1. Introduction
Thinkst Applied Research (also referred to as “us”, “we” or “our”) respects the Privacy of our users (“user” and/or “you”) and also recognises its responsibility to Personal Information protection in order to minimise any compromise to the protection of Personal Information that is collected.
As such, Thinkst Applied Research respects the right to privacy and confidentiality of our potential and existing customer’s Personal Information.
We urge all employees, customers, prospective customers, third parties, business partners, visitors and any other interested parties to ensure that they have read this Privacy Notice that applies to all users visiting our website.
This Privacy Notice explains how we process (collect, use, share, retain and dispose) your Personal Information when you visit our websites (https://thinkst.com/ & https://canary.tools) and its related pages.
Thinkst Applied Research acknowledges the organisation’s responsibility to align information processing and security practices with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), the Protection of Personal Information Act, No. 04 of 2013 (“POPIA”) and Privacy related legislation (hereafter “Privacy requirements”).
3.Who does this Policy Apply to?
This Privacy Notice applies to all prospective, present and past Thinkst Applied Research stakeholders, including, but not limited to, the following:
- Visitors of our website
- Employees (including permanent, temporary or contract employees)
- Customers/Prospective Customers
- Third parties and/or Business Partners
- Interest Candidates (Potential Employees)
- Any other interested parties
Note: All of the above collectively referred to as “you”
4. Collection of Your Personal Information
The section below outlines the various ways and the type of Personal Information that can be collected from you:
-
Should you contact us in order to obtain additional information related to our products and services, the following Personal Information may be collected:
- Name & Surname
- Contact Number
- PO Box Address
- Physical Address
- Email Address
-
Dependent on the reason for your engagement with us, the following additional Personal Information may be collected
- Personal Information which may include name and surname.
- Contact details which may include email address and mobile number.
- Other relevant Information in order to conduct business with you.
- Any information which you are asked for when enquiring about our products and services.
- A list of the products and/or services where you indicate an interest in or have made use of.
-
We may collect Personal Information in the following ways:
- When you send us an email related to any request (email addresses that are provided on the website).
- When you request information via our website form.
- When you generate an online quote from the Thinkst Applied Research website quote page.
You supply your Personal Information to us voluntarily. However, failure to provide us with the required Personal Information may result in you not being able to access the service provided.
5. Consent
The collection of Personal Information on prospects, customers, and others with whom Thinkst Applied Research does business, is customary and expected. However, Thinkst Applied Research will not collect Personal Information from prospects or customers without having obtained their knowledge and consent.
By submitting your details and/or using our website you accept the terms and conditions of the policy and explicitly consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your Personal Information in the manner described below.
With regards to external sources, you agree to allow us to collect further information about you from external sources (Our Resellers), for the sole purpose of ensuring that our information is accurate and up to date. This consent is applicable to all channels where information is collected as specified in this Policy Notice.
You may withdraw/modify your consent at any time, subject to legal and contractual restrictions, provided that reasonable notice is given to us. If you would like to withdraw your consent, you may contact us.
6. Purpose for collection
In the course of its business, it may be necessary for Thinkst Applied Research to process (collect, store, share, retain & destroy) and otherwise handle Personal Information about you. Thinkst Applied Research takes these activities seriously and provides fair, secure, and fully-legal systems for the appropriate handling of Your Personal Information. All such activities at Thinkst Applied Research are intended to be consistent with both generally accepted Privacy principals and standard business practices.
- Thinkst Applied Research shall only collect, store, share, retain & destroy Personal Information with your consent as set out in this policy, unless legally required to do so, and will only use such information for the lawful purpose for which it is required as set out in this policy.
-
We use Personal Information in line with the below:
- Providing information about products and/or services you have requested and notifying you about important changes or developments to these products and/or services.
- To provide you with information that you may have requested.
- To address any complaints that you may have submitted.
- To send to you gifts and information related to promotions.
- To provide you with information when you complete the website contact form.
- To provide you with a quote, when you generate an online quote from the Thinkst Applied Research website quote page.
-
We may collect Personal Information from you based on a response to a specific job role. This Personal Information includes all information that you provide on your CV.
- For example (and not limited to), information related to current/past job roles, salary information, expected salary.
- We will collect Personal Information related to a delivery address, in order to deliver our devices.
7. Sharing of Personal Information
We do not sell Personal Information and therefore we will not disclose your Personal Information to anyone except as mentioned as per this Privacy Notice.
