Privacy policy
Last updated: 7 May 2025
1. Introduction
For the purposes of this document (i) “Optima”, “us, “we”, “our” mean the Epoch Trust (IT775/2006), the Epoch Two Trust (IT6450/2007), the Optima Trust (IT10441/2006), and their respective trustees for the time being, collectively, and (ii) “Personnel” means any of Optima’s employees, agents, consultants, contractors or other representatives.
Optima, its Personnel and its affiliates, are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy and complying with applicable data protection and privacy laws, including the Protection of Personal Information Act (“POPIA”). The terms of this Privacy Policy (“Policy”) outline how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website (“Site”), use our services (“Services”), or engage with us in other ways, which are further subject to our Terms and Conditions of Use, unless different terms are specified in a form or contract provided to you by Optima (either online or offline). By accessing or using our Site, you agree to the terms and conditions of this Policy.
Please review this Policy before using the Site or appointing us to provide Services. If you do not agree to the whole or parts of this Policy, do not use the Site or submit any personal information to us. By using this Site or our Services, you (i) understand and agree to be bound by the terms of this Policy, and (ii) expressly consent to us collecting, using, storing or otherwise processing your personal information as set out in this Policy, for the purposes indicated herein.
This Site is owned and operated by Optima and may be accessed both in South Africa and abroad. For data protection purposes, Optima is the controller and, unless otherwise noted, is also the processor of data. You consent to any of your personal information collected by us being retained indefinitely, and agree that it may be stored, processed, accessed, and used in jurisdictions whose privacy laws may be different and less protective than those of your home jurisdiction.
2. Information we collect
We may collect personal and non-personal information from users of our Site in the following ways:
Personal information: This may include but is not limited to, your name, email address, phone number, postal address, and other identifying details. We collect this information when you fill out forms, subscribe to our newsletter, or contact us.
Non-personal information: This may include browser type, device type, IP address, and usage data such as the pages you visit, how often you visit, and other technical information. This information is used to improve our Site and Services.
You warrant that: (i) any personal information that you provide to us shall be and remain complete, accurate and correct, (ii) you will keep us informed of any changes in such personal information, and (iii) you will provide us with any reasonable assistance that we may require in order to enable us to comply with our obligations under applicable privacy laws, and you indemnify us against and hold us harmless from any claim, damages, penalty or fine as a result of a breach of any of these warranties.
3. How we use your information
We use the information we collect for the following purposes:
To provide and improve our Services
To respond to inquiries and feedback
To send newsletters, updates, and other educational materials
To manage and administer our Site and Services
To comply with legal obligations
4. How we share your information
Except as disclosed in this Policy, we do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We may share your information in the following situations:
With service providers: We may share your information with third-party vendors who perform services on our behalf, such as hosting, email delivery, or analytics. These service providers are required to protect your information and use it only for the purposes for which it was provided.
Legal requirements: We may disclose your information to comply with legal obligations, protect our rights or property, or in connection with a legal process.
Aggregated and non-personal information: We may share aggregated, anonymised data that does not identify you personally for research or marketing purposes.
On occasion, we may offer, in conjunction with third parties, certain services that may require you (or us) to share your personal information with that third party as a condition for providing that service. While we will treat any information we receive in accordance with this Policy, we will not be responsible for the information submitted by you to that third party and we remind you to review the applicable rules and any third party’s applicable privacy policies separately before participating in such service.
You expressly consent to us sharing your personal information with service providers who perform services on our behalf. Specifically, we may hire other companies or persons to handle the processing of payments, to provide data storage, to host websites, to assist in direct marketing, to conduct audits, etc. Those companies or persons will be permitted to obtain only the personal information they need to provide the service. They are required to maintain the confidentiality of the information and are prohibited from using it for any other purpose.
Information about our users, including personal information, may be disclosed as part of any merger, acquisition, or sale of the company and/or its assets, as well as in the unlikely event of insolvency, bankruptcy, or receivership, in which case personal information would be transferred as one of the business assets of the company. We may notify you of such an occurrence as described in the “Changes to This Privacy Policy” section below.
We reserve the right to disclose your personal information, without notice, if required to do so by law, or in the good-faith belief that such action is reasonably necessary to comply with legal process, respond to claims, or protect the rights, property or safety of our company, employees, users, or the public.
5. Data security
Whilst we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your personal information, we take all commercially reasonable security measures and precautions to safeguard your personal information and to keep it secure and protect it from loss, misuse, unauthorised access or disclosure by following generally accepted security practices, including logical and physical access control mechanisms, as well as taking reasonable steps to identify all reasonably foreseeable internal and external risks to the personal information in our possession or under our control, establishing and maintaining appropriate safeguards against the risks identified, regularly verifying that the safeguards are effectively implemented, and ensuring that the safeguards are continually updated in response to new risks or deficiencies in previously implemented safeguards. However, we cannot accept any liability whatsoever for any unauthorised access or loss of personal information despite our best endeavours.
