Website Privacy Policy
Who we are
This website is run by Finishing Touch Trading 516 (Pty) Ltd, trading as Augos (registration number 2009/014994/07). In this policy, "Augos", "we" and "us" mean that company. We are the responsible party for the personal information collected through this website.
Our address is The Crest Office Estate, 154 Goedemoed Road, Durbanville, 7550, South Africa.
What this policy covers
This policy covers augos.co.za, our online shop at shop.augos.co.za and the tariff database. It explains what we collect, why we collect it, who receives it, where it is stored and what your rights are under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).
It applies to:
- people who visit the site
- people who send an enquiry or book a demo
- people who shop with us
The Augos platform at live.augos.io has its own Platform Privacy Policy.
This site is for businesses. It isn't intended for children, and we don't knowingly collect information about anyone under 18.
Information Officer
Eduan Shuda · support@augos.io
What we collect
What you give us. You might complete an enquiry or contact form, book a demo, create a shop account, or send a shop enquiry or order. When you do, we collect:
- your name and surname
- your business name and role
- your work email address and your mobile or telephone number
- your business address
- what you tell us about your requirement, such as your monthly energy spend or the problem you want solved
- when you'd like to meet
Shop orders. When you order from the shop, we also collect your delivery and billing addresses. The shop takes payment by electronic funds transfer (EFT), and we don't collect card details. The tariff database needs no registration.
We need the fields marked as required to answer you. If you leave them out, we may not be able to respond. The other fields are optional.
How you reached us. If you arrive from an advert, we record:
- the advertising click identifier
- the campaign, ad group and advert you clicked
- the page you arrived on
- the site that referred you
How you use the site. We record:
- the pages you view and how long you spend on them
- your approximate location, to city level
- your device and browser type
- your IP address
We don't ask for special personal information, such as details of health, religion or biometrics. Please don't include it in your messages.
Cookies and similar technologies
Cookies are small files that a website stores in your browser. We use them, and similar identifiers, for three purposes:
| Type | What it does |
|---|---|
| Essential | Keeps the site and shop working, for example by remembering your shop session |
| Analytics | Shows us how the site is used, such as which pages people visit, so we can improve it. It uses cookie identifiers, your IP address and device information |
| Advertising measurement | Shows us which adverts led to an enquiry, and lets us show our adverts to people who have visited the site. It uses the click identifier stored in a cookie when you arrive from an advert, and the analytics cookie identifiers |
The analytics and advertising measurement cookies are set by the third-party services that provide those functions. Those services collect and process the information described above.
You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. The site still works without the analytics and advertising cookies, but blocking essential cookies may stop the shop from working.
How we use it
We use your information only for the purposes below. POPIA requires a lawful basis for each purpose, and the table shows which one we rely on.
| Purpose | Information used | Lawful basis under POPIA, section 11 |
|---|---|---|
| To answer your enquiry, arrange a demo and prepare a quote | Your contact and enquiry details | Our legitimate interest in responding to a business enquiry you sent us |
| To supply shop orders and manage your shop account | Your contact, account and order details | A contract with you or, if you buy for a business, our legitimate interest in supplying it |
| To run, secure and improve the site | How you use the site | Our legitimate interest in a working, secure website |
| To measure which adverts and search listings produce enquiries, and to show our adverts to past visitors (see below) | How you reached us and used the site; a coded form of your contact details | Our legitimate interest in knowing which advertising works. You may object at any time |
| To send you news about our products and services | Your name and email address | Your consent or, if you're a customer, emails about our own similar products. You can opt out when we collect your details and in every email |
| To keep the records the law requires | Invoices and transaction records | A legal obligation under tax and company law |
Where we rely on our legitimate interests, you may object at any time (see "Your rights").
Advertising measurement
To measure our advertising, we share data with our advertising provider. We share it at two points: when you submit a form, and later, if your enquiry becomes a quote or an order. The later step is called offline conversion import.
