1. Scope and legal framework
This Privacy Policy explains how Missing Pets South Africa ("Missing Pets", "we", "us" or "our") processes personal information when you browse the website, create or claim an account, register a pet, submit or share a report, use location features, purchase a membership, earn points, use affiliate links, participate in competitions, watch reward videos, contact us or use related services.
We aim to process personal information in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA), the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 (ECTA), the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (CPA) where applicable, and other applicable South African law.
2. Responsible party and contact
Missing Pets is generally the responsible party for personal information processed through the service. Privacy, correction, deletion and objection requests may be sent to contact@missingpets.co.za or submitted through the secure Contact Us page. The operating entity's final legal name, physical address and registered Information Officer details must be inserted before full commercial launch.
3. Information we process
Account and profile information
Username, name, email address, mobile number, province, suburb, authentication identifiers, account status, last sign-in timestamp, profile photograph, registered-pet count, membership details, affiliate code and engagement information.
Pet and report information
Pet name, type, breed, sex, unique features, photographs, last-seen date, report status, report reference, canonical alert-page URL, linked missing-pet reference, the current location category selected for a found pet, province, suburb and coordinates supplied for location-related report functions.
Found-pet ownership claims
When a person claims a found pet, we may process the claimant’s name, mobile number, email address, province, suburb, optional private coordinates, selected registered-pet profile and proof-of-ownership photograph. Claim evidence is private and is available only to authorised reviewers and service providers needed to operate the claim process.
Location information
When you actively use a location feature, or your browser has already granted permission, the service may use the device's current latitude and longitude to populate province and suburb fields, calculate an approximate distance or apply nearby filters. Exact browser geolocation remains controlled by your browser or device. Public pet cards do not intentionally publish your precise device coordinates or private street address.
Membership, Alert Booster and payment information
Membership tier, subscription status, billing dates, monthly Hero Alert Booster usage and donations, Alert Booster checkout and activation records, private donor, report-owner and pet-detail snapshots needed to fulfil and audit the booster, PayFast transaction references and subscription-management information. Card or banking details are entered in PayFast's payment environment and are not intended to be stored by Missing Pets.
Points, affiliate and competition information
Eligible point events, anti-abuse references, weekly totals, competition entries, live and archived weekly game leaderboard rankings and scores, winner-selection records, affiliate codes, report-link clicks, a salted hash representing the incoming IP address or the signed-in visitor identity, referral-registration records and prize-fulfilment records.
Support, technical and security information
Contact-form messages, prefilled profile contact details when a signed-in user opens the form, provider acceptance or delivery status, provider message references, session and authentication information, request metadata, IP addresses or privacy-preserving hashes derived from them, device/browser information, rate-limit records and security signals used to prevent fraud, spam and abuse. Contact messages are saved securely before outbound delivery is attempted so they are not lost when an email provider is temporarily unavailable.
4. Reports submitted while logged out
When a report is submitted while logged out, the supplied email address may be checked against an existing Missing Pets account. If an account exists, the report may be linked to that profile. If none exists, an unclaimed profile may be created so that the report has an owner and the person can later claim or complete the account. An unclaimed profile is internally marked as not yet logged in. This does not create consent for unrelated marketing.
5. Affiliate links and referral tracking
Each registered profile may receive a unique affiliate code. When a missing-pet report link contains that code and another person opens the link, the platform may record the affiliate user, report identifier, date and a salted hash based on either the signed-in visitor account or the incoming IP address. This is used to apply the rule of one affiliate-click reward per report link per incoming IP address or signed-in visitor and to detect abuse. Raw IP addresses are not stored in the affiliate-click table.
For registration attribution, the browser stores the affiliate reference for the current browser session. If the visitor enables Referral rewards in Cookie settings, the reference may be remembered for up to 30 days so a later genuine registration can be attributed. If that optional preference is not enabled, the referral is not persistently stored beyond the current browser session. A new user's profile may record the referring profile and referral date. Affiliate data is not permission for unrelated direct marketing.
6. Purposes and lawful grounds
We process information to provide and secure the service; create and authenticate accounts; prevent duplicate accounts; publish safe pet alerts; link reports to the correct person; prepopulate forms; operate location and distance functions; manage pet profiles, memberships, recurring payments and once-off Alert Boosters; automatically approve a Review report after a verified successful submission-booster payment; prioritise boosted alerts; prepare poster and social-sharing fulfilment; award points, including the once-off pet-profile reward; attribute affiliate rewards; review found-pet ownership claims; administer competitions; detect abuse; provide support; send essential service communications; meet legal obligations; establish or defend legal claims; and improve reliability.
