1. Who this notice applies to
Tourist Guide SA ("we", "us" or "our") provides a tour-guide workspace on the web and Android. This notice applies to registered guide accounts, people who contact support, and personal information entered into the service for legitimate tour-management purposes.
We aim to process personal information in accordance with South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA) and other applicable law.
2. Information we collect
Depending on how the service is used, we may process:
- Guide account information such as name, email address, telephone number, guide registration details, province or area of operation, account status and sign-in information.
- Tour information such as tour names, dates, itinerary stops, notes, reports, flashcards and rooming-list information.
- Tourist or guest information entered by an authorised guide for a tour, including names and other details the guide chooses to store in tourist or rooming-list records.
- Map and place information such as selected destinations, Google place references and route-related information used by guide features.
- Support and security information such as messages sent to us, account approvals, deletion requests, technical logs and information needed to protect the service.
We do not ask users to send passwords to support, and passwords should never be shared with us by email.
3. How we use personal information
We process information to provide and secure the service, including to:
- create, verify, approve and administer guide accounts;
- store and synchronise tours, itineraries, tourists, rooming lists and reports;
- generate or share tour information through features selected by the guide;
- provide map, place and navigation-related functionality;
- manage pilot access, trials, subscriptions or account status;
- respond to support requests and investigate technical or security problems;
- meet legal obligations and enforce our Terms of Use.
4. Tourist, guest and child information
Guides control the information they enter about their tourists or guests. A guide must have a lawful and legitimate reason to collect and upload that information and should only enter information that is necessary for the tour.
If information about a child is entered, the guide is responsible for ensuring that the required consent or other lawful authority exists. Tourist Guide SA should not be used to collect unnecessary sensitive information.
Guest links are intended for controlled sharing of selected tour information. Guides are responsible for sending guest links only to appropriate recipients and for managing them responsibly.
5. Service providers and third-party services
We use technology providers to operate the service. These may include cloud database and authentication infrastructure, email delivery services and Google Maps/Places services. Those providers may process limited information needed to deliver their part of the service and may apply their own privacy terms.
When a device opens navigation or map functionality, the device or third-party map provider may process location or route information according to the device permissions and that provider's policies.
6. Retention and account deletion
We keep personal information for as long as reasonably needed to provide the service, maintain security, comply with law and resolve disputes. Retention periods can differ depending on the type of information.
A guide can request account deletion through the app. Once an authorised deletion is approved, the account and associated application data are removed from the active service, subject to any information that must lawfully be retained or may remain temporarily in protected backups.
7. Security
We use access controls, authenticated accounts, database security rules and other reasonable technical and organisational safeguards. No online service can guarantee absolute security, so guides should protect their login details, keep devices secure and report suspected unauthorised access promptly.
8. Your privacy rights
Subject to applicable law, you may ask us to confirm whether we hold your personal information, request access or correction, object to certain processing, request deletion where appropriate, or raise a privacy concern.
You may also have the right to lodge a complaint with South Africa's Information Regulator.
9. Contact us
For privacy questions, access/correction requests or account-related privacy concerns, contact:
Please do not include passwords or unnecessary tourist information in support emails.