Privacy Policy

SoftGids is an independent platform where South African businesses read and write honest reviews of the software they run every day. This policy sets out what we collect, why we collect it, and how we look after it under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013, which most people know as POPIA.

We have written it in plain language on purpose. If anything here is unclear, email us and a real person will explain it properly.

Who we are

SoftGids operates softgids.co.za and is the responsible party for the personal information handled through this website. You can reach us at hello@softgids.co.za or write to us at our offices in Cape Town.

The information we collect

• Reviews you publish. Your name, your job title, the company you work for and the words of your review. You decide what to share, and you choose to make it public.
• Newsletter sign ups. Your email address, the topics you care about, and a simple record of your consent that notes when you subscribed and the page you subscribed from.
• Messages you send us. Your name, your email address and whatever you write to us.
• How the site is used. Quiet, aggregated analytics that show us which pages actually help people. When you click through to a vendor, we log the click against a scrambled version of your IP address. We never keep the real one.

Why we use it

We use your information to publish the reviews you submit, to send the newsletter you asked for, to reply to your messages, to learn which recommendations are genuinely useful, and to meet our legal duties. Where we rely on your consent, as we do for the newsletter, you are free to change your mind whenever you like.

Marketing you actually agreed to

In keeping with section 69 of POPIA, we only send marketing email to people who have asked to receive it. We confirm every subscription by email first, we keep a record of that consent, and every newsletter carries a one click way to leave. No hard feelings if you do.

The partners who help us run the site

We rely on a small number of trusted providers for hosting, our database and email delivery. Under POPIA these are our operators. They only ever handle your information on our instructions, and they may not use it for their own ends. We do not sell your personal information to anyone, and we never will.

Information that leaves South Africa

Some of our providers store data on servers outside the country. Where that happens, we make sure the information is protected by laws or binding agreements that offer a standard of care comparable to POPIA, as section 72 requires.

Keeping it safe, and letting it go

We protect personal information with security measures that are reasonable and appropriate for the kind of data we hold. We keep it only for as long as we genuinely need it for the reasons above, or for as long as the law tells us to, and then we remove it.

Your rights

POPIA gives you real control. You may ask to see the information we hold about you, to correct it, or to have it deleted, and you may object to the way we use it. Email hello@softgids.co.za and we will come back to you within a reasonable time. If you feel we have let you down, you may also complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa at inforegulator.org.za.

Updates to this policy

We will refresh this page whenever our practices change. When a change is significant, we will say so clearly and show a new effective date at the top.