Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

This policy applies to internetbusiness.co.za, operated by Online Synergy CC (CK 2004/054474/23), trading as Internet Business SA, registered in Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa.

Our Information Officer is M. Bellinger. You can contact us about privacy matters through our contact page, by emailing [email protected]

2. Our PAIA Manual

As required by section 51 of the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000, Online Synergy CC maintains a PAIA Manual explaining how to request access to records we hold, including personal information. It covers what information we process, who we share it with, and how to submit a formal access request.

You can read the current manual here: Online Synergy CC PAIA Manual. You can also request a copy directly from our Information Officer using the details in section 1.

3. What This Policy Covers

This policy explains what personal information we collect when you visit this website, browse our free content, or buy a digital guide, why we collect it, who we share it with, and what rights you have over it under POPIA.

4. What Personal Information We Collect

5. Why We Process Your Information

• To fulfil an order placed directly on this site: when you buy one of our own digital guides here, processing your payment through our current payment processor, Ozow, delivering your guide, and providing customer support, necessary to perform our contract with you. If we add or move to a different payment processor in future, we'll update this section to name it.
• To respond to enquiries: answering questions sent through our contact page, based on your consent in contacting us.
• To send you email updates you've signed up for: if you join our mailing list through a signup form on the site, based on the consent you give at sign-up. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any email we send.
• To understand site traffic: using Google Analytics to see how visitors use the site, based on our legitimate interest in running and improving it.
• To show advertising on some pages: using Google AdSense on parts of the site that aren't related to buying a guide, based on our legitimate interest in supporting free content on the site. AdSense is disabled on the guide's landing, checkout, and policy pages.

Beyond the mailing list you choose to join, we don't use your information for direct marketing.

Some pages on this site include affiliate links to other companies' products or services. If you click through and buy something on their site, that purchase, including whichever payment processor they use (which may be Ozow, PayPal, ClickBank, or another provider depending on the merchant), is between you and that company, not us. See section 6 for how this affects what we do and don't receive.

The same principle applies if you buy one of our own guides through a third-party marketplace, such as Amazon, rather than directly on this site. That transaction, and any personal information you provide to complete it, is handled by that marketplace under its own privacy policy, not this one.

6. Who We Share It With

We share limited personal information with the following parties, only as needed to run the site, fulfil an order made directly on this site, or provide a service you've asked for:

• Ozow, our current payment processor for guides bought directly on this site, to process your payment. Ozow handles your banking details directly, we never receive them. If this changes, we'll update this list to name whichever processor we use.
• Our website and hosting providers, who store the site's data, including order records, on our behalf.
• WooCommerce, the platform that manages orders, downloads, and customer accounts on this site.
• Brevo, our email marketing platform, if you sign up to our mailing list. Brevo stores your email address and sends the communications you've opted into. See Brevo's privacy policy.
• Google, through Google Analytics (site traffic) and Google AdSense (advertising on non-guide pages). See Google's privacy policy.

Affiliate offers and third-party marketplaces work differently. When you buy through an affiliate link on this site, or buy one of our own guides through a marketplace like Amazon, you provide your personal and payment information directly to that merchant or platform, under their own privacy policy, not to us. We typically only receive confirmation that a sale happened, for commission or royalty tracking, and this usually doesn't include your personal details. We don't control, and aren't responsible for, how a third-party merchant, marketplace, or payment processor handles your information.

We don't sell your personal information to anyone.

7. Cookies and Similar Technology

This site uses cookies and similar technology for the following purposes:

• Functional cookies from WooCommerce, needed to run your shopping cart and checkout session. The site can't process an order without these.
• Performance and caching cookies from NitroPack, our site-speed optimisation tool, used to serve pages faster. These don't identify you personally.
• Analytics cookies from Google Analytics, used across the site to understand traffic and how visitors use it.
• Advertising cookies from Google AdSense, used on some content pages to show relevant ads. AdSense is disabled on the pages involved in buying a guide, including this one, the guide's landing page, and checkout.
• Mailing list cookies from Brevo, set only if you submit a signup form, used to manage your subscription and email preferences.

Most browsers let you block or delete cookies through their settings. Blocking essential cookies may stop checkout from working correctly. You can also opt out of Google's advertising cookies directly through Google's Ad Settings.

8. Cross-Border Storage

Some of the tools we use process personal information outside South Africa. Google (Analytics and AdSense) and Brevo both store and process data internationally as part of how their services work. Where that happens, we rely on those providers maintaining security and privacy standards consistent with POPIA's requirements for cross-border transfers, and on the safeguards each provider sets out in its own privacy policy, linked in section 6.

9. How Long We Keep Your Information

We keep order records for as long as required for tax, accounting, and legal purposes, generally 5 years, in line with SARS recordkeeping requirements. Contact form enquiries are kept only as long as needed to resolve them, unless you become a customer.

10. Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect your personal information against loss, unauthorised access, or misuse, including relying on Ozow's own security standards for payment data and standard website security practices for the information we hold directly. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we work to keep the risk as low as reasonably possible.

11. Your Rights Under POPIA

As a data subject under POPIA, you have the right to:

• Ask us what personal information we hold about you, and get a copy of it
• Ask us to correct information that's inaccurate or out of date
• Ask us to delete personal information we no longer have a valid reason to keep
• Object to us processing your information for a particular purpose
• Withdraw consent at any time where we rely on your consent, such as marketing emails

To exercise any of these rights, contact us through our contact page. We'll respond within a reasonable time, and in any case within the timeframes POPIA requires.

12. Children's Information

Our guides and this website are intended for adults. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children, and our purchase process assumes the buyer is 18 or older.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time as our business, our tools, or the law changes. We'll update the "last updated" date above whenever we do.

14. Lodging a Complaint

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your personal information, please contact us first so we can try to resolve it. If you're not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with South Africa's Information Regulator: