Arte Architects | South African based architectural practice with design studios in Centurion, Gauteng and The Garden Route, Western Cape, South Africa

This privacy policy for Arte Architects (Pty) Ltd ("We", "Us" or "Our") tells you how we may collect, use and share your information when you visit our website https://artearchitects.com/.

We appreciate your decision to use our website https://artearchitects.com/ and to trust us with your valuable personal information. In this document, we seek to explain in the clearest terms possible our privacy practices. We strongly encourage you to read this document (and any other related documents) carefully before using the website. If there are any terms or conditions in this document that you do not agree with, please do not use the website, or in case you are already using it, please discontinue the use immediately. By using the website, you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

What information do we collect about you?

When we collect information, we do so to ensure that you get to experience our service seamlessly. For that, we collect the following information. Some are your personal information and some are your sensitive personal information.

The personal information that we collect about you are the following:

Name
Email address
Location data
Internet browsing history
Property location
Project description

Sometimes, we also collect sensitive personal information from you, which includes the following:

Precise geolocation data

How do we collect such information?

We may use any of the following three ways to get information about you.

The information that you give us
The information that we automatically collect from you
Information that we collect from third parties

Before going into the reasons why we collect the information that we do, we want you to understand what the above three terms mean.

a. The information that you give us

When you sign up for an account to use our service/product we will ask you certain questions like your name or email address. These are the information that you give us. This may not be limited to what we have mentioned and can change according to the nature of the service/product that we provide.

b. The information that we automatically collect from you

When you access our service from a device, we may automatically collect information from your device, such as through the use of cookies. You will know more about automatic collection of personal information in the next section.

c. Information that we collect from third parties

These third parties can be data aggregators, online directories, data marketplaces or exchanges, etc from where we may collect information about you.

Cookies and similar technologies

Cookies are small packets of information that are placed on your device, so that we can retrieve the information about you, such as your login information, your choices on our websites and other information.

For more information about cookies and similar technologies, please visit our cookie policy.

Do not track requests

We respond to "do not track" requests in the following manner:

Some browsers offer a “Do Not Track” (DNT) setting. Because there is no common industry standard for recognising DNT signals, our website does not currently respond to them. However, we do recognise the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal. If your browser sends a GPC signal, we treat it as a request to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information and block advertising and analytics cookies for that browser. You can also manage your preferences at any time through our cookie settings.

Why do we collect information about you?

We collect information about you for a variety of reasons. It helps us, among other things, to serve you better. The following are the ways in which we use the information that we collect about you.

To provide and maintain service
To perform a contract with us
To contact the user
To send marketing and promotional communications
targeted advertising
To examine the usage trends
To evaluate and improve our products/services
To manage user requests related to business transfers, such as when our business is acquired, amalgamated, merged, restructured, or otherwise sold or transferred to another entity, in whole or in part

How long do we retain your information?

We will only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as tax, accounting, or other legal requirements). No purpose in this notice requires us to retain your personal information for longer than the period during which users have an account with us.

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymise such information, or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

Do we share your information?

We may share your information with third parties in the following ways:

Sharing with your consent: When you give consent, we may share your information with third parties for the purposes that are mentioned in the consent notification.
Legal Obligations: We may disclose information where we are legally required to do so in order to comply with applicable law, governmental requests, a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process, such as in response to a court order or a subpoena (including in response to public authorities to meet national security or law enforcement requirements).
For business transfers: We may share your personal information in connection with, or during the course of negotiations regarding merger, sale of business assets, financing or acquisition of all or a part of our business by another entity.

Sale/sharing of information

We sell or share the information we collect from our users. For details, see below

The categories of personal information that are sold or shared with third parties are as follows:

Contact details: name, email address, phone number from the contact form Project details: property location and project description Internet activity: browing behaviour collected through cookies Approximate geolocation from IP address

The categories of third parties to whom the information is disclosed are as follows:

Advertising Networks (Google Ads and Meta Ads) Analytics providers (Google Analytics and Meta) Social Media Platforms (Meta, TikTok and YouTube)

Sale/sharing of information in the past 12 months

We sell or share the information we collect from our users. For details from the past 12 months, see below.

