Privacy Policy (POPIA)

Care4SA (“we”) is the responsible party for personal information processed through https://www.care4sa.com. We process information under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA).

Information Officer: the Care4SA Information Officer. Email: privacy@care4sa.com. We aim to respond to access, correction, and deletion requests within 30 days.

What we collect

• Account: name, email, phone (if you give it), city and work suburbs, role, avatar.
• Caregiver listing: photo, bio, rate, years, languages, services, intro video, references (name and relationship — not phone or email on the public profile).
• Household jobs: title, description, suburb, schedule, pay range. Do not include a child’s full name, school, or photos of children.
• Identity and safety files you upload: South African ID or passport, SAPS police clearance, proof of address — used only for review badges.
• Messages, job applications, and reviews exchanged on Care4SA. We hide phone numbers, emails, and off-site links in chat so contact stays Family → Care4SA → caregiver.
• Payment references via Paystack or Ozow. We do not store full card numbers.
• Necessary cookies: sign-in session and language preference.

Special and sensitive information

A SAPS police-clearance file can include information about criminal behaviour. We process it only because you upload it so we can record that we looked at the document you provided. We do not run a live SAPS search. Information in jobs or messages may concern children or older people. We ask households not to post identifying details of children. Do not upload anyone else’s identity document without a lawful basis.

What happens to an ID, SAPS, or address file after review

You upload the file so a Care4SA reviewer can look at it. After they mark it reviewed, we delete the original file from our storage. We keep only: that a file was uploaded, the review date, and for SAPS the issue date printed on the page. We do not keep your ID number or street address from that file. If you upload a new file, the reviewed badge is cleared until we look at the new file, and the new file is deleted after that review.

Families never see the files. They see badges. See the Trust System and data retention.

Why we process it

• To run a two-sided care marketplace in South Africa (contract / legitimate interest in operating the service you signed up for).
• To show a public listing with a first name and last initial, not a full surname.
• To review documents you chose to upload, then delete the originals.
• To enable in-app messaging and reduce off-platform scams.
• To take payment, prevent fraud, and meet tax or legal duties.

Operators and hosting outside South Africa

We use operators to host the product, including Supabase (database, auth, storage), Vercel (website), Paystack and Ozow (payments), and email delivery if configured. Some processing may take place outside South Africa. We use these operators only to provide Care4SA. Ask privacy@care4sa.com if you want the current operator list.

Your rights

You may request access, correction, deletion, or an objection, subject to POPIA limits (including records we must keep for tax or a live dispute). Delete your account in the dashboard or email privacy@care4sa.com. You may complain to the Information Regulator (https://inforegulator.org.za). PAIA requests: see the PAIA Manual.

Security

Document buckets are private. File paths are not exposed on public APIs. Admin review uses short-lived signed links. Transmission is encrypted. No hosting method is perfectly secure.