Privacy Policy

1. Responsible party

World Focus 2514 CC, trading as IT-Automated, is the responsible party for personal information that we process for the IT-Automated website, customer portal, product support and software-licensing services, except where another organisation acts as an independent responsible party/controller for its own services.

Our privacy practices are intended to comply with South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (“POPIA”) and other applicable privacy laws.

2. Information we collect

Depending on how you use IT-Automated, we may process:

• Account and contact information: name, email address, company/business name, account identifiers and information you provide through the website or customer portal.
• Commerce and subscription information: Paddle customer, transaction and subscription identifiers, purchased plan, transaction status, subscription status, billing period and entitlement information. We do not receive or store your complete payment-card number for Paddle transactions.
• Licence and device information: licence/entitlement identifiers, activation identifiers, computer name, application version, activation status, activation timestamps, last check-in time and hashed device/fingerprint information used to enforce licence and trial rules.
• Support information: support requests, diagnostic details and correspondence you send to us.
• Website and technical information: IP address, browser/device information, security logs, cookies and similar technical information that may be processed by WordPress, our hosting environment and enabled site services.

3. Why we use information

We process information where reasonably necessary to:

• create and maintain customer accounts;
• fulfil purchases and provide the software features you are entitled to use;
• issue, activate, validate, renew, suspend or revoke software licences;
• enforce device activation limits and trial rules;
• provide updates, downloads, support and security notifications;
• operate, secure, troubleshoot and improve the website and services;
• detect fraud, abuse and unauthorised access;
• comply with accounting, tax, legal and regulatory obligations; and
• send optional marketing communications where permitted and where you have not opted out.

4. Payments and Paddle

Paddle is the Merchant of Record for purchases processed through Paddle. Paddle independently processes payment details, taxes, receipts, billing and buyer-support information under its own privacy and buyer terms. IT-Automated receives the commerce data needed to fulfil your order, create the correct entitlement, maintain subscription state and support the customer relationship.

5. Legal grounds and POPIA

Depending on the context, we process personal information to perform a contract, comply with legal obligations, pursue legitimate operational and security interests, or on the basis of consent where consent is appropriate. We aim to process only information that is adequate, relevant and reasonably necessary for the stated purpose.

6. Sharing and service providers

We do not sell personal information. We may share information with service providers that help us operate IT-Automated, including payment/commerce providers, hosting providers, email providers, security services and technical service providers. We limit sharing to what is reasonably necessary for the service being provided and require appropriate safeguards where applicable.

We may also disclose information where required by law, to protect legal rights, to investigate abuse or security incidents, or as part of a lawful business restructuring.

7. International processing

Some service providers may process information outside South Africa. Where cross-border processing occurs, we take reasonable steps to use providers and safeguards consistent with applicable data-protection requirements.

8. Retention

We retain information only for as long as reasonably necessary for account administration, software licensing, support, security, legal, tax and dispute-resolution purposes. Different categories of information may have different retention periods. Licence and transaction records may be retained after an account or subscription ends where needed for audit, fraud prevention, entitlement history or legal compliance.

9. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect information against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration and disclosure. Sensitive licence secrets and authentication tokens are not intentionally displayed in customer-facing operational views, and device fingerprints used for licensing are stored in hashed form where supported by the licensing design.

10. Cookies

The website may use cookies or similar storage that is necessary for sign-in, customer-account functions, security, preferences and enabled site functionality. Optional analytics or marketing cookies, where used, are managed in accordance with the site’s consent controls and applicable law.

11. Your privacy rights

Subject to applicable law, you may ask us to confirm whether we hold personal information about you, request access, request correction or deletion, object to certain processing, or withdraw consent where processing is based on consent. Some requests may be limited where we must retain information to meet legal obligations or establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

To exercise a privacy right, contact info@it-automated.com or call +27 71 529 3695. We may need to verify your identity before completing a request.

12. Complaints

If you believe your personal information has been handled improperly, please contact us first so we can investigate. You may also lodge a complaint with the South African Information Regulator through its official channels.

13. Children

IT-Automated is a professional IT administration product and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly offer customer accounts or software subscriptions to children.

14. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as our services, providers or legal obligations change. The current version and last-updated date will be published on this page.