Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Southern Star Auto ("SSA", "we", "us") collects, uses and protects personal information submitted through southernstarauto.co.za (the "Site").

SSA operates as a [PLACEHOLDER: sole trader / registered company (Pty Ltd) / not yet registered — confirm entity type and, if registered, company registration number and registered address]. For the purposes of South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA), SSA is the responsible party for the information described in this policy.

Our designated Information Officer is [PLACEHOLDER: name and contact details — POPIA requires this role to be filled and, in most cases, registered with the Information Regulator before the Site processes personal information]. Until that appointment is confirmed, direct any privacy query to partners@southernstarauto.co.za.

The only place this Site collects personal information is the enquiry form (used on the homepage, and on every parts-category and vehicle-model page). Submitting it sends us: your name, email address, phone number (optional), the region or territory you selected, what kind of enquiry it is (trade, franchise, distribution, or general), and anything you write in the message field.

If you use the "Chat on WhatsApp" links instead, you leave the Site and open a conversation directly in WhatsApp. We receive whatever you send us there, but WhatsApp's own privacy policy governs that conversation, not this one.

We do not currently run any analytics, advertising, or tracking script on this Site. If that changes, this section and the cookie banner will be updated first, and analytics cookies will only load if you accept them.

We do not collect payment information. This Site does not sell anything online and has no payment processor integrated.

We use enquiry-form information for exactly one purpose: to respond to the enquiry you submitted, and to route it to the right desk internally (partnership, trade, or general). The form itself states this, and it is a binding commitment, not just a UI label: your details are not added to a marketing list, and we do not use them for anything beyond replying to you.

Our lawful basis under POPIA is your consent (given by submitting the form) and our legitimate interest in responding to a business enquiry you initiated.

Submitted enquiries are emailed to our internal team using Resend, a third-party email-delivery service, purely as the transport mechanism — Resend processes the message on our behalf and does not use it for its own purposes. [PLACEHOLDER: confirm Resend's data-processing location/subprocessors for the POPIA section 72 cross-border transfer disclosure below.]

Our hosting and database infrastructure stores submitted enquiries so our team can review and act on them. [PLACEHOLDER: name of hosting provider and server location/country.]

We do not sell, rent, or trade personal information to any third party, for any reason.

If any of the service providers above store or process information outside South Africa, POPIA requires that transfer to meet one of a specific set of conditions (an adequate level of protection in that country, a binding agreement, or your consent). [PLACEHOLDER: this needs a lawyer to confirm against the actual hosting/email-provider locations once known — see the review list.]

We retain enquiry submissions for [PLACEHOLDER: retention period — e.g., 24 months from last contact, or "for as long as the business relationship is being evaluated plus X months"]. We have not yet set a formal retention schedule; this needs an operational decision from SSA, not just a legal one.

This Site currently sets only the cookies strictly necessary to load and display pages correctly. It does not set analytics, advertising, or preference-tracking cookies today.

The cookie banner shown on your first visit records your accept/reject choice in your browser so we don't ask again. That choice is stored locally in your browser, not on our servers, and is not itself personal information we collect.

If analytics is added in the future, it will only run for visitors who accepted the cookie banner, and this section will be updated to name the specific tool and what it tracks before that happens.

Under POPIA, you have the right to: request confirmation of whether we hold personal information about you; request access to it; request that we correct or delete it; object to our processing of it on reasonable grounds; and lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa (inforegulator.org.za) if you believe we have handled your information unlawfully.

To exercise any of these rights, email partners@southernstarauto.co.za. We will respond within a reasonable time and in any case within the timeframes POPIA requires.

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect submitted information against loss, unauthorised access, and misuse, consistent with POPIA's security-safeguards condition. [PLACEHOLDER: this is generic language — a lawyer or security review should confirm it matches what SSA actually does before publishing, since an inaccurate security claim is itself a liability.]

This Site is directed at businesses — workshops, distributors, and franchise prospects — not children. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

We may update this policy as the Site changes — most likely when analytics is added, when a payment processor is introduced for a future online store, or when our Information Officer is confirmed. The "last updated" date at the top of this page will always reflect the current version.

Questions about this policy, or requests relating to your personal information, can be sent to partners@southernstarauto.co.za.