Privacy policy for CoinZA

1. Introduction

CoinZA operates an online marketplace and auction platform dedicated to numismatics, rare coins, banknotes, medals, medallions, tokens, bullion and collecting accessories. We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal information in accordance with South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) and other applicable privacy laws.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, share and protect your personal information when you register, browse, buy, bid or sell on our platform.

2. Information we collect

We collect personal information necessary to deliver our marketplace services, facilitate secure bidding and purchases, comply with regulatory standards, and optimise your user experience:

• Account & identity data: Full name, national identity number or passport number, date of birth, and login credentials.
• Contact information: Email address, physical and delivery address, postal address, and phone number.
• KYC & FICA compliance data: Government-issued identification documentation, proof of address, and verification records required for high-value transactions, auctions or bullion trade.
• Transaction & financial data: Bidding history, purchase history, invoice details, order fulfilment records, and payment method indicators (processed securely via encrypted third-party payment gateways; we do not store full credit card numbers).
• Technical & usage data: IP address, browser type, device information, operating system, browsing activity, referral source, and interactions with our listings and features.
• Storage & delivery details: Direct preferences and tracking details regarding vault storage or insured physical courier deliveries.

3. Purpose of processing personal information

We process your personal information strictly for legitimate business purposes, including:

• Service delivery & transaction fulfilment: Processing account registration, managing live auctions, completing marketplace sales, facilitating payment processing, and arranging insured delivery or vault storage.
• KYC & regulatory compliance: Verifying account authenticity, preventing fraud, and meeting anti-money laundering (AML) and financial regulatory requirements.
• User experience & personalisation: Customising listing feeds, saving search preferences, and streamlining checkout and bidding interfaces.
• Customer communication: Sending order updates, bidding alerts, security notices, administrative notifications, and customer support responses.
• Marketing & promotions: Providing optional newsletters, auction updates and special promotional offers (you may opt out at any time).
• Platform security & improvement: Monitoring system performance, resolving software bugs, preventing unauthorised access, and optimising website security.

4. Legal basis for processing (POPIA)

Under POPIA, we process your information on the following legal grounds:

• Contractual necessity: Processing is required to fulfil our contract with you, for example executing bids, processing payments and delivering goods.
• Legal obligation: Processing is required to comply with financial, tax, KYC and legal duties under South African law.
• Legitimate interests: Processing is necessary to maintain platform security, prevent fraud and improve our services.
• Consent: Where required, we request explicit consent, for example for direct marketing communications.

5. Sharing & disclosure of information

We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information to third parties. We only share information with trusted third parties under strict confidentiality and security protocols:

• Courier & logistics partners: Physical delivery address, name and contact numbers provided to authorised courier networks for insured order shipment.
• Verification & KYC providers: Authorised identity verification services to validate user credentials for marketplace safety.
• Payment gateways & financial institutions: Encrypted payment processors to authorise and facilitate transactions securely.
• Vault & storage partners: Information necessary to verify ownership for items assigned to secure vault storage.
• Legal & regulatory authorities: When mandated by applicable law, court order, statutory request or regulatory body.

6. Data retention & security

• Security measures: We employ industry-standard security protocols, including SSL encryption, secure access controls, firewalls and isolated database storage to protect your personal data against loss, misuse or unauthorised access.
• Data retention: Personal information is retained only as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this policy or as required by South African law, for example financial and tax record retention requirements. Once no longer required, data is securely destroyed or anonymised.

7. Cookies and tracking technologies

CoinZA uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to enhance user experience:

• Essential cookies: Necessary for account login, shopping cart persistence and bidding functionality.
• Analytical cookies: Used to understand site traffic, user interaction patterns and page load performance.
• Preference cookies: Remember filter settings, sorting choices and display preferences.

You can manage or disable cookie preferences directly through your web browser settings.

8. Your legal rights

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

• Right of access: Request confirmation of whether we hold personal information about you and receive a copy of that data.
• Right to correction: Request the correction, update or deletion of inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date personal information.
• Right to object: Object to the processing of your personal data on reasonable grounds, or object to direct marketing.
• Right to data deletion: Request the deletion or destruction of personal data that is no longer required for authorised purposes.
• Right to lodge a complaint: File a complaint with the South African Information Regulator if you believe your privacy rights have been infringed.

9. Third-party links

CoinZA may contain links to external third-party websites or services. We are not responsible for the privacy practices, content or policies of external sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any third-party website you visit.

10. Updates to this privacy policy

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect changes in legal requirements, operational practices or platform functionality. The latest version will always be accessible on our website with the updated effective date.