We take all reasonable steps to protect the personal information of users. For the purpose of this clause, "personal information" shall be defined as detailed in the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA).
This Privacy Policy describes how we handle the information we collect and receive from you. By using this website, you agree and signify your acceptance of the Privacy Policy.
SECTION 1 - What do we do with your information?
Collection of personal data
When you purchase something from our store, as part of the buying and selling process, we collect the personal information you give us such as your name, address, email address, telephone number and credit card information.
Collection of anonymous data
When you browse our store, we also automatically receive your computer’s internet protocol (IP) address in order to provide us with information that helps us learn about your browser and operating System. Any information we collect from you may be used in one of the following ways:
- To personalize your experience and to respond to your individual needs.
- To improve our website based on the information and feedback we receive from you.
- To improve customer service requests and support needs.
- To process transactions and to deliver the purchased product as requested.
- Email marketing (if applicable): With your permission, we may send you emails about our store, new products and other updates.
SECTION 2 - Consent
By using the Balans website you consent to our Terms and Conditions and also to our Privacy Policy contained herein.
SECTION 3 - Disclosure
We may disclose your personal information if we are required by law to do so or if you violate our Terms of Service.
We will not disclose any information regarding a user nor will we, sell, trade or otherwise transfer your personally identified information to any third parties unless your prior written approval is obtained. This does not include the third parties who assist us with our website, conducting our business, servicing you – all these parties agree in writing to keep this information confidential.
We share your personal information with:
- Other divisions or companies within the group of companies to which we belong so as to provide joint content and services like registration for transactions and customer support, to help detect and prevent potentially illegal acts and violations of our policies, and to guide decisions about our products, services, and communications;
- An affiliate, in which case we will seek to require the affiliates to honour this privacy policy;
- Credit bureaus to report account information, as permitted by law;
- Other third parties who provide us with relevant services where appropriate (for example our couriers).
We may disclose personal information if required by a subpoena or court of law; to comply with any law; to protect the safety of any individual or the general public; and to prevent violation of our customer relationship terms.
We may disclose aggregate statistics (information about the customer population in general terms) about the personal information to advertisers or business partners.
SECTION 4 - Retention
We will only retain your personal information for as long as it is necessary to fulfill the purposes explicitly set out in this policy. During the period of retention, we will continue to abide by our non-disclosure obligations and will not share or sell your personal information.
We may retain your personal information in physical or electronic records at our discretion.
SECTION 5 - Data Storage
Our store is hosted by Seven Lemons Design Studio on a dedicated server in the Hetzner RSA Data Centre. They provide us with the online e-commerce platform that allows us to sell our products and services to you. Your data is stored through’s data storage, databases and the general application. Hetzner Data Centre stores your data on a secure server behind a firewall.
Payment
Customer details are separate from card details. Customer details will be stored by Balans separately from card details which are entered by the client on Payfast secure site. For more detail on Payfast refer to www.payfast.co.za. For more insight, you may also want to read Payfast’s End-user agreement (https://www.payfast.co.za/end-user-agreement) or Privacy Statement (https://www.payfast.co.za/privacy-policy).
SECTION 6 - Third-Party Services
In general, the third-party providers used by us will only collect, use and disclose your information to the extent necessary to allow them to perform the services they provide to us.
However, certain third-party service providers, such as payment gateways and other payment transaction processors, have their own privacy policies in respect of the information we are required to provide to them for your purchase-related transactions.
For these providers, we recommend that you read their privacy policies so you can understand the manner in which your personal information will be handled by these providers. We accept no responsibility for the privacy practices of third party sites.
In particular, remember that certain providers may be located in or have facilities that are located in a different jurisdiction than either you or us. So if you elect to proceed with a transaction that involves the services of a third-party service provider, then your information may become subject to the laws of the jurisdiction(s) in which that service provider or its facilities are located.
Once you leave our store’s website or are redirected to a third-party website or application, you are no longer governed by this Privacy Policy or our website’s Terms of Service.
Links
When you click on links on our store, they may direct you away from our site. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites and encourage you to read their privacy statements.
SECTION 7 - Security
To protect your personal information, we take reasonable measures and follow industry best practices to make sure it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed.
If you provide us with your card information, the information is encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL) and stored with a AES-256 encryption. Although no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, we follow all PCI-DSS requirements and implement additional generally accepted industry standards.
While reasonable measures are taken to ensure the security and integrity of information submitted to this site, we cannot under any circumstances be held liable for any loss or other damage sustained by a user or users as a result of intentional or accidental release of information by an employee of the website owner or any third party.
SECTION 8 - Cookies
The website utilizes cookies. A cookie is a small file that is placed on the user’s hard drive in order to keep a record of a user’s interaction with the website. Cookies from this website allow the website owner to tailor advertising and other services to your displayed preferences. Cookies by themselves cannot be used to personally identify users but will be used to compile anonymized statistics relating to use of services offered or to provide us with feedback on the performance of the website.
Here is a list of cookies that we use. We’ve listed them here so that you can choose if you want to opt-out of cookies or not. _session_id, unique token, sessional, Allows Hetzner Datacentre to store information about your session (referrer, landing page, etc). Hetzner Datacentre, no data held, Persistent for 30 minutes from the last visit, Used by our website provider’s internal stats tracker to record the number of visits Hetzner Datacentre, no data held, expires midnight (relative to the visitor) of the next day, Counts the number of visits to a store by a single customer.cart, unique token, persistent for 2 weeks, Stores information about the contents of your cart. _secure_session_id, unique token, sessional storefront_digest, unique token, indefinite If the shop has a password, this is used to determine if the current visitor has access.
SECTION 9 - Age of Consent
By using this site, you warrant that you are 18 (eighteen) years of age or older and of full legal capacity. If you are under the age of 18 (eighteen) or if you are not legally permitted to enter into a binding agreement, then you may use this site only with the involvement and supervision of your parent or legal guardian. If your parent or legal guardian supervises you and gives his/her consent, then such person agrees to be bound to these Terms and Conditions and to be liable and responsible for you and all your obligations under these Terms and Conditions.
We regard the safety and privacy of children using this website extremely seriously however, it remains the ultimate responsibility of the parents and other care-givers of children to ensure that they are not exposed to inappropriate content or behavior.
SECTION 10 - Changes to this Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently. Changes and clarifications will take effect immediately upon their posting on the website. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated, so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we use and/or disclose it. If our store is acquired or merges with another company, your information may be transferred to the new owners so that we may continue to sell products to you.
Questions and Contact Information
Questions about the Privacy Policy please contact Customer Service:
Email:
Telephone: (051) 444 2268