Who Are We?
The africa.thegospelcoalition.org website is managed by the Gospel Coalition Africa NPC. By visiting the africa.thegospelcoalition.org website and providing your personal information you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy.
What this Policy applies to:
The Gospel Coalition Africa is committed to respecting the privacy rights of all parties who interact with us. We are grateful for the trust you place in us. The following outlines our privacy policies and the details and measures that we take to protect your privacy.
We are committed to protecting your privacy and to ensure that your personal information is collected and used properly, lawfully and transparently, in accordance with the requirements of the:
- Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 2002
- Protection of Personal Information Act No. 4 of 2013 (“POPI”)
- Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (PAIA)
How your Personal Information is collected:
We collect personal information from you:
- directly, when you enter or send us information described in the section below, and
- indirectly, such as your browsing activity while on our website. We will collect information indirectly using the technologies explained in the section on ‘Cookies’ below.
Personal Information we collect about you directly:
The information that The Gospel Coalition Africa collects on our website is limited to the information you provide to us when you make a donation, subscribe to a newsletter and provide information on one of our contact forms, surveys and/or church directory.
How it is collected:
- Contact Page and Surveys: When you contact us through our contact form or a survey we collect your name, email address, contact message, and survey answers. All information is protected using SSL encryption. We do not sell this information to any other party. We use the information that you provide to respond to your requests, communicate with you, and gather survey data that you provide to us.
- Church Directory: When you request that your church be added to The Gospel Coalition Africa’s Church Directory we will require that you submit personal information such as your name and your email. You also provide detailed information about your church including its name, address, senior pastor, mission statement, church contact person’s name and email address, website information, social media details, and you agree that your church affirms The Gospel Coalition’s Foundation Documents. The Gospel Coalition Africa uses this information, once verified, to add you to the TGC Africa Church Directory. The Gospel Coalition Africa reserves the right to remove your church account from the directory at its discretion. All information is protected using SSL encryption. We do not sell this information to any other party. We use the information that you provide to process your request for addition to the Church Directory and to communicate with you about the Church Directory or any other occasional updates that The Gospel Coalition Africa chooses to send to church leaders. This information will not be given to or shared with anyone outside of The Gospel Coalition Africa or our service providers unless you expressly allow it, or we believe that it is necessary to comply with the law, protect a person’s safety, or address fraud or security issues.
- Online Donations: When you make a donation on The Gospel Coalition Africa’s website, we collect your name, mailing address, email address, phone number, donation amount, and payment information. The personal information you provide to us is used to process your donation and to add you to our donor database, which includes an email address, mailing address, and phone list so that we may contact you about updates regarding your investment in the ministry of The Gospel Coalition Africa. This information is protected using SSL encryption. Your payment information is securely transmitted to our payment processor in order to process the contribution and it is not stored on our end. We maintain your name, email address, mailing address, phone number, and donation amount in order to comply with accounting requirements, manage receipting, and provide your donation history, as well as to comply with statutory laws.
How and Why we use your Personal Information:
We may use your personal information to:
- respond to your enquiries,
- verify your identity,
- send you regular newsletters
- improve our service to you by analysing it for trends
- invite you to attend events we hold
- send you updates on the latest legal developments
- send you marketing material (including electronic communications) relating to other offerings you might be interested in
- Process the services we provide to you
Occasionally we will send communication on behalf of a partner organization who we believe offer a product, event, or service that may interest our users. In those cases no data is ever shared with the partner organizations.
Who we share your Personal Information with:
We may disclose your Personal Information to our service providers who are involved in the delivery of products or services to you. We have agreements in place to ensure that they comply with these privacy terms.
We may share your Personal Information with, and obtain information about you from:
- Third parties for the purposes listed above;
- Other companies in the office products industry when we believe it will enhance the services and products we can offer to you, but only where you have not objected to such sharing;
- Other third parties from whom you have chosen to receive marketing information.
We may also disclose your information:
- Where we have a duty or a right to disclose in terms of law or industry codes;
- Where we believe it is necessary to protect our rights.
Retention of your Personal Data:
- The Gospel Coalition Africa will retain your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use your Personal Data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies. The Gospel Coalition Africa will also retain Usage Data for internal analysis purposes. Usage Data is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of Our Service, or we are legally obligated to retain this data for longer time periods.
