which you can opt out of at any time) and specifically:
Operational & Legal
Service Delivery: To provide services to you.
- Security: To verify your identity, prevent fraud, and keep our systems safe.
- Compliance: To meet legal and regulatory requirements.
Improvement & Analysis
- Development: To design better products and improve features based on your needs.
- Optimization: To diagnose technical problems and analyze usage trends.
Communication & Marketing
- Updates: To send newsletters, surveys, and information about new features.
- Marketing: To offer products we think you’ll like (you can opt out at any time).
Who are you sharing your information with?
TIPS uses and shares PI as required by law:
- PI may be accessed globally by authorised TIPS employees, shared with third-party service providers under data protection agreements, or disclosed with your explicit consent.
TIPS processes and shares PI in good faith for purposes such as:
- Legal compliance,
- Responding to government or legal requests,
- Service improvement,
- Enforcing terms and limiting damages,
- Business changes like mergers or sales.
PI shared with third parties is protected per this Privacy Policy. TIPS never sells or rents your personal information.
Non-personal information may be used, transferred, or disclosed for statistical or other lawful purposes.
Another Person’s Information
- If you share any PI with TIPS that relates to another person (“Data Subject”) you warrant and undertake to and in favour of TIPS that:
- you are in lawful possession and control of the PI and that you have the consent of the Data Subject to allow TIPS to process and in any other manner use such PI for the purpose for which it was collected or made available and as contemplated in this Privacy Policy;
- the Data Subject has consented to the Data Subject’s PI being processed in a country that is different to the Data Subject’s country of residence or business;
- you will promptly inform TIPS in writing in the event that a Data Subject requests that its PI be updated or in the event that a Data Subject withdraws the consent;
- you will be responsible for ensuring the correctness or accuracy of the Data Subject’s PI that is processed by TIPS.
For What Period Does TIPS Retain Personal Information
TIPS retains your personal information only as long as needed for its intended purpose or until you withdraw consent. If required by law or for legal claims, TIPS will keep your data until obligations are met or claims are resolved. Afterward, your information will be securely deleted or anonymised to prevent reconstruction.
How do we store and secure your Personal Information?
We use reasonable technical and organisational safeguards designed to protect your PI from unauthorised or unlawful processing, accidental loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration and destruction.
However, despite our best efforts, no security controls are 100% effective and we cannot guarantee the security of your PI. In the event that your PI is acquired, or is reasonably believed to have been acquired, by an unauthorised person and applicable law requires notification, we will give you notice promptly. We will determine the scope of the breach, investigate and restore the integrity of the data system.
The data that we collect from you is stored on Microsoft Azure Cloud Servers.
How TIPS transfers PI it collects internationally
TIPS collects and shares information globally. For purposes of providing the TIPS offerings to you, TIPS may transfer, process and store your PI outside your country of residence or business to wherever TIPS or its third party service providers operate and you consent to your PI being processed in this manner. I
Why do we use cookies
We make use of cookies on our website to identify your web browser, to analyze how our website and online services perform, are used and to make improvements to ensure our website remains useful, effective and efficient. Cookies will be used to save your email address and name so the next time you visit your account from the same device we will have a record and will remember your email address and name to make your experience faster and simpler.
What are your Data Protection Rights?
We want to ensure you are fully aware of all of your data protection rights. Every user is entitled to the following:
- The right to access – You have the right to request copies of your personal data. We may charge you a small fee for this service.
- Right to be informed - As a data subject, you have a right to obtain access and information under the conditions provided in the Data Protection Legislation.
- The right to rectification – You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate.
- The right to erasure – You have the right to request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
- The right to restrict processing – You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
- The right to object to processing – You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
- The right to data portability – You have the right to request that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.
- Right to withdraw consent - Where the processing of your data relies on your prior consent, you have the right to withdraw such a consent at any time by notifying us. By withdrawing your consent, the lawfulness of the processing based on consent up until the point of withdrawal will not be affected.
- The right to lodge a complaint: If you think we have processed your PI unfairly or unlawfully, or we have not complied with your rights, you have the right to complain to a national data protection authority.
General Clauses
This Privacy Policy represents the entire agreement between TIPS and you regarding its subject matter. Only terms explicitly stated herein are binding.
If any provision becomes unenforceable in a specific jurisdiction, it will be severed without affecting the rest of the Policy or its enforceability elsewhere.
TIPS’ failure to enforce any provision does not waive its right to do so later.
You may not assign your rights or delegate obligations under this Policy without TIPS’ written consent.
Provisions intended to survive termination remain effective after your relationship with TIPS ends.
No part of this Policy is to be interpreted against TIPS because it drafted the document.
TIPS’ Contact Details
If you believe that your PI has been used in a way that is not consistent with this Privacy Policy or your choices, or if you wish to submit a request to TIPS regarding your PI or if you have any questions or comments related to this Privacy Policy, please address same in writing to the Information Officer at:
Email address: info@tips.org
Physical address: 234 Lange St, Nieuw Muckleneuk, Pretoria, South Africa, 0108