Cognify aims to process personal information responsibly, transparently and in accordance with South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (“POPIA”).
1. Who we are
Cognify is a Cape Town-based digital product studio providing website, web application, mobile application and product discovery services. In relation to information collected through this website, Cognify acts as the responsible party.
2. Information we collect
We may collect information you provide through our enquiry form, secure conversation page or direct correspondence, including:
- Your name, business email address, telephone number, optional WhatsApp number and company name.
- Information about your project, business needs, preferred service, budget, timing and preferred payment structure.
- Information reasonably needed to assess an equity, instalment or deferred-payment proposal.
- Messages, replies, internal conversation history, documents and other information you choose to share with us.
- Your marketing preference, consent date and unsubscribe status.
- Estimated marketing-email engagement, such as whether and when a tracking image was loaded, and confirmed visits through recipient-specific campaign links. Privacy services, security scanners and image blocking may make open information incomplete or inaccurate.
- Basic technical information such as browser type, device type, IP address, an approximate country inferred from network or browser locale signals, and pages visited when website analytics, attribution, audit or security logging is enabled.
3. Why we use it
We use personal information to respond to enquiries, maintain a secure project conversation, assess prospective projects, prepare proposals, deliver contracted services, maintain client relationships, protect the website, meet legal obligations and improve our services. Where you separately opt in, we may also send relevant Cognify product insights and offers. We process information only where permitted by applicable law, including where you have consented, where processing is necessary for a contract, or where Cognify or a third party has a legitimate interest that does not unfairly override your rights.
4. Sharing information
We do not sell personal information. We may share limited information with trusted service providers that support hosting, email, scheduling, analytics, security or professional advice. They should process information only for the agreed purpose and apply appropriate safeguards. We may also disclose information when required by law or necessary to protect legitimate rights.
5. International processing
Some technology providers may process information outside South Africa. Where this happens, we take reasonable steps to use providers and safeguards consistent with applicable cross-border data-protection requirements.
6. Security and retention
We apply reasonable technical and organisational safeguards appropriate to the nature of the information, including authenticated administrative access, hashed passwords, secure conversation tokens, audit records, restricted upload types and sizes, private file storage and authorization-controlled downloads. No online system is completely secure. We retain information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the stated purpose, contractual requirements, dispute resolution and legal or regulatory obligations, after which it is securely deleted or de-identified.
7. Cookies and analytics
The website may use essential cookies needed for security and operation. If non-essential analytics or marketing technologies are introduced, this policy and any consent controls should be updated before they are activated.
8. Your choices and rights
Subject to applicable law, you may ask whether we hold your personal information, request access or correction, object to certain processing, withdraw consent, or request deletion where there is no lawful reason to retain the information. Marketing emails include an unsubscribe link and one-click opt-out support. Opting out of marketing does not prevent necessary transactional responses about an active enquiry. We may need to verify your identity before completing a request.
9. Complaints
Please contact us first so we can try to resolve your concern. You may also lodge a complaint with South Africa’s Information Regulator. More information is available from the Information Regulator’s official website.
10. Contact us
For a privacy request or question, email sales@cognify.africa →
11. Changes
We may update this policy when our services, technology or legal obligations change. The effective date at the top indicates the latest version.