Privacy and Cookie Policy

Purpose

This policy establishes a general standard for the appropriate protection of personal information within IMPOWER and it provides principles regarding the rights of individuals to privacy and to reasonable safeguards of their personal information. If you use our service channels you agree that we may process your personal information as explained under this Privacy Policy. IMPOWER reserves the right to amend this policy from time to time.

Application

This policy applies to all IM Power (Pty) Ltd, hereinafter referred to as “the Company,” employees and contractors. This policy also applies to information assets owned or leased by IMPOWER, or to devices that connect to an IMPOWER network or reside at the IMPOWER office.

Definitions

Personal information: Includes, but is not limited to: marital status; national origin; age; language; birth place; education; relevant financial history; identifying number (like an employee number, identity number or passport number); e-mail address; physical address (including residential address and/or work address); telephone number; biometric data (eg. fingerprints, signature or voice); race; gender; sex; pregnancy status; ethnic origin; social origin; colour; sexual orientation; physical health; mental health; wellbeing; disability; religion; belief; conscience; culture; medical history; criminal history; employment history; personal views, preferences and opinions; another’s views or opinions about you; full name and initials Process: Refers to how we collect, use, store, make available, destroy, update, disclose, or otherwise deal with personal information. As a general rule we will only process personal information if it is required to deliver or offer a service, provide a product, carry out a transaction or obligation in a contract. Special personal information: Race (eg. when a company submits reports to the Department of Labour where the statistical information must be recorded); ethnic origin; trade union membership; health (eg. information supplied when you apply for an insurance policy); biometric data (eg. to verify your identity); and/or your criminal behaviour and alleged commission of an offense.

How do we obtain personal information

We collect personal information from you directly;
We may collect personal information from a public record or if you have deliberately made the information public;
We collect information about you based on your use of our website;
We obtain information about clients’ energy usage through the systems we install;
We collect information about you based on how you engage or interact with us such as via emails, letters and telephone calls;
We collect personal information from completed forms, i.e. contact and billing information.

If the law requires us to do so, we will ask for your consent before collecting personal information. The third parties from whom we may collect your personal information include, but are not limited to:

people you have authorised to share your personal information, like a medical practitioner for insurance purposes or a reference for the purpose of applying for a position with us;
attorneys, tracing agents, debt collectors and other persons that assist with the enforcement of agreements;
payment processing services providers, merchants, banks and other persons that assist with the processing of payment instructions;
insurers, brokers, other financial institutions or other organisations that assist with insurance and assurance underwriting, the providing of insurance and assurance policies and products, the assessment of insurance and assurance claims and other related purposes;
law enforcement and fraud prevention agencies and other persons tasked with the prevention and prosecution of crime;
regulatory authorities, industry ombudsman, governmental departments, local and international tax authorities;
trustees, Executors or Curators appointed by a court of law;
our service providers, agents and sub-contractors like couriers and other persons we use to offer and provide products and services to you;
courts of law or tribunals.

Use of Personal Information

We will only process personal information for lawful purposes relating to our business if the following applies:

If you have consented thereto;
If a person legally authorised by you, the law or a court, has consented thereto;
If it is necessary to conclude or perform under a contract we have with you;
If the law requires or permits it;
If it is required to protect or pursue your, our or a third party’s legitimate interest.

Use of Special Personal Information

We may process your special personal information in the following circumstances:

If you have consented to the processing;
If the information is being used for any Human Resource or payroll related requirement;
If the processing is needed to create, use or protect a right or obligation in law;
If the processing is for statistical or research purposes and all legal conditions are met;
If the special personal information was

Why we need to process personal information

to provide you with products and services;
to market our products and services to you;
to respond to your enquiries and complaints;
to comply with legislative, regulatory, risk and compliance requirements, voluntary and involuntary codes of conduct and industry agreements or to fulfil reporting requirements and information requests;
for historical, statistical and research purposes, like market segmentation;
to process payments;
to create, manufacture and print payment advice;
to enable us to deliver goods, documents or notices to you;
for security, identity verification and to check the accuracy of your personal information;
to communicate with you and carry out your instructions and requests;
for customer satisfaction surveys, promotional offerings;
to enable you to take part in and make use of value-added products and services;
for any other related purposes.

How we use personal information for marketing purposes

We will use your personal information to market our services to you;
We will do this in person, telephone, or electronic channels such as email;
If you are not our customer, or in any other instances where the law requires, we will only market to you by electronic communications with your consent;
In all cases you can request us to stop sending marketing communications to you at any time.

How, when and with whom we share your information

In general, we will only share your personal information if any one or more of the following apply:

If you consented to this;
If it is necessary to conclude or perform under a contract we have with you;
If the law requires it; and/or
If it’s necessary to protect or pursue your, our or a third party’s legitimate interests.

Where required, a staff member of IM Power may share your personal information with the following persons. These persons have an obligation to keep your personal information secure and confidential.

Other staff members of IM Power, its associates, delegates, affiliates or successors in title and/or appointed third parties (eg. contractors and suppliers) for any of the purposes identified in this policy;
Attorneys, tracing agents, debt collectors and other persons that assist with the enforcement of agreements;
Payment processing services providers, merchants, banks and other persons that assist with the processing of payment instructions;
Law enforcement and fraud prevention agencies and other persons tasked with the prevention and prosecution of crime;
Regulatory authorities, industry ombudsmen, governmental departments, local and international tax authorities and other persons the law requires us to share personal information with;
Our service providers and sub-contractors like couriers and other persons we use to offer and provide products and services to you;
Persons to whom we have ceded our rights or delegated our obligations to under agreements (eg. where a business is sold);
Courts of law or tribunals that require the personal information to adjudicate referrals, actions or applications;
Trustees, Executors or Curators appointed by a court of law.

Transfer of your information to other countries

Currently IMPOWER operates only within the Republic of South Africa. Once our area of operation expands, we will amend this policy accordingly.

Your duties and rights in terms of the information we store about you

You must provide proof of identity when enforcing the rights below;
You must inform us when your personal information changes.

Please refer to our Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 Manual (PAIA Manual) for further information on how you can give effect to the rights listed below. You have the right to request access to the personal information we have about you by contacting us. This includes requesting:

Confirmation that we hold your personal information;
A copy or description of the record containing your personal information; and
The identity or categories of third parties who have had access to your personal information.

We will attend to requests for access to personal information within a reasonable time. You may be required to pay a reasonable fee to receive copies or descriptions of records, or information about third parties. We will inform you of the fee before attending to your request. Please note that the law may limit your right to access information. You have the right to request us to correct or delete the personal information we have about you if it is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading, obtained unlawfully or we are no longer authorised to keep it. You must inform us of your request in writing. Please refer to our PAIA Manual for further information in this regard. It may take up to 15 (fifteen) business days for the change to reflect on our systems. We may request documents from you to verify the change in personal information. A specific agreement that you have entered into with us may determine how you must change your personal information provided at the time when you entered into the specific agreement. Please adhere to these requirements. If the law requires us to keep the personal information, it will not be deleted upon your request. The deletion of certain personal information may lead to the termination of your relationship with us. You may object on reasonable grounds to the processing of your personal information. We will not be able to give effect to your objection if the processing of your personal information was and is permitted by law; you have provided consent to the processing and our processing is done according to your consent or the processing is necessary to conclude or perform under a contract with you. You must inform us of any objection in writing. Please refer to our PAIA Manual for further information in this regard. Where you have provided your consent for the processing of your personal information, you may withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent we will explain the consequences to you. We may proceed to process your personal information even if you have withdrawn your consent if the law permits or requires it. It may take up to 15 (fifteen) business days for the change to reflect on our systems, during this time we may still process your personal information. You have a right to file a complaint with us or any Regulator with jurisdiction about an alleged contravention of the protection of your personal information by us. We will address your complaint as far as possible.

How we secure your information

We will take appropriate and reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect your personal information. Our security measures (including physical, technological and procedural safeguards) will be appropriate and reasonable. This includes the following:

Keeping our systems secure (like monitoring access and usage);
Storing our records securely;
Controlling the access to our buildings, systems and/or records;
Safely destroying or deleting records.

How long do we keep your information

We will keep your personal information for as long as:

The law requires us to keep it;
A contract between you and us requires us to keep it;
You have consented to us keeping it;
We are required to keep it to achieve the purposes listed in this Privacy Policy;
We require it for statistical or research purposes;
A code of conduct requires us to keep it; and/or
We require it for our lawful business purposes.

Children’s privacy

Our service does not address anyone under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18.

Cookie Policy

A cookie is a small piece of data sent from our website to your computer or device hard drive or Internet browser where it is saved. The cookie contains information to personalise your experience on our website. The cookie will also identify your device, eg. distinguishing whether it is a computer or smart phone. By using our website you agree that cookies may be forwarded from the website to your computer or device. The cookie will enable us to know that you have visited our website before and will identify you. We may also use the cookie to prevent fraud and for analytics