Privacy Policy

INTRODUCTION

1. We, Absolute Pets Proprietary Limited, a company incorporated in accordance with the laws of the Republic of South Africa, with registration number 2013/104633/07, and with registered address at 3 Platinum Crescent, Marconi Beam, Cape Town, 7441 ("Absolute Pets", "we" or "us") respect and recognise the importance of protecting the privacy of all persons whose Personal Information (as defined in paragraph 1 below) comes into our possession, and we will take all reasonable measures to protect it.
2. Absolute Pets is a specialist pet care retail group which offers its customers the very best products, services and advice for their pets' optimal well-being. We sell a range of premium and super-premium brands, including leading nutritional brands, pet health and wellness products, pet beds and blankets, a range of toys, gourmet treats, grooming items, pet clothing and other pet accessories (collectively "Pet Products") as well as provide pet ethical spa treatments, pet insurance and a loyalty rewards programme called Pet Parent Card Programme (collectively "Pet Services").
3. This policy ("Privacy Policy") (which can be found on our website, https://www.absolutepets.com/ ("Website")) sets out the basis on which any Personal Information that we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be used, stored and processed by us. Any capitalised term used in this Privacy Policy and that are not defined in this Privacy Policy shall have the meaning given to such terms in the Protection of Personal Information Act, No. 4 of 2013 ("POPI").
4. For purposes of the applicable data protection legislation in the Republic of South Africa, we are the "responsible party" in respect of the Personal Information submitted to us by you and/or that may be collected by us through our Website, any correspondence and/or communication with you. However, there may be certain instances where we process Personal Information on behalf of a third party (for example, the financial services institution which provides the pet insurance as part of our Pet Services), in these instances we are an "operator" in respect of the Personal Information submitted to and/or collected by us for this purpose. Please note paragraph 4 below as it deals with Personal Information disclosed to third parties.
5. By visiting our Website or using the Absolute Pets Android or iOS Apps, purchasing the Pet Products and making use of the Pet Services, you agree to your Personal Information being used, collected and disclosed in the manner set out in this Privacy Policy.

INFORMATION WE MAY COLLECT FROM YOU

1. When you visit the Website, we may collect certain information that is not Personal Information such as your Internet Protocol ("IP") address, operating system, browser type and internet service provider. This type of information does not identify you personally.
2. Whilst providing you with the Pet Products and rendering the Pet Services, we may also collect your Personal Information. For purposes of this Privacy Policy, "Personal Information" shall mean any information of a personal nature by which you can be identified such as your name, identity number, postal address, email address, telephone number, home country, postal code, fax number, gender, age, pet name financial details and/or order history.  In particular, we may collect and process the following information (which may include Personal Information):
   1. information that you provide by completing certain forms on our Website. This includes (but is not limited to) information provided by you when purchasing items from our online shop (such as your name, surname, physical address, email address and credit card details);
   2. information provided by you when making an appointment at our pet spas and/or pet clinics;
   3. information provided by you when taking out pet insurance either through our Website or by contacting us;
   4. information provided by you when you elect to join our Pet Parent Card Programme;
   5. information collected through user satisfaction surveys that we may ask you to complete and that we use for research purposes;
   6. information collected during promotional competitions that we run or for prizes or gifts awarded by us;
   7. if you would like to subscribe to our newsletter, we will ask you to provide us with your name and surname and your email address;
   8. details of your visits to our Website or Apps (including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data, whether this is required for our own billing purposes or otherwise) and the resources that you access;
   9. our Website and Apps also allows you to set up a user account. You will be asked to register your email address and password so that you can gain secure access to your account; and
   10. recording of telephone calls, you make to us, unless you specifically request us not to.
3. The supply of all Personal Information by you is voluntary; however, you acknowledge that we cannot provide you with Pet Products or make the Pet Services available to you if you do not wish to supply such Personal Information.
4. By continuing to use our Website or Apps, purchase our Pet Products or making use of our Pet Services, you consent to the processing, collection, storage, and use of the Personal Information provided to us for purposes of providing you with the Pet Products and the Pet Services that we offer and for any other purpose set out in this Privacy Policy, and you further consent to our collection of any changes or updates thereto. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy, please do not purchase the Pet Products or make use of the Pet Services provided by us.
5. Where you provide us with Personal Information relating to a third party data subject (for example, details of a child who is a minor), you warrant that you have obtained all necessary consents from such third party and/or their guardian(s) or parent(s) to the extent required by law, for you to share such Personal Information with us to process on your behalf.

HOW YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION IS USED

1. If you wish to use our Website, purchase the Pet Products or make use of the Pet Services, we will need to collect basic information about you, including your Personal Information.
2. We use the Personal Information we collect about you for a number of purposes, namely –
   1. to provide you with information on our Pet Products and Pet Services or to market the Pet Products and Pet Services which we feel you may be interested in, provided that you have consented to being contacted for such purposes;
   2. to carry out market research and for forecasting purposes;
   3. to carry out any contracts that may be formed between us, you and/or any third parties (in particular, in order to be able to provide you with the Pet Services);
   4. to provide you with communications in respect of our Pet Parent Card Programme (including, but not limited to, communications regarding special offers which you may be entitled to or rewards which you may have earned through this loyalty programme);
   5. to respond to any queries, you may make either through our Website or by contacting us telephonically or via email;
   6. to communicate with regards to the status or changes in status of any orders you place online or in store or for any Pet Services rendered;
   7. to notify you or any changes to our Pet Products and/or any of the Pet Services offered by us (including, but not limited to, any additional services which we may offer in the future);
   8. to improve the Pet Products and Pet Services we offer or generally to improve your experience in any of our stores (whether in relation to our online or physical stores) – for example, you may be asked to complete a survey in this regard.
   9. We may collect your personal information from or share your personal information with our affiliates and business partners in order to improve the products, services and offers provided to you by ourselves as well as our affiliates and business partners. In this case, we will seek to require our business partners and affiliates to honour this privacy policy. Our business partners include but are not limited to Sawubona CI Proprietary Limited, who help us secure, enrich and analyse our data. For more information about Sawubona, visit their website: https://www.sawubona.co.za.
3. We will only use your Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy, or where we are required or authorised by law to disclose your Personal Information to others or have your permission to do so.

DISCLOSURES

1. We will not use Personal Information for any purpose (other than those stated in paragraph 3 above) without your express consent. We will not use or disclose any Personal Information to third parties without your consent, unless the use or disclosure is –
   1. required in order to comply with any applicable laws, orders of court or legal processes served on Absolute Pets; and/or
   2. disclosure is necessary to protect and defend the rights or property of Absolute Pets.
2. We work closely with trusted partners with whom we need to share Personal Information to help us provide you with the Pet Products and the Pet Services. A list of our partners may be provided upon written request.
3. We may share your Personal Information with –
   1. other divisions or companies within the Absolute Pets' group of companies so as to provide joint content and services like registration, for transactions and customer support, to help detect and prevent potentially illegal acts and violations of our policies (including the provisions of this Privacy Policy), and to guide decisions about our products, services and communications;
   2. an affiliate, in which case we will seek to require the affiliate to honour the provisions of this Privacy Policy;
   3. our goods suppliers or service providers under contract who help supply certain goods or help with parts of our business operations, including fraud prevention, bill collection, marketing, technology services;
   4. credit bureaus to report account information, as permitted by law; and
   5. banking partners as required by credit card association rules for inclusion on their list of terminated merchants (in the vent that you utilise the services to receive payments and you meet their criteria).
4. We will share information only as anticipated within this Privacy Policy and wherever appropriate, try to limit disclosure to information in aggregated form, to avoid or limit identifying you personally.
5. We may also provide information to third party service providers who process information on our behalf to help run some of our internal business operations including email distribution, IT services and customer services.
6. Your Personal Information may at times be shared with organisations located in other countries around the world. We only make arrangements to transfer Personal Information overseas where we are satisfied that adequate levels of protection are in place to protect any Personal Information held in that country or that the service provider acts at all times in compliance with applicable privacy laws.  Where required under applicable laws we will take measures to ensure that Personal Information handled in other countries will receive at least the same level of protection as it is given in this Privacy Policy.
7. You understand that we may disclose or share Personal Information with third parties as outlined above in order for us to be able to provide you the Pet Products and/or the Pet Services. If you are concerned about these arrangements, please do not continue to purchase the Pet Products or make use of the Pet Services.
8. We will be entitled to disclose your Personal Information to those of our affiliates, agents, advisors, employees and/or third-party service providers and suppliers who assist us to interact with you via mobile communications and/or email, and thus need to know your Personal Information in order to assist us to communicate with you properly and efficiently. We will ensure that all such employees and/or third-party service providers having access to your Personal Information are bound by appropriate and legally binding confidentiality and non-use obligations in relation to your Personal Information.
9. On rare occasions, we may be required to disclose your Personal Information due to legal or regulatory requirements. In such instances, we reserve the right to disclose this Personal Information as required in order to comply with our legal obligations, including but not limited to complying with court orders, warrants, subpoenas, service of process requirements or discovery requests.
10. We may also disclose information about you to law enforcement officers or others, in the good faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to enforce this Privacy Policy; respond to claims that any content violates the rights of third-parties; or protect the rights, property, or our personal safety or your personal safety or to protect the general public.

