Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-04-28

This Privacy Policy explains how Surveynaire (the “Service”) collects, uses, stores and protects personal information. The Service is operated for academic research purposes. We process personal information in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (Act No. 4 of 2013) (“POPIA”). By using the Service you acknowledge this Policy.

1. Who we are (Responsible Party)

The responsible party for the personal information processed through the Service is the operator of Surveynaire, an independent doctoral researcher.

Information Officer / contact for privacy queries: webmaster@surveynaire.com.

2. What information we collect

2.1 Administrators (registered account holders)

Category	Examples	Source
Identity & contact	Full name, email address	You, on registration
Authentication metadata	Login link tokens, expiry, used-at timestamp	Generated by the Service
Acceptance records	Timestamp at which you accepted the Terms and this Policy	Recorded automatically
Anti-abuse signals	reCAPTCHA score, IP address (transient), browser user-agent	Your browser / Google reCAPTCHA

2.2 Survey respondents

Category	Examples	Source
Pseudonymous identifier	Random respondent token (no name or email)	Generated by the Service
Survey answers	Demographic responses, Likert ratings, free-text comments	Submitted by you
Technical metadata	IP address, browser user-agent, started-at and submitted-at timestamps	Your browser / our server

We do not request or knowingly collect names, ID numbers, banking details, biometric data, or any other directly-identifying information from survey respondents. You are asked not to enter such information into free-text fields.

3. Why we collect it (purpose & lawful basis)

To operate the Service — authenticate administrators, host questionnaires, record responses, send login links. Lawful basis: performance of, and steps in connection with, the use you have requested.
For academic research — analyse aggregated and pseudonymised questionnaire data.
Security and abuse prevention — verify that visitors are human (Google reCAPTCHA), detect misuse, maintain integrity of responses. Lawful basis: legitimate interest.
Legal compliance — comply with applicable laws and respond to lawful requests from authorities.

4. Cookies and similar technologies

The Service uses a strictly necessary PHP session cookie to keep you signed in and to prevent double-submission of surveys in the same browser session. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. Google reCAPTCHA may set its own cookies on the registration page; see Google’s privacy notice for details.

5. How we share information

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only as follows:

Service providers who host or transmit the Service on our behalf — for example, the web-hosting provider, the outbound email provider, and Google reCAPTCHA. These providers act as operators and are bound to process personal information only on our instructions.
Academic supervisors and examiners involved in the doctoral research, who may access aggregated and pseudonymised research data for the purpose of reviewing it.
Legal authorities where disclosure is required by law or to protect rights, property or safety.

Where personal information is transferred outside South Africa (for example, because a service provider hosts data abroad), we will only do so where the receiving country provides comparable protection or the transfer is otherwise permitted under section 72 of POPIA.

6. How long we keep it

Administrator accounts are retained while the account is active and for a reasonable period thereafter to comply with record-keeping obligations.
Authentication tokens expire automatically (a few minutes after issue) and are deleted on use.
Survey responses are retained for the duration of the research project and for a period thereafter consistent with academic record-keeping requirements (typically up to ten years), after which they are deleted or further anonymised.
Server logs and anti-abuse signals are retained for a short rolling window for operational and security purposes.

7. How we protect it

We apply reasonable technical and organisational safeguards appropriate to the volume and sensitivity of the information, including transport encryption (HTTPS), passwordless email-link authentication, server-side session management, parameterised database queries to mitigate injection, and access controls so that only the responsible party and their academic supervisors can view administrative data. No system is perfectly secure: in the event of a data breach affecting your personal information, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as required by section 22 of POPIA.

8. Your rights (data subject rights)

Under POPIA, you have the right to:

be told what personal information about you is held, and request access to it;
request correction or deletion of inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, misleading, or unlawfully obtained information;
object to processing on reasonable grounds and to withdraw consent where consent is the lawful basis;
complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa) if you believe your rights have been infringed.

To exercise any of these rights, contact webmaster@surveynaire.com. You can contact the Information Regulator at inforegulator.org.za.

9. Children

The Service is not intended for, and should not be used by, persons under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has submitted information, please contact us so that we can delete it.

10. Automated decision-making

We do not use your personal information for automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects on you. The reCAPTCHA score is used only as a heuristic to block automated abuse.

11. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by an updated “Last updated” date at the top of this page. Where the change materially affects how we process your personal information, we will take additional steps to bring it to your attention.

12. Contact

Privacy questions, requests to exercise your rights, or complaints can be sent to webmaster@surveynaire.com.