Privacy policy

This Privacy Policy describes how Wedding Stuff Pty Ltd T/A Smooches Bridal , www.smoochesbridal.co.za and www.smoochesbridal.com (the “Site” or “we”) collects, uses, and discloses your Personal Information when you visit or make a purchase from the Site.

Wedding Stuff Pty Ltd T/A Smooches Bridal (and including this website, www.smoochesbridal.co.za and www.smoochesbridal.com  are committed to protecting your privacy and to ensure that your personal information is collected and used properly, lawfully and transparently.

We are a wedding accessories and apparel online retailer and gift store.

Collecting Personal Information
When you visit the Site, we collect certain information about your device, your interaction with the Site, and information necessary to process your purchases. We may also collect additional information if you contact us for customer support. In this Privacy Policy, we refer to any information that can uniquely identify an individual (including the information below) as “Personal Information”. See the list below for more information about what Personal Information we collect and why.

Device information

• Examples of Personal Information collected: version of web browser, IP address, time zone, cookie information, what sites or products you view, search terms, and how you interact with the Site.
• Purpose of collection: to load the Site accurately for you, and to perform analytics on Site usage to optimize our Site.
• Source of collection: Collected automatically when you access our Site using cookies, log files, web beacons, tags, or pixels 
• Disclosure for a business purpose: shared with our processor Shopify 

Order information

• Examples of Personal Information collected: name, billing address, shipping address, payment information (including credit card numbers , email address, and phone number.
• Purpose of collection: to provide products or services to you to fulfill our contract, to process your payment information, arrange for shipping, and provide you with invoices and/or order confirmations, communicate with you, screen our orders for potential risk or fraud, and when in line with the preferences you have shared with us, provide you with information or advertising relating to our products or services.
• Source of collection: collected from you.
• Disclosure for a business purpose: shared with our processor Shopify 

Customer support information

• Purpose of collection: to provide customer support.
• Source of collection: collected from you.
• Disclosure for a business purpose: shared with our processor Shopify.

How we get the personal information and what we use it for:

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons:

We will use your personal information only for the purposes for which it was collected and agreed with you.  In addition, where necessary your information may be retained for legal or user experience optimisation purposes, enabling us to provide you with an enhanced shopping experience at Wedding Stuff Pty Ltd . 

For example:

• To gather contact information;
• To confirm and verify your identity or to verify that you are an authorised user for security purposes;
• For the detection and prevention of fraud, crime, money laundering or other malpractice;
• To conduct market or customer satisfaction research or for statistical analysis;
• For audit and record keeping purposes;
• In connection with legal proceedings.

We may collect or obtain personal information about you:

• directly from you;

• during the course of our interactions with you;

• when you visit and/or interact with our website or any other social media platforms or IT services;

• from a third party who is authorized to share that information;

• via a mobile or other software app developed for Wedding Stuff Pty Ltd

 

We also receive personal information indirectly, from the following sources in the following scenarios:

• We may receive information regarding the approval online of your payment initiated by you through the Paygate or PayJustNow payment gateways.

We use the information that you have given us in order to process your order and provide the required service.

Sharing Personal Information

We share your Personal Information with service providers to help us provide our services and fulfill our contracts with you, as described above. For example:

• We use Shopify to power our online store. You can read more about how Shopify uses your Personal Information here: https://www.shopify.com/legal/privacy.
• We may share your Personal Information to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to respond to a subpoena, search warrant or other lawful request for information we receive, or to otherwise protect our rights.

• Courier/ delivery companies as disclosed on our website.
• Payment gateways that facilitate your payments
• We may disclose your personal information to our service providers who are involved in the delivery of products or services to you. We have agreements in place to ensure that they comply with the privacy requirements as required by the Protection of Personal Information Act.

• Behavioural Advertising
  
  

As described above, we use your Personal Information to provide you with targeted advertisements or marketing communications we believe may be of interest to you. For example:

• We use Google Analytics to help us understand how our customers use the Site. You can read more about how Google uses your Personal Information here: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en.You can also opt-out of Google Analytics here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
•  We share information about your use of the Site, your purchases, and your interaction with our ads on other websites with our advertising partners. We collect and share some of this information directly with our advertising partners, and in some cases through the use of cookies or other similar technologies (which you may consent to, depending on your location).