Depending on the context, processing may rely on consent, performance of or steps toward a requested service, a legitimate interest that does not unjustifiably prejudice your rights, or compliance with law. Persistent referral storage, analytics and external-video cookies are based on the user's optional choices.
7. Public and private information
Found-pet ownership claims, proof photographs, claimant contact details, report-owner contact details and linked account information are private and are not shown on public pet cards.
Public pet alerts may display pet information, photographs, province, suburb, report dates, estimated distance, report reference and descriptive details. Report-specific sharing pages may use the same public information to create Facebook, WhatsApp or copied-link previews. Reporter email addresses, mobile numbers, precise device coordinates, payment information, authentication data and private account details are not intended to appear on public pet cards.
Do not upload unnecessary information about people, children, identity documents, banking details, verification codes, vehicle registrations, private home interiors or human health information.
8. Location choices
Selecting a distance filter or choosing "Use my location" may trigger a browser permission request. You may decline and enter an area manually. If permission has already been granted, the site may refresh and use your actual current device location without showing the permission prompt again. Distances are generally measured from your device location to an approximate suburb location for the report, not to the reporter's exact location. Production geolocation normally requires HTTPS.
9. Service providers
Depending on configuration, service providers may include Supabase for database, authentication and storage; Google for optional sign-in, geocoding, Google Analytics website measurement and consent-based YouTube video playback; Vercel for website hosting and request delivery; PayFast for recurring payments; Cloudflare Turnstile for anti-bot protection; Resend or a configured SMTP mail provider for transactional email; and external social platforms when you choose to follow or share content. Each provider also processes information under its own terms and privacy notice.
10. Cross-border processing
Some providers may process information outside South Africa. Where POPIA applies to a cross-border transfer, we aim to use recipients, contractual protections or other safeguards that satisfy section 72 of POPIA.
11. Cookies, local storage and consent records
On a first visit, a minimal selector lets you choose necessary storage, analytics, external videos and persistent referral rewards. Necessary storage supports authentication, security, short-lived active sessions, interface preferences and the saved consent choice. Google Analytics and YouTube players are not loaded until the relevant optional choice is enabled. Persistent affiliate attribution is not stored beyond the current session unless Referral rewards is enabled.
We keep an audit record of consent choices using a random visitor identifier, policy version, selected categories, a privacy-preserving hash of the connection address, limited browser information and the time of the choice. You can change your choices through the Cookie settings control in the footer. Updating the policy version may cause the selector to be shown again.
When analytics is permitted, Google Analytics is configured without Google signals or advertising-personalisation signals in the website tag. When external videos are permitted, YouTube may process device, playback, cookie and account information under Google's own privacy terms.
12. Security and access control
We use reasonable technical and organisational safeguards appropriate to the service, including authenticated server routes, strict input validation, database constraints, row-level database security, owner-only queries, private storage for selected files, short-lived signed media links, restricted server credentials, rate limiting, in-memory fallback throttling during database-rate-limit outages and anti-bot controls. Logged-in users are not intended to receive another user's private profile, contact, pet-profile or report-owner details. No online service can guarantee absolute security.
If there are reasonable grounds to believe personal information has been accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person, we will follow POPIA's applicable security-compromise notification requirements.
13. Retention
Information is retained only for as long as reasonably necessary for the original purpose, legal compliance, dispute handling, fraud prevention, audit and system integrity. Competition and affiliate reward records may be retained with competition audit records for at least the period required by applicable consumer law. Backups may persist for a limited period after information is deleted from active systems.
14. Your rights
Subject to POPIA and applicable law, you may request confirmation of whether we hold personal information about you; access to that information; correction or deletion of inaccurate, excessive or unlawfully retained information; objection to certain processing; withdrawal of consent where consent is the basis; and information about relevant recipients. We may verify your identity before acting on a request.
15. Direct marketing and service messages
Submitting a report, using an affiliate link, creating an account or entering a competition does not constitute blanket consent to unrelated marketing. Necessary account, report, payment, security, winner, prize and support messages may still be sent to operate the requested service. Direct marketing remains subject to applicable consent and opt-out rules.
16. Children
Accounts, paid memberships and weekly competition participation are intended for adults aged 18 or older. Adults should not submit unnecessary personal information about children. A pet photograph that incidentally includes a child should be avoided unless it is necessary and the uploader has appropriate authority.
17. Changes and complaints
We may update this policy when the service, providers, laws or processing activities change. Material changes may be highlighted through the website or a renewed cookie choice. You may contact us first to resolve a concern and may also approach the Information Regulator or another competent South African authority.
Email: contact@missingpets.co.za
WhatsApp: +27 79 630 1001