1.1. Rochester respects your privacy and will handle your personal information with care. The privacy policy forms part of the website terms and sets forth the way Rochester will collect, use, process, secure, retain and disclose your personal information. By visiting, accessing or using the website you agree to the terms, which include this privacy policy. In order to use certain services, you may be required to provide your personal information. Rochester reserves the right to amend the privacy policy from time to time. Rochester will post the revised policy on the website. Each time you visit, access or use the website, you agree to the privacy policy posted on the website at the time.

2.1 Introduction

We operate various social media communities on various social media services and are glad to have you as a community member. We encourage you to publish content and interact with us and other community members through our communities.

2.2 Communities

This policy applies to your conduct on any of our communities on any social media service. Social media is a broad term that covers any existing or future digital tool or other kind of technology that allows one person to publish the same message to many people in a public or semi-public forum at the same time using the Internet or a similar communications network.

2.3 Not our views

We’re always glad to hear from you and encourage you to engage through our social media communities, but what you and other community members publish on our social media communities do not necessarily reflect our views. In fact, the views you and other community members express are yours or theirs alone and not ours.

2.4. Response times

We will do our best to reply to anything that you publish to our social media communities or send directly to us through social media within a reasonable time, but there may be times when we take longer to reply to you. We generally moderate our social media communities from 08h00 to 17h00 on weekdays other than public holidays. We also generally have reduced hours for replying to anything published after hours, on the weekend, or on public holidays. We may also sometimes only reply to these on the next available working day. However, we are not liable for responding within an unreasonable time or failing to respond to you at all.

2.5 No endorsement

We appreciate it when you post content to our social media communities and we may acknowledge it with a ‘like’, ‘retweet’, ‘favourite’, or other way of acknowledging it depending on the particular social media service you published it on. But, the mere fact that we acknowledge something you publish does not mean that we endorse it in any way. We only endorse something if we explicitly say that we do in writing.

2.6 Prohibited conduct

We believe in freedom of speech and we encourage you to conduct yourself as you please (within reason) on our social media communities, provided that it doesn’t amount to abuse. You’re allowed to respectfully disagree with someone, but you’re not allowed to attack them personally. You may not engage in any of the following prohibited conduct:

2.6.1 discrimination, which means treating someone in a certain way based on prejudice – like racism, homophobia, bigotry, or other kinds of prejudice.
2.6.2 hate speech, which means attacking someone based on their attributes – like their gender, ethnicity, religion, race, disability, or sexual orientation;
2.6.3 harassment, which means harming someone or threatening to harm them – like bullying, intimidation, or stalking; or
2.6.4 trolling, which means a specific way of harassing someone online by intentionally sowing discord, starting arguments, or publishing objectionable content.

2.7 Prohibited content

2.7.1 We look forward to having your content on our social media communities and want you to feel empowered to publish anything within reason. But, you may not publish any prohibited content including:

2.7.1.1 illegal content that is prohibited by law – like child pornography, pirated content, or content that otherwise infringes someone else’s copyright or other rights;

2.7.1.2 harmful content that could cause harm to someone – like defamatory comments, fraudulent claims, or untrue statements

2.7.1.3 offensive content that could reasonably offend someone – like pornography, obscenities, or anything intended to shock someone; or
2.7.1.4 impermissible content– contrary to any codes or standards that we subscribe to and make you aware of Competitions

2.7.2 We run promotional competitions through social media from time to time. These promotional competitions are regulated by rules that determine what entries we accept, how we randomly select winners, and how the competition is monitored by auditors or other monitoring parties. The law requires us to have these rules and to appoint an external party to oversee that the competition is conducted fairly and according to the rules. A copy of the rules is available to you on request if you are an entrant or available on our websites. You may not engage in any of the following prohibited conduct:

2.7.2.1 unjustified outcries, which means strong expressions of public disapproval or anger based on false assumptions – like “The competition was rigged!” (our competitions are run strictly in accordance with the law and any baseless claim to the contrary is defamation against us);
2.7.2.2 discriminatory objections, which means negative comments about the competition or its results based on attributes of the individual entrants or winners, including their gender, ethnicity, religion, race, disability, or sexual orientation – like “I can’t believe only [insert attribute here] people won!” or “Not even a single [insert attribute here] person won!” (anyone is allowed to enter our competitions and winners are randomly chosen by computer software under the supervision of an external party – no one has any control over who wins or who does not and there may be multiple winners with a single attribute and none with yours); and
2.7.2.3 prohibited discussions, which means certain aspects of promotional competitions that we are not allowed to talk to you about in terms of our promotional competition rules, like the personal details of the winners. We also advise you not to share personal information on any public platform. Rather send us a private inbox message to keep your personal details safe.

