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I'M A SUPPORTER
I'M A BENEFICIARY

Last updated: 30 May 2024

Who you are sharing your information with

Woolworths Proprietary Limited is a private company incorporated under and governed by the laws of South Africa, registration number 1956/000518/07, with its registered office at 93 Longmarket Street, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa (“Woolworths”). Woolworths operates the MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet programme.
You know us as MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet, but in fact we are a group of companies that includes Woolworths Financial Services (Proprietary) Limited, all forming part of Woolworths Holding.


All of the provisions of this Privacy Notice are important, but please pay special attention to the parts that are in bold writing. These parts contain information about provisions that have special consequences for you. These parts are only intended to bring such provisions to your attention, and, where necessary, to explain their fact, nature and effect. Where explanations are given, they may be contained in a box. Such boxed explanations are aids to understanding only and are not provisions themselves. They do not limit the meaning or application of the provisions, and do not apply only to the situations and examples described in the boxes or only to similar situations or examples.


At MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet your privacy matters to us. We realise that you have trusted us with your personal information and we plan to respect that trust in the way in which we collect, use and store your personal information. We have created this privacy notice with the aim to keep you informed and empowered.

What this notice is about

We want you to understand who you are sharing your personal information with, what kind of information we are collecting and how we use the information. In your day to day dealings with MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet we obtain information about you, the MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet supporter. We want you to know exactly what that information is and what we do with it. After all, trust is nothing without transparency.


We need supporter personal information to create your profile and calculate the money we send to your beneficiaries. Your information is important to us – we could not do what we do without having accurate information about you. We ask for supporter information to make sure that each supporter has a unique and identifiable profile and so that we can calculate the amount of money that a beneficiary must receive, how many supporters the beneficiary has and to manage supporters.


The Protection of Personal Information Act protects you. The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI) is aimed at protecting your personal information and prescribes what we must and must not do with it. POPI creates an Information Regulator who checks that companies like MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet manage personal information in a responsible manner that respects your privacy.


Other legislation applies to your personal information. There may be pieces of legislation which oblige us to use your personal information.


This privacy notice is part of our agreement with you. This privacy notice is part of our agreement with you. This privacy notice forms part of our agreement with you. You should read it with the terms and conditions applicable to your relationship with us. These terms and conditions can be accessed at https://www.myschool.co.za/legal/terms-and-conditions/


From time to time we will change this notice. From time to time we may have to change this notice to accommodate changes in our business or services or changes to the law.

What information we collect

When you apply to become part of the MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet programme, we would have collected your personal information to make that happen. If you are a supporter of the MySchool programme we collect your personal information. We require information such as your name, e-mail address, contact numbers, ID or passport number. We collect information to analyse purchasing patterns. If you have a MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet card we collect information about you such as your shopping preferences in order to make sure that we can perform the analysis we need to meet your needs better.

 

We conduct surveys from time to time. We send out surveys from time to time. You can choose to respond or not and you can unsubscribe from receiving them.

 

We collect information while you use our website. When you visit the www.myschool.co.za Website we collect standard information about your internet connection and website-use. We collect this information from registered and unregistered users. We use this information to help us make improvements to our website and online services. Examples of this information includes the URL you came from, IP address, domain type, browser type, the country and telephone code where your computer is located, the web pages viewed during your visit, the advertisements you clicked on, and any search terms you entered on our website (user information).

 

We use cookies to optimise your website experience, but you can opt out. We use cookies to identify the computer device with which you connect to our website. We use anonymous cookies to collect data about how you use our Website, so that we can improve and optimise your Website experience. We use the anonymous DoubleClick cookie and Google Analytics cookie to optimise your web experience and provide relevant advertising on the Google Display Network based on the activity of visitors to our Website. You can opt out of Google Analytics for Display Advertisers and out of customized Google Display Network advertising by visiting Google’s Ad Preferences Manager.

