September 2021, Version 2.0

Welcome to our privacy policy. We are M&G Online PTY Ltd, also known as Mail & Guardian. This policy describes our plan of action for the protection of your personal information.

When you visit or use our website, you’re trusting us with your personal information. We understand the importance of this responsibility and work hard to protect your information and put you in control.

This policy aims to help you understand what information we collect and why we collect it. It also sets out how you can update, manage, access, and delete your information.

The Mail & Guardian Online respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it.

  • We recognize your need for appropriate protection and management of personally identifiable information you may share with us (any information by which you can be identified, such as name, address, and telephone number).
  • In general, you can browse sites without telling us who you are or revealing any personal information about yourself. We do track the internet address of the domains from which people visit us and analyze this data for trends and statistics, but the individual user remains anonymous.
  • Some of our web pages use “cookies” so that we can better serve you with more tailored information when you return to our site. “Cookies” are used to enhance your interactive experience and generally improve our service to you. You can set your browser to notify you when you are sent a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether to accept it.
  • We store information you supply in personalizing your use of our services.
  • We protect information of registered users from outside parties by storing it in a fully secured database.
  • In all other cases, the only information we will ever disclose to third parties (such as advertisers) is aggregate information about our users. Aggregate information will never identify you. It only identifies the user population in general terms; for example, 52% males visit a particular site. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content and/or services of sites linking out of our network or for personally identifiable information made available by you or another third party in or through the Mail & Guardian Online.

Consent to the use of cookies

For our website to function properly we use cookies. To obtain your valid consent for the use and storage of cookies in the browser you use to access our website and to properly document this we use a consent management platform: CookieFirst. This technology is provided by Digital Data Solutions BV, Plantage Middenlaan 42a, 1018 DH, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Website: https://cookiefirst.com referred to as CookieFirst.

When you access our website, a connection is established with CookieFirst’s server to give us the possibility to obtain valid consent from you to the use of certain cookies. CookieFirst then stores a cookie in your browser in order to be able to activate only those cookies to which you have consented and to properly document this. The data processed is stored until the predefined storage period expires or you request to delete the data. Certain mandatory legal storage periods may apply notwithstanding the aforementioned.

CookieFirst is used to obtain the legally required consent for the use of cookies. The legal basis for this is article 6(1)(c) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Data processing agreement

We have concluded a data processing agreement with CookieFirst. This is a contract required by data protection law, which ensures that data of our website visitors is only processed in accordance with our instructions and in compliance with the GDPR.

Server log files

Our website and CookieFirst automatically collect and store information in so-called server log files, which your browser automatically transmits to us. The following data is collected:

  • Your consent status or the withdrawal of consent
  • Your anonymised IP address
  • Information about your Browser
  • Information about your Device
  • The date and time you have visited our website
  • The webpage url where you saved or updated your consent preferences
  • The approximate location of the user that saved their consent preference
  • A universally unique identifier (UUID) of the website visitor that clicked the cookie banner

 

Who does this policy apply to?

This policy applies to you when you visit or use our website or order our goods or services.

Acceptance and changes

  • Acceptance required. You must accept all the terms of this policy when you use our website or request our goods or services. If you do not agree with anything in this policy, you may not use our website or request our goods or services.
  • Legal capacity. You may order our goods or request our services if you are younger than 18 years old or do not have the legal capacity to conclude legally binding contracts.
  • Deemed acceptance. By accepting this policy, we deem you to have read, understood, accepted, and agreed to be bound by it.
  • Changes. We may change this policy at any time. We will notify you of the changes on our website or by email. The changed policy applies to you if you continue using our website or our goods or services following the notification.

What is personal information?

Scope. Your personal information includes information we collect:

  • automatically when you visit our website or use our application;
  • accept on registration or submission;
  • get through an order; or
  • you provide voluntarily.

Excluded information. The scope of personal information does not extend to anonymous, de-identified, and statistical information.

Common examples

Common examples of the types of personal data which we may collect, and process include your:

  • identifying information – such as your name, date of birth, or identification number of any kind;
  • contact information – such as your phone number or email address;
  • address information – such as your physical or postal address; or
  • demographic information – such as your gender or marital status.

Examples of sensitive personal information we may collect

Depending on the services you use, we may also collect sensitive personal information, including your:

  • financial information – such as your bank account details; or
  • sensitive demographic information – such as your race or ethnicity.

Your obligations

You may only send us your own personal information or someone else’s personal information if you have lawfully obtained their permission to do so. If you unlawfully supply us with someone else’s information, you hold us harmless against any claims that that person may have against us for receiving and processing that information.

