Privacy Policy

In terms of POPIA, the "responsible party" is the person or organisation that determines the purpose and means of processing personal information. For PawT's, that is:

PawT's Custom Pet Apparel
South Africa
Email: Pawtees2026@gmail.com
Website: www.paw-ts.com

We collect only the personal information that is necessary to provide our services. This may include:

PawT's collects and processes your personal information for the following lawful purposes:

• To process and fulfil your order, including creating your custom artwork and arranging delivery to your chosen Pudo locker
• To communicate with you about your order, including order confirmation, production updates, and delivery notifications
• To respond to queries, complaints, or requests you submit to us
• To process payments securely via Paystack
• To comply with our legal obligations under South African law
• To improve our website and customer experience through anonymised analytics
• To send you marketing communications about new products, promotions, or updates (only with your consent, and you may opt out at any time)

We will not process your personal information for any purpose that is incompatible with the purposes listed above without your prior consent.

Under POPIA, we may only process your personal information if there is a lawful basis for doing so. PawT's processes your information on the following grounds:

• Contractual necessity: processing is required to fulfil your order and deliver products to you
• Legal obligation: processing is required to comply with applicable South African laws
• Legitimate interest: processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests, such as fraud prevention and website analytics, where these interests are not overridden by your rights
• Consent: where you have provided explicit consent, such as for marketing communications or portfolio use of your artwork

Because pet photographs are submitted specifically for the creation of your custom artwork, PawT's treats these with particular care. By submitting a photograph, you confirm that:

• You are the owner of the photograph or have the right to submit it
• You grant PawT's a limited licence to use the photograph solely to create and fulfil your order

Your photograph will not be:

• Sold or transferred to any third party
• Used for any purpose other than fulfilling your order, unless you have separately consented to portfolio or marketing use

If you have consented to portfolio or marketing use of your artwork (not the original photo), we may display the finished artwork on our website, social media, or promotional materials. You may withdraw this consent at any time by contacting us.

PawT's does not sell your personal information. We share your information only in the following limited circumstances:

PawT's takes reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. These measures include:

• Secure, password-protected systems for storing customer data
• Encrypted payment processing via Paystack (PawT's never stores card details)
• Limiting access to personal information to those who need it to perform their duties

While we take appropriate precautions, no online system is completely secure. You use our website and services at your own risk, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

PawT's retains your personal information only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law. In general:

• Order records (including name, contact details, and delivery information) are retained for a minimum of 5 years for accounting and legal compliance purposes
• Pet photographs are deleted within 90 days of order completion unless you have separately consented to portfolio use
• Marketing consent records are retained until you withdraw consent
• Website analytics data is retained in anonymised form

Our website uses cookies to improve your browsing experience and to understand how visitors use our site. Cookies are small text files stored on your device.

We may use:

• Essential cookies: necessary for the website to function, such as shopping cart and session cookies
• Analytics cookies: to understand traffic and usage patterns (e.g. Google Analytics, in anonymised form)
• Marketing cookies: only with your consent, to deliver relevant content or advertising

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Please note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of our website.

As a data subject under POPIA, you have the following rights:

• Right of access: you may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you
• Right to correction: you may request that inaccurate or incomplete information be corrected
• Right to deletion: you may request that we delete your personal information, subject to our legal retention obligations
• Right to object: you may object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances
• Right to withdraw consent: where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing
• Right to complain: you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details in Section 14. We will respond within a reasonable timeframe and in accordance with POPIA.

If you have consented to receive marketing communications from PawT's, we may contact you by email or WhatsApp with news, promotions, new product launches, or other updates.

You may opt out of marketing communications at any time by:

• Contacting us directly via email or WhatsApp and requesting removal from our marketing list

Please note that opting out of marketing does not affect transactional communications related to your orders.

PawT's does not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 18 without verifiable parental or guardian consent. If you believe a child has submitted personal information to us without appropriate consent, please contact us immediately and we will take steps to delete the information.

PawT's may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, or legal requirements. The updated policy will be published on our website with a revised effective date. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests relating to this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal information, please contact us:

PawT's Custom Pet Apparel
South Africa
Email: Pawtees2026@gmail.com
Website: www.paw-ts.com