COMMUNICATIONS FROM US

1. Where you have indicated that you would like to receive newsletter(s) from us, we may send email communications to you concerning our Pet Products and/or our Pet Services.
2. You can also unsubscribe from receiving electronic marketing messages by following the "unsubscribe" instructions included in our communication (and you may change your preferences and cease receiving direct marketing from us through your account settings). We will not change your preferences without their consent.

ADVERTISEMENTS ON WEBSITE

1. While you are logged into the Website, we may display targeted adverts and other relevant information based on your Personal Information. This is a completely automated process meaning that the computer processes your Personal Information and matches it to adverts or related information.
2. We do not share your Personal Information with any advertisers, unless you specifically provide us with consent to do so. Advertisers receive a record of the total number of impressions and clicks for each advert. They do not receive any Personal Information.
3. If you click on an advert, we may send a referring URL to the advertiser's website identifying that a customer of ours is visiting from our Website. We do not send Personal Information to advertisers with the referring URL. Once you are on the advertiser's website, the advertiser is able to collect your Personal Information.

PROTECTION OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

1. You are our valued customers, and we recognise that protecting your privacy is important to you and to us. For this reason, we are committed to protecting the Personal Information that you provide in a variety of ways.
2. The Personal Information submitted to us or via our Website may be protected by a unique customer password and your email address. Users should not disclose their password information to anyone and should always remember to log off if using a shared computer.
3. We will –
   1. treat all Personal Information as strictly confidential;
   2. take appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure that all Personal Information is kept secure and is protected against unauthorised or unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction or damage, alteration, disclosure or access;
   3. promptly notify you if we become aware of any unauthorised use, disclosure or processing of your Personal Information;
   4. provide you with reasonable evidence of our compliance with our obligations under this Privacy Policy on reasonable notice and request; and
   5. upon request, promptly return or destroy any and all of your Personal Information in our possession or control.
4. We will not retain any Personal Information longer than -
   1. a period of 2 consecutive years after you deactivate your account on our Website; or
   2. the period for which it was originally required, unless we are required by law to do so, or you consent to us retaining such information for a longer period.  Where your information is no longer required or the period of 2 consecutive years has expired (whichever occurs last in time), we will ensure it is disposed of in a secure manner and, where required by applicable law we will notify you when such information has been disposed of.
5. If you register an account with us, please do keep your details up to date and notify us of any changes to your Personal Information. You can do this by updating your user preferences through your account login or by contacting us using the details set out in paragraph 3 below.

STORAGE AND SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

1. We will do our best to protect your Personal Information, and we will use technology that will help us to do this, however, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure and we cannot guarantee the security of your information transmitted on our Website. Any transmission of your information on our Website is entirely at your own risk.  Once your information is received by us, we or the applicable third party service providers shall use strict procedures and security features to try and prevent unauthorised access.
2. Where you have a user account with us and accordingly, a password which enables you to access certain parts of our Website, you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and all uses of your account. Please do not share your password with anyone.
3. You hereby consent to the transfer, storage or hosting of your Personal Information on servers outside of South Africa. We will at all times ensure that appropriate security safeguards are in place to secure and protect such Personal Information.

COOKIES AND IP ADDRESSES

1. We may collect information about your computer including, where available, your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and to report aggregate information to our advertisers. This is statistical data about our users' browsing actions and patterns and does not identify any individual.
2. We may use cookies to manage our users' sessions and to store preferences, tracking information, and language selection. Cookies may be used whether you register with use or not. The term "Cookies" is used to describe small text files transferred by a web server to your hard drive and thereafter stored on your computer. The types of information a Cookie collects include the date and time you visited the Website, your browsing history, your preferences and your username.
3. In some instances, our third-party service providers may use Cookies on the Website. We cannot control or access Cookies used by third-party service providers. This Privacy Policy covers only Cookies used by us, and not any Cookies used by third parties.
4. Cookies enable us to –
   1. estimate our Website's audience size and usage pattern;
   2. store information about your preferences, which allows us to customise the Website according to your individual interests;
   3. speed up your searches; and
   4. recognise you when you return to the Website.
5. You have the ability to either accept or decline the use of Cookies on your computer, whether you are registered with us or not. Typically, you can configure your browser to not accept Cookies. However, declining the use of Cookies may limit your access to certain features of the Website. For example, you may have difficulty logging in or using certain interactive features of the Website.

