Terms, Conditions & Privacy Policy

Terms, Conditions & Privacy Policy

1. Introduction 

This is the Privacy Notice of Estate Asset Research Proprietary Limited (“EAR”) available on www.asset-research.co.za (“Website”), which applies to the personal information of EAR customers, suppliers, business partners and prospective employees. EAR respects privacy rights and complies with all laws in respect of the handling of personal information, including collection, use, storage, sharing and disposal. This Privacy Notice helps you understand how EAR handles personal information when you use the Website or interact with the company in other ways such as at our offices, over the telephone or via email.

This Privacy Notice does not apply to any third-party websites which may be accessible through hyper links on the Website. EAR makes no representations or warranties about the privacy practices of any third party and does not accept any responsibility for the privacy practices of, or content displayed on, third party websites. Third party website providers are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices.

Persons using the Website for any reason whatsoever subject themselves to and agree to the terms and conditions, disclaimer and privacy and security policy of EAR when accessing the Website. 

2. Changes to Privacy Notice and Website Information

EAR may change or update this Privacy Notice from time to time. Any updated versions of this Privacy Notice will be posted on the website and will be effective from the date of posting. Where practical, and at EARs discretion, notice of the change will be displayed on the Website. 

EAR expressly reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to alter and/or amend any criteria or information set out on the Website without prior notice. The user undertakes to check the content of the website and to acquaint themselves with the changes and/or amendments in the information supplies on the website. 

3. Personal information handled by EAR

When used in this Notice, the term “personal information” has the meaning given to it in the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (“POPIA”). Personal information is any information that can be used to personally identify a natural or juristic person.

We may collect, use, store and otherwise handle by any means (also known as “processing”) the following personal information, whether that information is provided by you or by a third party: 
  • Your biographical information: Including your name, gender, date of birth, language, nationality
  • Your contact information: Including your telephone number(s), address, email address, country of residence
  • Communications: Including correspondence with you
  • Website information: Including information collected through cookies when you use the Website to which our cookies policy applies, or other information you provide to us using our website. 
EAR may use information for non-personal statistical purposes and retains the copyright in databases of personal information of users. 

4. Personal Information of Third Parties

You should not disclose the personal information of third parties to EAR unless:
  • you are permitted by the third party to disclose their personal information to EAR
  • you have brought this privacy policy to the attention of the third party 
In the event that you are providing the personal information of a third party, it is required that they receive a copy of this Privacy Notice to ensure that the individual has been made aware of the conditions under which their personal information will be handled by EAR. Confirmation of compliance with this requirement will be assumed. 

5. How does EAR collect and handle your personal information?

EAR collects your personal information directly in the following ways, namely:
  • access to and use of the Website or any of our mobile platforms or applications; 
  • visit EAR’s offices or other premises;
  • register an account with us;
  • obtain any services from EAR;
  • address a query to us;
  • interact with us on social media; or through direct messaging systems
  • apply to EAR for employment;
  • communicate with EAR in any way; and
  • have a business relationship with EAR
EAR also collects your personal information from third parties when they enquire about services EAR delivers.

6. What if you do not permit EAR to collect your personal information?

If you do not provide EAR with your personal information where EAR requires it, you may not be able to obtain or make use of the services EAR, deliver or do business with EAR, apply to EAR for employment, enter EAR’s premises or access certain portions of the Website or EAR’s mobile platform and applications. This may restrict your dealings with EAR.

7. Purposes of handling personal information

The law permits us to handle personal information where there is a lawful purpose and justification for doing so. Justifications include where we have your consent, where it is necessary to perform or conclude a contract with you, where it is in our or your legitimate interests or where the law requires us to do so. 

The purposes for which we handle personal information are set out below. EAR will only handle your personal information for the purposes for which we have obtained it and on a grounds of justification stated in POPIA. 

