Vodacom Privacy Portal
As a trusted guardian of customer personal information, Vodacom is committed to processing personal information honestly, ethically, with integrity, and always consistent with applicable laws and our privacy commitments.
Your privacy is important to us - just as knowing how we use your information is important to you. This Vodacom Privacy Portal gives you access to our privacy policy which offers visibility of how we collect, use, share and protect your personal information based on your interactions with Vodacom, our products and services that you use or subscribe to and how you make use of these products and services.
For your ease of use, we've broken this information down into sections so you can find the details you need as quickly and easily as possible.
Privacy Statement
Our privacy policy gets updated from time to time. Whenever we make a change, we’ll post this on our website and let you know if there is a material change. For more information or any updates on the privacy policy, please visit our Privacy Portal on https://www.vodacom.co.za/vodacom/privacy-policy/terms
HOW TO USE THIS PRIVACY POLICY
In this privacy policy, we explain how we collect, use, share and protect your Personal Information when you use our products and services and our website.
It is important to note that when you engage with us, you acknowledge that we require your Personal Information, as defined in the Protection of Personal Information Act No 4 of 2013 (POPIA) and other related regulations and need to process such Personal Information to provide products or services to you for purposes including to confirm, update and enhance our records, to confirm your identity and additional purposes as detailed below and in other supplementary privacy policies and statements linked to specific services that you subscribe to. You can find the privacy supplements for products and services, please go to “Privacy and our Product and Services”. Vodacom subsidiaries may have their own privacy statements governing the customers use of the particular service or product.
The provision of your Personal Information in terms of this policy is mandatory and you will not be able to continue using our products and services, should you object to providing us with such information.
We are Vodacom (Pty) Ltd (hereinafter referred to as “Vodacom”)
Our registered office is 082 Vodacom Boulevard, Vodavalley, Midrand, 1685. We are registered in the Republic of South Africa under company number 1993/003367/07. Vodacom is also registered with the Information Regulator in its capacity as a Responsible Party.
Unless otherwise specified in a separate privacy statement, the way your Personal Information is processed will remain compatible with the wording of this policy.
In this Privacy Policy:
- “we/us” means Vodacom (Pty) Ltd;
- “third party” means someone who is not you or us;
- “Vodacom Group” means Vodacom Group Limited and any company or organisation in which Vodacom Group Limited owns more than 30% of the share capital;
- “Vodafone Group” means Vodafone Group Plc and any company or other organisation in which Vodafone Group Plc owns more than 15% of the share capital;
- “Partner organisation” means external third-party business entity that provides value-added services;
- “Personal Information” refers to Personal Information about you as defined in POPIA and includes without limitation MSISDN (Mobile Station International Subscriber Director Number) information (a unique identifier which is linked to your mobile phone number), location information, call data records, usage information, race, gender, nationality, marital status, age, physical or mental health, disability, language, education, identity number, telephone number, email, postal address, biometric information, and financial, criminal or employment history.
- “Process or Processing” means to any operation or activity, whether automated or not, concerning Personal Information, including collection, receipt, recording, organisation, collation, storage, updating or modification, retrieval, alteration, consultation, use, dissemination by means of transmission, distribution or making available in any other form, merging, linking, as well as blocking, degradation, erasure or destruction of information.
HOW TO CONTACT US
Your opinion matters to us – if you have any questions about our Privacy Policy or your privacy settings, please submit your query to the Privacy Officer at [email protected] and a member of our dedicated team will respond to you. If you would like to mail us by post directly, send it to:
The Privacy Office – Legal Affairs
Vodacom (Pty) Ltd
Corporate Park
082 Vodacom Boulevard
Midrand
1685
OUR PRINCIPLES
We are committed to respecting your privacy. We take privacy, security and complying with data protection and privacy laws seriously.
We have set out our core Privacy Commitments in our Privacy Centre. We aim to put these commitments at the heart of everything we do.
Directly from you
The information we collect about you and how we collect it can vary depending on the products and services that you use and subscribe to, how you have used the products and services, how you have interacted with Vodacom even if you aren’t a customer, or what we have obtained from a third party.
We will collect your Personal Information when you, for example:
- sign up to any of our products and services;
- Use our network or other Vodacom products and services;
- Subscribe to newsletters, alerts or other services from us;
- Contact us through various channels for support or ask for information about products or services;
- Take part in a competition, prize draw or survey;
- Visit or browse our website or other Vodacom Group websites;
- Have given permission to other companies to share information about you;
- Where your information is publicly available;
- Are the customer of a business that we acquire;
- Visit our business premises; or
- If you are a non-Vodacom customer and contact a Vodacom customer or a Vodacom customer care team.
From third parties
Information collected not directly from you
- Information we obtain from other sources, such as credit agencies, fraud-prevention agencies, and from other data providers. This includes demographic data, interest-based data, and internet browsing behaviour.
We are required to take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure your Personal Information is complete, accurate, not misleading and updated on a regular basis. To ensure this, we will always endeavour to obtain Personal Information from you directly. Where we are unable to do so, we will make use of verifiable independent third-party data sources who have the necessary authority to provide us with such information. We also collect information from certain organisations, where appropriate and to the extent we have legal grounds to do so. These include fraud-prevention agencies, business directories, credit check reference/vetting agencies, billing calculating agencies and connected network providers.
- Contact details Such as your name, address, phone and/or mobile number, your date of birth, gender, marital status, alternative contact details, information about your property or household, or email address. Where you have provided us with the Personal Information of a third-party (for example your spouse or family member), you guarantee that such third- party has given you consent to provide us with their Personal Information. Where you provide us with the Personal Information of a person under the age of 18 years (a minor), you confirm that you have the necessary legal authority or legally competent, to provide their Personal Information to us;
- Employment details such as company details, occupation, salary date and gross monthly income to indicate your source of income and the ability to fulfil the contractual arrangement;
- Financial details Such as your credit or debit card information, information about your bank account and other banking information. For example, you’ll have to give us this information when you open an account with us. We’ll collect the Personal Information necessary to process a payment whenever you make a purchase;
- Your traffic data Every time you use your mobile phone, a record is kept. This includes the number you called or sent an SMS or MMS to, the length, date and time of that call, SMS or MMS, the amount of data you are using and your approximate location at the time that the communication takes place (based on the location of the nearest cell that you sent that call or message from). The same is also recorded every time you receive an incoming call or message. This is data we see as part of providing you with connectivity; we don’t, however, keep a record of the content of your calls or messages;
- Information about your device or connectivity such as IP address, IMEI and MSISDN;
- Your location data This can be precise where it uses Global Positioning System (GPS) data or by identifying nearby mobile phone masts and Wi-Fi hotspots and you enable location-based services or features. It can also be less precise where, for example, a location is derived from your IP address or data such as a post code or name of a town or city;
- Your correspondence or contact with us Such as a note or recording of a call you make to one of our contact centres, a Live Chat, an email or letter sent, or other records of any contact with us;
- Your account information Such as dates of payment owed or received, subscriptions you use, account numbers or other information related to your account or included in My VodaPay app;
- Credential information We’ll collect passwords, hints and similar security information used for authentication and access to accounts and services;
- Your preferences for particular products, services and lifestyle activities when you tell us what they are, or we assume what they are, based on how you use the products and services;
- Cookies See the 'Cookies' section for details on what we collect using cookies, web beacons and other technologies including advertising data;
- Your data sessions We keep a history of the sites you visit in line with our retention policy. This is to enable connection to be made and for billing purposes, fraud investigations, network and store planning, campaign planning, marketing specific products such as URL bundles, identify visits to competitor websites, and personalization of services. To be able to provide detailed data usage on the VodaPay app, we aggregate data used and report per category of usage;
- Photographs and images when attending any of our events or functions or accessing premises with surveillance cameras;
- Biometric information such as fingerprints and images for identity verification, security and fraud prevention;
- Information we obtain from other sources, such as credit agencies, fraud-prevention agencies, and from other data providers. This includes demographic data and interest-based data.
- We’ll also get information about how you use our products and services, such as:
- The level of service that you receive – for example, network or service faults and other events that may affect our network services or other services.
- Details of your use of the specific services or products. You can refer to the specific privacy supplement for each product/service for more information on the data processed.
- Understanding what you want (the use of cookies). We use cookies (small text files stored in your browser) and other techniques such as web beacons (small, clear picture files used to follow your movements on our website). This, in turn, helps us make our website relevant to your interests and needs. They also help us find information once you have logged in or help us link your browsing information to you and your Personal Information, for example, when you choose to register for a service. We may use a persistent cookie (a cookie that stays linked to your browser) to record your details so we can recognise you if you visit our website again.
Cookies by themselves cannot be used to discover your identity. Cookies do not damage your computer. You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie. This enables you to decide if you want to accept it or not. If you choose not to accept cookies from our website this may limit its functionalities or performance. For more details on how we use cookies and your rights in respect thereof, please refer to the “Our Cookies policy” section which can be accessed here.
We will use your Personal Information for a number of purposes ranging from enabling us to provide you with the products or services you have requested to ensuring we are keeping these secure from fraud.
We may use Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) to help us provide you with a requested product or service. If we use A.I. we will do so responsibly, and where necessary we will disclose that the content is generated by A.I.
Whenever we use your Personal Information, we do so based on a specific lawful bases under data protection law listed below:
- The performance of your contract or to enter into the contract and to take action on your requests. For example, so you can make calls and texts, and browse the internet on your phone, we process things like the numbers you dial, how much data you’re using and when you’re doing it so we can provide connectivity. This also enables us to generate your bill, based on your usage. We also need to conduct credit checks when you apply for a product or service to verify your suitability for entry into such a contract.
- Vodacom’s legitimate business interests for example, fraud prevention, prevention of tax evasion and financial crime, maintaining the security of our network and services, direct marketing, and the improvement of our services. Whenever we rely on this lawful basis to process your Personal Information, we assess our legitimate interest to make sure they do not override your rights. Additionally, in some cases you have the right to object to this processing. For more information, visit the “Your rights” section of this policy.
- Protecting your legitimate interests – for example, providing notifications regarding network availability and performance in your area, notification of emergency services, and fraud prevention. For more information, visit the 'Your rights' section of this policy.
- Compliance with a mandatory legal obligation, including for example, where a particular law requires Vodacom to process Personal Information for a defined purpose.
- Consent you providewhere Vodacom does not rely on another legal basis (referred to above). Consent may be withdrawn at any time. When you give your consent, you will be given details on how to change your mind or visit the “Your rights” section of this policy for more information.
Third parties that we work with
We are not in the business of selling your data, we only share with suppliers who help us to provide services.
When you’ve purchased Vodacom products and services using a third party or partner organisation, we often need to exchange information with them as part of managing that relationship and your account – for example, to be able to identify your order and be able to pay them.
