Your privacy matters a great deal to us, and we intend to protect your personal data the same way we’d want ours to be protected. This policy explains how we do that. It also outlines your and our rights and obligations, and how the law protects you.

Purpose of this Privacy Policy

2.1. Kin is intended for people older than 18 years. Therefore we don’t knowingly collect data relating to children.

2.2. From time to time we may provide additional information about how and why we use your data.  That information doesn’t override this policy, or vice-versa. They should be read in combination.

Responsibility

2.3. Kin is responsible for your personal data. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or want to exercise your legal rights, please contact our data protection officer (DPO) using the contact details below.

Our Contact Details

2.4. Our full details are:

2.4.1. Full name of legal entity: Kin Digital (Pty) Ltd

2.4.2. Name of DPO: Dennis Williams

2.4.3. Email address: help@kin.me

2.4.4. Postal address: 2nd Floor, 36 Buitenkant St, Cape Town, 8000

Complaints

2.5. You have the right to make complaints to your country’s specific regulator’s office (such as the South African Information Regulator’s Office). However, we’d be grateful if you get in touch with us before you do that so we have the chance to deal with your concerns first.

Changes to the Privacy Policy

2.6. This Privacy Policy version was last updated on 8 August 2019. We archive historic versions and can make them available to you if you contact us.

Your Duty to Inform us of Changes

2.7. It’s important that the personal data we have about you is accurate and current, so please let us know if it changes.

Third Party Links

2.8. Kin may include links to third party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We have no control over these third parties, so if you engage with any of them, we encourage you to read their privacy policies.

3.1.1 Personal data or information is anything that can identify you.

3.2. The kinds of personal data we may collect, use, store and transfer include:

3.2.1. Identity Data such as first name, maiden name, last name, username, marital status, title, date of birth and gender;

3.2.2. Contact Data including billing, delivery and email addresses and telephone numbers;

3.2.3. Financial Data including bank account and payment card details;

3.2.4. Transaction Data including details about payments to and from you, and products or services you get from us;

3.2.5. Technical Data, which includes internet protocol addresses, login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, device data, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access Kin;

3.2.6. Profile Data including your username, password, interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses;

3.2.7. Usage Data about how you use Kin;

3.2.8. Marketing and Communications Data including your preferences for receiving marketing from us and our third parties, and your communication preferences.

3.3.We may also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic information. Aggregated data may be derived from your personal data but it does not reveal your identity. (For example, we may aggregate your usage data together with that of other customers to calculate the percentage of customers accessing a specific Website feature.) If we do combine or connect aggregated data with your personal data so that it can identify you, we treat it as personal data and will only use it in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

3.4.We do not collect any Special Categories of personal data about you (for example, details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, health, genetic or biometric data, criminal convictions or offences).

3.5. If we need to collect personal data by law or under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you don’t provide it, we may not be able to fulfil the contract and may have to cancel your access to Kin, but we will notify you at the time.

4.1. We collect data from and about you in different ways, such as:

4.1.1 Direct interactions: You may give us your identity, contact and financial data when you: register on or use our website, fill in website forms, create a Profile, subscribe to or use Kin, ask for support or marketing, give us feedback or correspond with us.

4.1.2. Automated technologies or interactions: When you interact with Kin, we may automatically collect technical data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. We may also get technical data about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies. 

4.1.3. Cookies: Kin may make use of “cookies” to automatically collect information and data. Cookies are small text files that we can use to recognise you, facilitate your on-going use of Kin, track your usage behaviour, aggregate data to improve our functionality and content, and to display more focused advertising to you. Cookies are not used to personally identify you. Most applications or devices allow you to disable the use of cookies, but if you do, your access to Kin or some features may be limited. If you do not disable cookies, we assume that we have your consent to use of any personal information collected using cookies, subject to the other provisions in this policy.

5.1. We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to and for legitimate reasons. The most common circumstances for us to do that are when:

5.1.1. we need to fulfil our contract with you;

5.1.2. it is necessary for our or a third party’s legitimate interests, and your interests and rights don’t override them;

5.1.3. we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation. 

5.2. The table below describes all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are, where appropriate. We may use your personal data for more than one reason or purpose depending on the circumstances. Please contact us if you’d like more details or information.

5.3. Marketing: We want to give you a choice about how your personal data is used for marketing purposes. There will usually be in-built prompts at the appropriate times, or you can contact us.

5.4 Promotional Offers from us: We may use your data to make assumptions about what you may want, need or find interesting or relevant. You may get marketing from us if you’ve asked for information, registered with or used Kin and have not opted out of getting that marketing. 

5.5. Third Party Marketing: We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any company outside of Kin.

5.6. Opting Out: You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing at any time by logging into Kin and adjusting your marketing preferences, by following opt-out links on any marketing message you get, or by contacting us. Opting out does not apply to personal data you give us by using Kin.

