Privacy notice (POPIA)
Last updated: 16 October 2026. This is a plain-language placeholder. It will be replaced after legal review.
What we collect
- Your cellphone number, name and chosen language.
- Your 5-digit PIN, stored only in scrambled (hashed) form.
- If you verify your identity: a scrambled (hashed) form of your ID number, so one ID cannot open two accounts.
- Your Stockvels, payments, votes and badges — the record your group relies on.
Why we collect it
To run your Stockvels, keep a true record for your group, protect you from fraud, and meet the law (including FICA record keeping of at least 5 years for transactions).
Your chats
Stockvel chats are end-to-end encrypted. Messages are locked on the sender's phone and only the Stockvel's members can unlock them. We cannot read your chats. Because of this, the filter that blocks threats and hate speech runs on the sender's phone, before the message is locked. A message only reaches our moderators if a member reports it: with the reporter's permission, their phone sends us that message and the 5 messages before it, unlocked, so we can act on the report.
Where your data is stored
Your data is stored on our hosting provider's servers. If any of your data is stored or processed outside South Africa, we will say where, and make sure it is protected as POPIA requires.
Your rights under POPIA
- See your data: download it any time from Profile → Download my data.
- Correct your data: change your name and language in Profile.
- Delete your account: Profile → Delete my account. We keep transaction records the law requires us to keep, but remove your name and number from everything else.
- Complain to the Information Regulator if you are unhappy with how we handle your data.
Contact our Information Officer
Contact us and mark your message "Privacy".