Privacy Policy

1. Introduction and Scope

Welcome to the CapeVista Optics (Pty) Ltd Privacy Policy. We are committed to protecting your personal information and your right to privacy. This policy outlines how we collect, use, process, and safeguard your data when you visit our website, interact with our services, or purchase prescription eyewear from us.

This document is structured to ensure full compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, No. 4 of 2013 (POPIA) of South Africa. By continuing to use our website, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this policy.

2. What Personal Information We Collect

To provide you with our products and services, we must collect specific categories of personal information. This data is collected directly from you when you create an account, place an order, or contact our support team.

• Identity and Contact Data: Your full name, physical delivery address, billing address, email address, and telephone number.
• Financial Data: Payment card details and billing information. Please note that all payments are processed through secure, PCI-compliant third-party payment gateways; CapeVista does not store your full credit card numbers on our servers.
• Special Personal Information (Medical/Optical Data): When you order glasses, you must provide your optical prescription (Sphere, Cylinder, Axis, Add, and Pupillary Distance). Under POPIA, health-related data is classified as Special Personal Information. We handle this data with enhanced security measures and solely for the purpose of fulfilling your eyewear order.
• Technical and Usage Data: Your IP address, browser type, device information, and data regarding how you navigate and interact with our website. This is collected via cookies and analytics tools, subject to your consent.

3. How We Use Your Information

We process your personal information for specific, explicitly defined, and lawful purposes:

• Order Fulfillment: To process your payment, manufacture your custom prescription lenses, and deliver the final product to your designated address.
• Customer Support: To communicate with you regarding your order status, assist with prescription queries, or handle returns and refunds.
• Legal Compliance: To maintain accurate financial records as required by South African tax laws and to comply with regulatory obligations.
• Website Optimization: To analyze user behavior (using anonymized data) to improve our website's layout, speed, and user experience.
• Marketing Communications: If you have opted in, we may send you promotional emails about new frame collections or discounts. You can unsubscribe from these communications at any time.

4. Data Sharing and Third Parties

We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to third parties for independent marketing purposes. However, to operate our business efficiently, we must share specific data with trusted third-party service providers:

• Optical Laboratories: We share your anonymized prescription data and order details with our manufacturing partners to produce your lenses. They do not receive your full contact details unless required for direct shipping.
• Courier Services: We share your name, delivery address, and phone number with courier companies (e.g., Dawn Wing, The Courier Guy) to ensure safe and accurate delivery of your glasses.
• Payment Processors: We securely transmit your billing details to our payment gateway partners (e.g., PayFast, Peach Payments) to authorize transactions.
• Analytics Providers: We use tools like Google Analytics to understand website traffic. This data is aggregated and does not personally identify you.

We mandate that all our third-party service providers implement stringent security measures and adhere to POPIA standards when processing your data on our behalf.

5. Data Security and Retention

CapeVista employs industry-standard technical and organizational security measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, accidental loss, disclosure, or destruction. This includes utilizing SSL encryption for all data transmissions on our website, restricting access to sensitive prescription data to authorized personnel only, and regularly updating our IT infrastructure.

We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this policy. For example, we keep order records for several years to comply with tax laws and to facilitate future orders if you request a replacement pair. Once data is no longer required, it is securely deleted or anonymized.

6. Your Rights Under POPIA

Under the Protection of Personal Information Act, you possess several rights regarding your data:

• Right of Access: You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Right to Rectification: You may request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Right to Deletion: You may request the deletion of your personal information, subject to certain legal exceptions (e.g., where we must retain data for tax purposes).
• Right to Object: You may object to the processing of your personal information for direct marketing purposes.

7. Conversion Tracking and Cookies

We utilize conversion tracking technologies (such as the Meta Pixel or Google Ads tracking) to evaluate the success of our advertising campaigns. It is our strict policy that these tracking scripts do not capture sensitive medical data (such as your specific prescription numbers). Furthermore, marketing tracking is strictly contingent upon your explicit consent provided via our cookie banner. For detailed information, please review our separate Cookie Policy.

8. Changes and Contact Information

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. The latest version will always be posted on this page.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your rights, or have concerns about how your data is handled, please contact our Information Officer via email at [email protected].