5.7. Change of purpose  

5.7.1. We will only use your personal data for the reasons we collected it, unless we believe there are other good and compatible reasons. We will explain how and why we think new reasons are compatible if you contact us.

5.7.2. If we need to use your personal data for other reasons, we will let you know and will explain why we can legally do so.

5.7.3. We may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, if required or permitted by law.

6.1. We may have to share your personal data with internal, external or specific third parties (please see the glossary) for reasons explained in the table above.

6.2. We may have to share it with third parties if we sell, transfer, or merge parts of Kin with them, or if we buy other businesses. New owners may use your personal data in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

6.3. We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes, and only let them process it for specified purposes and in line with our instructions and standards.

7.1. We may share your personal data within Kin, and this might involve transferring your data outside of South Africa. If this happens, we make sure your data is protected by implementing at least one of these safeguards:

7.1.1. We will only transfer your personal data to countries that the European Commission believes provides adequate protection.

7.1.2. Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved by the European Commission, which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe.

7.1.3. Where we use providers based in the US, we may transfer data to them if they are part of the Privacy Shield, which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between the Europe and the US.

7.2. Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of South Africa.

8.1. We have security measures in place to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, accessed, used, changed or disclosed in any way that is unauthorised. We also limit access to your personal data to employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

8.2. We have procedures in place to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach when we are legally required to.

9.1. We will only keep your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

9.2. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the purposes we process your data for and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

9.3. You can contact us to get details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data.

9.4. In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data. (Please see below for more information.)

9.5. We may anonymise your personal data (so that it can’t be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes. In these cases we may use the information indefinitely and without notifying you.

10.1. Data protection laws give you rights in relation to your personal data under certain circumstances. For example, you can: ask for access to your personal data; ask for it to be corrected, transferred or erased; object to, or ask to restrict, it being processed; withdraw consent. Please contact us to find out more and see “Your legal rights” at the bottom of this document. 

10.2. You will not have to pay for any of these, but we may charge a reasonable fee or refuse to comply if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive.

10.3. We may need specific information from you to confirm your identity and ensure that your personal data is not disclosed to anyone who has no right to receive it. We may also need other information to speed up our response to your request.

10.4. We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. If your request is complex, or there are several requests, it may take us longer, in which case, we will notify you.

11.1. You have the right to request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

11.2. You can request the correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

11.3. You can ask for your personal data to be erased. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us to continue processing it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data if you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

11.4. You can object to the processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which you feel impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object if we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

11.5. You can request that the processing of your personal data be restricted. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:

11.5.1. you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; 

11.5.2. our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; 

11.5.3. you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims;

11.5.4. you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

11.6. You can request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide you, or a third party you have chosen, with your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to fulfil a contract with you.

11.7. You can withdraw your consent at any time if we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain Website access or Services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

12.1. Lawful basis:
12.1.1 Legitimate Interest” means conducting our business in ways that enable us to give you the best and most secure service and experience. We consider potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data if our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are required or permitted to by law). You can get more information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.

12.1.2. “Performance of Contract” means processing your data when necessary, or taking steps, to fulfil a contract with you. 

12.1.3. “Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation” means processing your personal data in order to comply with something we are legally obliged to. 

12.2. Third parties:

12.2.1. “Internal Third Parties” means other companies who act as joint controllers or processors of Kin (such as Alexander Forbes Group Holdings Limited, Reg # 2006/025226/06), who are based in South Africa and who provide IT and system administration services and undertake leadership reporting.

12.2.2.“External Third Parties” means:

12.2.2.1. service providers acting as processors based in South Africa who provide IT, payment and system administration services (such as Peach Payments and Paysoft); 

12.2.2.2. professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers, including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based in South Africa who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services as required;

12.2.2.3. South African, UK or European Union regulators and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the United Kingdom or European Union who may require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances;

12.2.2.4. Service providers based outside South Africa, acting as processers who provide communication services such as newsletters, usage reporting and other administration services. These include but are not limited to: 

12.2.2.4.1. Mailchimp (The Rocket Science Group, LLC), which we use to manage email marketing subscriber lists and send emails to our subscribers. 

12.2.2.4.2. Google, LLC, which provides our email service. We also use Google Analytics service to measure the performance of this website and our apps.

12.2.2.4.3. Squarespace, Inc., whose software (and associated add-ons) we use to manage the content of this website.

12.2.2.4.4. Zendesk, Inc., whose software (and associated add-ons) we use to manage the content of the community portal part of this website.

12.2.2.4.5. Firebase, a subsidiary of Google LLC, whose software we use in developing and providing the services provided by the Kin apps.