Cotton SA NPC Privacy Notice

 

Introduction:

This Notice explains how we obtain, use and disclose your personal information, in accordance with the requirements of the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (“POPIA”).

­­­­­­­­­­Cotton SA NPC, www.cottonsa.org.za is committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring that your personal information is collected and used properly, lawfully, and transparently.

Who we are:

Cotton South Africa (Cotton SA) was formed in 1998 to represent all role-players in the cotton value chain. Cotton SA provides the public infrastructure, supports the cotton industry, raises awareness of critical issues, provides information necessary for decision-making, and facilitates cooperation on matters of shared interest. Cotton SA provides valuable information that is timely and relevant to all sectors of the cotton industry in assessing market conditions and is the official source of statistics on production, trade, consumption stocks and prices.

Cotton SA further acts as an industry forum and an advisory body to various government departments, applying appropriate statutory measures in terms of the Marketing of Agricultural Products Act 47 of 1996 and administering them accordingly. Our objective is to generate insights that facilitate growth in the cotton sector to reach its full potential and ultimately contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction.

VISION

The establishment of an international competitive cotton industry that plays a leadership role in the economy and agriculture of Southern Africa and delivers an important contribution to the development of the country.

MISSION

Create and maintain an environment in which the Southern African cotton industry can develop.

The type of personal information we collect:

Personal identifiers, contacts, and characteristics (for example, name and contact details). We collect the following information, including, but not limited to:

a)    information relating to the race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, national, ethnic, or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental health, well-being, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth of the person;

 

b)    information relating to the education or the medical, financial, criminal or employment history of the person;

 

c)     any identifying number, symbol, e-mail address, physical address, telephone number, location information, online identifier, or other particular assignments to the person;

 

d)    the access control information of the person;

 

e)    the personal opinions, views or preferences of the person;

 

f)      correspondence sent by the person that is implicitly or explicitly of a private or confidential nature or further correspondence that would reveal the contents of the original correspondence;

 

g)    the views or opinions of another individual about the person; and

 

h)    the name of the person if it appears with other personal information relating to the person or if the disclosure of the name itself would reveal information about the person.

 

We collect and process your personal information mainly to contact you for the purposes of understanding your requirements, and delivering services accordingly.

We collect information directly from you where you provide us with your personal details.  Where possible, we will inform you what information you are required to provide to us and what information is optional.

Website usage information may be collected using “cookies” which allows us to collect standard internet visitor usage information.

How we get the personal information and what we use it for:

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons:

We will use your personal information only for the purposes for which it was collected and agreed with you. In addition, where necessary, your information may be retained for legal or user experience optimisation purposes, enabling us to provide you with an enhanced service delivery experience at Cotton SA NPC. 

For example:

·       To gather contact information;

·       To confirm and verify your identity or to verify that you are an authorised user for security purposes;

·       For the detection and prevention of fraud, crime, money laundering or other malpractice;

·       To conduct market or customer satisfaction research or for statistical analysis;

·       For audit and record-keeping purposes;

·       In connection with legal proceedings;

·       For service delivery purposes.

We may collect or obtain personal information about you:

 

(a)        directly from you;

 

(b)        during the course of our interactions with you;

 

(c)        when you visit and/or interact with our website or any other social media platforms or IT services;

 

(d)        from a third party who is authorised to share that information;

 

(e)        From documentation you provide to us.

 

We also receive personal information indirectly, from the following sources in the following scenarios:

·       Cotton Ginners;

·       Cotton Spinners.

We use the information that you have given us in order to:

·       For registration purposes;

·       For statistical purposes;

·       For market-related information supply.

We may disclose your personal information to our service providers who are involved in the delivery of products or services to you. We have agreements in place to ensure that they comply with the privacy requirements as required by the Protection of Personal Information Act.

We may also disclose your information:

-        Where we have a duty or a right to disclose in terms of law or industry codes;

-        Where we believe it is necessary to protect our rights.

Legal Disclosures

We may need to share your information when we believe it is required by law, legal process or to help protect the rights and safety of you, us, or others. We attempt to notify members about legal demands for their data when appropriate in our judgment unless prohibited by law or court order or when the request is an emergency. We may dispute such demands when we believe, at our discretion, that the requests are overbroad, vague, or lack proper authority, but we do not promise to challenge every demand.