For more information about how targeted advertising works, you can visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s (“NAI”) educational page at http://www.networkadvertising.org/understanding-online-advertising/how-does-it-work.

You can opt out of targeted advertising by:

• FACEBOOK - https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=ads
• GOOGLE - https://www.google.com/settings/ads/anonymous
• BING - https://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/policies/personalized-ads]

Additionally, you can opt out of some of these services by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out portal at: http://optout.aboutads.info/.

Collection of Information by “Cookies” 

 You are aware that information and data is automatically collected through the standard operation of the Internet servers and through the use of "cookies." "Cookies" are small text files a Website can use to recognise repeat users, facilitate the user's ongoing access to and use of the Website and allow a Website to track usage behaviour and compile aggregate data that will allow content improvements and targeted advertising. Cookies are not programs that come onto your system and damage files. Generally, cookies work by assigning a unique number to you that has no meaning outside the assigning site. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to deny or accept the cookie feature; however, you should note that cookies may be necessary to provide you with certain features (e.g., customized delivery of information) available on our Websites.

When will we process your personal information:

In terms of the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), the justification ground which we base our processing on consist out of the following:

• The data subject or a competent person where the data subject is a child consents to the processing. Kindly note that you have the right to withdraw your consent;
• The processing is necessary to carry out actions for the conclusion or performance of a contract to which the data subject is a party;
• The processing complies with an obligation imposed by law on the business;
• The processing protects a legitimate interest of the data subject;
• The processing is necessary for the proper performance of a public law duty by the business;

Or

•  The processing is necessary for pursuing the legitimate interests of the business or of a third party to whom the information is supplied. 

How we store your personal information: 

Your information is securely stored:

We are legally obliged to provide adequate protection for the personal information we hold and to stop unauthorized access and use of personal information. We will, on an on-going basis, continue to review our security controls and related processes to ensure that your personal information remains secure.

Our security policies and procedures cover:

• Physical security;
• Computer and network security;
• Access to personal information;
• Secure communications;
• Security in contracting out activities or functions;
• Retention and disposal of information;
• Acceptable usage of personal information;
• Governance and regulatory issues;
• Monitoring access and usage of private information;
• Investigating and reacting to security incidents.

When we contract with third parties, we impose appropriate security, privacy and confidentiality obligations on them to ensure that personal information that we remain responsible for, is kept secure.

We keep your information for between 0 to 5 years in line with our Data Retention Policy. We will then dispose your information after 5 years in line with our Data Destruction Policy).

 

International Transfer of Personal Information 

In some cases, the third parties to whom we may disclose your personal information may be located outside your country of residence (for example, in a cloud service, system or server), and may be subject to different privacy regimes.

 

When we disclose personal information overseas, we will take appropriate safeguards to protect your personal information to ensure that the recipient will handle the information in a manner consistent with this policy and the level of protection provided for in POPIA.

 

Your data protection rights:

• You are entitled to access your personal data by sending a written request to Margarida Carless at maggi@smoochesbridal.com. We may charge you a fee for this service as set out in terms of Condition 8 of POPIA. 
• You may also request Wedding Stuff Pty Ltd to correct or supplement any of your personal data which Wedding Stuff Pty Ltd will undertake as soon as practicable.
• Request the destruction of your personal data. Margarida Carless will consider your request in light of any other laws or regulations prohibiting Wedding stuff Pty Ltd from destroying your personal data.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

 

Please contact us at info@smoochesbridal.com if you wish to make a request.

 

Contact details: 

Name:  Margarida Carless     

Address: 3 Cedar Street, Cedar Place, Bryanston

Phone Number:  0871380010

 

E-mail: info@ smoochesbridal.com

 

How to complain:

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at info@smoochesbridal.com

 

You can also complain to the Information Regulator if you are unhappy with how we have used your Information.

Their contact details are as follows:

The Information Regulator (South Africa) 

33 Hoofd Street
Forum III, 3rd Floor Braampark 
P.O Box 31533 
Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2017

 

Complaints email: complaints.IR@justice.gov.za