Privacy Policy

Business Name: Bel 'n Pel Dial a Buddy

Owner / Responsible Party: Juan Bester

WhatsApp: 071 034 9254

Email: [email protected]

Location: West Coast, Western Cape, South Africa

As the Responsible Party under POPIA, we determine the purpose and means of processing your personal information and are accountable for its lawful handling.

We process your personal information for the following lawful purposes:

• Service delivery: To process bookings, assign drivers, calculate fares, and confirm trips.
• Payment processing: To process payments via Yoco and manage Bel 'n Pel Wallet transactions.
• Driver management: To verify driver credentials, assign bookings, and process payouts.
• Account management: To create and manage customer, driver, and business accounts.
• Legal compliance: To comply with South African tax law (SARS), POPIA, and other applicable legislation.
• Safety and security: To prevent fraud, investigate disputes, and ensure platform integrity.
• Communication: To send booking confirmations, receipts, driver notifications, and service updates via WhatsApp.
• Marketing (with consent): To send promotional offers, broadcast messages, and service announcements to customers who have opted in.
• Business analytics: To analyse usage patterns and improve our services.
• Reviews: To publish customer reviews (including name and surname) on our website and marketing materials, as consented to in our Terms and Conditions.

Under POPIA, we process your personal information on the following grounds:

• Consent: You have given explicit consent (via POPIA acceptance in our WhatsApp bot or website registration) for us to process your information.
• Contractual necessity: Processing is necessary to fulfil a booking or service contract with you.
• Legal obligation: Processing is required to comply with applicable South African law.
• Legitimate interest: Processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided these do not override your rights.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We may share your information in the following limited circumstances:

• Drivers: Customer name, phone number, and pickup/drop-off address are shared with the assigned driver to facilitate the booking.
• Payment processors: Yoco receives payment information necessary to process transactions. Yoco's own privacy policy applies to this data.
• WhatsApp / Meta: Our bot operates on the WhatsApp Business API. Meta's privacy policy applies to WhatsApp message data.
• Travel service providers: For travel bookings, relevant personal information is shared with airlines, accommodation providers, car rental companies, and other third-party operators to fulfil your booking.
• Legal authorities: We may disclose information to law enforcement or regulatory authorities if required by law or to protect the safety of our users or the public.

We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected:

• Booking records: Minimum 5 years (for SARS compliance and dispute resolution)
• Payment records: Minimum 5 years (for SARS compliance)
• Driver documentation: Duration of active contractor relationship plus 3 years
• POPIA consent records: Indefinitely (as proof of consent)
• WhatsApp conversation history: 12 months rolling
• Inactive customer accounts: 3 years from last activity, then anonymised or deleted

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorised access, loss, destruction, or disclosure. These include:

• Encrypted database storage
• Secure HTTPS connections for all web traffic
• JWT-based session authentication
• Role-based access control (customers, drivers, admins)
• Bot API key authentication for all bot-to-website communications
• Regular security reviews

Despite these measures, no system is completely secure. In the event of a data breach that poses a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as required by POPIA.

You have the following rights regarding your personal information:

• Right to access: Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Right to correction: Request that inaccurate or incomplete information be corrected.
• Right to deletion: Request deletion of your personal information (subject to legal retention requirements).
• Right to object: Object to the processing of your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
• Right to withdraw consent: Withdraw consent for marketing communications at any time by replying "STOP" to any broadcast message or contacting us directly.
• Right to complain: Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa (inforeg.org.za) if you believe your rights have been violated.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at [email protected] or 071 034 9254.

Our website uses session cookies to maintain your login state. We do not use third-party advertising cookies. We use basic analytics to understand how visitors use our website. By using our website, you consent to our use of cookies as described in this policy.

Our services are not directed at children under 18 years of age without parental consent. Parents or guardians who add minors to a family wallet account consent to the collection and processing of the minor's information as described in this policy and accept full responsibility for the minor's use of the platform.