The information we collect

  • Automatically through the website. When you visit our website, we automatically collect your Internet usage information (IP address, browsing habits, click patterns, version of software installed, system type, screen resolutions, color capabilities, plug-ins, language settings, cookie preferences, search engine keywords, JavaScript enablement, the content and pages that you access on the website, and the dates and times that you visit the website, paths taken, and time spent on sites and pages within the website). We collect it through your browser. We may use the information to display our website correctly, track your activities on it, or for other related reasons. Please note that other websites visited before entering our website might place personal information within your URL during a visit to it, and we have no control over such websites. Accordingly, a subsequent website that collects URL information may log some personal information.
  • On registration or submission. We may ask you to provide us with certain identifying information (including your first name, surname, and email address) when you register on or otherwise submit information through our website or application for the first time.
  • Through an order. When you order our goods or services, we ask you to provide us with certain information.
  • Cookies. We may place small text files on your device when you visit our website that allow us to provide you with a personalized experience by associating your personal information with your device. They let us remember your preferences, allow third parties to provide services to you, and otherwise serve useful purposes for you. Please refer to our Cookies Policy for more information.
  • Web beacons. Our website may contain electronic image requests (called a single-pixel gif or web beacon request) that allow us to count page views and access cookies. Any electronic image viewed as part of a web page (including an ad banner) can act as a web beacon. Our web beacons do not collect, gather, monitor, or share any of your personal information. We merely use them to compile anonymous information about our website.
  • Voluntarily. We may ask you to provide us certain optional information on a voluntary basis.
  • Consent to collection. We will get your consent to collect your personal information under applicable law when you provide us with it.
  • Purpose for collection. We may process your information for the purposes that you indicated when you agreed to provide it to us. Processing includes gathering your personal information, disclosing it, and combining it with other personal information.

Use

  • Obligations. We may process your personal information to fulfill our obligations to you.
  • Messages and updates. We may use your identifying information to send you administrative or update messages about our website or application.
  • Promotional messages. We may also sometimes send you promotional messages, but you may choose to opt-out of them.
  • Targeted content. We may use your personal information to provide you with targeted content through our website or application in a completely automated process.

Disclosure

  • Sharing. We may share your personal information with third parties for the purposes of fulfilling our obligations to you, including with:
    • other companies or divisions within our group;
    • our affiliates;
    • our goods or services providers who help us meet our obligations to you, including those that help us understand your personal information; or
    • third parties or regulators as required by applicable law.
  • Honour this policy. We will require anyone that we share your personal information with to honor this policy whenever possible in terms of applicable law.
  • Mandatory disclosure. We may disclose personal information to third parties if required for legal reasons, such as if required by the relevant authorities or a court order.
  • Marketing purposes. We may disclose aggregate statistical information that we derive from the personal information to our advertisers or business partners.
  • Personnel. We may need to disclose personal information to our personnel to do their jobs. But we will not do so unnecessarily.
  • No selling. We will not sell personal information. No personal information will be disclosed to anyone except as provided in this privacy policy.
  • Change of ownership. We may assign our rights to the personal information we process to our new owners if our ownership changes for any reason.

How we store your information

  • Retention. We will only keep your personal information for as long as is necessary to fulfill our obligations to you unless you have given us permission to keep it longer or we are otherwise legally allowed to do so.
  • Transfer. We may transfer your personal information outside of the country in which it was collected to a foreign country. You consent to us processing your personal information in a foreign country with less stringent data protection laws than the country in which it was collected.

Want to access or update your information?

  • Access. You may ask us to provide you with a description of the personal information that we hold on you, correct or update it or delete it (provided that we do not need it to fulfill our obligations to you or applicable law does not require us to keep it). We will take all reasonable steps to verify your identity before doing so. We may charge a fee to recoup our costs associated with this request if there is a cost to us associated with it and provided that applicable law allows us to do so. Please contact us with your name and any other information needed to identify you correctly if you want access to information or want us to correct, update, or delete it.
  • Accuracy. We will do our best to keep your personal information that we collect accurate, complete, and up to date.
  • Participation. We may ask you to update your personal information from time to time, but we will take steps to verify your identity to prevent unauthorized access when doing so.

How We Keep Your Information Secure

  • Information Security: We prioritize the security of personal information and diligently adhere to applicable data protection laws.
  • Hosting: Our website is hosted on secure servers equipped with firewalls and other advanced security measures to prevent unauthorized access or interference from external sources.
  • Disaster Recovery: We have implemented disaster recovery procedures as necessary to ensure the resilience and availability of our systems and data.
  • Notification of Breach: In the event that we have reasonable grounds to suspect unauthorized access to your personal information, we will promptly notify the relevant regulatory authorities and affected individuals, as required by law. If notification is necessary, we will provide sufficient information to enable individuals to take appropriate protective measures.

General

  • Updating or Removing: You have the option to update or remove your personal information by contacting us directly.
  • Limitation: We do not assume responsibility for the privacy policies or practices of third parties.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns regarding our privacy practices, please feel free to contact us at [email protected].