POPI Privacy Policy Your privacy is very important to e-Merge IT Recruitment. e-Merge IT Recruitment has developed this statement to help you better understand how we collect, communicate and use any personal information that you submit to us. For purposes of this statement, “personal information” shall be defined as detailed in the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (“POPIA”).
1. The collection of personal information
As part our business structure and service offering we will only process your personal information for any purpose relating to the recruitment process. If you use our services either for the purpose of recruitment of resources/talent for your business or for you to be placed as a resource with one of our clients, you agree that we may process your personal information as explained under this Privacy Policy. The personal information we collect is only for the purposes of effectively delivering this services to you.
2. What is personal information?
Personal information refers to any information that identifies you or specifically relates to you. Personal information includes, but is not limited to, the following information about you:
- Your name and surname
- your marital status
- your nationality
- your age and ID or Passport number
- your educational details
- your financial history (like your income, Third-Party payments made on your behalf and the like)
- your contact details which may include your e-mail address or telephone number
- your physical address and postal address
- your biometric information (like fingerprints, your signature or voice)
- your race; gender; ethnicity
- your physical health; mental health; pregnancy; disability; religion; belief; conscience; culture
- your criminal history
- your employment history
- your confidential correspondence; and / or
- another’s views or opinions about you (references taken)
3. Use of your information
- To respond to your enquiry or application
- To apply for employment on your behalf with our client/s
- To provide services to you as well as feedback on the process
- To provide access to you and the use of our systems
- To enable effective interview process between yourself and our clients through electronic communication including but not limited to: Skype, MS Teams, Zoom, etc.
4. Processing your information
We will only process your personal information for lawful purposes relating to our business if the following applies:
- if you have consented thereto
- if a person legally authorised by you, the law or a court, has consented to it
- if it is necessary to conclude or perform under a contract we have with you
- if the law requires or permits it
- if it is required to protect or pursue your, our or a Third-Party’s legitimate interest
5. Where we obtain personal information about you
- We collect personal information from you directly, from a public source or from a source where you have deliberately made the personal information public and available.
- We may collect personal information from third parties.
- We collect information about you based on how you engage or interact with us such as via emails, letters, newsletters, text messages, WhatsApp messages, telephone calls and surveys.
The third parties from whom we may collect your personal information include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Partners of our company for any of the purposes identified in this Privacy Policy
- employer, and other similar sources
- our service providers, agents and sub-contractors like couriers and other persons we use to offer and provide services to you
6. Reasons we need to process your personal information:
We will process your personal information for the following reasons:
- to be able to contact you in order to facilitate the recruitment process (interview confirmations and getting additional information from you in order to process your application)
- to provide recruitment services to you
- to introduce you to our clients in order to secure you employment with our clients
- to conduct the necessary checks on you as a candidate (which will include, credit, criminal and reference checks)
- to remarket opportunities to you
- to conduct customer satisfaction surveys, newsletters as well as marketing (this communication will be done in telephonically, or by use of electronic channels including but not limited to, SMS, email and fax, etc.)
- to respond to your enquiries and/or complaints
- to enable our clients to conduct interviews with you and/or send you technical online assessments
- to develop, test and improve services offering to you
- to process payment instruments for referral incentives or otherwise
- to enable us to deliver documents or notices to you
- to enable us to put together contracts of employment
- for security, identity verification and to check the accuracy of your personal information in order to ensure honest representation of you to our clients
- for any other related purposes
7. Security of information
e-Merge IT Recruitment shall take all reasonable steps to secure the content of the e-Merge Website and its system providers and will protect the personal information of its clients. e-Merge cannot make any warranties or representations that content shall be 100% safe or secure, but eMerge has applied all necessary due care and diligence towards preserving the security of information subject to the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 (“ECT Act”).
We will take appropriate and reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect your personal information according to industry best practices. Our security measures. We have made a concerted effort to ensure that:
- Accessibility to our system is monitored and password protected for each user
- every individual with access to the system has unique login credentials
- all records and documentation are safely stored
- cloud hosted solution is used to ensure safe keeping of candidate information
- our website is protected and no one outside of the organisation has access to this information and there are unique login details for all users
- controlling the access to our buildings, systems and/or records
- secure destroying of any candidate documentation
8. Your rights:
- In all cases you have the right to opt out or request us to stop sending marketing communications to you
- You have the right to request access to the personal information we have about you by contacting us
- We will attend to requests for access to personal information within a reasonable time. You may be required to pay a reasonable fee to receive copies or descriptions of records, or information about third parties. We will inform you of the fee before attending to your request. Please note that the law may limit your right to access information.
- You have the right to request us to correct or delete the personal information we have about you if it is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading, obtained unlawfully or we are no longer authorised to keep it. You must inform us of your request in writing. Please refer to our PAIA Manual for further information in this regard, like the process you should follow to give effect to this right. It may take up to 15 business days for the change to reflect on our systems. We may request documents from you to verify the change in personal information.
- A specific agreement that you have entered into with us may determine how you must change your personal information provided at the time when you entered into the specific agreement. Please adhere to these requirements. If the law requires us to keep the personal information, it will not be deleted upon your request. The deletion of certain personal information may lead to the termination of your business relationship with us.
- You may object on reasonable grounds to the processing of your personal information.
- We will not be able to give effect to your objection if the processing of your personal information was and is permitted by law; you have provided consent to the processing and our processing done according to your consent or the processing is necessary to conclude or perform under a contract with you.
- Where you have provided your consent for the processing of your personal information, you may withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we will explain the consequences to you. We may proceed to process your personal information even if you have withdrawn your consent if the law permits or requires it. It may take up to 30 working days for the changes to be implemented on our system and reflects accordingly which means that during this time your personal information may still be processed. You must inform us of any objection in writing. Please send all objections or questions to info@emerge.co.za.
- You have a right to file a complaint with us or any Regulator with jurisdiction about an alleged contravention of the protection of your personal information by us. We will address your complaint as best as we possibly can.
9. How long do we keep your personal information?
We will keep your personal information for as long as:
- the law requires us to keep it
- a contract between you and us requires us to keep it
- you have consented for us keeping it
- we are required to keep it to achieve the purposes listed in this Privacy Policy
- we require it for statistical or research purposes
- a code of conduct requires us to keep it
- we require it for our lawful business purposes
Take note: We may keep your personal information even if you no longer have a relationship with us, for the historical data that may be required by your employer or employee.
10. Client consent
By engaging us for our recruitment services you agree to the following:
- By either Party submitting any personal information to the other, the disclosing Party unconditionally and voluntarily consents to the processing of the submitted personal information for all purposes related to the standard terms and conditions as agreed between the Parties.
- Each Party agrees and consents that its personal information may be processed by, or on behalf of, either of the Parties for the purposes set out in the Agreement.
- Each Party shall at all times comply with its obligations and procure that each of its Affiliates comply with their obligations under POPI.
- Each Party shall ensure that any personal information that is processed by it while performing its obligations under the agreed terms and conditions, is done in accordance with POPI.
- Each Party shall not process, disclose or use personal information except:
- to the extent necessary for the provision of Services and/or Products under the agreed terms and conditions; or
- to fulfil its own obligations under the agreed terms and conditions; or
- as otherwise expressly authorised by the other Party in writing.
- Each Party shall not disclose any personal information to any Third-Party without the other Party’s prior written consent in each instance, other than to the extent required by any Regulator or Law.
- In the event of the other Party providing such consent necessary for the disclosure of personal information to a Third-Party, each Party shall:
- make such disclosure in compliance with POPI; and
- enter into a written agreement with the applicable Third-Party recipient of such personal information that requires such Third-Party to safeguard the personal information in a manner no less restrictive than each Party’s obligations under these terms.
- The Parties shall implement and maintain effective security safeguards that includes, but is not limited to, administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, and appropriate technical and organisational measures. In each case, adequate safeguards to ensure the security and confidentiality of personal information, and to protect against any anticipated risks to the security or integrity of personal information, protection against unauthorised access to or use of personal information, protection of personal information against unlawful processing or processing otherwise than in accordance with this agreement, and protection against accidental loss, destruction, damage, alteration or disclosure of personal information
- Without limiting the foregoing, such safeguards and measures shall be appropriate to protect against the harm that may result from unauthorised or unlawful processing, use or disclosure, or accidental loss, destruction or damage to or of personal information and the nature of the personal information, and shall maintain all safeguard measures as is required by POPI.
- In the event of any actual, suspected or alleged security breach, including but not limited to, loss, damage, destruction, theft, unauthorised use, access to or disclosure of any personal information, each Party shall:
- notify the other Party as soon as practical after becoming aware of such event; and
- provide the other Party with all information regarding the breach in the Party’s knowledge and possession to allow the Party to ascertain what has occurred and which personal information has been affected; and
- promptly take whatever action is necessary, at each Party’s own expense, to minimise the impact of such event and prevent such event from recurring.
- The Client hereby consents to direct marketing from the Company. It is noted that the Company will comply with all obligations in terms of POPI in relation to direct marketing and in this regard the Client may withdraw its consent to direct marketing.
11. Candidate consent
By engaging with us to find you a placement as a candidate, you agree to the following:
- By the Candidate submitting any personal information to the Company, the Candidate unconditionally and voluntarily, consents to the processing of the submitted personal information for the purposes of:
- finding the Candidate employment and in this regard, matching the Candidate’s submitted information with our Client’s job specifications;
- conducting reference checks, including employment history, criminal record, educational history, qualification and skills checks, and credit checks; and
- presenting the Candidate as a suitable candidate to our Clients.
- The Candidate agrees and consents that personal information may be processed by, or on behalf of the Company for the purposes set out herein.
- The Candidate agrees to update all personal details with the Company if any personal information changes and/or must be updated.
- The Candidate hereby agrees and consents that the Company may retain their personal information indefinitely.
12. Disclaimer
e-Merge maintains the right to amend and change this policy document when needed and would not need to give any prior notification of these amendments.
13. Information Officer
Our information officer is Mavis Mathabela, with contact details mavism@e-merge.co.za