Your consent to the processing of your personal information

By agreeing to this Privacy Notice, you provide us with your express consent and agreement that we may collect, get, receive, record, organise, collate, store, update, change, retrieve, read, process, consult, use and share your personal information in the manner set out in this Privacy Notice.


If you do not agree with this Privacy Notice, or are concerned about any aspect as it relates to your personal information, please do not continue to use the Website.


In the paragraph above you expressly give your permission to us to access and use your personal information in the manner and for the purposes set out in this Privacy Notice. By doing this, you know and accept that you are giving up certain parts of your right to privacy.

What information we collect

When you apply to become part of the MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet programme, we would have collected your personal information to make that happen. If you are a supporter of the MySchool programme we collect your personal information. We require information such as your name, e-mail address, contact numbers, ID or passport number. We collect information to analyse purchasing patterns. If you have a MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet card or profile we collect information about you such as your shopping preferences in order to make sure that we can perform the analysis we need to meet your needs better.


We conduct surveys from time to time. We send out surveys from time to time. You can choose to respond or not and you can unsubscribe from receiving them.
We collect information while you use our website. When you visit the www.myschool.co.za website we collect standard information about your internet connection and website-use. We collect this information from registered and unregistered users. We use this information to help us make improvements to our website and online services. Examples of this information includes the URL you came from, IP address, domain type, browser type, the country and telephone code where your computer is located, the web pages viewed during your visit, the advertisements you clicked on, and any search terms you entered on our website (user information).


We use cookies to optimise your website experience, but you can opt out. We use cookies to identify the computer device with which you connect to our website. We use anonymous cookies to collect data about how you use our Website, so that we can improve and optimise your Website experience. We use the anonymous DoubleClick cookie and Google Analytics cookie to optimise your web experience and provide relevant advertising on the Google Display Network based on the activity of visitors to our Website. You can opt out of Google Analytics for Display Advertisers and out of customized Google Display Network advertising by visiting Google’s Ad Preferences Manager.

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small piece of information stored by your browser on your computer. It may contain some personal details, the contents of your shopping basket, and date and time information in an encrypted format, which can be recalled when you return to the MySchool Website. This speeds up our identification and ordering and delivery processes.

 

We collect information when you contact our Call Centre to respond to your query. When you contact our customer support services, we collect information that helps us to categorise your query, respond to it and, if applicable, to investigate what went wrong. We also use this information to track potential problems and trends to customise our support responses to provide a better service to you.

 

We don’t collect the information of persons under 18. We do not collect the information of persons under 18 without the consent of their parents or guardians. If you are under the age of 18 you must not provide personal information to us without the consent of your parent or guardian.

 

Our facilities are monitored by CCTV cameras. Our facilities are monitored by CCTV cameras for public safety, crime prevention and quality control.

Why we need your personal information

We use your personal information to provide our products and services to you. We also use your personal information:


• when sending you your statement and any other legal documents;
• for any other purposes relating to the provision of our products and services; and
• when we have a legal duty to use or disclose your information.


Only your email address, name and surname, contact details and such other information as we specify from time to time, constitutes compulsory information. All other information is optional. If you do not agree to share compulsory information with us, then you will not be able to make full use of the features that are offered to supporters. If you do not agree to share your optional information with us, then you might not be able to enjoy all of the features and functionality on the Website.


In the paragraph above, you agree and accept that there is certain compulsory information you must provide us with if you want to enjoy all of the features and functionality on the Website. If you decide not to provide us with such compulsory information, you agree that we may limit certain features and functionality on the Website.


MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet cardholders/members may also take part in the WRewards Programme. WRewards is operated by Woolworths. Your personal information is used by WRewards to ensure that you and your beneficiaries receive the benefits promised by the MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet programme. The WRewards terms and conditions will also apply to you if you join WRewards. Subject to your marketing and/or communication preferences selected in your application form or as otherwise indicated by you to us, MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet cardholders/members are automatically members of the WRewards programme. If you take part in the MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet programme your personal information will also be used to create an account for you, and to make sure that you and your beneficiaries.


