1. Who We Are

AKR Media & Marketing (“AKR”, “we”, “us”, “our”) is a South African media, marketing, and communications agency founded by Dr. Sebastian Petersen and operating in accordance with the laws of the Republic of South Africa.

For the purposes of POPIA, AKR Media & Marketing is the Responsible Party — the entity that determines the purpose and means of processing your personal information.

Registered business address: 2 Cochrane Avenue, Epping
Email: info@akrmedia.co.za
Website: www.akrmedia.co.za

2. Information We Collect

We may collect the following categories of personal information, depending on how you interact with us:

Information you provide directly

• Full name and job title
• Organisation or company name
• Email address and telephone number
• Postal or physical address
• Message content submitted via our contact form
• Payment and invoicing information (for clients)
• Any other information you choose to share with us

Information collected automatically

• IP address and browser type
• Pages visited on our website and time spent on each
• Referring website or search engine
• Device type and operating system
• Cookie data (see Section 9)

Information from third parties

• Contact details shared by referral partners or event organisers
• Publicly available professional information (e.g. LinkedIn profiles) where relevant to a business enquiry

We do not knowingly collect special personal information as defined in POPIA (such as racial or ethnic origin, health information, political opinion, religious belief, or biometric data) unless specifically required for a contracted service and with your explicit consent.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use your personal information only for legitimate business purposes, including:

• Responding to your enquiries and quotation requests
• Delivering contracted marketing, media, and communication services
• Sending invoices and processing payments
• Sending service-related communications and project updates
• Sending marketing and promotional material where you have opted in or where we have a legitimate interest based on an existing business relationship
• Improving our website and services through usage analytics
• Complying with legal and regulatory obligations
• Preventing fraud or other unlawful activity

We will not use your information for purposes incompatible with those listed above without first seeking your consent.

4. Legal Basis for Processing

Under POPIA, we process your personal information on one or more of the following grounds:

• Contractual necessity — processing required to fulfil a service agreement with you or your organisation
• Consent — where you have actively opted in to receive marketing communications
• Legitimate interest — where we have a genuine and proportionate business interest, such as maintaining client relationships, provided this does not override your rights
• Legal obligation — where processing is required to comply with applicable South African law

5. Sharing Your Information

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties. We may share your information in the following limited circumstances:

Service providers

We may share information with trusted third-party suppliers who assist us in operating our business (such as email platforms, accounting software, web hosting providers, or payment processors). These parties are required to process your data only on our instruction and in accordance with POPIA.

Afrikaap Radio

Where a client engagement involves advertising or promotional services delivered via Afrikaap Radio, relevant campaign information may be shared with Afrikaap Radio’s production and scheduling team. No personal information beyond what is necessary for service delivery will be shared.

Legal and regulatory requirements

We may disclose your information where required to do so by law, court order, or at the request of a regulatory authority with jurisdiction over our business.

Business transfers

In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred to a successor entity. You will be notified of any such change.

6. Data Retention

We retain your personal information only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected, or as required by law.

• Client records — retained for a minimum of 5 years after the conclusion of a contract, as required for accounting and tax purposes under the South African Income Tax Act and the Tax Administration Act.
• Enquiries that did not result in a contract — retained for 12 months, after which they are securely deleted.
• Marketing consent records — retained until you withdraw consent or for 3 years from last engagement, whichever comes first.
• Website analytics data — retained in aggregated, anonymised form and not subject to the above retention limits.

When personal information is no longer required, it is securely deleted or anonymised.

7. Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information against loss, theft, unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. These measures include:

• Password-protected systems and file storage
• Secure email communication protocols
• Limited access to personal data on a need-to-know basis
• HTTPS encryption on our website
• Regular review of our data handling practices

No method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your information, we cannot guarantee absolute security. In the event of a data breach that poses a real risk of harm, we will notify the Information Regulator and affected data subjects as required by POPIA.

8. Your Rights

Under POPIA, you have the following rights in respect of your personal information:

• Right of access — You may request confirmation of whether we hold your personal information and a copy of that information.
• Right to correction — You may request that inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated information be corrected.
• Right to deletion — You may request that we delete your personal information where it is no longer necessary for the purpose it was collected, subject to our legal retention obligations.
• Right to object — You may object to the processing of your personal information on grounds relating to your particular situation, including objecting to direct marketing communications.
• Right to withdraw consent — Where processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing prior to withdrawal.
• Right to lodge a complaint — You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa (see Section 13).

To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the details in Section 13. We will respond within 30 days of receiving a valid request. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request.

9. Cookies & Website Tracking

Our website uses cookies — small text files stored on your device — to improve your browsing experience and gather analytics data about how visitors use our site.

Types of cookies we use

• Strictly necessary cookies — Required for the website to function. Cannot be disabled.
• Analytics cookies — Help us understand how visitors interact with our site (e.g. Google Analytics). These are anonymised where possible.
• Preference cookies — Remember your settings and choices across visits.

You may disable cookies through your browser settings at any time. Note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of our website.

Where we use Google Analytics or similar third-party analytics tools, data collected is subject to those providers’ own privacy policies in addition to ours.

10. Third-Party Links

Our website may contain links to third-party websites, including Afrikaap Radio (www.afrikaap.co.za), social media platforms, and partner organisations. Once you leave our website, this Privacy Policy no longer applies. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party sites you visit. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of those sites.

11. Children’s Privacy

Our services and website are directed at business and professional audiences and are not intended for use by children under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from persons under 18. If you believe we have inadvertently collected such information, please contact us immediately and we will take steps to delete it.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, services, or legal obligations. The updated version will be published on this page with a revised “Last updated” date at the top. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

Where changes are material, we will take reasonable steps to notify existing clients directly, such as by email.

13. Contact Us & Complaints

For questions about this policy, to exercise your rights, or to raise a concern about how we handle your personal information, please contact us:

Complaints to the Information Regulator

If you are not satisfied with our response to a complaint or believe we are processing your personal information unlawfully, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa:

• Website: www.justice.gov.za/inforeg/
• Email: inforeg@justice.gov.za
• Address: JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001