Privacy Notice
The one thing that matters most
The contents of your document never reach us. The builder runs entirely in your browser. The employee’s name, the allegations, the dates, the findings — all of it is processed on your own device and stored only in your own browser. We do not receive it, we cannot see it, and we could not produce it if we were asked to. That matters, because a disciplinary file is full of another person’s personal information and a great deal of it is special personal information under section 26 of POPIA.
1. Who we are
| Responsible party | Focus Legal (Pty) Ltd, trading as Disciplinary Guide |
|---|---|
| Registration number | 2017/350119/07 |
| Information Officer | Monique Coetzee, Director. Registered as Information Officer with the Information Regulator. |
| Address | 90 Van Riebeeck Road, Kempton Park Ext 4, Kempton Park, 1619 |
| legal@focuslegal.co.za | |
| Telephone | +27 69 119 6978 |
2. What we actually collect
| Category | What it is | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Document content | Everything you type into the builder: company details, employee details, allegations, findings. | Your browser only. Never transmitted to us. |
| Order record | Your order code, the template chosen, and the details above, held so the download page can rebuild your PDF. | Your browser’s local storage. Deleted automatically after 30 days, or whenever you clear your browser data. |
| Checkout details | Name and e-mail address you enter, passed to Yoco with the order code. | Yoco, and back to us in Yoco’s payment notification e-mail. |
| Payment record | Amount, date, order reference, last four digits and card type. | Held by Yoco. We see the notification e-mail and the Yoco dashboard. We never receive your card number. |
| Support correspondence | Anything you e-mail or WhatsApp us about an order. | Our e-mail and messaging systems. |
| Server logs | Standard web logs kept by our hosting provider, including IP address. | Afrihost, on servers located in South Africa. The retention period is set by the hosting provider, not by us. |
3. Cookies and tracking
This website sets no cookies. There is no analytics, no advertising pixel and no tracking of any kind. It loads nothing from a third party — no external fonts, no content delivery network, no embedded widgets. Every file comes from disciplinary.co.za.
The builder uses your browser’s local storage to hold your order so that the download page can rebuild the PDF after you return from the payment page. That is a technical necessity of building documents on your device rather than ours. It is not a cookie, it is not sent to any server, and it is cleared automatically after 30 days.
4. Why we process what we process
| Purpose | Justification under section 11 of POPIA |
|---|---|
| Taking and fulfilling your order | Necessary for the performance of a contract with you |
| Sending you a receipt and handling refunds | Performance of a contract, and compliance with an obligation in law |
| Answering your support queries | Steps taken at your request; our legitimate interests |
| Keeping accounting and tax records | Compliance with an obligation imposed by law |
| Protecting the site against abuse | Our legitimate interests |
5. Who we share it with
- Yoco Technologies (Pty) Ltd — our payment processor, as an operator. Yoco handles your card details under its own terms and privacy policy and under the card scheme rules.
- Our hosting provider — which stores the website files and keeps server logs.
- Our accountants — for the accounting and tax records that include your order.
- Anyone we are required by law, a court order or a regulator to disclose to.
We do not sell personal information and we do not share it for marketing.
6. Transfers outside South Africa
We operate from South Africa. This website and our e-mail are hosted by Afrihost on infrastructure located in the Republic of South Africa, so the order records and correspondence we hold do not leave the Republic.
Two flows do cross the border:
- Card payments. Yoco Technologies (Pty) Ltd is a South African company, but its payment infrastructure and the card scheme partners it uses may process transaction data outside the Republic. We never receive or store card details.
- WhatsApp. If you contact Focus Legal on WhatsApp, that service is operated by Meta Platforms outside the Republic. Telephone or e-mail us instead if you would prefer your information to stay in South Africa.
Where personal information is transferred outside the Republic we do so only on a basis permitted by section 72 of POPIA — in practice because the transfer is necessary to perform the contract you have concluded with us.
7. How long we keep it
| Record | Retention |
|---|---|
| Order record in your browser | 30 days, then deleted automatically. You can delete it sooner by clearing your browser data. |
| Payment and invoice records | 5 years, as required by the Companies Act and the Tax Administration Act |
| Support correspondence | 24 months from the last message |
| Document content | Never held by us at all |
8. Security
In terms of section 19 of POPIA we take appropriate, reasonable technical and organisational measures to secure personal information: the site is served over HTTPS, card data is handled entirely by Yoco under PCI DSS obligations, access to our systems is controlled and password protected with multi-factor authentication where available, and access to order records is limited to those who need it. If a breach occurs we will notify the Information Regulator and affected data subjects as required by section 22.
9. Your rights
You may ask us what personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, object to processing based on legitimate interests, and withdraw consent where we relied on it. Requests for access or correction must be made on the prescribed forms — Form 2 and Form 3 — available from the Information Regulator. See the PAIA Manual for the full procedure.
To exercise a right, e-mail legal@focuslegal.co.za.
10. Complaints
Raise it with us first. You may also complain to the Information Regulator:
| The Information Regulator (South Africa) | JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001 POPIA complaints: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za inforegulator.org.za |
|---|
11. A word about the employee whose details you enter
When you build a document you are processing someone else’s personal information, and often their special personal information — health, alleged criminal conduct, trade union membership. You are the responsible party for that processing, not us. Handle it accordingly: keep the file secure, share it only with those who need it, and keep it only as long as you need it.