Privacy policy

IPS Health and Wellness Proprietary Limited (registration number 2008/019443/07), trading as IPS Health & Wellness ("IPS", "we", "us"), operates this store and website, including all related information, content, features, tools, products and services, in order to provide you, the customer, with a curated shopping experience (the "Services"). IPS is powered by Shopify, which enables us to provide the Services to you. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, and disclose your personal information when you visit, use, or make a purchase or other transaction using the Services or otherwise communicate with us. If there is a conflict between our Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy, this Privacy Policy controls with respect to the collection, processing, and disclosure of your personal information.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. By using and accessing any of the Services, you acknowledge that you have read this Privacy Policy and understand the collection, use, and disclosure of your information as described in this Privacy Policy.

Personal Information We Collect or Process

When we use the term "personal information," we are referring to information that identifies or can reasonably be linked to you or another person. Personal information does not include information that is collected anonymously or that has been de-identified, so that it cannot identify or be reasonably linked to you. We may collect or process the following categories of personal information, including inferences drawn from this personal information, depending on how you interact with the Services, where you live, and as permitted or required by applicable law:

  • Contact details including your name, address, billing address, shipping address, phone number, and email address.
  • Payment and financial information including payment method, payment confirmations, billing information and transaction records. Payment providers process the payment details you supply; the information available to IPS depends on the payment method and provider.
  • Account information including your email address, customer identifiers, sign-in and authentication information, preferences, settings and membership or customer tags used to administer account benefits.
  • Health Bucks and store-credit information including your account-linked balance and records of credit allocations, purchases or gifts of credit, redemptions, adjustments and related orders.
  • Transaction information including the items you view, put in your cart, add to your wishlist, or purchase, return, exchange or cancel and your past transactions.
  • Communications with us including the information you include in communications with us, for example, when sending a customer support inquiry.
  • Device information including information about your device, browser, or network connection, your IP address, and other unique identifiers.
  • Usage information including information regarding your interaction with the Services, including how and when you interact with or navigate the Services.

Personal Information Sources

We may collect personal information from the following sources:

  • Directly from you including when you create an account, visit or use the Services, communicate with us, or otherwise provide us with your personal information;
  • Automatically through the Services including from your device when you use our products or services or visit our websites, and through the use of cookies and similar technologies;
  • From our service providers including when we engage them to enable certain technology and when they collect or process your personal information on our behalf;
  • From our existing IPS customer, membership and billing records, including information used to match an existing customer to their online account, confirm eligibility for account benefits and administer Health Bucks. Where allocation information is imported from our internal systems or supplied by an authorised programme administrator, we use the relevant customer identifiers and allocation records for those purposes.
  • From partners or other third parties where you have authorised them to provide your information or another lawful basis permits collection. Where required, we will tell you the source and purpose of that collection.

How We Use Your Personal Information

Depending on how you interact with us or which of the Services you use, we may use personal information for the following purposes:

  • Provide, Tailor, and Improve the Services. We use your personal information to provide you with the Services, including to perform our contract with you, to process your payments, to fulfill your orders, to remember your preferences and items you are interested in, to send notifications to you related to your account, to process purchases, returns, exchanges or other transactions, to create, maintain and otherwise manage your account, to arrange for shipping, to facilitate any returns and exchanges, to enable you to post reviews, and to create a customized shopping experience for you, such as recommending products related to your purchases. This may include using your personal information to better tailor and improve the Services.
  • Marketing and Advertising. Subject to your marketing preferences and applicable law, including POPIA requirements for direct marketing, we may use your personal information for marketing and promotional purposes, such as to send marketing, advertising and promotional communications by email, text message or postal mail, and to show you online advertisements for products or services on the Services or other websites, including based on items you previously have purchased or added to your cart and other activity on the Services.
  • Security and Fraud Prevention. We use your personal information to authenticate your account, to provide a secure payment and shopping experience, detect, investigate or take action regarding possible fraudulent, illegal, unsafe, or malicious activity, protect public safety, and to secure our services. If you choose to use the Services and register an account, you are responsible for keeping your account credentials safe. Do not share sign-in verification codes, passwords or other account access details with anyone else.
  • Communicating with You. We use your personal information to provide you with customer support, to be responsive to you, to provide effective services to you and to maintain our business relationship with you.
  • Legal Reasons. We use your personal information to comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal process, including requests from law enforcement or government agencies, to investigate or participate in civil discovery, potential or actual litigation, or other adversarial legal proceedings, and to enforce or investigate potential violations of our terms or policies.

