Privacy Policy

Last updated: 11 October 2026

Who we are

The Garden Route Directory is a directory of businesses and organisations along

the Garden Route in South Africa. We are the responsible party for the personal

information described in this policy.

Our Information Officer can be reached through our contact page.

What we collect

Information you give us when you submit a listing. The listing form asks for

the name and email address of the person submitting it, and for information about

the business: its name, tagline, description, address, website, phone number,

email address, logo, cover image and any gallery images you upload.

Messages you send us. If you contact us, we keep the message and your contact

details so that we can reply.

Technical information. Like any website, ours records standard server

information such as the pages requested, the time, and the IP address and browser

used. This is used to keep the site running and secure.

Spam screening. Form submissions and visitor activity are screened by an

anti-spam service before they reach us. That service receives the submitted

content and technical information about the request, so that it can decide

whether the submission is genuine.

Cookies. Our site sets a session cookie, which is needed for the site to

work. We do not use advertising cookies, and we do not run third party analytics

or tracking on this site.

Why we use it

  • To publish and maintain a business listing.
  • To check that a listing is accurate and belongs to the business it describes.
  • To answer your enquiries.
  • To prevent spam, abuse and fraudulent listings.
  • To keep the site working, secure and backed up.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use it for third party

advertising.

Why we are allowed to use it

Under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) we rely on:

  • Your consent to publish a listing. The listing form asks for it before you

submit, and you can withdraw it at any time.

  • Our legitimate interests in operating a directory: keeping it accurate,

answering enquiries, and protecting the site from spam and abuse.

Who else sees it

We use service providers to run this site. They may process personal information

on our behalf:

  • Our hosting provider, whose servers are in Germany.
  • Our anti-spam service.
  • Our email delivery service, which sends messages generated by the site.
  • Our email and office software provider, for correspondence.

We may also disclose information where the law requires it.

Sending information outside South Africa

This website is hosted on servers in Germany, so the personal information

described above is transferred to and stored outside South Africa. POPIA permits

this where the recipient is bound by a law, binding agreement or corporate rules

that give a comparable level of protection, or where you consent. We rely on

those grounds for this transfer.

How long we keep it

  • Published listings are kept while the listing is live and for a reasonable

period afterwards, so that we can restore it or answer questions about it.

  • Submissions that do not become listings are deleted once we have reviewed

them.

  • Enquiries are kept for as long as is needed to deal with the matter.
  • Server logs are kept for a short period as part of normal hosting

operations.

Your rights

You may ask us to:

  • tell you what personal information we hold about you, and give you a copy;
  • correct it or delete it;
  • stop using it, or withdraw consent you have given;
  • object to a particular use of it.

Ask through our contact page. We may need to confirm who you are before we act.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can complain to

the Information Regulator (South Africa):

Security

We use access controls, encrypted connections and backups to protect the

information we hold. No system is perfect, so we also limit what we collect to

what a listing actually needs.

Children

This site is not intended for children, and we do not knowingly collect their

personal information.

Changes

If this policy changes, we will update the date at the top of the page.