Privacy & POPIA Notice
Effective date: 12 June 2026
Version: v1.2
1. Introduction
This notice explains how we collect, use, share and protect your personal information when you visit www.bioaktiva.co.za or buy from us. We have written it to be clear and practical, and to meet our obligations under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 4 of 2013 ("POPIA"), in particular section 18. We only collect what we need to serve you well, and we treat your information with care.
2. Who We Are
The responsible party for your personal information is:
- Fertile Acre (Pty) Ltd t/a BioAktiva
- Registration No. 2022/507647/07
- 1 New Street, 2nd Floor, Paarl, Western Cape, 7646, South Africa
Our Information Officer is Mark Rubery, who you can reach at enquiries@bioaktiva.co.za for any question about your information.
3. The Information We Collect, and Why
POPIA requires us to collect only what we need, for a clear purpose, on a lawful basis. Here is what we collect and why:
| Information | Why we collect it | Lawful basis (POPIA s11) |
|---|---|---|
| Your name, email, phone number, delivery and billing address, and — for trade accounts — your company name and registration / VAT number | To process and deliver your order, raise invoices, and help you when you contact us | To perform our contract with you |
| Your order and payment records (we do not store full card details) | To fulfil your order and to meet our legal record-keeping duties | Legal obligation (tax and company law), and contract |
| The soil-analysis document you upload to our Soil Analyser (which may include your name, contact details and property or farm details), and your contact details | To read and analyse your document using automated (AI) processing, and to send you relevant guidance | Your consent, given when you submit |
| Product reviews you choose to leave | To publish reviews and improve our products | Your consent / our legitimate interest |
| Your email, if you sign up to our newsletter | To send you the updates you have asked for | Your consent (opt-in) |
| Website cookies and usage data | To run the site and, later, understand how it is used | Essential cookies: legitimate interest. Analytics: your consent |
You are always free to decide what you share with us. If you choose not to give the details we need to fulfil an order, we may not be able to process or deliver it.
4. How We Use Your Information
We use your information to take and fulfil your orders, arrange delivery, provide support, keep proper business records, analyse the documents you upload to the Soil Analyser, and — only where you have asked us to — send you our newsletter. We do not use your information for purposes you would not reasonably expect, and we do not sell it.
5. Who We Share It With
We work with trusted service providers ("operators" under POPIA) who handle information on our behalf, only on our instruction and under a duty of confidentiality and security. They include:
- Bob Go — courier dispatch for online (retail) deliveries
- Megafreight — logistics for trade (bulk and pallet) deliveries
- MailerLite — sending our newsletter, where you have opted in
- CusRev — collecting and displaying product reviews
- A third-party AI service — reading and analysing the documents you upload to the Soil Analyser (see section 6)
- Google Workspace — our business email and document tools
We may also share information where the law requires it — for example with SARS or a court — or where it is necessary to protect our rights.
6. Automated Processing (Soil Analyser)
Our Soil Analyser lets you upload your soil-analysis report — for example, a PDF from a soil laboratory. That document may contain personal information about you, such as your name, contact details, and property or farm details. We use automated processing, including a third-party artificial-intelligence (AI) service, to read and analyse the document you upload and generate guidance from it.
This guidance is advisory only: it does not make any decision that has legal or similarly significant effects for you, and any follow-up from us is handled by a person, not by the Analyser on its own. The AI service may process your document outside South Africa, in which case the cross-border safeguards in section 7 apply. We keep the documents you upload only as long as we need them to give you your result and to follow up, after which they are deleted or de-identified.
You only need to upload what is necessary for the analysis. You can ask us about this processing, or object to it, at any time by emailing enquiries@bioaktiva.co.za.
7. Cross-Border Transfers
Some of our service providers — including our newsletter, email and AI services — process information on servers outside South Africa. Where this happens, we take reasonable steps under section 72 of POPIA to ensure your information remains protected to a standard comparable to POPIA. Fertile Acre also has a related entity in the United Arab Emirates; where any personal information is shared with it, the same safeguards apply.
8. How Long We Keep Your Information
We keep your information only for as long as we need it, and for as long as the law requires. Order, invoice and tax records are kept for the period set by South African company and tax law (generally five to seven years). Newsletter details are kept until you unsubscribe. Documents you upload to the Soil Analyser, and the leads they generate, are kept only as long as they remain relevant, after which they are deleted or de-identified.
9. Your Rights
Under POPIA you have the right to:
- ask what personal information we hold about you, and request a copy;
- ask us to correct or update anything that is wrong or incomplete;
- ask us to delete information we are no longer entitled to keep;
- object to processing, and withdraw your consent to marketing or to the Soil Analyser at any time; and
- complain to the Information Regulator (details below).
Withdrawing consent does not affect processing we are required or entitled to carry out on another basis — for example, keeping the tax records the law obliges us to retain.
10. How to Exercise Your Rights
To make any request above, email us at enquiries@bioaktiva.co.za. To protect you, we will confirm your identity against the information we already hold before we act — you do not need to send us new copies of your ID or a photo of yourself to make a request. We will respond within a reasonable time.
11. Keeping Your Information Secure
We take reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect your information, including access controls, secure hosting and encrypted connections. If a security breach affecting your personal information happens, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as required by section 22 of POPIA.
12. Cookies
Our site uses essential cookies to work properly. For the detail, please see our Cookie Policy.
13. Complaints
If you are ever unhappy with how we handle your information, please tell us first at enquiries@bioaktiva.co.za so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to:
- The Information Regulator (South Africa)
- Website: www.inforegulator.org.za
- Email: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
14. Updates to This Notice
We may update this notice from time to time. The version published on this page is always the current one.
Contact
Fertile Acre (Pty) Ltd t/a BioAktiva
Registration No. 2022/507647/07
1 New Street, 2nd Floor, Paarl, Western Cape, 7646, South Africa
Email: enquiries@bioaktiva.co.za
Web: www.bioaktiva.co.za