Privacy Policy

Dokter and Misses values the relationship we have with you, our customer, and we respect your right to privacy. The success of our business depends upon our ability to earn and maintain your trust.

Doc and Misses CC trading as Dokter and Misses (“we”, or “us”, “our”) is committed to protecting your privacy and to ensure that your personal information or personal data (“PI”) is collected and used properly, lawfully and transparently.

Our guarantee is that the Personal Information under our control will not be distributed, sold or shared with third parties other than for purposes specified in this policy. We will never sell your Personal Information for marketing purposes.

 

GENERAL

This Policy (“Policy”) outlines how we obtain, use and disclose your PI in accordance with the requirements of the Protection of Personal Information Act, 4 of 2013 (“POPIA”).

This policy applies to PI that we may process about any person visiting our online platforms and website, our customers, potential customers or prospects, or any person whose personal information we collect because of a relationship with our customer (for example a reference or beneficiary’s information received from a customer). By visiting our website, you agree to the terms of this Policy as updated from time to time.

 

REACH

This Policy applies to all data subjects (persons, whether a natural or juristic person, to whom PI relates) (“you”, “your”), whose PI we collect, regardless of the country where you live or work, as we are an international retailer.

This Policy applies to all PI, whether it was provided to us through our website or through any other form of communications with you such as email, telephone, or otherwise (“Channels”), through or by third parties or tools that collect PI.

 

THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT

The PI we collect about you is dependent on:

• the transaction you are completing,
• the reason you are communicating with us and
• the Channel used to communicate with us.

PI includes any information about a person that can be used to identify a person directly or indirectly. PI may include your: name, contact information including email address, postal address, physical address, primary and secondary telephone numbers, date of birth, language, gender, age, financial information (as required by law, relating to financial services and credit products and services), billing information, additional information which we are required or permitted by applicable legislation to collect and process, as well as information you elect to share publicly, including on social media and customer forums.

Information which is anonymous (i.e. which does not relate to any individual or from which no individual can be identified) does not fall within the ambit of Personal Information for the purposes of this Policy.

 

ACCEPTANCE

You must accept all the terms of this Policy when you order any of our products or, register for, or use the website, application or any of our services. By accepting this Policy, you are deemed to have read, understood, accepted, and agreed to be bound by all of its terms.

 

LEGAL CAPACITY

The age requirement for engaging with our Channels is 18 years of age. To the extent required by applicable law, users under the age of 18 years of age must obtain parental or guardian consent. We will afford the same level of protection to all PI processed, regardless of the age of the person the PI pertains to.

 

WHEN DO WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

We collect your PI when you:

• voluntarily provide us with information when you interact with us, for example when you send us online enquiries, or you subscribe to or consent to receiving newsletters or other communications from us;
• browse, visit or participate in our various Channels;
• register an online profile on our websites or apps to purchase our products;
• purchase, return, exchange or enquire about products and service from us;
• agree to the terms and conditions of services that contain provisions dealing with the use or disclosure of your PI;
• make general enquiries, lodge complaints, and communicate with us;

and

• participate in any of our events.

In certain instances, we collect Personal Information from third parties. We will only collect Personal Information this way for our legitimate business purposes, where such information is publicly available or where such collection is otherwise permitted under POPI. Examples include information collected from credit bureaus, fraud agencies, banks, friends or family.

We do not collect or retain your bank card details used to purchase products or services. This information is collected by financial institutions that have their own privacy policies.

 

COOKIES POLICY

We make use of cookies only for our legitimate business purposes and as set out in this policy and to enhance and simplify your retail and website browsing experience.  All such use is in strict compliance with POPI.

A cookie is a small text file that is stored on your computer or mobile device when you use it. Cookies hold information such as the identity of the computer or device you used to access our Channels, your server address, domain name, the time and date that you visited our Channels, pages, product and documentation that you accessed or viewed and which internet browser you used.