- We will keep subscriber and church directory contact details indefinitely, or until such time as the person unsubscribes or requests removal.
Transferring your Personal Information out of South Africa:
We will generally not transfer your personal information outside of South Africa. It is, however, sometimes necessary for us to transfer your personal information to countries outside of South Africa. In those cases we will comply with applicable South African laws in terms of Transborder requirements designed to ensure the privacy of your personal information.
We may transfer your personal information to:
- our editorial staff in other African hubs
- our banking partners
- our partners located outside of South Africa.
Where we transfer your personal information outside South Africa we do so on the basis of a valid method of international transfer as required by South African data protection laws. In the event we cannot or choose not to continue to rely on either of those mechanisms at any time we will not transfer your personal information outside the South African unless we can do so on the basis of an alternative mechanism or exception provided by South African data protection law and reflected in an update to this policy.
Any changes to the destinations to which we send personal information or in the transfer mechanisms we rely on to transfer personal information internationally will be notified to you in accordance with section 14 on ‘Changes to this Privacy Policy’ below.
Cookies:
We track the way people use our website, apps, and email to provide you with a better and more engaging user experience. We use technologies often referred to as cookies, beacons, tags, and scripts to help us better understand user behaviour, measure the effectiveness of web searches, custom content, and advertisements. We treat information collected by cookies as anonymous information. However, to the extent that Internet Protocol (IP) addresses or similar identifiers are considered personal information by local law, we also treat these identifiers as personal information. When anonymous information is combined with personal information, we treat the combined information as personal information for the purposes of this Privacy Policy. Most browsers allow you to adjust your personal settings to control cookies. You can still access most of the features on africa.thegospelcoalition.org if you limit your cookies.
Your Rights (review, removal and update of collected data):
You have the right to ask us to update, correct or delete your personal information. To do this, simply contact us at the numbers/addresses as provided on our website and specify what information you require.
If you want to change, update or remove your name and email address on newsletter list, you can do that by clicking “Update Email” or “Unsubscribe” on the bottom of any received email or by emailing us. You may opt out of any phone and mail contact lists by emailing us.
If you want to change, update or remove your name and email address on our donor list, you can do that by clicking “Update Email” or “Unsubscribe” on the bottom of any received email or by emailing us.
Note: You can unsubscribe from our communications at any time by replying to the email you have received and asking to unsubscribe, or by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link in the email.
You have the right to review/ request a copy of the personal information we hold about you. You also have the right to correct, change and remove your personal information that we hold.
In order to do this simply access these legislated forms:
PAIA Form 02: Request for Access to Record:
https://inforegulator.org.za/paia-forms/
POPIA Form 2: Request for Correction or Deletion of Personal Information or Destroying or Deletion of Record of Personal Information:
https://inforegulator.org.za/popia-forms/
How to Complain:
Any person may submit a complaint to the Regulator in the prescribed manner and form alleging interference with the protection of the personal information of a data subject. Should you feel that your personal information has been violated, a complaint to the Regulator must be made in writing. For more information and access to complaint forms go to https://inforegulator.org.za/complaints/
Keeping your Personal Information secure:
We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine need to access it.
We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.
The Use of the Site by Children
The Gospel Coalition Africa’s website is designed for the use of general audiences. We never knowingly collect or maintain information on our website from visitors we know are under the age of 13. Any website information collected by The Gospel Coalition Africa from children under 18 is used only for the purpose of delivering the requested product or service. Please instruct your children to ask permission before providing any private information about themselves to The Gospel Coalition Africa.
Changes to this Privacy Policy:
The Gospel Coalition Africa may update its privacy policy from time to time. When we change the policy in a material way, a notice will be posted on our website along with the updated privacy policy. The most current version of our privacy policy will always be posted here. By continuing to use our website and apps, and by communicating with us via this site and email, you agree to be bound by the terms of this Privacy Policy.
How to Contact us:
If you have any queries about this notice; you need further information about our privacy practices; wish to withdraw consent; exercise preferences or access or correct your personal information, please contact us.
The date this Privacy Policy is effective from:
This privacy policy is effective from November 2023.
For more information consult our PAIA Manual.