Privacy Policy

We use your personal information to:

• Create and manage your account
• Provide matching, messaging, and community features
• Verify your age and identity
• Process payments and manage subscriptions
• Send you transactional emails (account verification, password resets, billing notifications)
• Send marketing communications where you have opted in
• Improve and personalise the Service through analytics
• Detect, investigate, and prevent fraud, abuse, and security incidents
• Comply with our legal obligations under South African law
• Resolve disputes and enforce our Terms of Service

We do not sell your personal information. We may share your personal information with:

• Service providers: Third-party companies that help us operate the Service (hosting, email delivery, payment processing, analytics). These providers are bound by contractual obligations to protect your information and may only use it as instructed by us.
• Other members: Profile information you make public (photos, bio, interests, online status) is visible to other registered members.
• Legal authorities: Where required by law, court order, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Unbound, our members, or the public.
• Business transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or part of our business, your information may be transferred to the acquiring entity subject to equivalent privacy protections.

Where we transfer personal information outside South Africa, we take appropriate safeguards to ensure adequate protection as required by POPIA.

We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the Service. Specifically:

• Account data: Retained for the duration of your account plus up to 90 days after deletion, to allow account recovery and resolve any outstanding disputes.
• Messages: Retained for 12 months after your account is deleted, then permanently erased.
• Payment records: Retained for 5 years as required by South African tax law.
• Log and security data: Retained for up to 12 months.

When we no longer need your personal information, we securely delete or anonymise it.

Under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013, you have the following rights:

• Right to access: You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Right to correction: You may request that we correct inaccurate or incomplete personal information.
• Right to deletion: You may request that we delete your personal information, subject to legal retention requirements.
• Right to object: You may object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
• Right to withdraw consent: Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time (without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing).
• Right to complain: You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa.

To exercise any of these rights, contact our Information Officer at support@unboundza.com. We will respond within 30 days.

We implement appropriate technical and organisational security measures to protect your personal information against unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. These measures include:

• Encryption of passwords using bcrypt hashing
• TLS/HTTPS encryption for all data in transit
• Encryption of data at rest on our database servers
• Role-based access controls limiting who can access personal data
• Regular security assessments and audits

While we strive to protect your personal information, no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure. In the event of a data breach that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as required by POPIA.

The Service is strictly for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from persons under 18. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a minor, we will take immediate steps to delete it and terminate the associated account.

If you believe a minor has created an account on Unbound, please contact us at support@unboundza.com immediately.

We use cookies and similar technologies to operate and improve the Service. Cookies are small text files stored on your device.

You can manage cookie preferences through our cookie banner or your browser settings. Note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of the Service.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by updating the "Last updated" date and, where required by POPIA, by notifying you directly. Your continued use of the Service after any changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.