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Privacy Policy

  1. INTRODUCTION
    1. This privacy policy is issued on behalf of the DataEQ Group.
    2. The DataEQ Group is made up of different legal entities, including DataEQ (Pty) Ltd and DataEQ Consulting (Pty) Ltd (both of which are incorporated in South Africa) and DataEQ Limited (incorporated in England and Wales). When we mention "DataEQ", "we", "us" or "our" in this privacy policy, we are referring to the relevant company in the DataEQ Group responsible for processing your data.
    3. In this policy, reference to “Data Protection Laws” means any statutes, laws, legislation, or regulations or binding policy, code of any government authority that relates to the security and protection of personally identifiable information, data privacy, trans-border data flow or data protection in force from time to time in the Republic of South Africa, including but not limited to POPIA, Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002, Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2002, and/or any equivalent legislation of other jurisdiction(s) where Personal Information is being processed or where a party is obliged to comply with, including, where applicable, EU Data Protection Laws [General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of national persons with regard to the Processing of Personal Data and on the free movement of such data, as amended, replaced or superseded from time to time.
    4. In this policy, the use of any word or expression, or terms or process of definition in this policy which has its meaning derived from the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2003 (“POPIA”), including but not limited to “Personal Information”, “Responsible Party”, “Data Subject”, “Personal Information Breach”, “Information Regulator”, will be construed to mean the corresponding word or expression or term or process or definition which has its meaning derived from GDPR or any applicable Data Protection Laws, such as “personal data”, “controller", “data processor”, “process” / “processing”, “data subject”, sub-processor”, personal data breach”, supervisory authority”, ‘commission”, “member state”.
    5. We collect information, content and communications that you, a Data Subject and an “author” provide or share via a social media platform, blog, forum and/or news site. Some of this information can be personal data/information (“Personal Information”). As an example, your name in connection with the user name of your Facebook or Twitter profile along with the profile picture is set to public on your user profile privacy settings. Through rendering Services to our customers we may also gain access to our customer’s “Direct Messages” (i.e. the messages sent by Data Subjects to our customers using the channels provided or made available by the customers to us (such as, inter alia, social media platforms, bots or artificial intelligence, email or SMS). As an author, you are the source of the data and have control under the user profile privacy settings of each platform you interact with and can at any time restrict any of this information appearing in the public domain in accordance with the terms of the relevant platform. You may also restrict access to Direct Messages through the setting on the relevant platform. As an author, and under current Data Protection Laws and in addition to whatever rights you have via your relationship with any publishing platform, you also have certain rights relating to your data that we collect, process, store and retain, as set out in this policy.
    6. We are a data controller of your Personal Information. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use Personal Information about you. We aim at all times to be transparent about how we use your data and Personal Information, and to comply with applicable Data Protection Laws in making you aware of the information contained in this policy.
    7. We do not circumvent any of the personal privacy settings on any of the platforms and/or suppliers from where we collect data. Our system is intended for and focused on publicly available information and/or information that our customers have given us access to and/or have sent directly to us, such as Direct Messages.
    8. This policy will inform you about what data we collect from our data suppliers, including but not limited to various social platforms, with whom we have direct relationships for purposes of our business, how we use such data, circumstances where we may disclose this data to others, and how we keep it secure.
    9. In this policy “Services” means all services offered and/or rendered by us from time to time, to our customers, which includes providing technology and services for data processing and analysis to determine relevant, sentiment, topics and themes related to our customers’ brands, business and research interests. An integral element of the Services includes the crowd-sourced “Mention” processing service run via our platform in terms of which individuals who are registered as members of the “Crowd” (each known as a Contributor) analyse data provided to them by us and in doing so select the most applicable values for a particular Mention’s attributes that are requested by us. In this policy “Mentions” means any search results or snippets of information provided by us and which are monitored, assessed and/or analysed by such Contributors as part of the Services provided to our customers.
    10. Any questions relating to this policy and our privacy practices should be sent to us using the contact details set out below.
  2. THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT
    1. We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of information which you post or make publicly available online and/or via Direct Messages, including but not limited to the following platforms and sources:
      • Facebook;
      • Instagram;
      • Twitter;
      • Linkedin;
      • Youtube;
      • Vkontakte;
      • Blogs & Blog comments;
      • Mainstream news sources; and
      • Forums.
      Together referred to as “Social Media Platforms” within this policy.
    2. Such information/data may include:
      • Your name, username, handle, or other identifier;
      • The name, username, handle or other identifier of Contributors forming part of the “Crowd”;
      • The content of the information you have published via that name, username, handle, or other identifier, including comments, expressions, opinions, posts, preferences, beliefs etc.
      From the content of these above, we can sometimes infer sensitive information such as sexual orientation, race, gender etc.
      • Your profile picture or other images or videos that you post or interact with;
      • Your approximate location;
      • The content of your posts on Social Media Platforms, including your opinions, preferences and beliefs;
      • Your non-private communications with other users of Social Media Platforms on such Social Media Platforms; and
      • Any other information you publicly or directly provide to us or post on Social Media Platforms and/or information that you provide directly to our customers and which they may disclose to us, including but not limited to Direct Messages.
    3. The data that we collect (as set out above) will be referred to as “Social Data” throughout this policy.
    4. We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as: (i) statistical data; (ii) demographic data; and (iii) data which, if it were not anonymised, would constitute special categories of personal data, including data relating to health, political opinions and religious or philosophical beliefs, but which is anonymised and aggregated. Aggregated Data may be derived from your Social Data but is not considered personal data in law as this data will not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your data to calculate a political opinion, sentiment towards a specific brand or customer experience values in a specific industry or sector. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your Social Data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as Personal Information which will be processed in accordance with this privacy policy and all applicable Data Protection Laws.
    5. We do not knowingly collect or share:
      • except in the form of Aggregated Data (please see comments at paragraph 2.4 above), any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data);
      • any information about criminal convictions and offences.; or
      • any information relating to children under the age of 13.
    6. We are committed to respecting the privacy of children online. If we learn that our systems have inadvertently collected information relating to children under the age of 13, we will promptly delete the information, notify the necessary customer representatives to facilitate a consultation on how this data was collected and put measures in place for it not to happen again.
  3. HOW WE COLLECT, PROCESS, AND STORE YOUR DATA
    1. We collect and process your Social Data in the following ways:
      • Our Services entail the collection, processing and storage of public information either directly from the social media platform and/or from third party suppliers such as blogs, forums and news sites, who collect public online data, and also your Direct Messages.
      • We process data using a proprietary mix of algorithms and crowd sourcing to determine relevance, sentiment, topics and themes.
      • All data collected by us is stored in the EEA and we do not transfer the Social Data outside of the EEA, unless we have put adequate safeguards in place to protect your personal information and to make sure it is treated securely in accordance with Data Protection Laws.
  4. WHY WE NEED THIS INFORMATION ABOUT YOU
    1. We use your Social Data we collect about you to:
      • Provide social media analytics and customer insights to our customers.
      • We will only process your Social Data when we have legal grounds to do so. Generally, we rely on the legal ground which allows us to use your Social Data where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party such as our customers) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
      • Our legitimate interests for processing data are in order to provide our Services to our customers, which include providing technology and related services that empowers our customers to act with more certainty, with objectives that may include but are not limited to improving that customer’s own services or products to its end users. Our Services allow our customers to learn more about their brand, their customers, their competitors, and other information available on the internet that may be relevant to our customers.
      • We also use the data in related or ancillary ways, to the Services that we offer. For example, we may use the data to comply with our legal obligations or enforce our rights, including the legal obligations or enforcement of rights of third parties. We may also use the data to improve our Services.
    2. Although it is the responsibility of our customers to use our Services properly and we cannot ultimately bear responsibility for our customer’s use of our platform or system, we have implemented adequate safeguards to protect your data. Through contracts with our customers, we require our customers to comply with applicable law, including Data Protection Laws, when using our Services and our customers agree to abide by the policies of third party websites. We also prohibit our customers from using our Services, including your Data, in a way that is outside of your reasonable expectations.
    3. When we infer Data about you, we do so in two ways:
      • Based on algorithms that analyse the data that you have posted on a platform/s or sent via Direct Messages, and
      • Through the DataEQ Crowd, the content of individual posts are assessed by members of the DataEQ Crowd (“Contributors”) to determine relevance, sentiment, topics and/or themes.
    4. We do not make any decisions about you based on the data that we process about you (inferred or not). In other words, we only make the data available to our customers. It is up to our customers what (if anything) to do with the data and any inferences about the data.
  5. SHARING OF YOUR DATA
    1. In addition to sharing your data with our customers, we may share your data with any member of our company group (i.e. our subsidiaries, parent companies, and affiliates).
    2. We may share your data with selected third parties, including our business partners, suppliers, contributors/crowd and sub-contractors, for the performance of any contract we enter into with them. We may also share your data with analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement of our website and systems.
    3. We may also disclose your data to other third parties. For example, if we sell or buy any business or assets, we may disclose your data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets. Alternatively, if we or substantially all of our assets are acquired by a third party, your data may be part of the transferred assets.
    4. If any third party processes any of your data, we ensure there are sufficient contractual and operational safeguards protecting your data.
    5. In respect of your Social Data, we will not:
      • sell, licence or purchase any data obtained from Social Media Platforms;
      • directly or indirectly transfer any of your Social Data (including anonymous, aggregate, or derived data) to any ad network, data broker or other advertising or monetization-related service;
      • use your Social Data to make decisions about eligibility, including whether to approve or reject an application or how much interest to charge on a loan;
      • put your Social Data in a search engine or directory, or include web search functionality on our apps on Social Media Platforms;
      • prefill any content in captions, comments, messages or the user message parameter of posts;
      • proxy, request or collect your usernames or passwords for Social Media Platforms;
      • transfer your c Social Data to a data broker or sell your Social Data;
      • share your user IDs for Social Media Platforms with service providers who build or run any of our apps. Your user IDs for Social Media Platforms will be kept secure and confidential; and/or
      • use friends or connections data from Social Media Platforms to establish social connections in our apps, unless you have granted you access to that information
    6. In respect of the Social Data, we will:
      • promptly delete all your Social Data that we have received from a particular Social Media Platform if we stop collecting data from such Social Media Platform; and
      • comply with all applicable laws and regulations in the jurisdiction where our apps are available.
