Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Linguavest ("we", "us", "our") is committed to protecting your personal information and your right to privacy in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (Act 4 of 2013) ("POPIA"). This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use and protect it, and what rights you have in relation to it.

By accessing or using our website at linguavest.dev or submitting personal information to us, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. Where we rely on your consent as the legal basis for processing, you may withdraw that consent at any time.

2. Responsible Party (Section 1 of POPIA)

The responsible party for the processing of your personal information is:

3. Personal Information We Collect

We collect personal information directly from you when you interact with our website, specifically through the following channels:

3.1 Build Inquiry Form

When you submit a project brief through our Build Inquiry form, we collect the following:

• Full name (required)
• Email address (required)
• Phone number (optional)
• Company or project name (optional)
• Project details including proposed application description, problem being solved, target audience, desired platforms, timeline, budget range, existing systems/integrations, and additional notes

3.2 Contact Form

We use an embedded third-party contact form provider that may collect your name, email address, and message content.

3.3 Automatically Collected Information

When you visit our website, we may automatically collect certain technical information, including:

• IP address
• Browser type and version
• Device type and operating system
• Pages visited, time spent, and referring URLs
• Cookies and similar tracking technologies

4. Purpose of Processing (Section 13 of POPIA)

We process your personal information for the following specific purposes:

• To respond to your project inquiries and provide you with a quote or proposal
• To communicate with you regarding a potential or existing project
• To fulfil our contractual obligations to you
• To improve our website, products, and services based on aggregated analytics
• To send you direct marketing communications, but only where you have given your prior, specific, and voluntary consent (see Section 8 below)
• To comply with legal obligations

We will not process your personal information for any purpose other than those listed above without first obtaining your consent, unless permitted by POPIA.

5. Legal Basis for Processing (Section 11 of POPIA)

We process your personal information on one or more of the following lawful grounds:

• Consent: You have voluntarily provided your personal information and consented to its processing (e.g., by submitting a form).
• Contract: Processing is necessary for the conclusion or performance of a contract with you.
• Legitimate interest: Processing is necessary for pursuing a legitimate interest of Linguavest, such as improving our services or responding to enquiries, provided this interest does not override your rights.
• Legal obligation: Processing is required to comply with a legal obligation.

6. Voluntary vs. Mandatory Information (Section 18 of POPIA)

Where we mark fields as required (e.g., your name and email address), this information is necessary for us to respond to your inquiry or provide our services. If you do not provide the required information, we may be unable to process your request.

All other information (e.g., phone number, company name, budget range) is voluntary. You are not obligated to provide it, and there are no consequences for choosing not to, although it may help us provide a more tailored response.

7. Third-Party Service Providers

We may share your personal information with the following categories of third-party service providers who assist us in operating our website and delivering our services:

• Database Hosting Services: Your Build Inquiry form submissions are stored in a secure cloud-hosted database. The database servers may be located outside of South Africa.
• Form Builder Services: Our embedded contact form is operated by a third-party form provider. This provider processes your data in accordance with their own privacy policy and security guidelines. The servers may be located outside of South Africa.
• Web Hosting & CDN Providers: Our website is deployed using a cloud hosting infrastructure, which may collect technical data such as IP addresses and usage analytics for performance and security. The hosting servers may be located outside of South Africa.

We require all third-party service providers to process your personal information in a manner consistent with POPIA. We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to any third party.

8. Direct Marketing (Section 69 of POPIA)

We will only send you direct marketing communications (including promotional emails about our services, products, or offers) if you have given us your prior, specific, and voluntary consent to do so, or where you are an existing client and the marketing relates to similar products and services.

You have the right to opt out of direct marketing at any time by:

• Clicking the "unsubscribe" link in any marketing email
• Contacting us at info [at] linguavest.dev

Once you opt out, we will cease sending you direct marketing communications without undue delay.

9. Cross-Border Transfers (Section 72 of POPIA)

Some of the third-party services we use (including our database hosting, form builder, and web hosting providers) may store and process your personal information on servers located outside of the Republic of South Africa. In such cases, we ensure that:

• The third party is subject to a law, binding corporate rules, or binding agreement that provides an adequate level of protection substantially similar to POPIA; or
• You have consented to the transfer after being informed of the possible risks; or
• The transfer is necessary for the performance of a contract between you and us.

10. Data Retention (Section 14 of POPIA)

We will retain your personal information only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law. Specifically:

• Inquiry data: Retained for as long as necessary to respond to your inquiry and, if applicable, for the duration of the resulting business relationship.
• Contractual/project data: Retained for the duration of the contract plus any period required by applicable law (e.g., tax and accounting requirements).
• Marketing data: Retained until you withdraw your consent or opt out.

Once the retention period has expired, we will securely destroy or de-identify your personal information.

11. Security Safeguards (Section 19 of POPIA)

We are committed to protecting your personal information and have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to prevent loss, unauthorised access, misuse, interference, or alteration. These measures include:

• Encrypted data transmission (HTTPS/TLS)
• Secure authentication and access controls for our database systems
• Regular review of our information collection, storage, and processing practices

In the event of a data breach that poses a risk to you, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as soon as reasonably possible, in accordance with Section 22 of POPIA.

12. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to enhance your browsing experience, analyse website traffic, and understand where our visitors come from.

Types of cookies we use:

• Essential cookies: Required for the website to function correctly. These do not require your consent.
• Analytics cookies: Help us understand how visitors interact with our website by collecting information anonymously.
• Third-party cookies: Set by third-party services embedded on our site (e.g., embedded contact forms).

You can manage your cookie preferences through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to refuse or delete cookies. Please note that disabling cookies may affect the functionality of certain parts of our website.

13. Your Rights as a Data Subject

Under POPIA, you have the following rights in relation to your personal information:

• Right to access (Section 23): You have the right to request confirmation of whether we hold your personal information and to request a copy of it.
• Right to correction (Section 24): You have the right to request the correction or deletion of personal information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading, or obtained unlawfully.
• Right to deletion (Section 24): You have the right to request the destruction or deletion of your personal information where it is no longer needed for the purpose it was collected.
• Right to object (Section 11(3)): You have the right to object, on reasonable grounds, to the processing of your personal information.
• Right to withdraw consent: Where processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out prior to withdrawal.
• Right to lodge a complaint: You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator if you believe your personal information has been processed in violation of POPIA (see Section 14 below).

To exercise any of these rights, please contact our Information Officer at info [at] linguavest.dev. We will respond to your request within a reasonable time and in any event within 30 days.

14. Information Regulator of South Africa

If you are not satisfied with our response to your request, or if you believe that we have processed your personal information unlawfully, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator:

15. Children's Personal Information (Section 35 of POPIA)

Our website and services are not directed at children (persons under the age of 18). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child without the consent of a competent person, we will take steps to delete such information as soon as possible.

16. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. Any material changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Last Updated" date. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

Continued use of our website after changes are posted constitutes your acknowledgement of the updated policy.

17. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal information, please contact us: