Privacy policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all users of our Website, related mobi-sites and software applications, collectively referred to as “our Platforms”, which are used to access and purchase our products and services.

The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to set out how, why and when RS Electrical and Lighting Agencies PTY Ltd. Trading online as (“The Light Shop”) uses your Personal Information so as to comply with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (“POPI”).

It is important that you read this Privacy Policy together with our other terms and conditions, privacy notices or policies we may provide from time to time when we collect or use your Personal Information.

Further, please pay special attention to the clauses in this Privacy Policy that appear in similar text and style (i.e. bold) which:

may limit the risk or liability of The Light Shop or a third party.
may create risk or liability for the user.
may compel the user to indemnify The Light Shop or a third party.
serves as an acknowledgement, by the user, of a fact.

We respect your privacy and take the protection of Personal Information very seriously. We strive to deliver excellent service every time you shop with us, and to do this, we need to use some of your Personal Information. This Privacy Policy describes how we handle the Personal Information we collect about you and/or receive from you. By using our Platforms, you agree to the processing of your Personal Information as set out in this Privacy Policy.

In this Privacy Policy, the terms -

“Personal Information”, and “process/processing” bear the same meanings as set out in POPI.
“we”, “us” or “our” refers to The Light Shop.
“you” and “your” refers to every person that accesses or uses our Platforms also referred to as a user.
“registered user(s)” refers to anyone registered on our Platforms and has provided us with a unique email address and password as well as other Personal Information in order to order goods and services on our Platforms.

IF YOU ARE BELOW THE AGE OF 18

If you are below the age of 18 years, you must always get permission from your parent or guardian before you use our Platforms or give us your Personal Information. We may check that your parent or guardian has given you such permission, for example by asking you to provide us with your parent’s or guardian’s contact details so we can contact them. We may also check that the contact details you have given us are correct and are the details of a person who is actually your parent or guardian. If we are not able to verify such permission or if a parent or guardian confirms that you do not have their permission, you may not use our Platforms.

WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT AND PROCESS

The Light Shop processes Personal Information in a manner that is reasonable, adequate, relevant, non-excessive and purpose-specific. In order for users to access and use our Platforms we collect and process some Personal Information. When you become a registered user, we have to collect and process your Personal Information to render our services to you.

When you register to use our Platforms, we may collect the following Personal Information:

name and surname.
email address.
physical address.
gender.
mobile phone number.
online identifiers.
date of birth.
identification number.

Should your Personal Information change or you wish to amend and/or correct this Personal Information you can do this by updating your registered user information in your account profile.

You warrant that the information you have provided is accurate, current, true and correct and that does not impersonate or misrepresent any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with anyone or anything.

Information from using our Platforms

When you access our Platforms, whether or not you are a registered user, The Light Shop processes some of your Personal Information. Depending on how you access and use our Platforms, we may receive:

log information, through online identifiers, including information on how, when and for how long you use our Platforms and other services, the content you view and search queries you submit.
information about the equipment you use to access or use our Platforms, including the type of device you are using, how you access our Platforms, your browser or operating system and your Internet Protocol address.
the geographic location from which you accessed our Platforms, including your device’s global positioning system signal and information about nearby wifi networks and cell towers. We get this information when you use location-enabled services.
other information about you from third parties, such as social media.

WHY DO WE PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

We process the Personal Information we collect and receive to:

identify you;
verify your identity;
create a user account for you; and/or
enter into a contract with you.

As a registered user, we also process your Personal Information in order to:

fulfill our contractual obligations to you when you have ordered goods in order for us to deliver those goods and process returns.
provide you with information, products or services you request from us.
communicate with you regarding our Platforms and provide you with information, products or services, including billing, customer support, resolving complaints and quality control.
notify you about changes to our Platforms, services and products, terms and conditions, privacy policy or notices, and any other changes that impact our Platforms, services and products.
send you information about competitions, products or services that may interest you (unless you have opted out of receiving such information).
get feedback from you which we need to develop our products and services and grow our business.
comply with any legal or regulatory obligations such as tax or financial laws.
undertake research for statistical purposes. The research and statistics we get from this process do not include your Personal Information and cannot be linked to you, nor can you be identified from these statistics.

RETENTION AND RESTRICTION OF RECORDS

We keep your Personal Information for as long as:

we need it to provide our Platforms, products or services to you.
it is required or allowed by law and is in line with our internal retention policies.
it is necessary to uphold the contract between you and us.
you have agreed to us keeping your Personal Information subject to your request for us to stop processing your Personal Information.

We will retain your Personal Information for as long as is necessary to achieve the purpose for which this information was collected or subsequently processed. If your Personal Information is used for more than one purpose, we will retain it until the purpose with the latest period expires but we will stop using it for the purpose with a shorter period once that period expires.

By accessing and using the Platform, you consent to us retaining records of your Personal Information for no longer than may be necessary to achieve the purpose for which the information was initially collected or subsequently processed.

WHO ELSE GETS TO PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We do not sell your Personal Information to third parties for their marketing or any other purposes.

We may provide or make your Personal Information available to:

our employees, the staff of the companies in the The Light Shop Group and/or third party service providers in order to enable them to assist us to interact with you via our Platforms for the ordering of goods or when delivering goods to you.
law enforcement, government officials, fraud detection agencies or other third parties when the disclosure of Personal Information is necessary or appropriate in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringements, or other activity that is illegal or may expose us to legal liability or financial loss, to report or support the investigation into suspected illegal activity.
third parties (such as a potential purchaser and its professional advisors) in the event of any reorganisation, merger, consolation, sale, joint venture, or other disposition of any or all of our assets.
our service providers (under contract with us) who help with parts of our business operations (fraud prevention, marketing, public relations, technology services etc). However, our contracts dictate that these service providers may only use your Personal Information in connection with the services they perform for us and not for their own benefit or any other purpose, and must treat such information as confidential information.
our suppliers or sellers in order for them to liaise directly with you regarding any goods you have purchased, for them to comply with their regulatory obligations (for instance TV license reporting), or for any other purpose which may require their involvement.

SENDING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION OUTSIDE SOUTH AFRICA

We may transfer certain Personal Information outside the geographic borders of South Africa to service providers for purposes set out above (Why we process your Personal Information?), including for data storage and back-up purposes to ensure the integrity of our systems.

When we transfer your Personal Information outside of the geographic borders of South Africa, we will ensure that we do so in accordance with the requirements for lawful transfer outside of South Africa as set out in POPI.

By accessing and using our Platforms, you consent to us transferring your Personal Information outside of South Africa as set out in POPI.

SECURING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We secure the integrity and confidentiality of your Personal Information in our possession or under our control by taking appropriate, reasonable technical and organisational measures to prevent loss of, damage to or unauthorised destruction of Personal Information; and unlawful access to or processing of Personal Information.

In order to implement and maintain such measures, we have in place policies, controls and related processes, which are reviewed and updated on a regular basis. Our policies, controls and procedures cover for example:

physical, technical and network security.
access controls and monitoring of access.
secure storage, destruction and encryption of records of Personal Information.
Personal Information breach reporting and remediation.
by way of written agreements, imposition of security and confidentiality obligations on third parties (based within or outside the borders of South Africa) who process Personal Information as part of rendering services to us.

Should you disclose your Personal Information to any third party other than The Light Shop, The Light Shop shall not be liable for any loss or damage arising or suffered by you as a result of the disclosure of such Personal Information to any third party. This is because we do 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.

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS

Having provided adequate proof of your identity, you have the right to:

view, correct and/or amend your Personal Information we process. Please note that as a registered user, you can do this through your user account for the Personal Information reflected therein.
request a record or description of your Personal Information. The Light Shop may charge a fee in order to provide you with this record of your Personal Information. Where requests to access and amend your Personal Information are manifestly unfounded, excessive or repetitive The Light Shop may charge an additional administrative fee or refuse the request.
request to have your Personal Information corrected, destroyed or deleted. Please note that you can stop being a registered user by cancelling your account. In this instance The Light Shop will only retain your Personal Information subject to any legislative requirement and/or our internal retention policy.
us complying with your requests upon receipt unless we have credible reason why we cannot comply.
us indicating where, if we cannot agree whether to correct or delete your Personal Information as requested, that a correction or deletion was requested but was not made.
inform you if reasonably practicable, should we change your Personal Information and this has an impact on decisions about you.
notify you of the action taken by us because of your request.
notify you of unauthorised access to your Personal Information.
provide you with reasonable evidence of our compliance with our obligations under this Privacy Policy on reasonable notice and request.
Submit a complaint to the Information Regulator.

As a registered user, you can exercise all your rights set out above in terms of POPIA by going to the Data & Privacy section of our Help Centre.

As any other user, you can exercise all your rights as set out above by referring to our process set out in our PAIA Manual, here.

HOW TO LODGE A COMPLAINT WITH THE INFORMATION REGULATOR

If you have any complaints about this Privacy Policy or our compliance with this Privacy Policy you can lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator.

The contact details of the Information Regulator are available on its website at: https://justice.gov.za/inforeg/

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:

[INSERT IF APPLICABLE] 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://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/. You can also opt-out of Google Analytics here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
[INSERT IF YOU USE A THIRD PARTY MARKETING APP THAT COLLECTS INFORMATION ABOUT BUYER ACTIVITY ON YOUR SITE] 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).
[INSERT OTHER ADVERTISING SERVICES USED]

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

You can opt out of targeted advertising by:

[INCLUDE OPT-OUT LINKS FROM WHICHEVER SERVICES BEING USED. COMMON LINKS INCLUDE:

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: https://optout.aboutads.info/.

Cookies

A cookie is a small amount of information that’s downloaded to your computer or device when you visit our Site. We use a number of different cookies, including functional, performance, advertising, and social media or content cookies. Cookies make your browsing experience better by allowing the website to remember your actions and preferences (such as login and region selection). This means you don’t have to re-enter this information each time you return to the site or browse from one page to another. Cookies also provide information on how people use the website, for instance whether it’s their first time visiting or if they are a frequent visitor.

We use the following cookies to optimize your experience on our Site and to provide our services.

[Be sure to check this list against Shopify’s current list of cookies on the merchant storefront: https://www.shopify.com/legal/cookies ]

Cookies Necessary for the Functioning of the Store

Name	Function	Duration
_ab	Used in connection with access to admin.	2y
_secure_session_id	Used in connection with navigation through a storefront.	24h
_shopify_country	Used in connection with checkout.	session
_shopify_m	Used for managing customer privacy settings.	1y
_shopify_tm	Used for managing customer privacy settings.	30min
_shopify_tw	Used for managing customer privacy settings.	2w
_storefront_u	Used to facilitate updating customer account information.	1min
_tracking_consent	Tracking preferences.	1y
c	Used in connection with checkout.	1y
cart	Used in connection with shopping cart.	2w
cart_currency	Used in connection with shopping cart.	2w
cart_sig	Used in connection with checkout.	2w
cart_ts	Used in connection with checkout.	2w
cart_ver	Used in connection with shopping cart.	2w
checkout	Used in connection with checkout.	4w
checkout_token	Used in connection with checkout.	1y
dynamic_checkout_shown_on_cart	Used in connection with checkout.	30min
hide_shopify_pay_for_checkout	Used in connection with checkout.	session
keep_alive	Used in connection with buyer localization.	2w
master_device_id	Used in connection with merchant login.	2y
previous_step	Used in connection with checkout.	1y
remember_me	Used in connection with checkout.	1y
secure_customer_sig	Used in connection with customer login.	20y
shopify_pay	Used in connection with checkout.	1y
shopify_pay_redirect	Used in connection with checkout.	30 minutes, 3w or 1y depending on value
storefront_digest	Used in connection with customer login.	2y
tracked_start_checkout	Used in connection with checkout.	1y
checkout_one_experiment	Used in connection with checkout.	session

Reporting and Analytics

Name	Function	Duration
_landing_page	Track landing pages.	2w
_orig_referrer	Track landing pages.	2w
_s	Shopify analytics.	30min
_shopify_d	Shopify analytics.	session
_shopify_s	Shopify analytics.	30min
_shopify_sa_p	Shopify analytics relating to marketing & referrals.	30min
_shopify_sa_t	Shopify analytics relating to marketing & referrals.	30min
_shopify_y	Shopify analytics.	1y
_y	Shopify analytics.	1y
_shopify_evids	Shopify analytics.	session
_shopify_ga	Shopify and Google Analytics.	session

[INSERT OTHER COOKIES OR TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES THAT YOU USE]

The length of time that a cookie remains on your computer or mobile device depends on whether it is a “persistent” or “session” cookie. Session cookies last until you stop browsing and persistent cookies last until they expire or are deleted. Most of the cookies we use are persistent and will expire between 30 minutes and two years from the date they are downloaded to your device.

You can control and manage cookies in various ways. Please keep in mind that removing or blocking cookies can negatively impact your user experience and parts of our website may no longer be fully accessible.

Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can choose whether or not to accept cookies through your browser controls, often found in your browser’s “Tools” or “Preferences” menu. For more information on how to modify your browser settings or how to block, manage or filter cookies can be found in your browser’s help file or through such sites as: www.allaboutcookies.org.

Additionally, please note that blocking cookies may not completely prevent how we share information with third parties such as our advertising partners. To exercise your rights or opt-out of certain uses of your information by these parties, please follow the instructions in the “Behavioural Advertising” section above.

Do Not Track

Please note that because there is no consistent industry understanding of how to respond to “Do Not Track” signals, we do not alter our data collection and usage practices when we detect such a signal from your browser.

Changes

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons.

Contact

After reviewing this policy, if you have additional questions, want more information about our privacy practices, or would like to make a complaint, please contact us by e-mail at info@thelightshop.co.za or by mail using the details provided below:

Crn. 14th Avenue and Voortrekker Road, Maitland, Cape Town, Western Cape, 7405, South Africa