2.8 Report

Unfortunately, other community members may not abide by this policy and you may have to report them to us. You should not feel bad about reporting your fellow community members if you have a legitimate reason to think that they have breached this policy, particularly if they have done something to negatively affect you. However, you should not report anyone lightly. Any use of our reporting facility to censor discussion may itself be regarded as a breach of this policy.

2.9 Moderation

Each social media community has features that allow us to edit or completely remove published content under certain circumstances. We value your contributions to our communities and will never use these features to edit or remove content you publish unnecessarily. But, as the moderator of our social media communities we are responsible for overseeing their content. We have complete discretion to edit or remove anything you publish on our social media communities that we think is inconsistent with this policy without notice to you. We may also impose filters on our social media communities depending on the features of the relevant social media service that prevent you and other community members from posting content containing certain keywords in the first place. We may moderate any of the following things as described above among others:

2.9.1 anything that is not relevant to a social media community or the conversation in question;
2.9.2 anything that results from prohibited conduct, including discrimination, hate speech, harassment, or trolling;
2.9.3 prohibited content,including content that is illegal, harmful, offensive, or impermissible; or
2.9.4 prohibited promotional competition related content, including unjustified outcries, discriminatory objections, or prohibited discussions

2.10 Queries and reinstatement

If we have removed anything that you have published, you may ask us for reasons why it was removed. We will do our best to inform you of the reason for removal, but are not required to do so. We also need not tell any other community members why we have decided to remove your content. Unfortunately, there may be times when we cannot give detailed legal reasons for why we have decided to remove anything you publish. We will only reinstate your removed content if we have a compelling reasons to do so.

2.11 Recourse

There may come a time when you or another community member breaches this policy in a way that calls for action from our side. We have absolute discretion to take action if we deem you to have breached this policy and may take recourse against you in the form of a suspension or a ban.

2.12 Suspension

We may suspend your right to participate in any of our social media communities if you do not comply with this policy, which means that you will not be able to access it for a period of time. Some social media services do not allow the temporary suspension of community members, in which case we may ban you instead.

2.13 Bans

We may ban you from any of our social media communities outright under extreme circumstances, which mean that you will not be able to access it for the foreseeable future.

2.14 Other accounts

We may also ban or suspend any other social media accounts that we suspect you to be operating through after we have taken recourse against you through your initial account.

2.15 Appeals

If we have suspended or banned you, you may appeal to us to reinstate your access to a social media community. We will provide you with steps to take to ask to be reinstated by email if we decide to suspend or ban you so that the process is as just and equitable as possible.

2.16 Third-party links

Links on our social media communities may lead you to third-party websites. Third-parties other than us control these websites. We are not responsible for the content on those sites.

Words defined in the website terms of use will have the same meaning in the privacy policy. In the privacy policy:

3.1. “direct marketing” means any direct communication between Rochester and you for the purpose of goods and service information, marketing goods or services, customer profile building and personal customer care;

3.2. “information” means any information, including personal information that you provide to Rochester;

3.3. “interactive sections” means all sections of the website which allow you to communicate via the website with other visitors of the website or with Rochester, including but not limited to forums, clubs, surveys, feedback forms, clubs and e-mails;

3.4. "personal information" means information relating to an identifiable, living, natural person, and where its applicable, an identifiable, existing juristic person, including, but not limited to

3.4.1. Information relating to 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 the person

3.4.2. information relating to the education or the medical, financial, criminal or employment history of the person

3.4.3. any identifying number, symbol, e-mail address, physical address, telephone number, location information, online identifier or other particular assignment to the person;

3.4.4. the biometric information of the person;