- The advertising identifier. When you clicked our advert, the provider gave your browser an identifier. We send it back to the provider, together with whether your enquiry progressed and its value.
- A coded form of your contact details. Your email address, telephone number and name are turned into an irreversible code before they leave your browser. The provider compares that code with its own records to work out whether your enquiry came from one of our adverts. We never send it your contact details in a readable form. Because the provider can match the code to its own records, the code still counts as personal information.
For part of this processing, the provider acts under its own privacy terms as well as its agreement with us.
We also let our advertising provider show our adverts to people who have visited our site, using the analytics cookies described above. You can opt out of personalised advertising in the ad settings of the service where you saw our advert, by blocking the analytics and advertising cookies in your browser, or by emailing the Information Officer to object.
Marketing messages
We send marketing emails only to people who have agreed to receive them, or to customers about similar products and services of our own. You can opt out when we collect your details, and every marketing email has an unsubscribe link. Unsubscribing doesn't stop the service messages we send about an enquiry or order.
We do not sell your information, and we do not share it for anyone else's marketing.
Who receives it
-
Our staff. Only the staff who need your information to do their work can see it.
-
Service providers that work for us. We use providers for:
- website hosting and our customer system
- email, email delivery and document services
- accounting and invoicing
- our online shop platform
- website analytics
- advertising measurement
They process your information to provide their service to us, under terms that require them to protect it. Our analytics and advertising providers and our shop platform may also use some of it for their own purposes, under their own privacy terms.
-
Professional advisers. Our auditors and lawyers, who are bound by confidentiality.
-
Anyone the law requires. For example, a regulator or a court.
-
A buyer of the business. If Augos or part of it is sold, your information may pass to the new owner, who must protect it on the same terms.
Where it is stored
Your enquiry is recorded in our own customer system, which is hosted in South Africa.
Some information is held by international providers outside South Africa, in countries including the United States and Canada and in Europe. This covers:
- the correspondence about your enquiry, meaning our emails to you and the documents we send
- invoices
- shop orders and accounts
- analytics and advertising data
When we transfer personal information outside South Africa, we do so under section 72(1)(a) of POPIA. The recipient must be bound by a law, binding corporate rules or a binding agreement that gives the information a level of protection substantially similar to POPIA.
How long we keep it
| Information | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Enquiries that don't lead to business | 2 years after our last contact with you |
| Customer records and correspondence | For as long as we do business with you, then for as long as tax and company law require |
| Shop account | Until you close it. Order records are then kept as for customer records |
| Analytics and advertising data | Analytics: 14 months after your last visit. Advertising: held by the advertising provider under its own terms; we keep only the click identifier, with your enquiry record |
| Marketing list | Until you unsubscribe. We then keep only your email address, so that we don't contact you again |
Tax and company law currently require us to keep records for up to seven years. When a retention period ends, we delete the information or de-identify it so it can no longer be linked to you.
How we protect it
- Only staff who need your information can see it, and they must sign in with their own secure credentials.
- Information sent to and from our site is encrypted in transit (HTTPS).
If there are reasonable grounds to believe your information has been accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person, we'll tell you and the Information Regulator, as POPIA section 22 requires.
Your rights
Under POPIA you may:
- ask whether we hold personal information about you, and ask for a copy of it
- ask us to correct or delete information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading or unlawfully obtained
- object to processing that relies on our legitimate interests
- object to direct marketing at any time
- withdraw your consent, where we rely on it
- complain to the Information Regulator
To make a request, email the Information Officer at support@augos.io. We may ask you to confirm your identity before we act on it. Requests for access are handled under the Promotion of Access to Information Act. The Information Officer will send you the form to use.
Complaints
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, please tell us first so we can try to put it right. You may also complain to the Information Regulator:
- Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191
- POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
- 010 023 5200
- inforegulator.org.za
Changes to this policy
We'll update this policy when our practices change, and the version number and date at the top will show when it last changed. If a change affects how we use information you've already given us, we'll tell you before it takes effect.