Privacy Policy & POPIA Notice

1. Who we are

FreePDF.co.za (“FreePDF”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is an online document-tool service operated by Webtastix Web Designs in South Africa.

For privacy and personal-information enquiries, contact us at hello@freepdf.co.za.

Information Officer: Ridwaan Rasool.

2. Our privacy-by-design approach

This means that the contents of PDFs, images, signatures, invoice details, payslip details and passwords entered into supported document tools ordinarily remain on your device while the tool is being used.

This browser-only document processing is separate from ordinary website communications. Like most websites, our hosting, security and network infrastructure may still process limited technical information when your device connects to FreePDF.

3. Personal information we may process

3.1 Website and security information

When you visit FreePDF, our hosting, security or network providers may process technical information such as:

• your IP address;
• browser and device type;
• requested pages and timestamps;
• referrer information;
• security, error and server-log information; and
• cookie or consent identifiers where those technologies are used.

3.2 Information you give us directly

If you contact us, we may process your name, email address, message content and any information you choose to provide to us.

3.3 Local browser information

Some FreePDF features may save settings, preferences or reusable business-profile information in your browser’s local storage on your own device. This can include information you choose to save for invoice or payslip generation. Local browser data is controlled by your browser and can be cleared from your device.

3.4 Document contents processed by FreePDF tools

FreePDF does not require you to create an account or upload the contents of supported document-processing jobs to our server. The document data selected inside the tools is processed in your browser, subject to the limitations described on the relevant tool page.

4. Why we process personal information

Where we process personal information, we do so for purposes that may include:

• operating, securing and troubleshooting the website;
• responding to enquiries and support requests;
• detecting abuse, attacks, fraud or technical faults;
• understanding website performance and usage where analytics is enabled;
• maintaining consent and preference choices;
• complying with legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or record-keeping obligations; and
• establishing, exercising or defending legal rights.

5. Cookies, analytics and similar technologies

FreePDF may use cookies, local storage, service-worker caches and similar browser technologies for essential functionality, preferences, progressive-web-app features, security and, where enabled, analytics.

Where non-essential analytics or advertising technologies are used, we will identify them in our Cookie & Local Storage Policy and provide appropriate controls where required.

6. Sharing and service providers

We may disclose limited personal information to service providers that help us operate the website, such as hosting, email, security, content-delivery, analytics or professional-service providers. We only disclose information that is reasonably necessary for the relevant purpose.

We may also disclose information where required by law, a lawful regulatory process, court order, or where reasonably necessary to protect our rights, users, systems or the public.

Because supported FreePDF document-processing jobs are performed in the browser, our normal website service providers do not need the contents of those files in order to perform the document-processing function.

7. Cross-border processing

Some website infrastructure or service providers may operate or store limited website-related personal information outside South Africa. Where cross-border processing occurs, we take reasonable steps to ensure that the transfer is handled in a manner consistent with applicable South African data-protection requirements.

8. Retention

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, to meet legal or record-keeping obligations, to resolve disputes, or to protect legitimate interests.

Browser-local information remains on your device until the relevant feature removes it, it expires, or you clear it using the website or your browser settings.

9. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational safeguards appropriate to the nature of the information we process. No website, browser, device or network can be guaranteed to be completely secure, and users should keep important originals and backups of their documents.

If we have reasonable grounds to believe that personal information under our control has been accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person, we will deal with the incident in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

10. Your rights

Subject to applicable law, you may ask us to:

• confirm whether we hold personal information about you;
• provide access to personal information we hold about you;
• correct inaccurate, incomplete or outdated personal information;
• delete or destroy personal information where we are no longer authorised to retain it;
• object to certain processing where the law allows; and
• withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.

Send privacy requests to hello@freepdf.co.za. We may need to verify your identity before providing access to personal information.

11. Complaints

We would appreciate the opportunity to address a privacy concern first. You can contact us at hello@freepdf.co.za.

You may also lodge a POPIA complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa) using the Regulator’s official complaints process. The Regulator currently publishes POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za for POPIA complaints.

12. Children

FreePDF is a general-purpose document-tool website and is not specifically directed at children. We do not intentionally ask children to submit personal information through the document-processing tools.

13. Changes to this notice

We may update this Privacy Policy when our services, technology, providers or legal obligations change. The latest version will be published on this page with an updated effective date.