Our call centres record their calls for quality control and record-keeping purposes. When you contact our call centres the information which you give us will be used to investigate and resolve your query, complaint or request. The calls are recorded for quality control and record-keeping purposes. The call centres are committed to keeping your personal information safe and secure. Please take care not to provide more information than what we ask for. Never give us your banking details, credit card details or any passwords. Any unnecessary information you give us will be destroyed.


We only share your PI with companies which help us to provide our services to you and who have agreed to keep the PI secure, confidential and to only use it for authorised purposes. Your privacy is important to us, which is why it is our policy not to share your personal information with other companies unless it is necessary.
We do make use of suppliers or service providers who we trust to provide services to us and sometimes that involves sharing your information with them. They operate under strict requirements aimed at keeping your personal information secure and confidential and they will only use it for the purpose for which we have sent it to them.

Your rights and preferences

You have the right to know what personal information we have about you, to correct it and to opt out of any marketing. You have the right to:


• ask what personal information we hold about you;
• ask what information was sent to our suppliers, service providers or any other third party;
• ask us to update, correct or delete any out-of-date or incorrect personal information we hold about you;
• unsubscribe from any direct marketing communications we may send you; object to the processing of your personal information.
• It can take us up to 21 days to respond to your request.
• If you want us to delete all personal information we have about you, you will probably have to terminate all agreements you have with MySchoolMyVillageMyPlanet. We cannot maintain our relationship with you without having some of your personal information.
• We can refuse to delete your information if we are required by law to retain it or if we need it to protect our rights. You can request access to the personal information we hold about you by contacting our call centre.


Some of your information is available online. You are able to view and correct most of your personal information and preferences online on www.myschool.co.za. Other personal information can be corrected via the call centre. In certain cases we may require proof of your identity.

Cross-Border transfer

From time to time, MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet and its service providers may need to transfer to and/or store your personal information on servers in a jurisdiction other than South Africa, and we hereby notify you, and you acknowledge, that such jurisdiction may not have comparable data protection legislation.


If the jurisdiction to which personal information is transferred does not have laws which provide for the protection of personal information in a manner which is at least similar to the protections afforded under South African law, we will take reasonably practicable steps to ensure that your personal information is adequately protected in that jurisdiction.

Security

We take your privacy and the security of your personal information seriously. We have implemented reasonable security safeguards to protect the personal information that you provide. We regularly monitor our systems for possible vulnerabilities and attacks. As no system is perfect we cannot guarantee that information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical or managerial safeguards.


In this paragraph, you acknowledge that you know and you accept that technology is not absolutely secure and there is a risk that your personal information will not be secure when it is transferred through technology. We do not promise that we can keep your personal information completely secure. You will not be able to take action against us if you suffer losses or damages in these circumstances.


Please note that any email you send to us is not encrypted and may be monitored by us. Please do not send us sensitive or confidential personal information by means of email. Instead contact our call centre on 0860 100 445.


We will inform you if your privacy is ever compromised. Although we cannot prevent all security threats, we have measures in place to minimise the threat to your privacy. We let you know of any breaches which affect your personal information.


You have a right to lodge a complaint to the Information Regulator (POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za ) for any contravention of POPIA.

Third Party sites

To the extent allowed by law, we are not responsible for the privacy practices of a third party site to which there may be a link on the Website, or for any claims, loss or damage arising from these.


We advise you to read the privacy policy of each site which you visit and to determine your privacy settings in accordance with your personal preferences.


We are not liable if you suffer losses or damages when visiting third party websites by following a link to that website from the Website. You accept that there may be risks when you use such third party websites, and you do so at your own risk.