If we have a contract with a service provider or contractor to provide us with services or provide a service on our behalf, they may have access to your Personal Information. We don’t authorise them to use or disclose your Personal Information received from us except in connection with providing their services.
We collect and combine information in order to monitor your use of products and services, and that of our other customers, as well as to help us to improve the quality of our products and services. We provide this information to third parties (for example, to content providers and advertisers), but any such third-party reporting shall not include information which may identify an individual customer.
Mergers and Acquisitions
If we reorganised or merged with or divested part of our business to another organisation we may need to provide your information to that other organisation or their advisers or receive Personal Information from that other organisation.
Third party devices that you connect your sim with
You may connect your sim with a number of third-party devices, either manually with a sim card or electronically through our One Number product. These may include mobile phone devices or connected devices such as smart speakers or smart watches. When you connect your sim with these devices those third parties may record your sim details or your interaction with the network and provide that information to Vodacom for purposes of validating your eligibility for the OneNumber product offering. Those third-party device manufacturers will process your Personal Information in accordance with their privacy policies and we recommend that you read their privacy policies before choosing to connect your sim to their devices.
Third party products that you buy through your Vodacom account
Where you buy a third-party product or service through your Vodacom account (such as Charge to Bill for mobile), the contract for it is with the party selling that product or service. Vodacom is only charging the amount directly to your bill as part of its arrangements with the seller. As part of this, you’re agreeing that Vodacom may pass certain Personal Information to the seller to complete your purchase with them.
The seller’s terms and conditions, privacy and cookies policies will apply to how it uses your Personal Information – please read them carefully.
Below you can find an overview of the categories of Personal Information (not an exhaustive list) we process about you, the purposes for which we process that Personal Information and the lawful basis upon which we rely to conduct that processing.
a. To provide you with your service
It is necessary for us to process your Personal Information to enable us to provide you with your service. By service we mean any services or products that you buy or use such as broadband, mobiles, use of our apps or smart tech products.
| How is your information used? | What data is used? | Lawful basis |
To process your order and provide you with your products and services · To process the products and services you’ve bought from us, install equipment at your property or deliver equipment to you and keep you updated with the progress of your order. · To provide the relevant products or services to you. This includes other services not included in your agreement with us, (e.g. PayPal), services that use information about where you are, and to contact with you messages about changes to the products or services. · Where you’ve purchased Vodacom products and services using a third party or partner organisation, we often need to exchange information with them as part of managing that relationship and your account – for example, to be able to identify your order and be able to pay them. | Basic Personal Information Contact details Account information Financial details | Performance of your contract |
Billing and Customer Care · To bill you for using our products and services, or to take the appropriate amount of credit from you. · Contact you if the billing information you provided us with is about to expire or we’re not able to take payment. · To respond to any questions or concerns you may have about our network, products or services. | Basic Personal Information Account information Financial details Your contact with us | Performance of your contract |
Service messages · We will contact you with customer service messages to keep you updated with current information about products and services you’ve purchased. For example, changes to our terms and conditions, price plan and data use, upgrade you might be entitled to, roaming or service interruptions. | Basic Personal Information Contact details Account information | Performance of your contract |
b. To improve our service
We collect information such as on your use of our products and services on an aggregated or anonymous basis in order to help us manage and improve the services we offer to everyone.
| How is your information used? | What data is used? | Lawful basis |
Improving and innovating our products and services · We anonymise, de-identify or aggregate information in order to improve the service we offer to everyone. None of these analytics are linked back to you in any way. · We conduct surveys to understand various aspects of our interaction with you, the use of our services and products and the network. | Anonymised/ aggregated: Financial details Traffic data | Legitimate interest
|
Improving and innovating our products and services through third parties · We collect and combine information in order to monitor your use of products and services, and that of our other customers, as well as to help us to improve the quality of our products and services. We provide this information to third parties (for example, to content providers and advertisers) but any such third-party reporting shall not include information which may identify an individual customer. | Anonymised/ aggregated: Account information | Legitimate Interest |
Manage our networks and understand network usage · To protect our networks and manage the volumes of calls, texts and other uses of our networks. For example, we identify peak periods of use so we can try and ensure the networks can handle the volume at those times. | Traffic data Location data | Performance of a contract
|
| · To understand how you use our networks, products and services. That way we can seek to review, develop and improve these, develop more interesting and relevant products and services, as well as personalising our products and services. | Legitimate interest | |
Improving roaming services · To improve your roaming experiences and understand how Vodacom is performing in providing roaming services, whether Roaming Services and related products are working as intended, or whether improvements are needed to make roaming better. Vodacom uses Personal Information such as your name, email address, password, mobile phone number and call records in order to do this. | Anonymised/ aggregated: Basic Personal Information Contact details Credential information Traffic data | Performance of contract |
| Vodacom creates aggregated and statistical management reports from this information that do not identify you individually. Vodacom may also take this Personal Information and anonymise it so that more in-depth analysis of our roaming services can be undertaken. This helps Vodacom to develop its roaming services for customers without identifying users in an individual way. | Legitimate interest |
c. Marketing and tailoring our service to you
We process your Personal Information for marketing and advertising purposes, such as to let you know about new products or services and send you special offers, as well as to help us tailor our service to you.