3.4.5. the personal opinions, views or preferences of the person

3.4.6. correspondence sent by the person that is implicitly or explicitly of a private or confidential nature or further correspondence that would reveal the contents of the original correspondence;

3.4.7. the views or opinions of another individual about the person; and

3.4.8. 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 that person

3.5.“we" or “us” or “Rochester” means Pepkor Trading (Pty) Ltd trading as Rochester. Rochester is part of a group of brands that all trade under Pepkor Trading. When you share your information with one of our brands, you may be sharing it with one of the other brands. “website” means Rochester.co.za

3.7."you” or “user” means any person who accesses or uses the website.

4.1.We collect certain information: when you make use of our services, necessary to provide the service to you; from your web browser; from cookies we may send to your computer and from web beacons on our website to track how you use our website and to try and give you a personalised experience; and optional information, that you provide when you upload or download content from our website or when you enter competitions, take advantage of promotions, respond to surveys or register and subscribe for certain additional services.

5.1. When you order any goods or services from us, you will be asked to provide us with additional information on a voluntary basis (goods or services information)

5.2. You may also provide additional information to us on a voluntary basis (optional information). This includes content or products that you decide to upload or download from our website or when you enter competitions, take advantage of promotions, respond to surveys, order certain additional goods or services, or otherwise use the optional features and functionality of the website.

5.3. In these situations, Rochester will ask the user for particular information, and inform the user at each information point what information is mandatory and what information is optional, specifically in the instances of ordering any goods or services from us.

5.4. BY PROVIDING US WITH ANY GOODS, SERVICES OR OPTIONAL INFORMATION YOU ARE CONSENTING TO US TO COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAW AND IN THE MANNER DESCRIBED BELOW.

5.5. You agree that Rochester may collect, use and store your personal information to:

5.5.1. establish and verify your identity;

5.5.2. maintain and update Rochester customer, or potential customer databases;

5.5.3. greet you when you access the website;

5.5.4. send you direct marketing material from which you will be able to opt out or unsubscribe;

5.5.5. provide you with value added services like specialized services and knowledgeable staff, free advice, technical call centre, peace of mind supplier backed warranties as well as special corporate deals;

5.5.6. send you messages about the website, your account, the goods and services we offer;

5.5.7. communicate with you in general;

5.5.8. customize the website to users' preferences;

5.5.9. inform you of facts relating to your website access and use;

5.5.10. improve the content of the website or any of our services; installation, guarantee, extended warranties, customer care and product reviews;

5.5.11. inform you about Rochester goods and services, including information particularly aimed at a specific user;

5.5.12. inform you about competitions, promotions and special offers from Rochester;

5.5.13. do marketing and product research for Rochester;

5.5.14. provide you with targeted advertising when you access the website.

We collect and receive information about you in the following ways. This includes any information that you provide to us directly:

6.1 when you sign-up to utilise our services;

6.2 by filling in forms on our websites, or those provided to you;

6.3 when you enter a competition, promotion or complete a survey;

6.4 by posting comments or content on our social media pages; or

6.5 when you contact us or we contact you and you provide information directly to us.

7.1. Rochester passively collects (i.e. without the user actively providing the information) information from your browser, including an IP address, browsing habits, click patterns, version of software installed, system type, screen resolutions, colour capabilities, plug-ins, language settings, cookie information, and the page requested.

7.2. A cookie is an alphanumeric identifier which Rochester computer system transfers to your hard drive through your web browser when you visit the website. It enables our system to recognize you when you visit the website again and to improve our service to you. It also enables us to diagnose problems with our server, to report and aggregate information, to determine the fastest route for your computer to use in connecting with the website, and how to better administer and improve the website. It also enables us to compile aggregate information about your website access and use.