Collection of Information by “Cookies”

 

You are aware that information and data are automatically collected through the standard operation of the Internet servers and through the use of "cookies." "Cookies" are small text files a website can use to recognise repeat users, facilitate the user's ongoing access to and use of the website and allow a website to track usage behaviour and compile aggregate data that will allow content improvements and targeted advertising. Cookies are not programs that come onto your system and damage files. Generally, cookies work by assigning a unique number to you that has no meaning outside the assigning site. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to deny or accept the cookie feature; however, you should note that cookies may be necessary to provide you with certain features (e.g., customised delivery of information) available on our website.

When will we process your personal information:

In terms of the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), the justification ground on which we base our processing consist of the following:

·       The data subject or a competent person where the data subject is a child consents to the processing. Kindly note that you have the right to withdraw your consent;

·       The processing is necessary to carry out actions for the conclusion or performance of a contract to which the data subject is a party;

·       The processing complies with an obligation imposed by law on the business;

·       The processing protects a legitimate interest of the data subject;

·       The processing is necessary for the proper performance of a public law duty by the business;

 

Or

·       The processing is necessary for pursuing the legitimate interests of the business or of a third party to whom the information is supplied.

How we store your personal information:

Your information is securely stored:

We are legally obliged to provide adequate protection for the personal information we hold and to stop unauthorised access and use of personal information. We will, on an ongoing basis, continue to review our security controls and related processes to ensure that your personal information remains secure.

Our security policies and procedures cover:

 

·       Physical security;

·       Computer and network security;

·       Access to personal information;

·       Secure communications;

·       Security in contracting out activities or functions;

·       Retention and disposal of information;

·       Acceptable usage of personal information;

·       Governance and regulatory issues;

·       Monitoring access and usage of private information;

·       Investigating and reacting to security incidents.

 

When we contract with third parties, we impose appropriate security, privacy, and confidentiality obligations on them to ensure that personal information that we remain responsible for, is kept secure.

We keep your information in accordance with our Data Retention Policy. We will then dispose of your information as per our Data Destruction Policy.

International Transfer of Personal Information

In some cases, the third parties to whom we may disclose your personal information may be located outside your country of residence (for example, in a cloud service, system or server), and may be subject to different privacy regimes.

 

When we disclose personal information overseas, we will take appropriate safeguards to protect your personal information to ensure that the recipient will handle the information in a manner consistent with this policy and the level of protection provided for in POPIA.

 

Changes to our privacy notice:

 

Changes to the privacy notice apply to your use of our services. We may modify this privacy notice from time to time, as required by changes in legislation. When material changes are made, we will provide notice through our services, or by other means, to provide you the opportunity to review the changes before they become effective.

You acknowledge that your continued use of our services after we publish our changes to this privacy notice means that the collection, use, and sharing of your personal information is subject to the updated privacy notice.

Your data protection rights:

·       You are entitled to access your personal data by sending a written request to enquiries@cottonsa.org.za. We may charge you a fee for this service as set out in terms of Condition 8 of POPIA.  

·       You may also request Cotton SA NPC to correct or supplement any of your personal data, which Cotton SA NPC will undertake as soon as practicable.

·       Request the destruction of your personal data, Cotton SA NPC will consider your request in light of any other laws or regulations prohibiting Cotton SA NPC from destroying your personal data.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

Please contact us at enquiries@cottonsa.org.za if you wish to make a request.

Contact details:

Cotton SA NPC

Address: 90 Cycad Place, Val-De-Grace, Pretoria, 0184

Phone Number: 012 804 1462

E-mail: enquiries@cottonsa.org.za

How to complain:

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at enquiries@cottonsa.org.za.

You can also complain to the Information Regulator if you are unhappy with how we have used your Information.

Their contact details are as follows:

The Information Regulator (South Africa)

27 Stiemans Street
Forum III, 3rd Floor Braampark
P.O. Box 31533
Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2017

 

Complaint’s e-mail: complaints.IR@justice.gov.za