You can control your marketing permissions and the data we use to tailor these communications at any time by visiting the section “Your Rights” in this policy.
| How is your information used? | What data is used? | Lawful basis |
Marketing · We process this data for the purpose of sending you marketing communications in the manner outlined in the row below. We can further tailor these messages using your calling and messaging activities, location information and browsing information, if you have authorised that we process this information for this purpose. · If you have given your permission, we will also contact you to let you know about products and services of other Vodacom Group companies that are not same/similar to the products and services that you have bought including Vodacom Financial Services and Vodacom Insurance; Vodacom Payment Services and those of other companies which we think may interest you depending on your marketing preferences. | Basic Personal Information Contact details Your preferences Browsing history Account information Location data | Consent |
Marketing · As our customer, we will keep you informed generally about new products and services, send you newsletters or white papers, invite you to participate in a survey or let you know about offers, promotions, prize draws or competitions. We tailor these messages based on the sorts of products and services you’ve bought from us (for example, we know not to market to you if you’re in the middle of your phone contract). · We’ll contact you by post, online, phone or push notifications through our apps. | Basic Personal Information Contact details Account information Questionnaire answers | Legitimate interest |
Personalised/targeted advertising online · To deliver advertising that is relevant to you, you’ll also see targeted advertising online based on the use of cookies. This is known as interest-based advertising. It can be on websites belonging to Vodacom, those of other organisations as well as other online media channels such as social media sites. We may also combine data collected via the cookies with other data we have collected. If you don't want any information processed through the use of cookies, check our cookies section. It explains how to control and opt out of cookies. · Remember that not providing consent for interest-based advertising won’t stop advertisements from being displayed – but they won’t be tailored to your interests. | Cookie data Browsing history Account information | Consent |
Research and analytics We use a variety of analytics methods including what is commonly referred to as “Big data analytics”. Big data analytics are mathematically driven analysis techniques on large and varied data sets (that is why it is “big” data) to uncover hidden patterns and hitherto unrevealed trends. At Vodacom we take governance of big data analytics seriously. Our data scientists are required to sign up to a Code of Ethics. We have a strict use case process that requires that privacy and data protection law checks are carried out before any use case commences. We have strict rules for anonymisation and de-identified techniques where appropriate. We use our analytics to: · Market research and to carry out research and statistical analysis including to monitor how customers use our networks, products and services on an anonymous or personal basis; · Frame our marketing campaigns and determine how we might personalise those; · Provide reports to third parties (such reports don’t contain information which may identify you as an individual). These can be to third parties such as content providers and advertisers or as part of Vodacom Analytics. | Account information Basic Personal Information
| Legitimate interest |
d. Profiling, Fraud Management and Security
Profiling consists of the use of Personal Information in an automated form (automated decision) in order to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to an individual. We will process your Personal Information in this way for credit, fraud and security purposes. When we conduct such profiling or automated decision-making activities, we will do so in accordance with the provisions of the relevant legislation or lawful requirement.
| How is your information used? | What data is used? | Lawful basis |
Credit checks and ID · We will carry out a credit check when you apply for a contract for any products or services with us. · We will also use your Personal Information for identity verification purposes, for access to your account and for general account management. We sometimes supplement the information we collect about you with information from other sources (e.g. Home Affairs, Credit reference agencies) to assess the accuracy of the information that we hold. | Basic Personal Information Financial details Account information Credential information | Consent |
Fraud Prevention, Security and Debt Collection · We will process your traffic data to protect against and detect fraud, to protect and detect misuse or damage to our networks, to recover debts or trace those who owe us money resulting from the use of our services. | Basic Personal Information Traffic data Account information Financial details | Legitimate interest |
Fraud management and law enforcement · We may be obligated to release information to law enforcement for purposes of fraud prevention. | Obligation in law | |
| · Processing for the purpose of protecting us against fraud, defending our rights or property, or to protect our legitimate interests or the interests of our customers. | Performance of a contract/Legitimate interest | |
Network Security · We will process your traffic data in order to protect and detect misuse or damage to our networks or to detect and resolve fraudulent use of our networks (and our partner roaming networks) and to solve technical issues you are experiencing. | Anonymous and aggregated contact details or credential related information Traffic data | Legitimate interest |
Physical Security · We may use CCTV footage to safeguard our stores and sites. | Images Video footage | Legitimate interest |
e. To comply with mandatory legal obligation
Under certain circumstances, it is necessary for us to process your Personal Information in order to comply with the law, for example, when responding to law enforcement requests for data or to comply with tax requirements. which are subject to strict internal policies, procedures, and your right to restrict usage of your Personal Information, which control the scope of legal assistance to be provided. We are also required to also process your Personal Information pursuant to legislation including but not limited to the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, 38 of 2001 (FICA), the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provisions of Communication-related Information Act 70 of 2002 (RICA), the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 (ECTA), the Electronic Communications Act, 2005 (ECA), the Consumer Protection Act, 2008 (CPA), the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (PAIA), and the Cybercrimes Act, 2020.
Where applicable, we share information about you with:
- Companies in the Vodacom and Vodafone Group, located across the globe, including but not limited to in the European Economic Area (EEA), Egypt, India and the US, for reporting purposes and where they are involved in providing products and services that you have signed up for;
- Partners, suppliers, or agents involved in delivering the products and services you’ve ordered or used;
- Companies who are engaged to perform services for, or on behalf of, Vodacom Group Limited, Vodafone Limited, or Vodafone Group which companies may be located outside of the borders of South Africa;
- Credit reference, fraud-prevention or business-scoring agencies, or other credit scoring agencies;
- Debt collection agencies or other debt-recovery organisations;
- Law enforcement agencies, government bodies, regulatory organisations, courts or other public authorities if we have to, or are authorised to by law;
- A third party or body where such disclosure is required to satisfy any applicable law, or other legal or regulatory requirement
- Emergency services (if you make an emergency call), including your approximate location
- Third parties for joint promotions with that third party or for contacting you about their specific products and services. They’ll be responsible for their own compliance with applicable privacy laws. Where required, we will ask for your consent before sharing this information;
- Other third parties when you are signing up to their service and it is used by them for authentication and fraud-prevention purposes;
- Third parties that we advertise with, in order to serve you advertisements online (e.g., Facebook, Google). You can opt-out of this by managing your account permissions. To do this see the ‘Your Rights’ section in the policy; or
- Third parties that we use to serve you marketing.
Vodacom does transfer Personal Information of Data Subjects across the borders, including but not limited to countries in the European Union, United States of America, United Kingdom, India, Australia and to the Vodafone and Vodacom group companies and/or authorised third parties beyond the borders of the countries to achieve a defined purpose. The defined purposes include the i) achievement of its business functions, ii) provision of products and services that the customer has requested, iii) hosting or storage of some of its systems and infrastructure, iv) data warehousing activities and for the v) provision of centralised business activities within the Vodafone and Vodacom group of companies such as where we share technology and resources.
Vodacom will only engage in the cross-border transfer of information if one of the following conditions are met and the transfer has been assessed and approved by the Deputy Information Officer:
- The recipient is subject to existing legislation in his /her/it’s country, a binding corporate or binding agreement that provides an adequate level of protection for the Personal Information that is substantially similar to the data protection laws applicable to South Africa:
- The Data Subject has consented to such cross-border transfer;
- The transfer is necessary for the conclusion and/or performance of a contract between Vodacom and the Data Subject;
- The transfer is necessary for the conclusion or performance of a contract entered into, in the interest of the Data Subject, between Vodacom and the relevant Vodacom Group company or the Authorised Third Party;
- The transfer is to the benefit of the Data Subject and must take place in circumstances under which it is not reasonably possible to obtain the Data Subject’s consent and if it were reasonably possible to obtain such consent, the Data Subject would be likely to give it.
The processing of Personal Information in a foreign jurisdiction may be subject to the laws of the country in which it is held, and may be subject to disclosure to the Governments, Courts of law, Enforcement or Regulatory Agencies of such other country, pursuant to the laws of such country. As a measure, Vodacom conducts Transfer Impact Assessments to assess the legislative framework that governs disclosures of information in jurisdictions where information is transferred and implements security and contractual measures to limit the risk exposure. However, where such disclosures are required, Vodacom will ensure the adequate protection of your Personal Information.
We may not retain your Personal Information any longer than is necessary for achieving the purpose for which your Personal Information was collected or subsequently processed, unless:
- The retention of your Personal Information is required or authorised by law;
- We reasonably require your Personal Information for lawful purpose related to our function or activities;
- The retention of your Personal Information is required by a contract that we enter into with you; or
- You or competent person consent to the retention of Personal Information relating to a child.
As a general rule, subscriber identity documents and communication records are retained for a period of 5 years after termination of services. However, given other lawful and legitimate business needs the information may be retained longer to fulfil the business or legal requirements.
We’ll keep some Personal Information for a reasonable period after your contract with us has finished. We, or one of our partners, may contact you about Vodacom services during this time if you haven’t opted out of receiving marketing communications from us.
We have specialised security teams who constantly review, improve, and ensure the implementation of appropriate, reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your Personal Information from unauthorised access, accidental loss, disclosure, or destruction. We are required in terms of POPIA to notify you and the Information Regulator, if any of your Personal Information has been compromised.
Communications over the internet (such as emails) aren’t secure unless they’ve been encrypted. Your communications may go through a number of countries before being delivered, as this is the nature of the internet.
We cannot accept responsibility for any unauthorised access or loss of Personal Information that is beyond our control.
We’ll never ask for your secure personal or account information by an unsolicited means of communication. You’re responsible for keeping your personal and account information secure and not sharing it with others.
Our website may provide links to third-party websites. We cannot be responsible for the security and content of such third-party websites. You are therefore required to make sure you read that company’s privacy and cookies policies before using or putting your Personal Information on their site.
The same applies to any third-party websites or content you connect to using our products and services.
You may choose to disclose your information in certain ways such as social plug-ins (including those offered by Google, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest) or using third-party services that allow you to post reviews or other information publicly, and a third party could use that information.
Social plug-ins and social applications are operated by the social network themselves and are subject to their own terms of use and privacy and cookies policies. You should make sure you’re familiar with these.
Unauthorised third-party access to your information
Despite the security measures we have in place to protect your Personal Information, (firewalls, password access and encryption methods) you acknowledge that it may be accessed by an unauthorised third party, e.g., as a result of an illegal activity.
In the unlikely event of such access, we will notify you, where possible, via email, SMS or using the address you have provided us with, within a reasonable time of us becoming aware of such occurrence.
Below we set out details on how you can exercise your rights. If you have a question or cannot find the answer, please contact our Customer Services team at 082 135 or contact the Vodacom Deputy Information Officer at [email protected]
Right to access Personal Information
You have the right to request a record or description of the Personal Information that Vodacom holds about you. This includes the right to request Vodacom to confirm, free of charge, whether or not we hold any Personal Information about you; as well as information about the categories of third parties who have, or have had, access to your Personal Information. To make this request as an individual or an authorised third party, visit our Subject Access Rights page of this Privacy Portal which gives details on how to do this. Alternatively, you can contact our Customer Services team at 082 135.
Right to correct Personal Information
You have the right to correct information held about you if it’s not accurate, out-of-date, excessive, irrelevant, or misleading. If the information we hold about you is inaccurate or needs to be updated, you can log in to My VodaPay app to update it or you can contact our Customer Service team at 082 135.
To manage Cookies and understand more about what they are:
Want to disable a cookie, or understand more about what these are? Check the cookies section of this policy for full details on how to do this.
Right to object to use of Personal Information
You have the right, in certain circumstances, to object to Vodacom processing your Personal Information. In order for Vodacom to provide you with products and services, Vodacom is required to process your Personal Information and as such the provision of your Personal Information is mandatory and you may not object to same in order to continue using our products or services. For more information or to exercise this right, please contact our Customer Services team at 082 135. If this relates to an automated decision performed on you (this means with no human involvement), please let us know and we will review your request.
To opt out of marketing messages
If you no longer want to receive marketing messages from Vodacom, you can choose to opt out at any time. If you’ve previously opted in to receive personalised content based on how and where you use our network, you can also opt out at any time.
The easiest way to opt out is by using the notification settings in the VodaPay app.
There are also various other ways to opt out:
- Contact our customer services team at 082 135
- Click the link at the end of a marketing email, text or picture message to unsubscribe from that channel
- Change your communication preferences by dialling *135*181#
- Tell the customer care agent if you receive a marketing call
- Disable push notification messages, including marketing messages, at any time in our apps by changing the notification settings on your device or by uninstalling the app
- Contact our customer care team for guidance
If you’re opted out of marketing, you may still receive service-related messages.
Please note: You may still receive marketing messages for up to 7 (seven) days after opting out while we update our records.
You may have received marketing from Vodacom even if you’re not a customer or have never had contact with us. This is a result of third-party marketing lists which Vodacom may acquire from time to time, stating that you have given permission to be contacted by other organisations. If you’ve registered with us to opt out of marketing from Vodacom, you shouldn’t receive such communications. If you still do, we ask that you let us know immediately by contacting our customer care team on 082 135. This will only stop marketing from us and not stop the third parties from sharing your Personal Information unless you contact them directly. If you no longer want to receive marketing messages from Vodacom, you can elect to opt out of all marketing communications or only selected methods (email, SMS MMS, phone or post).
Right to restrict use of your Personal Information
If you feel that the Personal Information we hold on you is inaccurate, or you believe we shouldn’t be processing your Personal Information, please contact our Customer Services team on 082 135 to discuss your rights. In certain circumstances, for example where you contest the accuracy of your information, or where Vodacom no longer requires your information for achieving its purpose but must maintain it for purposes of proof, you have the right to ask us to restrict processing.
Right to deletion
Vodacom strives to only process and retain your Personal Information for as long as we need to. In certain circumstances, for example, where you indicate that your Personal Information is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading, or obtained unlawfully, you have the right to request that we erase your Personal Information that we hold. If you feel that we are retaining your Personal Information longer than we need, it is worth first checking that your contract with Vodacom has been terminated, which you can do with Customer Services on 082 135. If your contract with Vodacom has been terminated, we may still have lawful grounds to process your Personal Information.
If you want to contact us about any of your rights or should you believe that Vodacom has used your Personal Information contrary to applicable law, you undertake to first attempt to resolve any concerns with Vodacom directly. Kindly contact our customer care team on 082 135. We will do our best to help but if you are still unhappy, you can contact the Deputy Information Officer at [email protected]. If you are not satisfied with such process, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator at:
The Information Regulator (South Africa)
JD House
27 Stiemens Street
Braamfontein
Johannesburg
2001
Email: [email protected]
Complaints email: [email protected]
We are continually improving our methods of communication and adding new functionality and features to this Website and to our existing products and services. Because of these ongoing changes, changes in the law and the changing nature of technology, our data protection practices will change from time to time. If and when our data protection practices change, we will update this privacy policy to describe our new practices. If we do, we will notify you the next time you visit this site or interact with us through any of our other communication channels. We encourage you to check this page regularly. Please see all the history of changes in the section below:
History of Changes:
| Section Heading | Changes | Date of Update |
| Third party devices that you connect your sim with | Third party devices that you connect your sim with. | 30 June 2021 |
| Third party products that you buy through your Vodafone account | Third party devices that you connect your sim with may process your Personal Information. Therefore, it is important that you familiarize yourself with their privacy policies before choosing to connect. | |
Third party products that you buy through your Vodafone account Where you buy a third-party product or service through your Vodacom account, the contract for it is with the party selling that product or service. Therefore, the seller’s terms and conditions and privacy and cookies policies will apply to how it uses your Personal Information – please read them carefully. | ||
| Information that we process | Retention of the history sites you visit in line with our retention policy. This is done for the additional purposes listed below:
| 03 March 2022 |
| Credit checks, fraud prevention and security | The use of automated decision-making for profiling activities such as credit checks, fraud prevention and security. | |
| The types of information we may have |
| 08 November 2024 |
| Your Rights |
| |
| How long do we keep Personal Information for? |
| |
| How we use your personal information and our lawful basis to do so |
| |
| International data transfers |
|
Last updated: 08 November 2024
Related links
Privacy and our Product and Services
Vodacom Mobility Services
Find out what information we collect when you use your mobile phone or tablet.
The VodaPay App
Find out what information is collected by our mobile apps, including the VodaPay app.
Vodacom Business Internet
Find out what types of information we collect when you use your Business internet.
Digital Life Style
Find out what types of information we collect when you use Digital Lifestyle.
Internet of Things
See what information is collected when you use our V by Vodacom devices and apps.
Vodacom External Bursary
Find out what types of information we collect when you fill in Bursary Online Application
Vodacom World Online Booking
Find out what types of information we collect when you fill in Vodacom World Online Booking
Access to Information
To ensure exceptional customer service and convenience for our customers, Vodacom provides you with a number of channels to access information and to further exercise your rights. For a view of your privacy rights, please visit the 'Your Rights' section in our privacy statement. Should you wish to request access to information or records owned, held by or otherwise under our control, please see our Promotion of Access to Information Manual (PAIA Manual).
Please see the records that are automatically available without having to request access in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 here.
Please use the access request form to request access to information as provided in the PAIA Manual here.
Please see the PAIA Guide as provided by the Information Regulator to guide any person wishing to exercise their rights:
Exercising Your Rights
You have various rights in relation to your personal information. In the 'Your Rights' section of our privacy statement, we've provided the pertinent information and instruction on what to do if you wish to exercise any of your rights. Below are some links that may help you to exercise these rights relating to your personal information:
My Vodacom App: You can update the personal information we have on your account and view or download a copy of your bill.
Contact us: Our customer services team will gladly assist you with queries; including how to manage your marketing preferences.
Privacy queries: Our privacy statement was created to ensure transparency on the collection, sharing and protection of your personal information. If you are unable to find an answer to any of your privacy questions, or if you'd like to contact our Privacy Officer, please click on Privacy queries link.
Data and voice usage request form: To request your URL or data usage information, please fill the relevant form under access to information tab, and submit with all the documents as requested.
Objection, Correction or Deletion Request: Please complete the relevant form by clicking on “request form”, and submit with all the documents as requested if you wish to request objection, correction or deletion of your personal information.
Access to Information Manual: Please click here to view this manual. It outlines the type of information held by Vodacom and how you can request access to this information.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): The rights under this section also covers the rights guaranteed under the GDPR. You can exercise the rights that are conferred to you under GDPR by sending a request to our customer service team who will gladly be able to assist you.
Write to us: Although we are committed to going digital, you can always reach us by post at:
Legal Affairs - Privacy Office
Vodacom Group Ltd
082 Vodacom Boulevard
Vodavalley
Midrand
1685.
Cookie policy
This section is about what cookies are, how we use them and how you can manage them.
What are Cookies?
A cookie is a small text file that can be stored on and accessed from your device when you visit one of our websites. Cookies are used to collect information that makes the website remember you and tells us how you use our website, web-related products and services. This, in turn, helps us make our website relevant to your interests and needs. They also help us find information once you have logged in or help us link your browsing information to you and your personal information, for example, when you choose to register for a service. We may use a persistent cookie (a cookie that stays linked to your browser) to record your details so we can recognise you if you visit our website again. If you choose not to accept cookies from our website this may limit its functionalities or performance.
You can set your browser to block different types of cookies. Some of the more popular browsers are:
- Internet Explorer
- Forefox
- Safari
- Google Chrome
If you choose not to accept certain cookies from our website this may limit its functionalities or performance. You can find more information about cookies at www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaobutcookies.org (please note that these links open a new window or browser tab).
How we use cookies
We use cookies for a number of reasons, for example, remembering your preferences, recording what you have put in your shopping basket, or counting the number of people visiting our website. We might also use cookies to keep track of what you have bought from us, what you have done on the website and to make online offers and promotions more relevant to you.
Cookies themselves do not hold Personal Information nor do they pose danger to your device. They only have a unique alphanumerical identifier that is stored on your device. However, the information can be considered Personal Information as defined under PoPIA, when used as part of certain activities. For example, cookies can help us to find information once you're logged in or help us link your browsing information to you and your personal information, for example, when you choose to register for a service, white paper or newsletter.
Cookies have a unique alphanumeric identifier that sits on your browser. In many cases, we won’t be able to link the information we collect by using a cookie back to you. They can, however, enable us to link that information back to you and your personal information, for instance, when you log in, or choose to register for a service, white paper or newsletter. For example, we may use web analytics to determine which ISP your IP address uses for browsing which can then be used to personalise the communications you receive from us (if you are opted into receiving personalised communications). For further information on how we use your information please see our Privacy Poliy.
We have categorised our cookies into the following categories:
- Strictly necessary - these are used to help make our website work efficiently.
- Performance - these are used to analyse the way our website works and how we can improve it.
- Functionality - these help to enhance your experience by doing things like remembering products you've added to your basket.
- Targeting/advertising - these are used to share some information with third parties who we advertise with, so we know how you've reached our website and to be able to reconcile at an aggregate level with our affiliate partners. We can also use cookies to identify the parts of the website that you are interested in. We then use this information to show you adverts and pages we think may also be of interest to you, to tailor how we communicate with you, or to tailor the contents of the communications we send to you. If you prefer, you can manage your cookies on our website. Tailoring of content means it includes information reflecting the interest you’ve shown in the content of our web pages, or offers or promotions that we think may interest you, and to improve how we respond to your needs.
Sometimes, other companies will add a cookie on our website to show you adverts and pages which may be of interest to you. Details on these, and how to opt out if you prefer, can be found in the ‘Third-party cookies’ section of this cookies policy
In addition to the cookies we use on our website, we also use cookies and similar technologies in some emails and push notifications we send to mobile devices from our apps. These help us to understand whether you have opened the email and how you have interacted with it. If you have enabled images, cookies may be set on your computer or mobile device. Cookies will also be set if you click on any link within an email.
Cookies and you
We use cookies to enable certain online functionalities, for example so you can make a purchase online or sign up to services like My Vodacom or Vodacom Rewards.
If you choose not to enable cookies, you will still be able to browse our website, but it will restrict some of the functionality or performance of our website and what you can do.
First-Party Cookies
First-party cookies are cookies issued from the vodacom.co.za domain that are generally used to identify language and location preferences or render basic website functionality.
Third Party Cookies
Third-party cookies originate from a domain that’s different to the website being visited. For example, when you visit our website, we may link to another company's website - like our Facebook or Twitter account, or a video from our YouTube page. We don't control how they use their cookies, so we suggest you check their website to see how they're using them and how you can manage them.
Session Cookies
Session cookies are temporary cookies that are used to remember you during the course of your visit to the website, and they expire when you close the web browser.
Persistent Cookies
Persistent cookies are used to remember your preferences within the website and remain on your desktop or mobile device even after you close your browser or restart your device. We might use some of these cookies to analyse user behavior to establish visit patterns so that we can improve our website functionality for you and others who visit our website(s). These cookies also allow us to serve you with targeted offers and promotions and measure the effectiveness of our website functionality and offers and/or promotions.
You can opt in or out of cookies - except strictly necessary cookies (these are used to help make our website work efficiently) at any time by clicking the cookie settings button (below) to control your cookies. You can select by category or individual cookie.
Go to Cookie Settings
Alternatively, you can enable or disable cookies in your browser. If you wish to restrict or block the cookies set by any website - including a Vodacom website - you can do this through the web browser settings for each web browser you use, on each device you use to access the internet.
Information on controlling and deleting cookies, including on a wide variety of browsers, is also available at allaboutcookies.org
In this Policy under the heading 'What are Cookies', we have also provided a few links for some of the more popular browsers - but check your particular browser and device for correct and up-to-date information.
Some services - My Vodacom, for example - may not function or may have more limited functionality if your web browser blocks all cookies, including functional cookies. However, you can allow cookies from specific websites by making them “trusted websites” in your web browser.
If you don't wish to accept cookies from one of our emails, you can choose not to download any images or click on any links. You can also set your browser to restrict cookies or to reject them entirely. These settings will apply to all cookies, whether included on websites or in emails. Depending on your email or browser settings, cookies in an email may sometimes be automatically accepted (for example, when you've added an email address to your address book or safe senders list). For more information, refer to your email browser or device instructions.
|
Cookie Name |
What it is used for |
|---|---|
|
utag_main
|
Code management platform that contains logic on what 3rd party code is required by the website. The cookie stores no customer data and doesn't directly change the customer experience. For more information see https://tealium.com/cookie-policy/ for more information |
|
JSESSIONID |
If you click back on your browser, our system knows what page you were looking at before. |
|
s_sess |
We use Adobe's analytics and on-site personalisation services to measure the use and performance of our website. This may include information such as how you reached one of our web pages, your IP address, and how you interact with our content. For more information please see https://www.adobe.com/gr_en/privacy/cookies .html
|
|
kampyle_userid |
Customer survey tool. For more information please see https://www.medallia.com/privacy-policy/ |
|
AMCVS_ |
Adobe Marketing Cloud provides the Visitor ID service, using JavaScript to store a unique visitor ID in an AMCV_###@AdobeOrg cookie on the domain of the current website, where ### represents a random string of characters. It is this ID that allows us to serve you more relevant content and experiences. For more information please see http://www.adobe.com/privacy/marketing-cloud.html |
|
RT |
Soasta provides an availability and performance system monitoring application. For more information please see https://www.soasta.com/privacy-policy/ |
|
Vodacom.co.za |
The Vodacom cookie is used to keep a user logged in when browsing the Vodacom website |
We are currently reviewing our lists and will update them from time to time.
|
Company |
Cookie Name |
What it is used for |
|---|---|---|
|
Adform |
uid |
For more information please see https://site.adform.com/privacy-policy-opt-out/ For more information about opting out, please see https://site.adform.com/privacy-policy-opt-out/ |
|
|
fr |
For more information please see https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies / |
|
|
GAPS |
See this link for more information https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245 This is the link to the Google Opt-Out tool: |
|
|
BizoID |
For more information please see https://www.linkedin.com/legal/cookie-policy For more information about opting out, please see https://www.linkedin.com/psettings/guest-controls/retargeting-opt-out?trk= |
|
|
auth_token |
For more information please see https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-cookies |
|
Adobe Audience Manager |
DST |
For more information please see https://www.adobe.com/privacy/opt-out.html#5 For more information about opting out: https://www.adobe.com/uk/privacy/opt-out.html |
|
Medallia |
us_lang |
For more information please see https://www.medallia.com/privacy-policy/ For more information about opting out http://preferences-mgr.truste.com/ |
|
Adobe Target |
mbox. |
For more information, please see https://www.adobe.com/gr_en/privacy/cookies .html For more information about opting out, please see https://www.adobe.com/gr_en/privacy/opt-out.html |
|
Content Square |
_cs_id _cs_s _cs_vars _cs_ex _cs_c _cs_optout |
For more information please visit https://www.contentsquare.com/privacy-and-security/
|