6. Your rights and choices
You have the right to:
Access your information: You can request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
Update or correct your information: You can request to update or correct your personal information.
Delete your information: You may request that we delete your personal information, subject to certain legal and contractual obligations.
Opt-out of communications: You can unsubscribe from marketing communications by clicking the "unsubscribe" link in any email or contacting us directly.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at info@optima.org.za.
7. Cookies and tracking technologies
We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to enhance your experience on our Site, analyse traffic, and personalise content. A cookie is a small file stored on your device that helps us improve your website experience. You can control cookie settings through your browser settings.
In some cases, our third-party service providers may use cookies on our Site. We have no access to or control over these cookies. This Policy covers the use of cookies by us only and does not cover the use of cookies by third parties.
You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able use certain features of our Site and Services that depend on cookies.
8. Third-party links
Our Site may contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those websites. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of those third-party sites before providing any personal information.
9. E-mail monitoring
We provide e-mail addresses on the Site which enable you to contact us. In order to check for viruses and the presence of inappropriate content, we reserve the right to intercept, monitor and inspect all material and information transmitted over our system.
10. Interactive areas
The Site may include interactive areas or services, including, without limitation, blogs, discussion forums, chat rooms, bulletin boards, message boards, online hosting or storage services, or other areas or services in which you, registered Site members or third parties create, post or store any information, content, messages, comments, materials or other items on the Site (“interactive areas”).
If you use an Interactive Area, you should be aware that these areas are open to the public and any personal information you post or provide at registration may be viewable by others and thereby becomes public information. You should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information in Interactive Areas. If you decide to submit any personal information in connection with the Interactive Areas, that information is exempt from this Policy and we are not in any way responsible for such information, nor for how others might use that information, including sending you unsolicited messages. Interactive Area postings may be retained indefinitely.
11. Surveys
From time to time, we may make online surveys available to users of the Site and our Services, alternatively, we may contact you telephonically to identify your experience of our Services and to elicit your suggestions for improvement. We may likewise ask our market research partners to contact you by telephone as part of a survey of our Services. You will be able to choose at the time whether you want to take part in any such survey.
Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary. Some online or telephonic surveys may request participants to provide personal information, such as an e-mail address, in addition to requesting answers to survey questions. We may use that personal information to further contact the participant if necessary, or as otherwise described above. We may make the results of any survey publicly available, although we will not attribute any particular response to you without your permission.
12. Minors
Our Site and Services are not intended for children under the age of 18, and we do not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from minors. If we learn that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under the age of 18 (or the age of majority in your country), we will take steps to delete such information.
13. International data transfers
If you are accessing our Site from outside the country in which our servers are located, your information may be transferred to and stored in a location that is different from your country. By using our Site, you consent to the transfer and processing of your information in accordance with this Policy.
14. Disclaimers
We intend to take commercially reasonable precautions to abide by this Policy. Nevertheless, in the event that we do not comply with all terms contained in this Policy, you agree, by using the Site or our Services and by submitting information to the Site, through using our Services or through any other communication you have with us, that your sole and exclusive remedy against us will be to have us promptly correct the handling of your information in the future to accord with this Policy and to notify anyone to whom we directly transferred any information of the correct information or to cease using such information.
To the maximum extent allowed by law, we, our Personnel and our affiliates, disclaim any other obligation, liability, or warranty to you for any other action, inaction, omission, or other activity that is not in accordance with this Policy.
Under no circumstances shall we, our Personnel, and our affiliates, or their suppliers or licensors be liable for any direct, special, incidental, indirect, economic, consequential or punitive damages (including, without limitation, loss of data or loss of use damages or lost profits) arising out of or connected with this Policy, or the failure by us, our Personnel, and our affiliates, or their suppliers or licensors to adhere to it, even if we, our Personnel, and our affiliates or their suppliers or licensors have been notified of the possibility of any damages. This section shall only apply to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.
We do not exclude (i) liability for damage to any property or death or personal injury caused by the negligence or wilful misconduct of us, our Personnel or authorised representatives or (ii) liability for fraud.
15. Applicable law and jurisdiction
This Policy is governed by and will be interpreted according to the laws of the Republic of South Africa, and all disputes, claims and other matters in connection with this Policy will be determined in accordance with such laws.
16. Changes to this privacy policy
We may update this Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. When we update the Policy, we will post the revised version on our Site with the "Last Updated" date. We encourage you to review this Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information.
17. Contact us
If you have any questions about this Policy or our data practices, please contact us at info@optima.org.za.