We do this so that we can:

• provide you with more personalised service, communication and products by better understanding your browsing and purchasing behaviour;
• track, count and analyse website visits and usage data;
• understand product preferences and popularity; and
• improve our websites and your online shopping experience.

You can easily erase cookies from your computer or mobile device using your browser. For instructions on how to handle and delete cookies please look under “Help” in your browser. You can choose to disable cookies, or to receive a notification each time a new cookie is sent to your computer or mobile device. Please note that if you choose to disable cookies, you will not be able to take advantage of all our features.

 

WEBSITE LINKS

Our website may contain links to other sites that are not under our control. These will have their own policies regarding privacy, which you should review before visiting them. We cannot take responsibility for linked Websites and provide these links solely for the convenience and information of our visitors.

 

THIRD-PARTY SERVICES

In addition to the above, our website uses Google Analytics for tracking, along with an AMP Client ID, for consistency in data collection when our website is used. How Google uses the data, and the information on opting out of analytics tracking can be found at the following link: 

https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites

We have engaged with Google to provide advertisements online on our behalf and to provide us with analytics services. We use cookies that are anonymous to gather information around a user’s past visits to our website and use this information to deliver relevant remarketing and advertising through third party vendors, including Google.

You can choose to opt out of the Google Analytics and Google Display Network Advertising by heading over to the Google Ad Preferences Manager at https://support.google.com.

 

BEHAVIOURAL ADVERTISING 

As described above, we use your Personal Information to provide you with targeted advertisements or marketing communications we believe may be of interest to you. For more information about how targeted advertising works, you can visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s (“NAI”) educational page at:

http://www.networkadvertising.org/understanding-online-advertising/how-does-it-work.

You can opt out of targeted advertising by using the links below:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=ads
• Google: https://www.google.com/settings/ads/anonymous
• Bing: https://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/policies/personalized-ads

Additionally, you can opt out of some of these services by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out portal at: http://optout.aboutads.info/.

 

DO NOT TRACK

Please note that we do not alter our Site’s data collection and use practices when we see a Do Not Track signal from your browser.

 

PROCESSING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Processing includes gathering your personal data, disclosing it, and combining it with other personal information. We collect and process your PI to: -

• provide our goods and services to you;
• communicate with you regarding new product features, personalised products, services, offers and events that we think may be of interest to you;
• analyse, develop, continually improve and enhance the use, functionality and performance of our websites and apps, products and services to manage the security of our sites, networks and systems;
• comply with applicable laws, including our obligations to make disclosures to authorities, regulators and government bodies; and
• engage in our legitimate business, related interests, and legal purposes, including but not limited to detecting and preventing fraud and conducting our business as a furniture and homeware retailer.

We will not use your PI other than for the purpose for which it was provided or collected, and in accordance with our legitimate interests and legal obligations.

 

DISCLOSING PERSONAL INFORMATION

We may provide access to or share some of your PI, when necessary and for the reasons that it was provided or collected, to:

• our associates, other divisions or companies within the group of companies to which we belong, 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;
• our merchandise suppliers, service providers, auditors, constants and agents if they are required under contract to process it for us or to provide services for or to us, including product deliveries and returns, e-mail service providers, analytics companies, distribution and courier companies, information hosting, communication providers, development and administration, information technology and related infrastructure services, technical support and other support services relating to our legitimate business interests and our contractual obligations to you (our contracts dictate that these merchandise suppliers or service providers only use your information in connection with the goods they supply or services they perform for us and not for their own benefit);
• credit bureaus to report account information, as permitted by law;
• banking partners as required by credit card association rules for inclusion on their list of terminated merchants (in the event that you utilise the services to receive payments and you meet their criteria); and
• other third parties who provide us with relevant services where appropriate.

SENDING PERSONAL INFORMATION OUTSIDE OF SOUTH AFRICA

Your PI will be processed mainly in South Africa where our support centre is located, however certain PI may be transferred to countries outside of South Africa, for example where we make use of cloud based software services, in which case we will ensure that the necessary security measures are in place relating to the processing and storage of your PI.

 

CHANGE OF OWNERSHIP

We may share PI with third parties in the event of a reorganisation, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other type of sale of all or any portion of our business, assets or stock.

 

REGULATORS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT

We may provide access to or share your PI as required by law, court order or other lawful reasons, where we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to government requests, including public and government authorities.

When we share or provide access to your PI with third parties, they are contractually restricted from using or disclosing your PI except as necessary to perform services on our behalf or to comply with legal requirements.

 

ACCURATE AND UP TO DATE

We want to ensure that your Personal Information is accurate and up to date. You may ask us to update, correct or delete your personal information. We will require a copy of your ID document to confirm your identity before making changes to personal information we may hold about you. We would appreciate it if you would keep your personal information accurate.

You have the right to request us to provide you with Personal Information that we hold about you. You must contact us directly to do so or send an email to the address below and if our business operations and the law require and/or allow us to provide it to you, we will provide the record of your Personal Information within a reasonable time of receiving your request.

 

STORAGE, RETENTION AND DELETION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We will keep your PI for different periods of time depending on the use or purpose your PI was provided or collected for, as well as your preferences regarding marketing, recruitment and other correspondence.

Once the relevant purpose has been satisfied, we will securely delete your Personal Information unless we are required to retain a copy of such information under applicable law. We may keep Personal Information indefinitely in a de-identified format for statistical purposes, in which event it ceases to be Personal Information. This privacy policy also applies when we retain your Personal Information.

 

SECURING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We take the security of personal data very seriously and always do our best to comply with applicable data protection laws. We secure the integrity and confidentiality of your PI that is in our possession and under our control by taking the appropriate reasonable technical and organisational measures to prevent loss, damage, unauthorised destruction, unlawful access, or unlawful processing of your PI. We authorise access to PI only for those employees who require it to fulfil their job responsibilities. In doing so we have due regard to generally accepted industry information security practices and procedures.

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 will ensure that anyone to whom we pass your personal information agrees to treat your information with the same level of protection as we are obliged to.

 

RIGHT TO OBJECT

You may, on reasonable grounds, object to us processing your Personal Information, including to object to information being processed for direct marketing purposes. If you object, we will stop processing your Personal Information, except if POPI or any other applicable law allows its continued use.

 

SECURITY BREACHES

Should we have reasonable grounds to believe that your PI has been accessed or acquired by any unauthorised person, we will, as soon as is reasonably possible and lawfully required, notify the applicable regulator, as well as yourself, unless we are unable to establish the identity of the PI that has been unlawfully accessed.

 

LIMITATION

We are not responsible for, give no warranties, nor make any representations in respect of the privacy policies or practices of linked or any third-party websites.

 

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

This privacy Policy is effective as of 1 July 2021. The latest version of our Privacy Policy is always available on our website. We may need to update or change our Policy from time to time, and we will notify you regarding any material changes to this Policy using the channels that we normally use to communicate.

 

DISPUTE RESOLUTION OR LODGING A COMPLAINT

For more information about our privacy practices, if you have questions, or if you would like to make a complaint, please contact us by e‑mail at info@dokterandmisses.com or by mail using the details provided below:

Dokter and Misses

[Re: Privacy Compliance Officer]

16 Betty Street, Johannesburg, 2094

 

We will review your concerns and try to resolve any complaint relating to the protection of PI, in this Policy and applicable law.

We will acknowledge your request as required under applicable data protection laws. However, the rights mentioned in this Policy are not absolute: the rights do not always apply, and exemptions may be applicable. We will ask you to verify your identity and/or ask you for information to assist us in better understanding your request. In the event we do not comply with your request, we will explain why.

You may lodge a complaint to the Information Regulator (South Africa) with the following contact details:

 

Address: SALU Building, 316 Thabo Sehume Street, Pretoria

Contact number: 012 406 4818

Fax number: 086 500 3351

Email: inforeg@justice.gov.za

 

Policy updated 01/10/2021