Privacy policy

2. What personal information we collect

We collect only the information you voluntarily provide:

• Full name
• Email address
• Mobile phone number (optional)
• Farm details (province, livestock type, herd size, production system)
• KYC documents (if applicable — ID document, proof of address)
• Payment information (processed securely by PayFast — we never store card details)

3. How we use your information

• Generate your personalised farm profitability report
• Process payments and deliver purchased reports
• Send you your report and account-related emails
• Verify your identity (KYC) for classified listings
• Improve our calculator accuracy using anonymised benchmarks
• Comply with legal obligations (POPIA, SARS, etc.)

4. Legal basis for processing

We process your personal information based on:

• Consent — you provide information voluntarily when signing up or purchasing
• Contract — processing is necessary to deliver your report or service
• Legal obligation — where required by South African law (POPIA, ECTA, etc.)

5. Data sharing

We do not sell your personal information. We may share data with:

• PayFast — payment processing (their privacy policy applies to payment data)
• Email service provider — to deliver your report and account emails
• Law enforcement — if required by a court order or legal process

6. Data retention

We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active, plus 3 years after account closure for legal and audit purposes. KYC documents are retained for 5 years as required by South African law. You may request deletion of your data at any time.

7. Your rights under POPIA

You have the right to:

• Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Correction — request that we correct inaccurate or incomplete data
• Deletion — request deletion of your personal data (subject to legal retention periods)
• Object — object to the processing of your personal data
• Data portability — request a structured copy of your data
• Withdraw consent — withdraw consent at any time (this may affect our ability to provide services)

To exercise any of these rights, email agrisolvesa@gmail.com with your request. We will respond within 21 business days as required by POPIA.

8. Security

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information, including:

• SSL/TLS encryption for all data in transit
• Encrypted password storage (bcrypt)
• Secure session management (HttpOnly cookies)
• Access controls on sensitive data
• Regular security audits

9. Cookies

We use essential session cookies for authentication. These are HttpOnly and Secure. We do not use tracking cookies or analytics cookies at this time. If we add analytics in future, we will update this policy and display a cookie notice.

10. Complaints

If you believe we have violated your privacy rights, please contact our information officer at agrisolvesa@gmail.com. If we cannot resolve your complaint, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa:

Information Regulator (South Africa)
JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001
Email: complaints@inforegulator.org.za
Website: www.inforegulator.org.za

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated via email to registered users. The latest version is always available at shepherdai.co.za/privacy.html.