Privacy Policy

Introduction

AstroTech Training (Pty) Ltd and AstroTech Corporate Learning (Pty) Ltd (“AstroTech”, “our” or “us”) are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This Privacy Policy, which must be read together with our Website terms and conditions (“Terms”), sets out the basis on which any personal information we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be collected, used, stored and processed by us (“Process”). Unless defined elsewhere, terms in this Privacy Policy shall bear the same meaning ascribed to them in the Terms.

In adopting this Privacy Policy, we wish to balance our legitimate business interests and your reasonable expectation of privacy. Accordingly, we will take reasonable steps to prevent unauthorised access to, or disclosure of your Personal Data. However, we do not guarantee that your Personal Data shall be 100% secure.

Consent

By accessing, using and/or downloading any Content from the Website in any way, you signify that you have read and agree to comply and be bound by this Privacy Policy and by the Terms.

In particular you consent that we may Process Personal Data for the purposes of providing you with access to the Content and our Website and for any of the purposes listed in this Privacy Policy.

If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, please do not continue to use the Website and/or the Content.

Whilst the supply of your Personal Data is voluntary, a consequence of failing to provide the Personal Data is that we will be unable to provide the Content to you and may not be able to provide you with any of our products or Services. The terms “Content” and “Services” have the same meaning in this Privacy Policy as the meaning given to them in the Terms.

Types of Personal Data Processed?

The types of Personal Data that we may Process includes information necessary for our legitimate business interests and the categories of personal information identified in relevant data protection laws in the Republic of South Africa. This may include personal information which contains identifiable information such as (amongst other things) your first and last name, identity number, email address, postal address, telephone numbers, date of birth, and information related to your educational history (“Personal Data”).

We will attempt to limit the types of Personal Data we Process to only that to which you consent and which is necessary for our legitimate business interests. Should you not consent to providing Personal Data which is necessary for us in our legitimate interests, we reserve the right to not provide a Service.

How and when is Personal Data Collected?

AstroTech will collect your Personal Data in several ways, including:

  • when you make use of the Services and Content on the Website;
  • when you browse the Website;
  • when we carry out demographic research;
  • when you register an account on the website;
  • should you be registered on a course;
  • when you conduct business with us;
  • when you give us information or supporting documents;
  • when you respond to us in written or electronic format such as through email or facsimile as required through interactions with us; and
  • When you join or participate on social networks with AstroTech-related groups, or with content considered public domain.

When you visit our Website, our web server also may automatically record the name of your ISP (Internet Service Provider), the website from which you visit us, the pages on our sites you visit and in what sequence, and the date and length of your visit.

Use of Personal Data?

We may use your Personal Data:

  • to verify your identity;
  • in order for us to process your instructions or requests;
  • to provide services you request;
  • to retain and make available to you information;
  • as a registered user, to notify and authenticate your identity when you view and access the designated area of the Website or other supporting databases such as delegate records;
  • to allow you to participate in activities on the Website, Learner Management Systems and other support systems;
  • to inform you of changes made to our Website;
  • to inform you of additional services, courses, seminars, programmes offered by us which you may find interesting;
  • for direct marketing of our own services and on behalf of other companies within the AstroTech Group;
  • to respond to any queries you may have;
  • to develop a more direct relationship with you for the purposes described in this section;
  • to develop an online user profile;
  • to understand general user trends and patterns so we can develop and support existing and ongoing marketing strategies for our services;
  • to facilitate our legitimate business interests;
  • to carry out any contracts that may form between us;
  • to notify you about changes to our service;
  • as aggregate data for research; and
  • for security, administrative and legal purposes.

You are entitled to request that we desist from using your Personal Data for the purposes of direct marketing, and we will provide you with the necessary functionality for you to do so with ease, each time we market to you.

Use of cookies and IP addresses

Cookies are pieces of information a Website transfers to a user’s hard drive for record-keeping purposes. Cookies make surfing the web easier for you by saving your preferences and, tracking your online habits, traffic patterns, and making sure you do not see the same advertisement too often. The use of cookies is an industry standard. We may place a “cookie” on your browser to store and sometimes track information about you.

While most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or indicate when a cookie is being sent. Further, please note that some aspects of the Website will not function properly if you refuse cookies.

An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to a computer whenever it is connected to the Internet. We log IP addresses, or the location of computers on the Internet.

We may collect IP addresses for the purposes of system administration and to audit the use of the Website. We do not ordinarily link IP addresses to personal information, which means that your session may remain anonymous. However, we cannot guarantee that this will always be the case, as it may be necessary to identify a particular user when it is necessary to enforce compliance with the Terms or to protect our Website, its users or other interests.

Publicly Available Personal Data

If at any time our Website offers any chat rooms, message boards, blogs, newsgroups or forums, etc., anything you post in any of these forums shall be considered public information (“Public Information”) and we Process the Public Information that you disclose. Such Public Information will be used in accordance with this Privacy Policy and may be stored by us on our platform in accordance. Please note that we are not responsible for other parties’ use of the Personal Data which you make available to such third parties through any chat room, message board, blog, newsgroup or forums, etc. on our Website.

What security measures are in place to protect my Personal Data?

Although absolute security cannot be guaranteed on the Internet, we have in place reasonable technical and organisational security measures to protect your Personal Data against accidental or intentional manipulation, loss, misuse, destruction or against unauthorised disclosure or access to the information we Process online.

While we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any Personal Data you provide us, we will continue to maintain and improve these security measures over time.

When you use the services or facilities provided by us, you may select or be given an access number, user name, password and/or personal identification number (PIN). You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy and confidentiality of your user name, access card, password and/or personal identification number (‘PIN’).

Storage of Personal Data?

Personal data may be stored in a range of business systems both locally and internationally used to perform business activities. Some systems used may include:

  • CRM System/s
  • Web server/s
  • Financial system/s
  • Marketing system/s
  • Learner management systems
  • Storage system/s
  • Other systems for business purposes

If the location of the central database is located in a country that does not have substantially similar laws which provide for the protection of personal data, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that your Personal Data is adequately protected in that jurisdiction.

Use of the Website by children

The Website is not targeted at children under the age of 18. We will not knowingly collect information from persons in this age group.

Links to Other Sites

Our sites contain links to a number of websites that may offer useful information to our visitors. This Privacy Statement does not apply to those sites, and we recommend communicating to them directly for information on their privacy policies.

Update of your personal information

If you ever want to update or correct any of your personal information held by us, you can update and correct your information via the website, or contact us via email.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right, in our sole discretion to amend (including without limitation, by the addition of new terms and conditions) this Privacy Policy from time to time. You agree to review the Privacy Policy whenever you visit this website for any such amendments. Save as expressly provided to the contrary in this Privacy Policy, the amended version of the Privacy Policy shall supersede and replace all previous versions thereof.

Protection of your Personal Data

We are committed to protecting the security of your Personal Data. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your Personal Data from unauthorised access and use. As effective as modern security practices are, no physical or electronic security system is entirely secure. We cannot guarantee the complete security of our database, nor can we guarantee that information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet. Any transmission is at your own risk. In the event that there is an interception of your Personal Data or unauthorised access or use of our database, we will not be liable or responsible for any resulting misuse of your Personal Data.

We have no control over the contents of third party sites or resources which are linked to the website and we accept no responsibility or liability for them or the privacy practices they use or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of such websites or resources.

Governing law

This Privacy Policy will be governed by and construed and interpreted in accordance with the laws of South Africa. To the extent that a court has jurisdiction over any dispute which may arise out of or in connection with this Privacy Policy, we both submit to the jurisdiction of the South African courts.