7.3. We can use this information to enhance the content of the website and to make it more user-friendly.

7.4. Please note that you may disable the use of cookies by configuring your browser accordingly.

7.5. You consent to the passive collection, use and storage of user's information

8.1. You agree that Rochester may disclose, if needed, your personal information to:

8.1.1 Rochester' affiliates;

8.1.2 Employees or third parties contracted or employed by Rochester to provide services for or to Rochester, including for example, website hosting and development, joint content and services; customer support, technical support, financial services like credit or other payment processing, delivery services, to guide decisions about our products, services and communications (they will only use this information to send you marketing communications if you have requested their goods or services); and other support services. These companies require access to users' personal information to perform their functions and not for any other purposes and Rochester will take all reasonable steps to enter into confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements with the relevant service providers;

8.1.3 Any third party to investigate or resolve complaints, including abuse complaints;

8.1.4 Credit bureaus to report account information, as permitted by law;

8.1.5 Banking partners as required by credit card association rules for inclusion on their list of terminated merchants (in the event that you utilise the services to receive payments and you meet their criteria) 

8.1.6 governmental agencies, exchanges and other regulatory or self-regulatory bodies if Rochester is required to do so by law or if Rochester believes that this is necessary.

8.1.7 Any third party who acquires all, or substantially all, of the assets or shares in Rochester, any of Rochester' affiliates, and/or the Rochester website, whether by sale, merger, acquisition or otherwise. We will disclose the transfer on the website;

8.1.8 Governmental agencies, exchanges and other regulatory or self-regulatory bodies if Rochester is required to do so by law or if Rochester believes that this is necessary to:

8.1.8.1 comply with the law or with any legal process;

8.1.8.2 protect and defend the rights, property or safety of Rochester, its affiliates or their customers;.

8.1.8.3 prevent or deal with fraud or the abuse, misuse or unauthorized use of the website;

8.1.8.4 protect the rights, property or safety of members of the public (if you provide false or deceptive information about yourself or misrepresent yourself as being someone else, Rochester will proactively disclose this information to the appropriate regulatory bodies and commercial entities).

8.2. You agree that Rochester may use your personal information to compile profiles for statistical purposes and may trade with these profiles and statistical data, provided that the third party will not be able to link the profiles or statistical data to the user.

We will not sell or distribute your personal information unless as specifically stated in this policy. No personal information will be disclosed to anyone except as provided in this privacy policy.

Rochester may monitor, intercept, read, block, or delete communication over its information systems.

11.1 Rochester takes reasonable steps to put in place and maintain electronic procedures and systems with reference to accepted technological standards to secure all information under its control.

11.2 Our hosting company will host our website in a secure environment that uses a firewall and other advanced security measures to prevent interference or access from outside intruders. We authorise access to personal information only for those employees who require it to fulfil their job responsibilities.

12.1 We will try to keep the personal information we collect as accurate, complete and up to date as is necessary for the purposes explicitly defined in this policy. From time to time we may request you to update your personal information on the website. You are able to review or update any personal information that we hold on you by accessing your account online, by emailing us, or by phoning us. Please note that in order to better protect you and safeguard your personal information, we take steps to verify your identity before granting you access to your account or making any corrections to your personal information.

12.2 You may update or correct your personal information to ensure it is accurate, current, and complete, by e-mailing Rochester Head office at rochester@odity.co.za 

12.3 Rochester will take reasonable steps to correct or update such information as soon as possible.

12.4 You may choose to correct or update the personal information you have submitted to us, by clicking the relevant menu in any of the pages on our website.

Rochester is not responsible for the privacy practices of third party websites to which the website may link. Rochester advises you to read the privacy policy of each website that you visit.

13.1 We will only retain your personal information for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purposes explicitly set out in this policy, unless:

13.1.1 retention of the record is required or authorised by law; or

13.1.2 you have consented to the retention of the record. During the period of retention, we will continue to abide by our non-disclosure obligations and will not share or sell your personal information.

14.1 We may transmit or transfer personal information outside South Africa to a foreign country. Personal information may be stored on servers located outside South Africa in a foreign country whose laws protecting personal information may not be as stringent as the laws in South Africa. You consent to us processing your personal information in a foreign country whose laws regarding processing of personal information may be less stringent.

15.1 You acknowledge that Internet communications and transactions are not 100% secure or error free. In particular, information may not be secure in transit from the user to the website.

15.2 Moreover, where the user provides particularly sensitive personal information like passwords, ID numbers, or other special access features on this site, it is the user's responsibility to maintain the confidentiality of it and to safeguard them.