How We Disclose Personal Information

In certain circumstances, we may disclose your personal information to third parties for legitimate purposes subject to this Privacy Policy. Such circumstances may include:

  • With Shopify, vendors and other third parties who perform services on our behalf (e.g. IT management, payment processing, data analytics, customer support, cloud storage, fulfillment and shipping).
  • With business and marketing partners to provide marketing services and advertise to you. For example, we use Shopify to support personalized advertising with third-party services based on your online activity with different merchants and websites. Our business and marketing partners will use your information in accordance with their own privacy notices. Depending on where you reside, you may have a right to direct us not to share information about you to show you targeted advertisements and marketing based on your online activity with different merchants and websites. You can contact us about your preferences and use the Shopify privacy controls linked below.
  • When you direct, request us or otherwise consent to our disclosure of certain information to third parties, such as to ship you products or through your use of social media widgets or login integrations.
  • With our affiliates or otherwise within our corporate group.
  • In connection with a business transaction such as a merger or bankruptcy, to comply with any applicable legal obligations (including to respond to subpoenas, search warrants and similar requests), to enforce any applicable terms of service or policies, and to protect or defend the Services, our rights, and the rights of our users or others.

Relationship with Shopify

The Services are hosted by Shopify, which collects and processes personal information about your access to and use of the Services in order to provide and improve the Services for you. Information you submit to the Services will be transmitted to and shared with Shopify as well as third parties that may be located in countries other than where you reside, in order to provide and improve the Services for you. In addition, to help protect, grow, and improve our business, we use certain Shopify enhanced features that incorporate data and information obtained from your interactions with our Store, along with other merchants and with Shopify. To provide these enhanced features, Shopify may make use of personal information collected about your interactions with our store, along with other merchants, and with Shopify. In these circumstances, Shopify is responsible for the processing of your personal information, including for responding to your requests to exercise your rights over use of your personal information for these purposes. To learn more about how Shopify uses your personal information and any rights you may have, you can visit the Shopify Consumer Privacy Policy. Depending on where you live, you may exercise certain rights with respect to your personal information here Shopify Privacy Portal Link.

Health Bucks and Account Benefits

Health Bucks are administered as store credit associated with an individual customer account. We use customer identifiers, relevant membership or programme tags, allocation records and credit transaction history to load and reconcile balances, apply account benefits, record credit used on orders, handle adjustments and answer balance queries. This may involve matching and transferring the relevant records between Shopify and IPS's internal customer, billing and order-management systems.

Health Bucks records are account and transaction information. A programme tag does not by itself mean that we hold medical records about you. If you voluntarily provide health information when asking for assistance, we use it only where necessary for that enquiry and where permitted by law. Please avoid including unnecessary sensitive information in general enquiry forms.

This policy explains how information is handled; it does not set credit amounts, expiry, refund rights or discount-combination rules. Applicable programme and sales terms will explain those matters.

Third Party Websites and Links

The Services may provide links to websites or other online platforms operated by third parties. If you follow links to sites not affiliated or controlled by us, you should review their privacy and security policies and other terms and conditions. We do not guarantee and are not responsible for the privacy or security of such sites, including the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of information found on these sites. Information you provide on public or semi-public venues, including information you share on third-party social networking platforms may also be viewable by other users of the Services and/or users of those third-party platforms without limitation as to its use by us or by a third party. Our inclusion of such links does not, by itself, imply any endorsement of the content on such platforms or of their owners or operators, except as disclosed on the Services.

Children's Data

Our online shopping and account services are intended for adults. Where a parent or guardian supplies information about a child in connection with an enquiry or service, any processing must comply with applicable protections for children. If you believe that a child has supplied personal information without appropriate permission, please contact us so that we can investigate and take the steps required by law.

Security and Retention of Your Information

We take reasonable and appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against loss, damage, unauthorised access and unlawful processing. Where a security compromise requires notification under applicable law, we will notify the relevant regulator and affected people as required. Please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and we cannot guarantee "perfect security." In addition, any information you send to us may not be secure while in transit. We recommend that you do not use unsecure channels to communicate sensitive or confidential information to us.

How long we retain your personal information depends on different factors, such as whether we need the information to maintain your account, to provide you with Services, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes or enforce other applicable contracts and policies.

South African Privacy Rights and Lawful Processing

We process personal information in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA). Depending on the purpose, processing may be based on your consent, steps needed to enter into or perform a contract with you, a legal obligation, or another lawful basis recognised by POPIA, including applicable legitimate interests. Visiting this website is not treated as blanket consent to every use of your information.

