Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

The Digital Lab is a South African business automation and AI consultancy based in Johannesburg, South Africa. We are the Responsible Party under POPIA for the personal information we collect through this website and in the course of our business activities.

If you have any questions about how we handle your personal information, you can contact us via our contact page.

2. What Personal Information We Collect

We may collect the following categories of personal information:

• Contact information: Name, email address, phone number, company name and job title, collected when you contact us, request an audit or submit a form on this website.
• Business information: Details about your business processes, tools and workflows, collected during consultations and project delivery.
• Technical information: IP address, browser type, device information and pages visited, collected automatically when you use our website via cookies and analytics tools.
• Communication records: Emails, messages and notes from our interactions with you.

We do not collect special categories of personal information (such as health data, biometric data or financial account details) unless specifically required for a project and with your explicit consent.

3. How We Use Your Personal Information

We use your personal information to:

• Respond to enquiries and provide the services you have requested.
• Prepare and send proposals, invoices and project communications.
• Deliver and manage automation projects on your behalf.
• Send relevant updates, tips and information about our services, only where you have given consent or where we have a legitimate interest.
• Improve our website and services through analytics.
• Meet our legal and contractual obligations.

We process your personal information on the basis of: your consent, the performance of a contract, our legitimate business interests, and/or compliance with a legal obligation.

4. How Long We Keep Your Information

We retain personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law. In practice:

• Client project records are retained for 5 years after project completion.
• Financial and invoice records are retained for 5 years as required by South African tax law.
• Enquiry and marketing records are retained for 2 years, or until you unsubscribe.
• Website analytics data is retained in anonymised form.

When personal information is no longer needed, we securely delete or anonymise it.

5. Who We Share Your Information With

We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information. We may share it with:

• Service providers: Third party tools we use to run our business, such as email platforms, project management software and cloud storage providers. These are bound by their own privacy policies and data processing agreements.
• Automation platforms: Where your project involves third party tools (Make.com, Zapier, HubSpot, etc.), data may pass through these platforms. We will inform you of all tools used in your project.
• Legal authorities: Where required by law, court order or to protect our legal rights.

Some of our service providers are based outside South Africa. Where this involves cross border transfers of personal information, we ensure adequate protections are in place as required by POPIA.

6. Cookies and Website Analytics

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to improve your experience and understand how the site is used. These include:

• Essential cookies: Required for basic website functionality.
• Analytics cookies: Help us understand how visitors use our site (e.g. Google Analytics). This data is anonymised.
• Marketing cookies: Used to track the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, if applicable.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Disabling cookies may affect some website functionality.

7. Your Rights Under POPIA

Under POPIA, you have the following rights regarding your personal information:

• Right of access: Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Right to correction: Request that inaccurate or incomplete information be corrected.
• Right to deletion: Request deletion of your personal information (subject to legal retention requirements).
• Right to object: Object to certain types of processing, including direct marketing.
• Right to withdraw consent: Withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us via our contact page. We will respond within 30 days.

If you believe we have not handled your personal information appropriately, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa at inforegulator.org.za.

8. Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse or disclosure. These include secure access controls, encrypted communications and regular review of our security practices.

In the event of a data breach that poses a risk to your rights, we will notify the Information Regulator and affected individuals as required by POPIA.

9. Links to Third Party Websites

Our website may contain links to third party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those websites and recommend you review their privacy policies separately.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The current version will always be published on this page with the date of last update. If we make material changes, we will notify you by email or a prominent notice on our website.

11. Contact Us

For any privacy related enquiries, requests or complaints, please contact us: