PRIVACY AND POPI (PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION) POLICY
Welcome to Roots, a cooperative bank located in South Africa. This Privacy and POPI Policy outlines how we collect, use, and protect your personal information when you visit our website or utilize our services.
By using this website, you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions outlined in this policy. If you do not agree with any part of this policy or if you are under 18 years of age, please discontinue using our website.
We reserve the right to change this policy at our discretion without prior notice. Any updates will be communicated through prominent notices on the website or via email. Continued use of the website after such changes implies acceptance of the revised terms.
We prioritize the privacy and security of your personal information. Personal information includes details such as name, contact information, preferences, and other identifiable data. We do not disclose your personal information except when required by law or for providing services efficiently.
By registering on our website or placing orders, you acknowledge that your personal information will no longer be anonymous. We may request additional information voluntarily to enhance your experience and provide better services.
We utilize your personal information for specific purposes such as processing reservations, facilitating transactions, delivering services, sending marketing materials (with your consent), and enhancing your website experience. We do not sell personal information to third parties.
We may use cookies to improve website functionality, personalize content, enhance performance, and deliver targeted advertising in compliance with applicable laws. You can manage cookie settings in your browser preferences.
We collect internet use information from server logs, including IP addresses, browsing habits, system details, and website interactions. This data helps us improve our services and website performance.
Some affiliates may use cookies on our website governed by their privacy policies. We do not control these cookies but ensure compliance with privacy regulations.
We are not responsible for personal information collected by external websites linked to ours. Please review their privacy policies for more information.
Your privacy is important to us, and we are committed to protecting your personal information in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
For any queries or concerns regarding this policy, please contact us at support@rootsfsc.co.za
The user/s is/are all persons, are able to open a bank account, juristic, utilising this website, and bound by these terms and conditions.
The continued use of this website constitutes the acceptance and understanding of all of the terms and conditions contained herein.
Immediately discontinue use of this website if you do not agree with any and/or all of the terms or conditions contained in this policy.
The user must be a South African citizen and have a South African identity document.
We may change the terms of this policy at any time at our sole discretion, without notice to users. We will endeavour where possible to alert users to any changes by placing a notice in a prominent position on the website or by email.
If you do not agree with any change you must immediately discontinue utilising the website. If you continue to use the website following notification of a change to the terms, the changed terms will apply to you and you will be deemed to have accepted such terms.
The privacy of the user is of paramount importance to us and the safety of the user’s personal information is our priority.
Personal information is defined as all information relating to an identifiable, living natural person and where it is applicable, an identifiable, existing juristic person, including but not limited to:
Information relating to the race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, national, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental health, well-being, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth of a person;
Information relating to the education or the medical, financial, criminal or employment history of a person;
Any identifying number, symbol, email address, physical address, telephone number, location information, online identifier or other particular assignment to the person;
The biometric information of the person;
The personal opinions, views or preferences of the person;
Correspondences sent by the person that is implicitly or explicitly of a private or confidential nature or further correspondence which would reveal the contents of the original correspondence;
The views or opinions of another individual about the person; and
The name of the person if it appears with other personal information relating to the person or if the disclosure of the name itself would reveal information about the person.
Personal Information excludes:
Anonymous that has been made so that it does not identify a specific person;
Permanently de-identified information that does not relate or cannot be traced back to a specific user; and
Non-personal statistical information collected and compiled by us and information that you have provided voluntarily in an open, public space or forum including any blog, chat room, community, classifieds or discussion board. Such information is protected by this policy due to the information not being confidential as it has been disclosed in a public forum.
We will under no circumstances disclose users’ personal information, unless required to do so:
to comply with applicable law or with legal process served on us;
to protect and defend our rights or property;
For the purposes of distributing same to various employees and/or third parties who assist us in providing services to you and thus need to know your personal information in order to render a proper and efficient service to you.
We will ensure that all such employees and/or third party service providers having access to your personal information are bound by appropriate and legally binding confidentiality and non-disclosure obligations in relation to your personal information.
By registering on the website, the user understands and accepts that they will no longer be anonymous as they will have provided personal information.
Users may be asked to provide us with additional information on a voluntary basis when you order the goods or request our services.
Users will explicitly be asked when personal, identifying information or information allowing us to contact you is required.
Generally, this information is requested when making reservations and/or when requesting services. Users agree to provide accurate and current information, and not to impersonate or misrepresent any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with anyone or anything.
We are obliged to disclose users’ personal information if we are required to do so:
by a subpoena or court order;
to comply with any law;
to protect the safety of any individual or the general public; and
to prevent violation of our customer relationship terms.
Users personal information shall be utilised as follows:
For the purposes for which you specifically provided the information;
To assist us in the processing, validating and verification of reservations and requests for services;
To facilitate banking transactions via the website or email;
To deliver any services to users via our website;
Provided users have expressly consented thereto, to receive marketing materials;
To update users on new features, services, special offers and products; and
To improve your experience on our website.
We will not sell personal information. No personal information will be disclosed to anyone except as provided in this privacy policy.
We may place small text files called ‘cookies’ on your device when you visit our website. These files do not contain personal information, but they do contain a personal identifier allowing us to associate your personal information with a certain device. These files serve a number of useful purposes for you, including:
granting you access to age restricted content;
tailoring our website’s functionality to you personally by letting us remember your preferences;
improving how our website performs;
allowing third parties to provide services to our website; and
helping us deliver targeted advertising where appropriate in compliance with applicable laws.
Be advised that some of our affiliates use their own cookies or widgets on our website. We have no access to or control over them. Information collected by any such cookie or widget is governed by the privacy terms and conditions of the company that created it, and not by us.
Your internet browser accepts cookies routinely, but you may be able to change this setting to stop accepting them. You can also delete cookies manually. However, no longer accepting cookies or deleting them will prevent you from accessing certain aspects of our website where cookies are necessary. Find out more at www.allaboutcookies.org.
We routinely receive and record user’s internet use information on our server logs from your browser when visiting our website, such as:
Internet Protocol address (“IP address”),
Browsing habits and click patterns,
Version of software installed,
System type,
Screen resolutions and colour capabilities,
Plug-ins,
Language settings,
Cookie preferences,
Search engine keywords,
JavaScript enablement,
The content and pages that you access on the website, and the dates and times that you visit the website,
Paths taken; and
Time spent on sites and pages within the website.
Please note that any other websites visited before entering our website might place personal information within your URL during a visit to it, and we have no control over such websites. Accordingly, a subsequent website that collects URL information may log some personal information.
Page views may be counted and cookies accessed by way of electronic image requests (called a “single-pixel gif” or “web beacon” request) Any electronic image viewed as part of a web page (including any advertising banner) can act as a web beacon. Web beacons do not save, collect, monitor or distribute any of your personal information. They are used to compile anonymous information about our website only.
We may use any information that you provide to us for the purposes that you indicated when you agreed to provide it to us.
We may use your usage information for the purposes described above and to:
Repeatedly recall your information so that you will not have to enter it again during your visit or the next time you visit our site;
track your entries, submissions, and status in any promotions or other activities in connection with your usage of the website; and
monitor website usage metrics such as total number of visitors and pages accessed.
You may choose at any time to opt-out of promotional messages.
While you are logged into the website, we may display targeted adverts and other relevant information based on personal information. Devices access and assess your personal information and match it to adverts or related information. We never share personal information with any advertiser, unless you specifically provide us with your consent to do so.
Advertisers receive a record of the total number of clicks for each advert. No personal information is accessible by the advertisers If you click on an advert, you consent that we may send only a referring URL to the advertiser’s website identifying that a customer is visiting from our website. Once you are on the advertiser’s website however, the advertiser is able to collect your personal information and users do so at their sole risk.
From time to time, we may update this policy. We’ll notify you of significant changes through our Service or via email: If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, reach out to us at support@rootsfsc.co.za