Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Print.co.za (“we”, “us”, “our”) is committed to protecting your personal information in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA), the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 (ECTA), and other applicable South African and international legislation. This policy explains how we collect, use, store, share, and protect your information when you use our website, services, and any related applications.

By using our website and services, you consent to the collection and use of your information as described in this policy. If you do not agree, please do not use our services.

2. Information we collect

We collect the following categories of information:

Information you provide directly: When you submit a quote request, contact form, or supplier application, we collect your name, email address, phone number (if provided), city, province, the type of print products you are looking for, project specifications, and any additional details you include in your message.

Conversation data: When you interact with our AI-powered assistant, the content of your conversation is processed to understand your requirements and generate a structured brief. Conversations may be stored to improve our service quality.

Technical data: We automatically collect your IP address, browser type and version, device information, operating system, referring website, pages visited, time spent on pages, and other diagnostic data. This information is collected through server logs and analytics tools.

Cookies and tracking data: We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to collect information about your browsing activity on our website. See Section 7 (Cookies and Tracking) for details.

3. How we use your information

We use your information for the following purposes:

Service delivery: To match you with print suppliers in your area, forward your requirements to relevant suppliers, and send you confirmation of your request.

AI processing: To process your inputs through our AI assistant, generate structured project briefs, and provide relevant suggestions and pricing estimates. Our AI assistant uses third-party artificial intelligence services to process conversations. While we strive for accuracy, AI-generated responses may contain errors or inaccuracies. You are always asked to review and confirm information before it is submitted.

Communication: To send you transactional emails (quote confirmations, supplier notifications), respond to your enquiries, and provide customer support.

Marketing and advertising: With your consent or where permitted by law, we may use your information to send you marketing communications about our services, promotions, or related offerings. You may opt out of marketing communications at any time.

Analytics and improvement: To analyse usage patterns, understand market trends, improve our website and services, develop new features, and measure the effectiveness of our marketing efforts.

Legal and compliance: To comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our terms, and protect our rights and the rights of others.

4. Sharing your information

With print suppliers: When you submit a quote request, we share your name, email address, phone number (if provided), city, product type, specifications, and message with print suppliers matched to your request. This is the core function of our service and is necessary to provide you with quotes.

With third-party service providers: We use third-party services for hosting, database management, email delivery, AI processing, analytics, and other operational functions. These providers process your data on our behalf and are contractually obligated to protect it. We do not disclose the identity of specific providers for security reasons.

With advertising partners: We may share anonymised or aggregated data with advertising partners for the purpose of delivering targeted advertising on our website or other platforms. We may also use remarketing and retargeting technologies that collect data about your browsing activity. You can opt out of personalised advertising through your browser settings or the relevant advertising platform.

For legal reasons: We may disclose your information if required by law, court order, or government regulation, or if we believe disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, your safety, or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to a law enforcement request.

Business transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition, reorganisation, bankruptcy, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your information may be transferred to the acquiring entity.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties for their own marketing purposes without your explicit consent.

5. Artificial intelligence

Our website uses an AI-powered assistant to help you describe your print requirements. Please be aware of the following:

The AI assistant uses third-party artificial intelligence technology to process your inputs and generate responses. Your conversation data is sent to third-party AI service providers for processing.

AI-generated responses, including product suggestions, pricing estimates, and specifications, are provided for convenience and informational purposes only. They may contain errors, inaccuracies, or omissions. We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any AI-generated content.

You are solely responsible for reviewing, verifying, and confirming all information before it is submitted. We accept no responsibility or liability for any loss, damage, or inconvenience caused by reliance on AI-generated content.

We may store conversation data to improve our AI assistant and overall service quality. Conversation data is subject to the same security measures as all other personal data we collect.

6. Data storage and security

Your data is stored securely using industry-standard encryption and access controls provided by third-party cloud infrastructure providers. We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction.

These measures include encryption of data in transit and at rest, access controls and authentication for administrative systems, rate limiting and spam detection to prevent abuse, regular review of security practices, and input sanitisation to prevent injection attacks.

While we take reasonable steps to protect your information, no method of electronic storage or transmission over the internet is completely secure. We cannot guarantee the absolute security of your data.

Your data may be stored on servers located outside of South Africa. By using our services, you consent to the transfer of your data to jurisdictions that may have different data protection laws than South Africa. We take steps to ensure that any international transfers comply with applicable data protection requirements.

7. Cookies and tracking

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies on our website. Cookies are small text files stored on your device that help us provide and improve our services.

Essential cookies: Required for the basic functioning of the website, such as authentication, security, and session management. These cannot be disabled.

Analytics cookies: Used to understand how visitors interact with our website, which pages are most popular, and how visitors navigate the site. This data helps us improve the user experience. We may use third-party analytics providers for this purpose.

Advertising and remarketing cookies: We may use cookies from third-party advertising networks to deliver personalised advertisements to you on our website and on other websites you visit. These cookies collect information about your browsing habits to make advertising more relevant to you. We may also use remarketing technologies to show you advertisements after you have visited our website.

Performance and functionality cookies: Used to enhance the performance and functionality of our website, such as remembering your preferences and settings.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to refuse cookies, delete existing cookies, or alert you before a cookie is set. However, disabling cookies may affect the functionality of our website.

8. Data retention

We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. Specifically:

Quote request data is retained for a period necessary to facilitate the quoting process and for our internal records and analytics. Contact form submissions are retained until the enquiry is resolved and for a reasonable period thereafter. Supplier application data is retained for the duration of the supplier relationship and for a reasonable period after termination. Conversation data from the AI assistant may be retained for service improvement purposes.

When personal information is no longer required, we will securely delete or anonymise it.

9. Your rights under POPIA

As a data subject under POPIA, you have the following rights:

The right to be notified that your personal information is being collected and the purpose for which it is being collected. The right to access the personal information we hold about you. The right to request correction of inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out-of-date, incomplete, misleading, or unlawfully obtained personal information. The right to request deletion or destruction of your personal information that is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it was collected. The right to object to the processing of your personal information. The right to not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing. The right to submit a complaint to the Information Regulator if you believe your rights have been infringed.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details on our contact page. We will respond to your request within a reasonable time and no later than the timeframes required by applicable law.

10. Children’s privacy

Our services are not directed at children under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child, we will take steps to delete that information promptly.

11. Third-party links

Our website may contain links to third-party websites, services, or content. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these third parties. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party website you visit.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technologies, legal requirements, or other factors. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated revision date. Your continued use of our website and services after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

13. Contact

If you have questions about this privacy policy, wish to exercise your rights, or have concerns about how we handle your personal information, please contact us through our contact page.