16.1 The website is not targeted at children under the age of EIGHTEEN and Rochester will not knowingly collect information from users in this age group

16.2 We encourage parents to talk to their children about the use of the Internet and information they disclose to websites.;

Unauthorized use of information systems may be a violation of the law, including the Electronic Communications and transactions Act 25 of 2002 and the agreement between you and Rochester. A violation may result in civil and criminal penalties.

If you have any queries or complaints concerning this privacy policy and its application, you may contact the compliance officer at rochester@odity.co.za

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Any changes that we may make to our privacy policy will be posted on our website and will be effective from the date of posting.

20.1 You may at any time request:

20.1.1 confirmation that we hold your personal information;

20.1.2 access to your personal information;

20.1.3 the identities or categories of third parties to whom we have disclosed your personal information; or

20.1.4 that we correct or delete any personal information that is incomplete, misleading, inaccurate, excessive or out of date.

20.2 Requests may be made in writing to rochester@odity.co.za

21.1. If a dispute between Rochester and a user concerning the interpretation or application of this privacy policy remains unresolved, and the user wants to pursue the dispute, the user must refer the dispute to arbitration in terms of the expedited rules of the Arbitration Foundation of South Africa.

21.2. The arbitration proceedings must be conducted in Johannesburg in English.

21.3. The arbitration ruling will be final and the unsuccessful party will pay the costs of the successful party on an attorney and own client scale.

1. WHAT ARE COOKIES AND WHY DO WE USE THEM?

We might use cookies and other techniques such as web beacons when you visit our website. “Cookies” are small text files used by us to recognize repeat users, facilitate your ongoing access to and use of our website and allow us to track your usage behaviour and compile aggregate data that will allow us to improve the functionality of our website and content. “Web beacons” are small, clear picture files used to follow your movements on our website. For example, storing your preferred settings for the next time you visit.

The information we collect from cookies enables us to:

• tailor our websites to your personal needs;

• remember the notifications that you have been shown so that you are not shown them again;

• help us find information once you have logged in;

• help us link your browsing information to you and your personal information, for example, when you choose to register for a service;

• make improvements and updates to our websites based on the way you want to use them; and

• we generally do not use cookies to identify you personally.

The type of information collected by cookies is not used to personally identify you.

2. WHAT KIND OF COOKIES DO WE USE?

We use the following categories of cookies:

2.1 Category 1: Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies enable you to use our websites and all their features, such as enabling access to secure areas of the website. Without these cookies, you may not be able to use all the features of our websites.

2.2 Category 2: Performance cookies

Performance cookies collect information about how you use our websites so we can improve them for you in future. For example, they collect information on which pages you visit most often and any error messages you may get. The information collected by these cookies is anonymous. They do not collect any information that can identify you personally.

2.3 Category 3: Functionality cookies

Functionality cookies enable us to provide you with a more personalized experience. They help us to remember data, such as your username and language preference, to save you having to enter them again the next time you visit. The information these cookies collect is anonymous. They cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.

2.4 Category 4: Targeting/advertising cookies

We and our service providers may use advertising cookies to deliver ads that we believe are relevant to you and your interests.

For example, we may use targeting or advertising cookies to customize the advertising and content you receive on our websites, to limit the number of times you see the same ad on our websites and to help measure the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns.

2.5 Category 5: Social media cookies

Our websites use third-party cookies from social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to enable in-depth campaign reporting and to track social network users when they visit our websites, by using a tagging mechanism provided by those social networks. These cookies can also be used for event tracking and remarketing purposes. Any data collected with these tags will be used following our privacy policy and with the social network's privacy policies. Our websites will not collect or store any personally identifiable information from the user.

3. HOW CAN YOU MANAGE YOUR COOKIE SETTINGS?

To ensure you get the best possible experience when visiting our websites, we recommend that you accept cookies. However, you can opt-out of each cookie category (except strictly necessary cookies) by clicking on the “cookie settings” button or disable cookies in your web browser.

Cookies may, however, be necessary to provide you with certain features available on our website. If you disable cookies you may not be able to use these features, and your access to our website will be limited.

POPIA_ Take Action_ Incorporate External Privacy Statement target.