Privacy policy

1. Who we are

Afrique Folk (afriquefolk.co.za) is published by Afriquefolk, based in South Africa.

Under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA), we are the responsible party for the personal information described in this policy. The policy explains what we collect when you use our website, why we collect it, and the choices you have.

2. What we collect

Information you give us. When you use our contact form or email us, we receive your name, email address and whatever you choose to include in your message. When you sign up for our newsletter, we receive your email address.

Information collected automatically. When you visit the site, our systems and analytics tools record technical details such as your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you view, the site that referred you and your approximate location based on your IP address.

We also keep a simple count of how often each story is read so we can show what is popular. These counts are totals only and are not linked to you.

3. How we use it

We use your information to:

• reply to your messages, story tips and partnership enquiries;
• send you our newsletter, if you have asked for it;
• understand which stories and sections readers find useful, so we can improve the site;
• keep the site secure, working and free of abuse;
• meet our legal obligations.

We rely on your consent (for the newsletter and contact form), our legitimate interest in running and improving the publication, and our legal obligations. We will not use your information for a new purpose that is not compatible with these without telling you first.

4. Cookies and analytics

Cookies are small files stored by your browser. We use:

• Essential cookies that keep the site working, secure and fast to load.
• Analytics cookies from Google Analytics, set through Google Site Kit, which help us count visits and see how people use the site.
• Third-party cookies from services whose content we embed or link to, such as YouTube, Instagram, X and Facebook. These services follow their own privacy policies.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. The site will still work, although some embedded content may not display.

5. Newsletter and forms

We only send our newsletter to people who have asked for it. Every newsletter includes a link to unsubscribe, and you can also ask us to remove you at any time.

Messages sent through our contact form are used to deal with your request. We keep them for as long as we need to respond and for reasonable record keeping, and then delete them.

6. Who we share it with

We do not sell or rent your personal information. We share it only with service providers who help us run Afrique Folk, such as our web host, email and newsletter providers and analytics provider. They may only use it to provide their service to us and must keep it secure.

Some of these providers, including Google, may store or process information outside South Africa. Where this happens, we use providers that are bound by laws, rules or agreements that give your information a level of protection similar to POPIA.

We may also disclose information where the law requires it, or to protect our rights, our readers or the public.

7. Your rights under POPIA

Under POPIA you have the right to:

• ask whether we hold personal information about you and request a copy of it;
• ask us to correct, update or delete your information;
• object to us processing your information, including for direct marketing;
• withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting anything we did before you withdrew it;
• complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa at inforegulator.org.za.

To use any of these rights, contact us using the details below. We may ask you to confirm your identity before we act on a request.

8. How we keep it safe

We protect your information with reasonable technical and organisational measures, including an encrypted (HTTPS) connection, restricted access to our systems and reputable service providers. No website can be completely secure, but if a security breach affects your personal information, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as POPIA requires.

9. Contact us about privacy

If you have a question about this policy or want to use your rights, contact:

Email: editor@afriquefolk.co.za

We aim to respond within 30 days. We may update this policy from time to time, and the date at the top of the page shows when it last changed.