Privacy Policy of The Metal Recyclers Association of South Africa (MRA)
This policy is effective as of 01 August 2023.
Prepared in terms of the requirements of the PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION ACT 2013 (POPIA)
(Hereinafter referred to as the “Act”)
In terms of the POPI Act, The Metal Recyclers Association of South Africa is considered to be an organization that engages in all aspects of business, but specifically as an association for Metal Recyclers.
- Introduction
The Metal Recyclers Association of South Africa (“MRA”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is committed to protecting your privacy. This Policy describes how we collect and process your personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”).
Your privacy is very important to us, and it is the policy of MRA to respect your privacy regarding any information we may collect from you across our website, https://mra.co.za/ or any other platforms we own and operate.
Please note the following:
- We only ask for personal information when we truly need it to provide a service to you.
- We collect personal information by fair and lawful means, with your knowledge and consent.
- We will take all steps necessary to ensure that your information is treated securely and in accordance with this Policy.
- Our website may link to external sites that are not operated by us – we have no control over the content and practices of these sites and cannot accept responsibility or liability for their respective privacy policies.
- Your provision of information to us is voluntary and you are free to refuse our request for your personal information, although if you do not provide certain information to us, you may not be able to engage effectively with us, and we may be unable to provide you with some of your requested services.
- We do not knowingly collect Personal Information of children without the consent of a parent or guardian.
- Your continued use of our website will be regarded as acceptance of our practices around privacy and personal information.
- By submitting your information to us, you agree and consent to our processing and transfer of your information in accordance with this Policy.
If you have any questions about how we handle user data and personal information, feel free to contact us at info@mra.co.za.
- Description of Cookies and how we use them
Cookies are small blocks of data created by a web server while a user is browsing a website and placed on the user’s computer or other device by the user’s web browser, and more than one cookie may be placed on a user’s device during a session. Cookies serve useful and sometimes essential functions on the web. They enable web servers to store stateful information (such as items added in the shopping cart in an online store) on the user’s device or to track the user’s browsing activity (including clicking buttons, logging in, or recording which pages were visited in the past). They can also be used to save information for subsequent use that the user previously entered form fields, such as names, addresses, passwords, and payment card numbers.
Cookies are not computer programs and do not run on a computer as programs do. The cookies located on our website cannot gather Personal Information or function on their own. Cookies merely enable us to provide a more valuable online experience to you. While you can set up your Internet browser to disable cookie technology, we do not recommend that you do this since some parts of this website and our online services may not function properly, or at all.
- Types of Personal Information we collect
Personal information could be processed in some of the following categories:
- Employees
- Members
- Vendors
- Statutory bodies, i.e., SARS
- Public viewers, i.e., websites (Only if the Newsletter sign-up form on the website is filled in)
Your relationship with MRA determines the exact nature of the personal information we process, and the purpose for which such personal information is collected and used.
All information is processed internally, and information is used by a limited number of authorized persons. The following general information is collected from the parties above:
- Business name
- Contact person(s)
- Telephone and cellular phone number(s)
- Email address
- Physical address
- All internal labour related information
- Client information relating to accounting, products, and services
- All vendor information relating to accounting, products, and services
- All Statutory information on which the Company is to report / act upon
- Information destined for marketing and sales in future
- How we collect your Personal Information
- As you interact with us, you will likely provide information directly to us. We may collect information when you request information from us, are established on our system as a supplier or vendor, use our website at https://mra.co.za/, use or interact with our social media platforms, apply for employment with us, complete online assessments or surveys or contact us via mail, telephone, e-mail, the website or electronic forms and otherwise through your dealings with us.
- MRA may collect the information directly from you or from third parties (such as regulators, government authorities and registries, or from other third parties relating to the services we are providing you). In some instances, it is necessary for you to provide us with the information, so that we can provide you such services and in others it is optional.
- How we store / protect your Personal Information
- The Personal Information that we collect from you is stored in locked physical storage, on our secure servers or, in the case of member and vendor bank details, on our third-party banking platform.
