Privacy Policy

Praize ("we", "us", "our") provides digital presence management services — including website creation, Google Business Profile optimization, and related consulting — to South African micro-enterprises. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why, and how we protect it, in line with South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).

We are the "responsible party" for the personal information described in this policy.

• Contact and business details: your name, email address, WhatsApp number, business name, business category, and address/suburb, collected when you sign up.
• Payment information: processed securely by our payment partner, PayFast. We do not store your card details ourselves.
• Google Business Profile access: if you connect your Google Business Profile to Praize, you authorize us to view and update your business information, publish posts and offers on your behalf, manage photos, and monitor and respond to reviews. We securely store an access token that enables this. This token is never exposed to your browser or any third party, and you can revoke it at any time via your Google Account settings.
• Consultation recordings: for customers who receive an in-person consultation, we may record audio to help us accurately capture and act on your business details and preferences.
• Communications: emails and messages we send you, and any replies you send us, for service delivery and support purposes.
• Website usage data: basic analytics about how visitors use our website, to help us improve it.

We process your personal information to:

• Set up and deliver the services you've signed up for
• Manage and optimize your Google Business Profile and website, with your authorization
• Communicate with you about your account, service updates, and billing
• Process payments
• Improve our services and website

We only process the personal information necessary for these purposes, and only for as long as needed to provide our services or as required by law.

• Sensitive credentials, including Google Business Profile access tokens, are stored in restricted systems that cannot be accessed by our website's front end or by unauthorized staff.
• We use industry-standard security practices across our infrastructure to protect your information from loss, unauthorized access, or misuse.

We do not sell your personal information. We share information only with the service providers necessary to deliver our services, including:

• PayFast, for payment processing
• Google, for managing your Business Profile (only with your explicit authorization)
• Resend, our email delivery provider, for sending you service communications

Our use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Under POPIA, you have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate information
• Request deletion of your information, subject to legal or contractual requirements
• Withdraw consent for processing, where consent is the basis for that processing (for example, revoking Google Business Profile access at any time)
• Object to processing of your personal information
• Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa if you believe your information has been mishandled

To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the details below.

We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to provide our services, maintain our business records, or comply with legal obligations. If you stop using our services, we will retain your information only as long as reasonably necessary before secure deletion.

If you cancel your subscription or revoke Google Business Profile access, we will stop managing your listing and remove our access to it within 7 business days.

If you have questions about this policy or how we handle your information, contact us at sam@praize.co.za

We may update this policy from time to time. We'll post the updated version here with a new "last updated" date.