1 INTRODUCTION

The South African Wetland Society (hereafter referred to as “SAWS”) respects its members’ privacy and personal information. This Privacy Policy aims to let you know how SAWS will treat any personal information that it may have about you, and how you can access such personal information held. SAWS will take all reasonable measures, under this Policy, to protect your personal information and to keep it confidential. This policy is in alignment and compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (“POPIA”).

2 DEFINITION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

Personal Information is “personal information” as defined in section 1 of the Protection of Personal Information Act (“POPIA”). This is information relating to an identifiable, living natural person or existing juristic person. Please refer to the POPIA for a detailed definition and various types or categories of personal information.

3 CATEGORIES OF DATA SUBJECTS AND PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED

SAWS only collects general personal information (some of which may be publicly available) and aims to only collect that personal information which is necessary for it to carry out its services and other facilities provided to you.

SAWS collects the following personal information about its members:

• Contact details
• Designation
• Email address
• Employment details
• Full name
• Professional experience
• Qualifications

The SAWS website uses cookies, the acceptance of which is required when using the website.

4 HOW PERSONAL INFORMATION IS COLLECTED

Your personal information is obtained directly from you via online application forms on our website, email communications, event and training registrations, requests for quotes and/or proposals, hard copy forms submitted to SAWS (such as training facilitator review forms); and on occasion telephonically (only under specific circumstances and at your request).

5 PURPOSE FOR COLLECTING PERSONAL INFORMATION

SAWS collects personal information for the following purposes:

• To provide you with services offered and requested.
• To understand your specific needs and requirements, and to improve SAWS’s membership benefits, services, and value offerings.
• To provide you with SAWS communications about the services being rendered and on offer, and keeping you informed of governance-related updates.
• SAWS will always ask for your permission before it uses your personal information for any purpose not disclosed above or unrelated to the operations/services of SAWS and its use in the ordinary course of business.

6 RECIPIENTS OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

The personal information collected is used only by SAWS and its Trustees in the rendering of its purpose and services. Only in instances where the sharing of personal information to recipients outside of SAWS is necessary to fulfil a SAWS obligation or service, will such information be provided (See clause 7 below for further information).

7 PERSONAL INFORMATION SHARED TO THIRD PARTIES

As part of the benefits provided to SAWS members, SAWS may be required to provide third party service providers with certain minimal member’s personal information (such as for example name, membership number, contact details) to provide such benefits.

Personal information provided to third-party service providers for such purposes will be limited to only that information which is necessary for the member to enjoy such benefit which he/she is entitled to.

No further information will be provided, and third-party service providers are prohibited from using any members details for any purpose other than providing the membership benefit, or for statistical and historical purposes.

Your privacy is important to us. SAWS will therefore not sell, rent or provide your personal information to unauthorised entities or third parties for their independent use, without your consent.

SAWS will release your personal information to a party if it believes that SAWS is required by law or ordered by a court to do so. SAWS will also disclose your personal information only if SAWS believes that it is necessary to prevent, or lessen, any unlawful or harmful actions in terms of the SAWS Members Code of Conduct, and to protect and defend legitimate interests, rights or property of SAWS.

8 PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

SAWS values the information that you choose to provide to us and will, therefore, take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from loss, misuse or unauthorised alteration.

When you use the services or facilities provided by SAWS, you may be given a membership number, username and/or password. You must always keep your membership number, username and password a secret and ensure that you do not disclose it to anyone. SAWS shall not be held responsible for personal information accessed as a result of you providing someone with your SAWS profile username and password.

Upon your request, SAWS will provide you with its records of the personal information you provided to us. For security reasons, this information will only be sent to the e-mail address on file for the member associated with it.

9 STORAGE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION AND RETENTION THEREOF

Personal information is stored on the SAWS website server as hosted by the ISP for SAWS.

Personal information will only be retained for as long as is necessary to carry out the functions and services provided by SAWS.

10 LINKS ON SAWS WEBSITE OR EMAIL COMMUNICATIONS

SAWS is not responsible for the content or the privacy policies of websites of other institutions to which it may link you to – mainly for information purposes and access to documents provided by such institutions. The use of other third-party websites and content is at your sole discretion. This policy applies solely to information collected by SAWS.

SAWS is not responsible for any representations or information or warranties or content on any website of any third party (including websites linked to the SAWS website). SAWS does not exercise control over third parties’ privacy policies, and you should refer to the privacy policy of any third party to see how such party protects your privacy.

11 PERSONAL INFORMATION HELD BY OR DISCLOSED BY YOU TO THIRD PARTIES

If you disclose any personal information to a third party, such as anyone other than SAWS, you must be aware that SAWS does not regulate or control how that third party uses your personal information. You should always ensure that you read the privacy policy of any third party.

12 CORRECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

It is your responsibility to ensure that the personal information provided to SAWS is true, correct, and accurate at all times. You may update and correct your personal information at any time, either yourself via your online SAWS profile through the website, via email communications to SAWS or telephonically by calling SAWS. SAWS may not vet or check the information provided to it, and thus will not be held responsible for any incorrect or outdated information on your membership profile which may be used to provide you with relevant and important communications.

13 ACCESS TO PERSONAL INFORMATION HELD BY SAWS

SAWS will at all times abide by the Promotion of Access to Information Act No.2 of 2000 (PAIA).

14 CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

SAWS may change this policy at any time. Any change to this policy will be displayed on the SAWS website. If you use this website or any of the services or facilities offered by SAWS after SAWS has displayed a change to this policy, you will be deemed to have read and agreed to the change.

15 APPLICABLE LAWS

This policy will be governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Specifically, SAWS undertakes to comply with the spirit of the Protection of Personal Information Act No.4 of 2013 (“POPIA”) and the Promotion of Access to Information Act No.2 of 2000 (“PAIA”).

16 JURISDICTION

You consent to the jurisdiction of the South African courts for any dispute which may arise out of this privacy policy.