The purposes include: 
  • To manage our relationship with you: To ensure compliance with laws and to be able conduct our business with you, engage with you, or market and provide our services to you, authenticate your identity, to enable us to communicate with you and provide information to you and keep our records updated. 
  • Justification: To comply with the law including the following laws and their regulations: Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act 37 of 2002, Companies Act 71 of 2008; Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, 2003; Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993; Value Added Tax Act, 1991; Consumer Protection Act, 2008; Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002. To conclude or perform in terms of a contract with you; (iii) Your consent where we ask for it and no other ground of justification applies.
  • To manage recruitment: Including eligibility for work, processing job applications, vetting, hires.
  • Justification: Your consent 
  • To comply with policies including monitoring: Including in relation to claims, or legal processes or requirements and conducting investigations and incident response. We may conduct limited monitoring in accordance with the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-related Information Act, 2002 or our IT policy or you consent.
  • Justification: Our legitimate interest; Your consent where we ask for it and no other ground of justification applies.
  • To comply with our legal obligations and to change our business structure: We collect personal information to comply with the following laws and their regulations that govern the financial sector: Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act 37 of 2002, Companies Act 71 of 2008. We also collect personal information to deal with claims for compensation. We may disclose your personal information in connection with proceedings or investigations anywhere in the world to third parties, such as public authorities, law enforcement agencies, regulators and third-party litigants (these third parties will handle your personal information for their own purposes and not on our instructions). We may also provide your personal information to any potential acquirer of or investor EAR for the purpose of that acquisition or investment.
  • Justification: to enable us to comply with legal obligations; our legitimate interest. 
  • To monitor equal opportunities for prospective employees and our suppliers: Managing race, gender, and disability information as part of our equal opportunities monitoring processes. 
  • Justification: To comply with the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, 2003, our legitimate interest.
  • Generally, where you are our supplier, we handle your personal information on the basis that it is necessary to do so in connection with our contract with you. We may also handle your personal information to further our legitimate interests, such as to optimise the working environment, and our other business interests or in terms of the law. In all instances we will have a lawful justification to handle your personal information.

8. To whom does EAR disclose your personal information to?
 
EAR may disclose your personal information to: 
  • our employees, affiliates, contractors or third-party service providers; 
  • persons to which we transfer our rights and obligations under our contracts with you; 
  • our insurers and our professional advisors, including our accountants, lawyers, business advisors and consultants; 
  • employment agencies, past employers or companies that contracted you to us, credit bureaux, anti-fraud agencies, sanctions and politically exposed person screening lists; 
  • our suppliers 
  • law enforcement or regulatory bodies; and 
  • any other juristic or natural person for any authorised purpose with your consent. 
EAR hereby confirms that no personal information will ever be sold to third parties.

9. Direct Marketing 

If you are a customer of EAR we may send you marketing communications from time to time that that may be of interest to you. Each time you receive such a communication from us, there will be a simple and convenient method of opting out of receiving future marketing communications from us.

If you are not a customer of EAR we may request your permission to send you marketing communications from time to time that may be of interest to you. If you decline the request, EAR will not send you marketing communications.

10. Storage of Information

We may hold personal information in either electronic or hard copy form. In both cases we will take reasonable and appropriate steps to ensure that the personal information is protected from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. We keep personal information for as long as we need to achieve the purpose for which it was collected and any other permitted linked purpose (for example your personal information which is relevant to a transaction may be retained until the time limit for claims in respect of the transaction has expired or to comply with regulatory requirements regarding the retention of such information). If personal information is handled for 2 purposes, we will retain it until the purpose with the latest period expires but we will stop using it for the purpose with a shorter period once that period expires. Personal information is destroyed or irreversibly anonymised when no longer needed or when we are no longer required by law to retain it (whichever is the later). We restrict access to the personal information to those authorised persons who need to use it for the relevant purpose(s).

11. Security of Information 

Users undertake not to divulge their username and passwords to any other person. It is expressly prohibited for any person, business, or entity to gain or attempt to deliver any unauthorized, damaging or malicious code to this Website. Any person who delivers or attempts to gain unauthorized access to any page on this website shall be held criminally liable, and in the event that EAR should suffer any damage or loss, civil damages will be claimed. 

12. The user’s rights

You have the right to contact EAR at any time requesting:
  • confirmation that EAR has your personal information; 
  • access to the records containing your personal information or a description of the personal information that we hold about you; and 
  • the identity or categories of third parties who have had, or currently have, access to your personal information. 
  • you also have the right to object to our handling of your personal information on reasonable grounds where our justification for doing so is our or your legitimate interests. 
  • there may be instances where we cannot grant you access to your personal information. For example, if your access would interfere with the privacy of others or would result in a breach of confidentiality, we may need to refuse access. If we refuse access, we will give written reasons for our refusal. 
  • if you believe that any personal information that we hold about you is inaccurate, irrelevant, outdated, incomplete or misleading, you may request us to correct it. If you believe that any personal information that we hold about you is excessive or has been unlawfully obtained or that we are no longer authorised to retain the information, you may request that we destroy or delete it. We will consider if the information requires correction, deletion or destruction and if we do not agree that there are grounds for action, you may request that we add a note to the personal information stating that you disagree with it. 
  • We may charge a reasonable fee to cover our administrative and other reasonable costs in providing the information to you. We will not charge you for simply making the request or for us making any corrections to the personal information. 
  • You also have the right to complain to the Information Regulator where you believe that we are not handling your personal information in accordance with the law. Complaints may be sent to the following email address: complaints.ir@justice.gov.za. 

13. Contact Information

Should you feel the need to contact EAR with regard to your personal information or to exercise your rights please feel free to contact info@asset-research.co.za or Jameel Bulbulia at jameelb@asset-research.co.za


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