Privacy Policy

Last updated: 05 April 2026

Art and Artists of South Africa ("we", "us", "our") is committed to protecting your personal information in compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA) and other applicable South African legislation.

This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, and your rights regarding that information.

1. Information We Collect

Artist profiles

When you register or claim a profile, we collect:

  • Full name and preferred name/moniker
  • Email address
  • Phone number (optional)
  • Biographical information and artist statement
  • Profile photograph (optional)
  • Artworks (images, titles, descriptions, prices, medium, dimensions)
  • Education, exhibitions, awards, publications, collections, and commissions
  • Website and social media URLs (optional)
  • Physical address (optional, for display on your public profile)

Visitors

When you visit the site or use the contact form, we may collect:

  • Name and email address (via contact forms)
  • IP address and browser information (automatically via server logs)
  • Pages visited and interaction data (via Google Analytics)

Community forum

When you participate in the community forum, we collect and store:

  • The text content of your posts and replies
  • Any images you upload to forum posts
  • Your topic subscription preferences (used to send email notifications when new replies are posted)

Forum posts are publicly visible and associated with your display name. You may edit your posts within 30 minutes of posting. Administrators may remove forum content at any time. If you delete your account, all your forum posts and uploaded images will be permanently removed.

Premium subscribers

When you subscribe to Premium, PayFast (our payment processor) collects your payment details directly. We receive confirmation of your subscription status but do not store credit card numbers or banking details.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use your personal information to:

  • Create and maintain your artist profile on our platform
  • Display your profile, artworks, and contact details (where you have opted in) to the public
  • Process and manage Premium subscriptions via PayFast
  • Send you service-related communications (account setup, profile approval, subscription notices)
  • Send marketing emails about platform features or opportunities (you may unsubscribe at any time)
  • Respond to enquiries submitted through contact forms
  • Improve our platform through analytics and usage data
  • Forward visitor messages to artists via the contact form (your email is used as Reply-To)

3. Legal Basis for Processing

Under POPIA, we process your personal information on the following grounds:

  • Consent — by registering or claiming a profile, you consent to the processing described in this policy
  • Contract — processing necessary to fulfil your Premium subscription
  • Legitimate interest — analytics and platform improvement, provided it does not infringe on your rights

4. Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services that may process your data:

  • PayFast (payfast.co.za) — payment processing for Premium subscriptions. PayFast has its own privacy policy.
  • Google Analytics — anonymous website usage statistics to understand how visitors use the platform
  • Google reCAPTCHA — spam protection on forms, subject to Google's privacy policy

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to any third party.

5. Cookies

Our platform uses cookies for:

  • Essential cookies — session management and login functionality
  • Analytics cookies — Google Analytics to understand site usage (anonymised)
  • Security cookies — reCAPTCHA and CSRF protection

You can disable cookies in your browser settings, but this may affect site functionality.

6. Data Retention

  • Artist profiles — retained for as long as your account is active. Legacy profiles (created before the current platform) are retained to preserve the historical record of South African art.
  • Account data — if you delete your account, all associated personal data, artworks, and profile information are permanently removed.
  • Contact form messages — retained as email records only; not stored in a database.
  • Analytics data — governed by Google Analytics' retention settings.

7. Your Rights Under POPIA

You have the right to:

  • Access — request a copy of the personal information we hold about you
  • Correction — request that inaccurate information be updated (you can also do this directly from your dashboard)
  • Deletion — request that your personal information and account be deleted
  • Object — object to processing of your personal information for marketing purposes
  • Withdraw consent — withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing prior to withdrawal
  • Unsubscribe — opt out of marketing emails using the unsubscribe link in any email we send

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at info@artandartists.co.za.

8. Data Security

We take reasonable measures to protect your personal information, including:

  • SSL/TLS encryption on all pages
  • Passwords stored using industry-standard hashing (never stored in plain text)
  • Access to personal data restricted to authorised administrators

9. Children's Privacy

Our platform is not intended for use by persons under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with a revised "Last updated" date. Continued use of the platform after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

11. Information Officer

For any privacy-related enquiries or complaints, contact our Information Officer:

Email: info@artandartists.co.za
Art and Artists of South Africa

If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa.