Privacy notice
How your personal information is handled, under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). Last updated 3 November 2026.
Who is responsible
Your community (for example your residents' association) decides what information it keeps about its members and why. It is the responsible party, and its committee's chairperson is normally its Information Officer.
This app runs the service for communities and handles your information on their behalf (the operator). For questions about the app itself, email privacy@ourarea.co.za.
What we keep
- Your details: name, email address and, if given, phone number.
- Membership: the communities you belong to, your role, and your membership payments (amounts, dates, references and any notes a manager adds).
- Home address, only if your community collects it.
- What you post: marketplace items and photos, and messages you send to sellers.
- Logins: when you logged in and from which kind of device, to keep your account safe.
Why
To run your membership (who is a member, who has paid), to send you login codes, reminders and community news, and to keep the app secure. We don't sell your information, use it for advertising, or share it with anyone else for their own purposes.
Who can see it
- Your community's managers see members' details, payments and (if collected) addresses. Managers of other communities can't.
- Other members see only your first name on marketplace items. Your email address and phone number are never shown; when someone is interested in your item, they send you their details.
- Service providers that run the app for us: hosting in South Africa, image storage and email sending through Amazon Web Services in Cape Town.
How it's protected
Names, email addresses, phone numbers, home addresses, bank details and similar information are encrypted in the database. Logins use one-time codes instead of passwords. Changing a community's bank details needs an extra emailed code, and every manager is told.
How long we keep it
- Marketplace items: removed after 2 weeks without changes, or 2 weeks after being sold, with their photos and buyers' messages.
- Emails we've sent you: 90 days.
- If a manager removes you: your information in that community is erased after 12 months. Payment amounts and dates stay in the community's records, without your name.
- An account that no longer belongs to any community is deleted.
Your rights
On your My profile page you can:
- correct your details;
- download a copy of everything stored about you;
- leave one community and have your information there removed;
- delete your account.
You can also ask your community's managers, or email privacy@ourarea.co.za. If you're not happy with how your information is handled, you can complain to the Information Regulator: inforegulator.org.za.