The categories of personal information that are sold or shared with third parties are as follows:

Personal Identifiers: Contact information Internet activity Approximate geolocation Project or enquiry details

The categories of third parties to whom the information is disclosed are as follows:

Website hosting and maintenance providers; email and communication providers; CRM and form tools; marketing agency; IT support; Analytics providers; Email providers; cloud storage; project consultants (engineers, quantity surveyors, planners) when a project proceeds; professional advisers

Disclosure of personally sensitive information

We do not disclose personally sensitive information for purposes other than the following:

To perform services or deliver goods.
To prevent, detect, and investigate security incidents that compromise the availability, authenticity, integrity, or confidentiality of stored or transmitted personal information.
To resist malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal actions directed at the business and to prosecute those responsible for those actions.
To ensure safety of natural persons.
For short-term, transient use, including, but not limited to, non personalised advertising shown as part of a consumer's current interaction with the business.
To perform services on behalf of the business
To verify or maintain the quality or safety of a product, service, or device and to improve or upgrade them.
To collect or process sensitive personal information where such collection or processing is not for the purpose of inferring characteristics about a consumer.

Review and change information

The user has the right to review and change their information by:

You may request access to the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct or update it, request that we delete it, or object to or restrict how we use it. Where we rely on your consent, you may withdraw it at any time. For cookies, you can do this through the “Cookie Settings” link on our website.

To make a request, email our Information Officer, Kyla Coetzee, at info@artearchitects.com or call +27 66 499 8645. We will verify your identity before acting on your request and will respond within 30 days. There is no charge for making a request. You may also appoint an authorised agent to make a request on your behalf, with your written permission.

We will not treat you differently for exercising any of these rights.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa (https://inforegulator.org.za/), your local data protection authority if you are in the EU or UK, or the California Privacy Protection Agency if you are a California resident.

GDPR Disclosures

Cross border data transfer

The information that we collect from you, including your personal data, may be processed in locations outside the European Union, where data transfer laws may differ from those in effect in your jurisdiction. In some cases, the transfer may be to countries classified as 'adequate countries' by the European Union (see here for details on adequate countries). However, where the transfer is not to an adequate country, we have implemented appropriate legal measures in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation to ensure that your personal information is adequately protected.

Standard Contractual Clauses: When we transfer the data collected from you, including personal data, to third countries that are not deemed adequate, we have agreements in place with processors in those countries that include the Standard Contractual Clauses mandated by the GDPR. For more information on Standard Contractual Clauses, please see here.

Where international data transfers are not to an adequate country, the following precautions have been taken to ensure the safety of your personal data.

We are based in South Africa, and some of our service providers (such as Google, Meta and Microsoft) process data in other countries, including the United States. These countries may not offer the same level of data protection as your own. Where we transfer personal information outside the European Economic Area or South Africa, we rely on appropriate safeguards. These include the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, the EU–US Data Privacy Framework for certified providers, or, where applicable, the transfer being necessary to respond to your enquiry or deliver our services to you.

Automatic processing of data

We do not use any automated processing of the personal information we collect.

Legal basis for the collection

The General Data Protection Regulation requires us to identify and set out the legal basis, or in other words, the legal justification, for processing your personal information. The following are the legal bases on which we process your personal data.

Consent: We may process your personal information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy with your consent.

Performance of a contract: Where we have entered into a contract with you, we may use the personal information collected from you to fulfil the terms of that contract.

Legal obligations: We may disclose information where we are legally required to do so to comply with applicable laws, governmental requests, judicial proceedings, court orders, or legal processes, such as responding to a court order or a subpoena (including requests from public authorities to meet national security or law enforcement requirements).

Legitimate interests: We may process your personal data where it is reasonably necessary to achieve our legitimate business interests.

Running and securing the website (strictly necessary cookies, spam and fraud prevention), basic business administration, and following up on an enquiry the user started.

Your rights

In accordance with Articles 12 to 23 of the General Data Protection Regulation, the data subject, that is you, has the following rights.

Right to object to the processing of personal data in certain circumstances. See here for details.
Right to request access to the data we have collected about you and to receive a copy of it in an accessible format.
Right to restrict the processing of your personal data for a limited period, under certain circumstances. See here for details.
Right to rectify or modify personal information that you consider obsolete, incomplete, or inaccurate.
Right to opt out of automated processing of your personal data.
Right to erasure of your personal information, also known as the right to be forgotten.

To exercise any of the rights mentioned above, you may use the contact details provided in this Privacy Policy.

Consequences of non-consent

We require your consent to collect information in order to provide our services to you seamlessly. However, you may refuse consent. Please note that refusing consent may have consequences, including limited access to our services and reduced features on the website.

Privacy of children

We do not knowingly provide our services to children. If you are a parent or legal guardian and believe that your child has provided us with information without your consent, please contact us. Upon verification that we have collected such information without parental consent, we will remove the information from our database.

CCPA disclosures

Children's privacy

Sale or share of information

We may sell or share your information with third parties for a number of reasons, including, but not limited to, the following:

• To provide you with our products and services
• To improve our products and services
• For marketing and advertising purposes
• To conduct research
• To comply with applicable laws and regulations
• To protect our rights and interests

Your rights

The California Consumer Protection Act grants consumers the following rights:

The right to know what personal information a business has collected about them, including:
1. the categories of personal information collected;
2. the categories of sources from which the personal information is collected;
3. the business or commercial purposes for collecting, selling, or sharing personal information;
4. the categories of third parties to whom the business discloses personal information; and
5. the specific pieces of personal information the business has collected about the consumer.
The right to delete personal information that the business has collected from the consumer, subject to certain exceptions.
The right to correct inaccurate personal information that a business maintains about the consumer.
The right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information, if the business sells or shares such information.
The right to limit the use or disclosure of sensitive personal information if the business uses or discloses it for purposes other than those permitted under the CCPA or its regulations.
The right to non-discrimination, meaning consumers will not receive discriminatory treatment for exercising their CCPA rights, including protection against retaliation for employees, applicants, or independent contractors who exercise such rights.

Exercising your rights

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), you have the right to request access to, correction of, or deletion of the personal information we have collected about you. You may also have the right to know specific details about how we collect, use, disclose, and sell or share your personal information.

To exercise these rights, you may submit a verifiable consumer request by:

To access, correct or delete the personal information you have shared with us:

1. Submit your request by emailing info@artearchitects.com or calling +27 66 499 8645. Please state which right you are exercising (access, correction or deletion) and include enough detail for us to locate your information, such as your name and the email address you used to contact us.
2. Verification: we will confirm your identity before acting on the request, usually by replying to the email address we hold on record or asking for basic matching details. If an authorised agent submits a request on your behalf, we will ask for your written permission.
3. Acknowledgement: we will confirm receipt of your request within 10 business days.
4. Response: we will complete your request within 30 days. If we need more time, we will tell you why and when to expect a response.
5. Outcome: for access requests, we will send you a copy of your information. For corrections, we will update our records. For deletions, we will delete your information and ask our service providers to do the same, unless we must keep certain records by law, such as invoices for tax purposes. If we cannot fully comply, we will explain why.

Requests are free of charge. If you are unhappy with how we handled your request, you can contact the Information Regulator of South Africa or the relevant data protection authority in your region.

When you make a request, we will take steps to verify your identity before fulfilling it, which may include asking you to provide certain identifying information. You may also authorize an agent to make a request on your behalf, provided that we receive proof of your authorisation.

We will respond to your request within 45 days, as permitted by law, and will inform you if additional time is required. There is no charge for processing your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive or repetitive.

Security of your personal information

We take reasonable measures to ensure that the information we collect from you is stored securely and protected to the best extent possible. However, no method of internet transmission or digital storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. While we use commercially reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect your information, we cannot promise that it will be 100% secure.

Links to other websites or apps

On our website, we may provide links to external websites, apps, or services. These are not operated by us and therefore are not governed by our Privacy Policy or practices. We strongly recommend that you review the privacy policies of such websites or services before engaging with them to ensure that you do not provide personal information that you do not wish to share.

Changes to this privacy policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in the law or our privacy practices. We recommend that you review this privacy policy periodically to ensure it remains in line with your expectations.

The privacy policy will be effective from the date it is posted on this page.

Contact us

For any questions or concerns regarding your privacy, or to exercise any of your rights, you may contact us using the following details:

Controller/representative: Arté Architects has appointed an Information Officer in terms of the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer under the GDPR, as we are not required to do so. For any privacy questions or requests, please contact: Kyla Coetzee, Information Officer info@artearchitects.com | +27 66 499 8645 | 393 Berryhead Lane, Cornwall Hill Estate, Irene, Centurion, 0157, South Africa

Address: Arte Architects (Pty) Ltd 50 Berryhead Lane Cornwall Hill Estate Irene Centurion 0157 South Africa

Email address: info@artearchitects.com

Link to our contact page: https://artearchitects.com/contact-arte/