- We do not disclose specific Personal Information about our Data Subjects accounts, transactions, or relationships to unaffiliated third parties for their independent use, except under certain circumstances.
-
We use Personal Information in line with the below:
-
These circumstances are limited to the disclosure of information to a reputable information reporting agency such as:
- Credit bureau, when performing its own due diligence related to a customer’s request to perform a certain action such as extend the amount of an existing line of credit.
-
- Your Personal Information will be shared with third parties such as couriers’ services, banks and credit card processors, to provide you with the services requested.
- To regulators as law or governmental audit requires.
- Law enforcement as subpoena or court order requires.
- Other third parties as applicable law requires.
- We may share the Personal Information that you submit with third parties who provide services on behalf of us.
- All service providers are bound by legal agreements in order to maintain the confidentiality and security of your Personal Information and are restricted in their use thereof as per this policy.
8. Storage and Disposal
When Personal Information is no longer required, it will be securely destroyed by means of our approved destruction methods and with approval by the Information Security department.
- We may keep your Personal Information in either electronic or hard copy form. In both cases, we take reasonable and appropriate security measures to ensure that the Personal Information is protected from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
- To assure the proper destruction of Personal Information, disposal of computers with embedded hard disk drives or other data storage systems will be destroyed in line with our Information Security procedures.
- Moreover, we will only keep your Personal Information for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this Privacy Notice, unless you have given us permission to keep it longer or we are otherwise legally permitted to do so.
- We may use third party service providers to help us deliver certain services, and in some instances Personal Information can be stored outside of South Africa. We may permit these service providers to process our business information and/or your Personal Information however, we do not permit these service providers to process any Personal Information outside of a contract, and these service providers may collect Personal Information on our behalf. Our third party service providers are required to be fully compliant with this Privacy Notice.
- Personal Information is retained and disposed of in accordance with our Records Retention and Destruction Guidelines.
9. Security and Confidentiality
We understand the value of your Personal Information and therefore will take all reasonable steps to protect your Personal Information from loss, misuse or unauthorised alteration, access or disclosure, by the following:
- We strive to protect the security, availability and confidentiality of Personal Information by implementing and maintaining reasonable technical and organisational controls.
- We intend to protect your Personal Information entrusted to us and treat it securely in accordance with this Privacy Statement.
- We implement physical, administrative, and technical safeguards designed to protect your Personal Information.
- We also contractually require that our third parties protect such Personal Information.
10. Data Subject rights
As a Data Subject of Thinkst Applied Research you have the right and responsibility to ensure that the Personal Information we hold about you is accurate. At your request, where the law requires us to do so, you can exercise your Data Subject rights as per the following, subject to verification and validation of your identity:
- Request access to your Personal Information that we hold about.
- Request rectification of your Personal Information that we hold about you.
- Request erasure or return, as permitted by law, of your Personal Information that we hold about you.
- Request restriction of processing of your Personal Information.
- Object to processing of Personal Information as permitted by law.
- Notify you of any unauthorised use, disclosure or processing of your personally identifiable information (If we become aware of unauthorised access).
11. Website Cookies
We only use essential cookies on our web-based services. These are cookies which are strictly necessary for our website to be able to operate or to provide you with a service on our website which you have requested.
12. Cross Border Transfer
In certain instances, we may process Personal Information in other countries to support ongoing business operations. Some countries may not have similar Privacy requirements; in which case we will ensure that the receiving parties agree to adequate Privacy Principles before we share such information.
13. Third Party Links
Our website may contain links to third party websites, or you may be directed to our website through a third-party website. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own terms and privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for them.
We are not responsible for any representations, information, warranties or content on any website of any third party or our affiliates, we do not exercise control over third parties’ and our affiliates privacy policies, and you should refer to the policy of any such third party or affiliates to see how they protect your privacy.
14. Changes to Policy
We reserve the right to update this Privacy Notice from time to time with or without notice or justification for the following reasons:
- For compliance to any changes to any legal or regulatory requirements.
- In order to ensure that these Privacy Notices are clearer to you.
- To update any mistake that may be discovered from time to time.
15. Information Regulator
If you are not satisfied with Thinkst Applied Research processes related to your Personal Information handling, you may have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator, using the contact details listed below:
- Telephone: 012 406 4818
- Fax: 086 500 3351
- Email: inforeg@justice.gov.za
16. Last Updated
January 2024