- We have reasonable and appropriate security measures in place to protect the information we hold and to prevent unlawful processing, unauthorised access and accidental loss, destruction, or damage. Any of our authorised employees who are responsible for the maintenance of any special Personal Information as defined by the Protection of Personal Information Act (No. 4 of 2013) (hereinafter “POPIA”) submitted by you are requested to maintain the confidentiality of such information unless you have expressed to us otherwise.
- Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet or email is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your information, we cannot guarantee the security of your information transmitted via our website or email; any such transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.
- We retain your information for as long as needed or permitted considering the purposes for which it was obtained. The criteria used to determine our retention periods include but are not limited to the length of time we have an ongoing relationship with you and our legitimate business interests. You are welcome to contact us at info@mra.co.za at any time to remove your personal information.
- Whenever we commission other organisations to provide support services to us, we will bind them to our privacy policies as far as they may be required to have access to our customer’s personal information to perform such services.
In the case of any possible data breach, we will inform you as soon as possible. We will also inform the relevant parties as is required by the POPI Act.
- How and why, we use your Personal Information
- Customers who opt-in for marketing purposes will be subject to receive email newsletters, phone calls and targeted emails from MRA. You can unsubscribe from our newsletters at any time, and thereafter we will not send them to you anymore.
- For the purposes of internal record keeping, communication and operations.
- To ensure the efficient delivery of products by third party couriers.
- To make changes to our products based on consumer preferences / behaviour.
- To provide you with services requested and improve our services to you if you are a client.
- To purchase goods and services from you if you are a supplier.
- To consider any application you make to us for employment.
- To comply with applicable laws and regulations.
- To respond to your queries, manage our relationship with you, and inform you about our services.
- To ensure that content on the website is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your digital device (laptop / PC / mobile phone / tablet) and to efficiently administer and improve our website.
- To measure the effectiveness of our advertising for statistical and market research purposes.
- To notify you about changes to our services or to verify the accuracy of the information we hold about you.
- Disclosure / Transfer of your Personal Information
We generally do not disclose your information to third parties; however, it may be necessary from time to time to make your information available to third parties (such as legal and regulatory authorities, accountants, auditors, professional advisers, sub-contractors or providers of products and services).
We may disclose your information to the extent necessary to enforce any agreement with you, to provide services to our clients, to comply with a legal obligation or to protect the rights, property, or safety of us or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
We will not disclose personal information to anyone outside the organisation or organisations who provide services to us without your permission unless:
- we are compelled to do so by law or in terms of a court order.
- it is in the public interest to do so.
- it is necessary to protect our rights.
- Your rights
You have the following rights in relation to the information we hold about you:
- The right to access information held about you
- The right to request the correction of your information; we strive to maintain accurate information so if it is determined that your information is not accurate, we will rectify this a.s.a.p.
- The right to opt-out of marketing communications. Please email your request to info@mra.co.za
- The right to object to the processing of personal information and/or withdraw consent at any time. We will stop processing data after an objection or withdrawal of consent.
- The right to request the deletion of your information, in which case we will use reasonable efforts to delete your information.
- The right to lodge a complaint if you feel that we are not enforcing the POPI Act. Please email the Regulator at IR@justice.gov.za
For your protection, we may only implement requests with respect to the information associated with the details you provide to us, and we may need to verify your identity before implementing your request. We will respond to your request as required by applicable laws as soon as reasonably practicable.
Please note that we retain backup systems, which are essential to the operation of our business. If we are not able to delete residual copies from our systems or from our backup systems, your information will continue to be protected as required under this Policy.
- The General Data Protection Regulations
The principles set out in this Policy are also aimed at compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulations, to the extent applicable.
- Changes to this policy
We will periodically review our privacy practices, which are subject to change. Any changes we may make to this Policy in the future will be posted on this page.
- Contact
For the Protection of Personal Information Act (4 of 2013), the responsible person is Rachelle Bezuidenhout. Please contact our Information Officer at info@mra.co.za if you have questions regarding this Policy or our privacy practices, if you would like to review, correct, update or delete the information we hold about you, if you would like to object to or withdraw your consent to our use of your information or if you would like to opt-out of marketing communications.
- Details of authorities
If you wish to report a complaint regarding your Personal Information that we hold if you are unhappy that we have not addressed your concerns satisfactorily, you can contact the Information Regulator at:
E-mail: inforeg@justice.gov.za