Privacy Policy

Effective Date: 21 April 2025
Last Updated: 21 April 2025

1. Who We Are

This website, Syntax English (“we”, “us”, or “our”), is operated from South Africa and is committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring that your personal information is collected and used properly, lawfully, and transparently.

2. What This Policy Covers

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website, including:

  • Users from South Africa and abroad
  • Tracking via Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Microsoft Clarity
  • Data submitted through contact and information request forms
  • Comments made by visitors on articles posted on our website

3. What Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process the following types of personal data:

a. Information You Provide

When you fill out a form on our website (e.g. to request information), we may collect:

  • Name
  • Email address
  • Phone number
  • Company name
  • Country of residence
  • Any other information you choose to provide

b. Information Collected Automatically

We use third-party analytics tools, including:

  • Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
  • Microsoft Clarity

These tools collect data such as:

  • Your IP address
  • Browser type and version
  • Pages visited and time spent
  • Clicks, scrolling, and interaction patterns
  • Geographic location (approximate)

These services may use cookies or similar technologies to track user activity. You can manage your cookie preferences via your browser settings.

Note: GA4 and Clarity may transfer your data to servers outside South Africa, including to the United States.

c. Comments

When you leave comments on the site, we collect the data shown in the comments form and the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help with spam detection.

An anonymised string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service Privacy Policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

4. Media

If you upload images to our website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

5. Why We Collect Your Data

We collect personal data for the following purposes:

  • To respond to your enquiries
  • To improve our website and user experience
  • To analyse trends and user behaviour
  • To ensure site security and performance
  • To comply with legal obligations

6. Legal Basis for Processing

If you are located in South Africa, we process your data under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). For international users (especially in the EU), we also comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

We rely on the following legal bases:

  • Consent – when you fill out a form or agree to analytics tracking
  • Legitimate interest – to improve our services and website
  • Contractual obligation – when data is necessary to provide information you requested
  • Legal obligation – when required by law

7. How Long We Keep Your Data

We only retain your personal information for as long as necessary:

  • Contact form submissions: up to 12 months
  • Analytics data: retained according to Google’s and Microsoft’s default settings
  • If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This allows us to recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
  • We also store the personal information provided by users who register on our website (if any) in their user profiles. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except that they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

8. Who We Share Your Data With

We do not sell your data. However, we may share it with:

  • Service providers who help operate our website (e.g. hosting providers)
  • Analytics providers (Google, Microsoft)
  • Regulatory bodies, if legally required
  • An automated spam detection service may check visitors’ comments.
  • If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.

We ensure that third parties only process your data in accordance with this policy and applicable data protection laws.

9. Your Data Protection Rights

Depending on where you are located, you may have rights including:

  • Access – ask for a copy of your personal data
  • Correction – request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data
  • Deletion – request that we delete your personal data
  • Objection – object to certain types of processing
  • Withdraw consent – where processing is based on consent

To exercise these rights, contact us using the details below.

10. Cookies and Tracking

We use cookies to:

  • Analyse traffic
  • Improve user experience
  • Deliver targeted content

By using the site, you agree to our use of cookies unless you choose to disable them. You can do so via your browser or our cookie preferences tool.

11. Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data from unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction.

11. International Data Transfers

Your data may be stored and processed outside South Africa, including in countries that may not have the same level of data protection. We ensure adequate safeguards are in place when transferring data internationally.

12. Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor had visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

13. What rights do you have over your data

If you have an account on this website or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we must keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

14. Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about this policy or your data, please contact us at:

Email: jessica@syntax-eng.com

or contact the webmaster using the details below:

Email: paul@planetmargate.co.za
Telephone: +27 12 403 0122
Address:
Planet Margate
411 29th Avenue
Villieria
Pretoria
0186
South Africa