Privacy policy

The Write Source respects your privacy and your children's privacy. This policy explains how we handle personal information under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), on this website, by email and on WhatsApp.

Who we are

The Write Source (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2025/867861/07), trading as The Write Source, is responsible for your information. Our address is 55 San Jerez, Seaward Estate, Ballito, 4420. Our Information Officer is Vineshree Govender: contact us at orders@thewritesource.co.za or on 083 289 5124.

What we collect

• Your name, cell number and email address.
• Each learner's name, school, grade and class, and the items you choose.
• If you're a teacher asking for a quote: your school's name and the stationery list you upload.
• Anything you upload: your school's list for a quote, and your proof of payment (which shows payment details such as the paying account's name and bank).
• Messages you send us by email or WhatsApp.
• Technical information, such as your IP address and browser type, which our hosting provider and spam check use to run the website and keep out bots.

We collect these details from you, and only when you order or contact us. We need them to take and deliver your order: without them we can't accept it. The class and proof of payment are optional.

Your children's information

We process learners' details only with the consent of their parent or guardian, which you give when you tick the consent box on the order form. Only a parent or guardian, or someone with their permission, may place an order. You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us; if your order hasn't been delivered yet, we then cancel it.

Why we use it

• To process, pack, label and deliver your order, and to contact you about it.
• To check your payment against our bank statement.
• To keep the records that tax law requires.
• To keep our website secure.

We don't use your information for marketing, and we never sell it.

Who sees it

• Our team, to prepare your order.
• Your child's school, which receives the pack labelled with your child's name and class.
• The service providers that run our website and email, acting only on our instructions: Cloudflare (website hosting and spam check), Resend (sending order emails) and HostAfrica (our mailbox, in South Africa).
• WhatsApp, if you message us there. WhatsApp's own privacy policy applies to messages sent through it.
• Anyone the law requires us to share it with.

Information sent outside South Africa

Cloudflare and Resend process information outside South Africa, including in Europe and the United States. We use them under data processing agreements that protect your information to a standard similar to POPIA, and sending it to them is necessary to process your order.

How we protect it

• Our website uses an encrypted connection (HTTPS), so what you type and upload is encrypted on its way to us. Order emails are sent encrypted whenever the receiving email service supports it, which almost all do.
• Our website doesn't store your order: it goes straight to our order mailbox, which only our team can open. The website's only database holds order numbers and the times they were issued and used, with no names or other details.
• Our hosting, email and mailbox accounts use strong, unique passwords, with two-step login wherever the service offers it.
• Uploads are checked and limited to PDF, JPG and PNG files of up to 5 MB.

If your information is ever accessed by someone who shouldn't have it, we'll tell you and the Information Regulator as soon as reasonably possible, as POPIA requires.

How long we keep it

• Our website keeps only your order number and when it was issued and used, so that no two orders share a number. This isn't linked to your name or details.
• We keep order emails, uploads and messages until the end of the school year you ordered for, then delete them, including your children's details.
• Tax law requires us to keep sales records for five years. For that, we keep only the order number, date, amount and how it was paid.
• Resend, which sends our order emails, keeps a copy for a short period under its own privacy policy, then deletes it.

Cookies

We don't use advertising or tracking cookies, and we don't use analytics. Your browser keeps your order number for your current visit only, so that refreshing the page doesn't create a new one. Cloudflare's spam check uses technical information about your browser to tell people from bots; it isn't used for advertising.

Your rights

You may ask us, free of charge:

• whether we hold information about you or your children, and for a copy of it;
• to correct it or delete it;
• to stop using it (to object), or to withdraw your consent.

Email us at orders@thewritesource.co.za or WhatsApp us on 083 289 5124. We'll reply within 30 days. If we must keep some information by law, we'll tell you why.

To ask for other records we keep, see our PAIA manual.

Complaints

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, please tell us first. You may also complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa): POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za, 010 023 5200, inforegulator.org.za.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we'll update it here and change the date at the top.