Protection of Personal Information Act and other laws

If this Privacy Notice or any provision in this Privacy Notice is regulated by or subject to POPI or other laws, it is not intended that any provision of this Privacy Notice contravenes any provision of POPI or such other laws. Therefore, all provisions of this Privacy Notice must be treated as being qualified, to the extent necessary, to ensure that the provisions of POPI and such other laws are complied with.


• does or purports to limit or exempt us from any liability (including, without limitation, for any loss directly or indirectly attributable to our gross negligence or wilful default or that of any other person acting for or controlled by us) to the extent that the law does not allow such a limitation or exemption;
• requires you to assume risk or liability for the kind of liability or loss, to the extent that the law does not allow such an assumption of risk or liability; or
• limits or excludes any warranties or obligations which are implied into this Privacy Notice by POPI (to the extent applicable) or other applicable laws or which we give under POPI (to the extent applicable) or other applicable laws, to the extent that the law does not allow them to be limited or excluded.

General

You agree that this Privacy Notice, our relationship and any dispute of whatsoever nature relating to or arising out of this Privacy Notice whether directly or indirectly, shall be governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa without giving effect to any principle of conflict of laws.


You agree that we may, at any time, transfer, cede, delegate or assign any or all of our rights and obligations under this Privacy Notice without your consent. We will notify you if we transfer, cede, delegate or assign any rights or obligations to a third party, but we do not have to notify you if we transfer, cede, delegate or assign any rights or obligations to any of our affiliates or to any person which acquires all or part of our business and/or assets. We may also sub-contract our obligations without your consent and we do not have to notify you if we sub-contract any of our obligations.


Our failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of this Privacy Notice shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.


Each provision of this Privacy Notice, and each part of any provision, is removable and detachable from the others. As far as the law allows, if any provision of this Privacy Notice, or part of a provision, is found by a court or authority of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable (including, without limitation, because such provision is inconsistent with the laws of another jurisdiction), it must be treated as if it was not included in this Privacy Notice and the rest of this Privacy Notice will still be valid and enforceable.

Third Party sites

To the extent allowed by law, we are not responsible for the privacy practices of a third party site to which there may be a link on the Website, or for any claims, loss or damage arising from these.

 

We advise you to read the privacy policy of each site which you visit and to determine your privacy settings in accordance with your personal preferences.

 

We are not liable if you suffer losses or damages when visiting third party websites by following a link to that website from the Website. You accept that there may be risks when you use such third party websites, and you do so at your own risk.

Protection of Personal Information Act and other laws

If this Privacy Notice or any provision in this Privacy Notice is regulated by or subject to POPI or other laws, it is not intended that any provision of this Privacy Notice contravenes any provision of POPI or such other laws. Therefore all provisions of this Privacy Notice must be treated as being qualified, to the extent necessary, to ensure that the provisions of POPI and such other laws are complied with.

 

  • does or purports to limit or exempt us from any liability (including, without limitation, for any loss directly or indirectly attributable to our gross negligence or wilful default or that of any other person acting for or controlled by us) to the extent that the law does not allow such a limitation or exemption;
  • requires you to assume risk or liability for the kind of liability or loss, to the extent that the law does not allow such an assumption of risk or liability; or
  • limits or excludes any warranties or obligations which are implied into this Privacy Notice by POPI (to the extent applicable) or other applicable laws or which we give under POPI (to the extent applicable) or other applicable laws, to the extent that the law does not allow them to be limited or excluded.

General

You agree that this Privacy Notice, our relationship and any dispute of whatsoever nature relating to or arising out of this Privacy Notice whether directly or indirectly, shall be governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa without giving effect to any principle of conflict of laws.

 

You agree that we may, at any time, transfer, cede, delegate or assign any or all of our rights and obligations under this Privacy Notice without your consent. We will notify you if we transfer, cede, delegate or assign any rights or obligations to a third party, but we do not have to notify you if we transfer, cede, delegate or assign any rights or obligations to any of our affiliates or to any person which acquires all or part of our business and/or assets. We may also sub-contract our obligations without your consent and we do not have to notify you if we sub-contract any of our obligations.

 

Our failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of this Privacy Notice shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

 

Each provision of this Privacy Notice, and each part of any provision, is removable and detachable from the others. As far as the law allows, if any provision of this Privacy Notice, or part of a provision, is found by a court or authority of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable (including, without limitation, because such provision is inconsistent with the laws of another jurisdiction), it must be treated as if it was not included in this Privacy Notice and the rest of this Privacy Notice will still be valid and enforceable.

 

At MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet the privacy of the schools and charities that benefit from our program (‘Beneficiaries’) matters to us. We realise that you, the Beneficiary, have trusted us with the personal information or your organisation and some of your staff and we plan to respect that trust in the way in which we collect, use and store your personal information. We have created this privacy notice with the aim to keep you informed and empowered

What this notice is about

We want you to understand who you are sharing your information with, what kind of information we are collecting and how we use the information. In your application form and in your dealings with MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet we obtain information about you, the MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet Beneficiary. We want you to know exactly what that information is and what we do with it. After all, trust is nothing without transparency.

 

We need Beneficiary personal information to contact you and optimise your organisation’s use of our program.Your information is important to us – we could not do what we do without having accurate information about you. We ask for Beneficiary information to make sure that we can contact you if we / you have any billing queries, to help you optimise your organisation to benefit fully from the MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet program, to ensure that meet all our requirements for being a MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet Beneficiary.

 

The Protection of Personal Information Act protects you. The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI) is aimed at protecting your personal information and prescribes what we must and must not do with it. POPI creates an Information Regulator who checks that companies like MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet manage personal information in a responsible manner that respects your privacy.

 

Other legislation applies to your personal information. There are other pieces of legislation which also apply to your personal information. For instance we must report on the students according to their race in terms of the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act No. 53 of 2003 (BBBEE).

 

This privacy notice is part of our agreement with you. This privacy notice forms part of our agreement with you. You should read it with the terms and conditions applicable to your relationship with us. These terms and conditions can be accessed here.

 

From time to time we will change this notice. From time to time we may have to change this notice to accommodate changes in our business or services or changes to the law.

Who you are sharing your information with

This notice relates to Virtual Market Place (Pty) Ltd (MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet). This notice relates to Virtual Market Place (Pty) Ltd: VMP administrates the MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet programme.

What information we collect

When you apply to become a Beneficiary of the MySchool programme, we collect your personal information to make that happen. We collect the name, addresses, contact details, VAT number, banking account details. We collect the following information from schools: school demographics (number of learners, grades, etc) departmental registration number, NGO registration number and race demographic of students. We collect the following information if you are a charity: focus area, region/s where you operate, NGO registration number, communication methods with supporters/sponsors, number of supporters, source of funding. We also collect the following information from the head of your organisation, the primary and secondary contact person and your financial contact person: name, surname, email address, telephone number, cell phone number and fax number. We only provide general information about your supporters to you. While we do collect personal information about your supporters, to protect your supporters’ privacy, the monthly report that you receive from us will only contain de-identified and summarised information about your supporters.

 

We conduct surveys from time to time. We can conduct surveys of beneficiaries from time to time. The results the survey will help us and our partners optimise the marketing program.

 

We collect information while you use our website. When you visit the www.myschool.co.za web site we collect standard information about your internet connection and website-use. We collect this information from registered and unregistered users. We use this information to help us make improvements to our website and online services. Examples of this information includes the URL you came from, IP address, domain type, browser type, the country and telephone code where your computer is located, the web pages viewed during your visit, the advertisements you clicked on, and any search terms you entered on our website (user information).

 

We use cookies to optimise your website experience, but you can opt out. We use cookies to identify the computer device with which you connect to our website. We use the anonymous DoubleClick cookie and Google Analytics cookie to optimise your web experience and serve relevant advertising on the Google Display Network based on the activity of visitors to our website. You can opt out of Google Analytics for Display Advertisers and out of customized Google Display Network advertising by visiting Google’s Ad Preferences Manager.

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small piece of information stored by your browser on your computer. It may contain some personal details which can be recalled when you return to the MySchool website.

 

We collect information when you contact our Call Centre to respond to your query. When you contact our customer support services or when you speak to our employees, we collect information that helps us to categorise your query, respond to it and, if applicable, to investigate what went wrong. We also use this information to track potential problems and trends to customise our support responses to provide a better service to you.

 

We don’t collect the information of persons under 18. We do not collect the information of persons under 18 without the consent of their parents or guardians.

 

Our facilities are monitored by CCTV cameras. Our facilities are monitored by CCTV cameras for public safety, crime prevention and quality control.

Why we need your personal information

We use your personal information and the personal information of your official representatives to provide services to you. We use your personal information the personal information of your official representatives to make the MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet program function. This includes:

 

  • sending you your statement and any other legal documents,
  • keeping you up to date with the success of your supporter program,
  • contacting you about new initiatives and to deal with your queries / needs,
  • when we have a legal duty to use or disclose your information.

Our call centres record their calls for quality control and record-keeping purposes. When you contact our call centres the information which you give us will be used to investigate and resolve your query, complaint or request. The calls are recorded for quality control and record-keeping purposes.

 

The call centres are committed to keeping your personal information safe and secure. Please take care not to provide more information than what we ask for. Never give us your credit card details or any passwords. Any unnecessary information you give us will be destroyed.

 

We only share your PI with companies which help us to provide our services to you and who have agreed to keep the PI secure, confidential and to only use it for authorised purposes. Your privacy is important to us, which is why it is our policy not to share your personal information with other companies. We do make use of suppliers or service providers who we trust to provide services to us and sometimes that involves sharing your information with them. They operate under strict requirements aimed at keeping your personal information secure and confidential and they will only use it for the purpose for which we have sent it to them. Some of these service providers may be located in other countries which may not have the same levels of protection of personal information as South Africa. When this is the case, we require that they undertake to protect the personal information of our Beneficiaries.

Your rights and preferences

You have the right to know what personal information we have about you, to correct it and to opt out of any marketing. You have the right to:

 

  • ask what personal information we hold about you;
  • ask what information was sent to our suppliers, service providers or any other third party; ask us to update, correct or delete any out-of-date or incorrect personal information we hold about you;
  • object to the processing of our personal information.

It can take us up to 21 days to respond to your request. If you want us to delete all personal information we have about you, you will probably have to terminate all agreements you have with us. We cannot maintain our relationship with you without having some of your personal information.

 

We can refuse to delete your information if we are required by law to retain it or if we need it to protect our rights. You can request access to the information we hold about you by contacting our call centre.

 

Some of your information is available online. As a MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet Beneficiary your organisation’s details are available on our web site so that supporters can choose you as a Beneficiary that they support. Please let us know as soon as possible if any of the information is outdated or incorrect.

 

You can phone the call centre to correct your information. You can phone the call centre to correct your personal information. In certain cases we may require proof of your identity. Changes to some of your information may be subject to additional requirements such as valid proof of new banking details.

Security

We take your privacy and the security of your personal information seriously. We have implemented reasonable security safeguards to protect the personal information that you provide. For example sensitive data is protected by SSL encryption when it is exchanged between your web browser and our website. We regularly monitor our systems for possible vulnerabilities and attacks. As no system is perfect we cannot guarantee that information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical or managerial safeguards. Please note that any email you send to us is not encrypted and may be monitored by us. Our application form can be sent by means of email, but if you prefer you can still send the application form and associated documents by registered mail or courier to us.

 

We will inform you if your privacy is ever compromised. Although we cannot prevent all security threats, we have measures in place to minimise the threat to your privacy. We let you know of any breaches which affect your personal information.