    7. We are not accountable for the faulty practices deployed by third party websites or Social Media Platforms.
  6. DATA SECURITY
    1. We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your Social Data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your Social Data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your Social Data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
  7. DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL DATA
    1. We will:
      • use your Social Data in accordance with this privacy policy and any applicable policies imposed by Social Media Platforms.
      • use your name, current city and profile picture URL in accordance with this privacy policy and policies of any Social Media Platforms.;
      • treat your information as confidential. However, we may disclose your Social Data to other third parties for the purposes set out below or for any additional purposes approved by you:
        • Our customers as part of our Services but in accordance with terms agreed with our customers which includes provision to comply with Data Protection Laws;
        • Internal Third Parties: Other companies in the DataEQ group of companies analysis and/or improvement of our system and Services.
        • DataEQ Crowd: For purposes of post sentiment and topic annotation which forms part of our Services, we may share your data with the DataEQ Crowd which is a group of members who have fulfilled our specific selection criteria and who are contractually bound by DataEQ’s policies and procedures which align with Data Protection Laws.
        • DataEQ Crowd: For purposes of registering Contributors as Crowd members, we collect their Registration Data, which may include Personal Information.
        • Service Providers: service providers who provide IT, hosting and systems administration services.
        • Professional Advisors: professional advisors, including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accountancy services,
        • Authorities: HMRC, regulators and other authorities,
        • Joint Venture Parties: if our organisation enters into a joint venture with or is sold to or merged with another organisation, your information may be disclosed to our new business partners or owners.
    2. We require all third parties, including specifically our customers to respect the security of your Social Data and to treat it in accordance with Data Protection Laws.
  8. TRANSFERS OUTSIDE THE EEA
    1. Other companies in the DataEQ group of companies which are based in South Africa and Dubai process data inside the DataEQ system and platform with the data remains at all times in our data centre which is based in Germany (within the EEA).
    2. Many of our external third parties, such as customers and crowd members are based outside the European Economic Area (EEA). The data remains on our system, and is only accessible through our platform or app.
    3. In the event of us transferring your Social Data out of the EEA, we would ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to such data by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:
      • We will only transfer your Social Data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission (Please click here for further information);
      • Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved by the European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe (Please click here for further information); and/or
      • Where we use providers based in the US, we may transfer data to them if they are part of the Privacy Shield which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between the Europe and the US (Please click here for further information).
    4. We do not transfer the Social Data outside the EEA.
  9. HOW LONG WE WILL KEEP YOUR INFORMATION
    1. We review our data retention periods regularly and will only hold your Social Data for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, or as required by law (we may be legally required to hold some types of information). However, if you request that we delete your data, we will delete your data from our system, provided it is not in contravention of any laws or current legislation.
    2. Details of retention periods for different aspects of your Personal Data are available in our retention policy are available by contacting us using the details provided below. To determine the appropriate retention period for Personal Data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the Personal Data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your Personal Data, the purposes for which we process your Personal Data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
  10. YOUR RIGHTS
    1. Under Data Protection Laws, you have the following rights in connection with your Social Data, which can be exercised in certain circumstances:
      • Request access to your Personal Data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check we are lawfully processing it;
      • Request correction of the Personal Data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected;
      • Request erasure of your Personal Data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove Personal Information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your Personal Data where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below);
      • Object to processing of your Personal Data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party). You also have the right to object where we are processing your Personal Data for direct marketing purposes;
      • Request the restriction of processing of your Personal Data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of Personal Information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it;
      • Request the transfer of your Personal Data to another party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your Social Data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format; and
      • Withdraw your consent where we are relying on consent to process your Personal Data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you.
    2. If you would like to exercise any of your rights above, please contact us at privacy@dataeq.com and provide us with your full details (including name, telephone number, address and email and the precise nature of your request and/or grievance.
    3. You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the supervisory authority for data protection issues in the country where you live, where you work or where the issue took place, relating to our use of your information.
  11. CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY
    1. Any changes we make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on our website and, where appropriate, displayed on our premises notified to you by e-mail.
  12. CONTACT US
    1. We have appointed Cecil Wehmeyer as our data protection representative who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact Cecil Wehmeyer using the details set out below:

      Data Protection Representative: Cecil Wehmeyer

      Email address: privacy@dataeq.com

      Postal Address:
      2nd Floor
      97 Durham Avenue
      Salt River
      Cape Town
      7700
      South Africa
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