POPIA Notice

Last updated: 18 September 2026

This notice explains how SymplTorque processes personal information in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA). It should be read together with our Privacy Policy. Words like "personal information", "processing", "responsible party", "operator" and "data subject" have the meanings given to them in POPIA.

Who is responsible

The responsible party is itndesign (Pty) Ltd t/a SymplTorque (registration number 2013/154587/07), 1st Floor, Block B, North Park, Black River Park, 2 Fir Street, Observatory, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa, 7925. You can contact us about POPIA at connect@sympltorque.co.za. We are formalising our Information Officer registration with the Information Regulator and will publish those details here once it is done.

The two roles we play

SymplTorque processes personal information in two distinct roles:

As responsible party for the personal information of the workshops and people who hold or use a SymplTorque account: your name, contact details, business details, billing information and how you use the Service.
As operator for the personal information that a workshop loads into the Service about its own customers, such as vehicle owners. In that case the workshop is the responsible party and we process the information only on the workshop's instructions, to provide the Service. Workshops are responsible for having a lawful basis to collect that information and for meeting their own POPIA obligations towards their customers.

The personal information we process

Depending on the role above, this may include:

Names, contact details (email, phone, WhatsApp) and roles.
Business details and, for account holders, billing information.
For workshop customers loaded into the Service: names, contact details, vehicle details, service and job history, photographs, and signatures captured for authorisations.
Usage, device and log information needed to run and secure the Service.

Why we process it, and our lawful basis

We process personal information to provide, secure, support and improve the Service, to bill and keep lawful records, to communicate with you, and to comply with our legal obligations. We rely on one or more of the grounds for lawful processing in POPIA: your consent, the performance of a contract, compliance with a legal obligation, the protection of a legitimate interest, or a legitimate interest pursued by us or a third party. We process personal information in line with POPIA's conditions for lawful processing, including collecting it for a specific purpose, keeping it accurate, and not keeping it longer than necessary.

How we collect it

We collect account-holder information directly from you when you enquire, join our community, or use the Service. Information about a workshop's customers is provided to us by the workshop when it uses the Service. Some usage information is collected automatically.

Operators and sharing

We use operators to help us provide the Service, under written agreements that require them to protect personal information and process it only on our instructions. These include Amazon Web Services (AWS, Cape Town Region) for hosting, BulkSMS for SMS, and Yoco for payments. We share personal information only as described in our Privacy Policy, and we do not sell it.

Security safeguards

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to secure personal information against loss, damage, and unauthorised access or processing, as required by POPIA. If a security compromise affecting personal information occurs, we will notify the Information Regulator and affected data subjects as POPIA requires.

How long we keep it

We keep personal information for as long as necessary for the purposes above, or for as long as the law requires. Tax records are kept for seven years, and we retain data on our systems for up to ten years under our data-retention policy. We aim not to keep personal information longer than necessary for the purpose it was collected. Details are in our Privacy Policy.

Sending information outside South Africa

Your information is hosted in South Africa, in the Amazon Web Services Cape Town Region. Our service providers, Amazon Web Services, BulkSMS and Yoco, process personal information in South Africa. If any of that ever moves outside the country, we will do so only where POPIA permits and will update this notice.

Your rights

As a data subject, POPIA gives you the right to:

Be told that we are collecting your personal information, and be told if it has been accessed by an unauthorised person.
Ask what personal information we hold about you, and to be given access to it.
Ask us to correct, update, or delete personal information that is inaccurate, out of date, excessive, or held without a lawful basis.
Object, on reasonable grounds, to the processing of your personal information.
Object at any time to the use of your personal information for direct marketing.
Not be subject to a decision that affects you significantly and is based solely on the automated processing of your information.
Complain to the Information Regulator, and to approach a court, if you believe your rights have been infringed.

How to exercise your rights

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at connect@sympltorque.co.za. We may need to verify your identity before we act on a request. If we hold information as an operator on behalf of a workshop, we will refer your request to that workshop as the responsible party. Access requests are handled in line with the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA); our PAIA manual is available on request.

Complaints to the Information Regulator

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your personal information, you can complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa).

Website: inforegulator.org.za
General enquiries: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za
Complaints and queries: the Regulator's eServices portal at eservices.inforegulator.org.za
Telephone: 010 023 5200, or toll free 0800 017 160
Address: Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg
Postal: P.O. Box 31533, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2017

Changes to this notice

We may update this notice from time to time. The current version will always be on this page, with the "last updated" date shown above.

Contact us

For any POPIA question, contact us at connect@sympltorque.co.za.