Information needed to process an order, arrange delivery, verify account access or allocate account-linked credit is necessary for that service. If you do not provide it, we may be unable to fulfil the order or provide the relevant account benefit. Optional information and marketing consent are voluntary. Where a particular law requires information, or additional information is needed for a specific service, we will explain that requirement at the relevant point of collection.

Subject to POPIA and other applicable law, you can request confirmation of whether we hold your personal information, request access to it, ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information, request deletion where we are no longer entitled to retain it, withdraw consent where processing relies on consent, and object to processing in the circumstances permitted by law. You can also raise concerns about decisions based solely on automated processing where the protections in POPIA apply. We may need reasonable proof of identity, and a request does not override lawful record-retention obligations.

For privacy requests, contact our Information Officer at informationofficer@ipshealth.co.za. You can request our PAIA/POPIA Manual and assistance with the applicable access, objection, correction or deletion process from the same address.

Cookies, Analytics and Marketing Choices

Our store and its service providers use cookies and similar technologies for functions such as account access, shopping carts, checkout and security, and for analytics, personalisation or advertising where permitted. Where consent is required for non-essential tracking, it must be obtained through the applicable consent controls. You can adjust available cookie controls or your browser settings; blocking essential cookies may affect shopping or sign-in functionality.

You can unsubscribe from promotional emails using the link in those messages, or contact us to withdraw marketing consent or object to direct marketing. Service messages about orders, account access and transactions are separate from marketing. Shopify's Privacy Portal provides controls and information about Shopify's own processing, including relevant advertising choices. Contact us if you need help exercising a choice that is not available on screen.

Your Rights and Choices

Depending on where you live, you may have some or all of the rights listed below in relation to your personal information. However, these rights are not absolute, may apply only in certain circumstances and, in certain cases, we may decline your request as permitted by law.

  • Right to Access / Know. You may have a right to request access to personal information that we hold about you.
  • Right to Delete. You may have a right to request that we delete personal information we maintain about you.
  • Right to Correct. You may have a right to request that we correct inaccurate personal information we maintain about you.
  • Right of Portability. You may have a right to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to request that we transfer it to a third party, in certain circumstances and with certain exceptions.
  • Managing Communication Preferences. We may send you promotional emails, and you may opt out of receiving these at any time by using the unsubscribe option displayed in our emails to you. If you opt out, we may still send you non-promotional emails, such as those about your account or orders that you have made.

You may exercise any of these rights where indicated on the Services or by contacting us using the contact details provided below. To learn more about how Shopify uses your personal information and any rights you may have, including rights related to data processed by Shopify, you can visit https://privacy.shopify.com/en.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights. We may need to verify your identity before we can process your requests, as permitted or required under applicable law. In accordance with applicable laws, you may designate an authorized agent to make requests on your behalf to exercise your rights. Before accepting such a request from an agent, we will require that the agent provide proof you have authorized them to act on your behalf, and we may need you to verify your identity directly with us. We will respond to your request in a timely manner as required under applicable law.

Complaints

If you have complaints about how we process your personal information, please contact our Information Officer using the details below. You may also complain directly to the Information Regulator (South Africa): inforegulator.org.za/complaints, POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za, telephone 010 023 5200. Depending on where you live, you may have the right to appeal our decision by contacting us using the contact details set out below, or lodge your complaint with your local data protection authority.

International Transfers

Shopify currently identifies the United States as this store’s customer-data hosting location. Shopify and other service providers may also process information in other countries. Your online-store information is therefore not held exclusively in South Africa. Privacy laws in those countries may differ from South African law. Transfers must take place on a basis permitted by POPIA section 72, such as an applicable law, binding corporate rules or a binding agreement providing an adequate level of protection, or another permitted transfer basis. You can contact our Information Officer for information about the safeguards relevant to your data.

If we transfer your personal information out of the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, we will rely on recognized transfer mechanisms like the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, or any equivalent contracts issued by the relevant competent authority of the UK, as relevant, unless the data transfer is to a country that has been determined to provide an adequate level of protection.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, including to reflect changes to our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. We will post the revised Privacy Policy on this website and provide notice, or obtain consent, where required by applicable law. You can request information about policy revisions from our Information Officer.

Contact

IPS Health and Wellness Proprietary Limited
Registration number: 2008/019443/07
Building 15, Constantia Office Park, 36 Springhaas Road, Weltevredenpark, 1709, South Africa
Customer care: info@ipshealth.co.za
Privacy and personal-information requests: informationofficer@ipshealth.co.za
Telephone: 010 140 6700