ACCESS RIGHTS

1. In some jurisdictions you may have the right to request copies of your Personal Information which is within our custody and control together with details about how we use that information. If you think any of the Personal Information, we hold about you is inaccurate, you may also request us to correct it.  You may also have a right, in certain circumstances, to require us to stop processing your Personal Information.
2. In relation to all of these rights, you should please email or write to us at the address set out in paragraph 4 below. Please note that we may, where permitted under applicable law, charge a small administrative fee and/or request proof of identity.  We will respond to requests within all applicable timeframes.
3. In certain circumstances (for example where required or permitted by law) we might not be able to provide you with access to some of your Personal Information, but where appropriate we will notify you of the reasons for this.
4. You may request access to your Personal Information by sending an email to us at info@absolutepets.com.
5. You may also request that all your personal information be deleted from our systems. You can do this on the Website or in the Apps by going to the Account Management section and choosing the option to [Delete Account]. This will delete and / or de-identify (where necessary due to system audit requirements) all your personal information in our systems.
6. You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator if you think that we are in breach of any applicable data protection legislation. The office of the Information Regulator's details are as follows:

   Website: http://justice.gov.za/inforeg/

   Tel: 012 406 4818

   Fax: 086 500 3351

   Email: inforeg@justice.gov.za

THIRD PARTIES

1. This Privacy Policy applies to our Website as well as the sale of Pets Products and/or rendering of Pet Services to you. If you click on the links to third-party websites, you leave the Website. We are not responsible for the content of these third-party websites or for the security of your Personal Information when you sue the third-party websites. These third-party service providers and third-party websites may have their own privacy policies governing the storage and retention of your Personal Information that you may be subject to. They may also collect information that is not Personal Information such as your IP address, browser specification, or operating system.
2. This Privacy Policy does not govern Personal Information provided to, stored on, or used by these third-party service providers and third-party websites. We recommend that when you enter a third-party website, you review the third-party website's privacy policy as it relates to how such third parties collect, process, store and protect your Personal Information.

CHANGE OF OWNERSHIP

1. If we undergo a change of ownership, or a merger with, acquisition by, or sale of assets to, another entity, we may cede, delegate, transfer and/or assign our rights and obligations to your Personal Information we have in our possession to the successor, purchaser or separate entity.
2. We will disclose the cession, delegation, transfer and/or assignment on our Website. If you are concerned about your Personal Information migrating to the new owner, you may request us to delete your Personal Information.

RETENTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

1. We will only retain your Personal Information for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purposes explicitly set out in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer period of retention is required or authorised by law or you have consented to your Personal Information being retained for a longer period.
2. During the period of retention, we will continue to abide by our obligations contemplated in this Privacy Policy.

GENERAL

1. This Privacy Policy governs the ways in which we collect and use information about you through the (i) Website, (ii) in any correspondence and/or communication with us, (iii) sale of any Pet Products; and/or (iv) provision of any Pet Service.
2. You agree to provide accurate, truthful and current information, and not to impersonate or misrepresent any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with anyone or anything. Failure to adhere to this requirement will entitle Absolute Pets, among other things, to terminate your use of our Website and/or permit us to refuse to provide you with the Pet Products and/or the Pet Services.
3. You may access, remove, review, and/or make changes to Personal Information which you have provided to us. We may also send you any legally required notifications and certain notifications, including but not limited to, service-related notices or notices regarding a change to any of our policies.  For example, we may send you a notice regarding server problems or scheduled maintenance of our Website.  In order to opt-out of receiving these notices, you may need to deactivate your account. You can opt out of receiving these notifications or any other email communications from us by emailing us at info@absolutepets.com.
4. This Privacy Policy or any provisions of this Privacy Policy is regulated by or subject to the POPI or other data protection legislation. It is not intended that any provision of this Privacy Policy contravenes any provision of POPI or any other data protection legislation. Therefore, all provisions of this Privacy Policy must be treated as being qualified, to the extent necessary, to ensure that the provisions of POPI or any other data protection legislation are complied with.

NOTIFICATION OF CHANGES

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy from time to time, and in our sole discretion.  We may send you a notice regarding material changes to this Privacy Policy, but we encourage you to frequently check this Privacy Policy for any changes.  Your continued use of our Website and/or Pet Services as well as your continued purchasing of our Pet Products after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such changes.

HOW TO CONTACT US

Any questions, comments and requests you may have regarding this Privacy Policy are welcomed.  In the event of any questions, comments and requests about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at info@absolutepets.com with "Privacy Policy" in the subject line, or write to us:

Customer Liaison Officer