Privacy Policy

About our privacy policy

Our privacy policy gets updated from time to time. Whenever we make a change, we’ll post this on our website and let you know if there is a material change. For more information or any updates on the privacy policy, please visit our Privacy Portal on https://www.vodacom.co.za/vodacom/privacy-policy/terms

HOW TO USE THIS PRIVACY POLICY

In this privacy policy, we explain how we collect, use, share and protect your Personal Information when you use our products and services and our website

It is important to note that when you engage with us, you acknowledge that we require your Personal Information, as defined in the Protection of Personal Information Act No 4 of 2013 (POPIA) and other related regulations and need to process such Personal Information to provide products or services to you for purposes including to confirm, update and enhance our records, to confirm your identity and additional purposes as detailed below and in other supplementary privacy policies and statements linked to specific services that you subscribe to.  You can find the privacy supplements for products and services, please go to “Privacy and our Product and Services”. Vodacom subsidiaries may have their own privacy statements governing the customers use of the particular service or product.

The provision of your Personal Information in terms of this policy is mandatory and you will not be able to continue using our products and services, should you object to providing us with such information.

Who are we?

We are Vodacom (Pty) Ltd (hereinafter referred to as “Vodacom”)

Our registered office is 082 Vodacom Boulevard, Vodavalley, Midrand, 1685. We are registered in the Republic of South Africa under company number 1993/003367/07. Vodacom is also registered with the Information Regulator in its capacity as a Responsible Party.

Unless otherwise specified in a separate privacy statement, the way your Personal Information is processed will remain compatible with the wording of this policy.

In this Privacy Policy:

  • “we/us” means Vodacom (Pty) Ltd;
  • “third party” means someone who is not you or us;
  • “Vodacom Group” means Vodacom Group Limited and any company or organisation in which Vodacom Group Limited owns more than 30% of the share capital;
  • “Vodafone Group” means Vodafone Group Plc and any company or other organisation in which Vodafone Group Plc owns more than 15% of the share capital;
  • “Partner organisation” means external third-party business entity that provides value-added services;
  • “Personal Information” refers to Personal Information about you as defined in POPIA and  includes without limitation MSISDN (Mobile Station International Subscriber Director Number)  information (a unique identifier which is linked to  your mobile phone number), location information, call data records, usage information, race, gender, nationality, marital status, age, physical or mental health, disability, language, education, identity number, telephone number, email, postal address, biometric information, and financial, criminal or employment history.
  • “Process or Processing” means to any operation or activity, whether automated or not, concerning Personal Information, including collection, receipt, recording, organisation, collation, storage, updating or modification, retrieval, alteration, consultation, use, dissemination by means of transmission, distribution or making available in any other form, merging, linking, as well as blocking, degradation, erasure or destruction of information.

HOW TO CONTACT US

Your opinion matters to us – if you have any questions about our Privacy Policy or your privacy settings, please submit your query to the Privacy Officer at [email protected] and a member of our dedicated team will respond to you. If you would like to mail us by post directly, send it to:

The Privacy Office – Legal Affairs
Vodacom (Pty) Ltd
Corporate Park
082 Vodacom Boulevard
Midrand
1685

OUR PRINCIPLES

We are committed to respecting your privacy. We take privacy, security and complying with data protection and privacy laws seriously.

We have set out our core  Privacy Commitments  in our Privacy Centre. We aim to put these commitments at the heart of everything we do.

Personal information we collect about you
 

Directly from you

The information we collect about you and how we collect it can vary depending on the products and services that you use and subscribe to, how you have used the products and services, how you have interacted with Vodacom even if you aren’t a customer, or what we have obtained from a third party.

We will collect your Personal Information when you, for example:

  • sign up to any of our products and services;
  • Use our network or other Vodacom products and services;
  • Subscribe to newsletters, alerts or other services from us;
  • Contact us through various channels for support or ask for information about  products or services;
  • Take part in a competition, prize draw or survey;
  • Visit or browse our website or other Vodacom Group websites;
  • Have given permission to other companies to share information about you;
  • Where your information is publicly available;
  • Are the customer of a business that we acquire;
  • Visit our business premises, please see our visitor’s supplement here;
  • If you are a non-Vodacom customer and contact a Vodacom customer or a Vodacom customer care team.

From third parties

Information collected not directly from you

  • Information we obtain from other sources, such as credit agencies, fraud-prevention agencies, and from other data providers. This includes demographic data, interest-based data, and internet browsing behaviour.

We are required to take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure your Personal Information is complete, accurate, not misleading and updated on a regular basis. To ensure this, we will always endeavour to obtain Personal Information from you directly. Where we are unable to do so, we will make use of verifiable independent third-party data sources who have the necessary authority to provide us with such information. We also collect information from certain organisations, where appropriate and to the extent we have legal grounds to do so. These include fraud-prevention agencies, business directories, credit check reference/vetting agencies, billing calculating agencies and connected network providers.

  1. Contact details Such as your name, address, phone and/or mobile number, your date of birth, gender, marital status, alternative contact details, information about your property or household, or email address. Where you have provided us with the Personal Information of a third-party (for example your spouse or family member), you guarantee that such third- party has given you consent to provide us with their Personal Information. Where you provide us with the Personal Information of a person under the age of 18 years (a minor), you confirm that you have the necessary legal authority or legally competent, to provide their Personal Information to us;
  2. Employment details such as company details, occupation, salary date and gross monthly income to indicate your source of income and the ability to fulfil the contractual arrangement;
  3. Financial details Such as your credit or debit card information, information about your bank account and other banking information. For example, you’ll have to give us this information when you open an account with us. We’ll collect the Personal Information necessary to process a payment whenever you make a purchase;
  4. Your traffic data Every time you use your mobile phone, a record is kept. This includes the number you called or sent an SMS or MMS to, the length, date and time of that call, SMS or MMS, the amount of data you are using and your approximate location at the time that the communication takes place (based on the location of the nearest cell that you sent that call or message from).  The same is also recorded every time you receive an incoming call or message.  This is data we see as part of providing you with connectivity; we don’t, however, keep a record of the content of your calls or messages;
  5. Information about your device or connectivity such as IP address, IMEI and MSISDN;
  6. Your location data This can be precise where it uses Global Positioning System (GPS) data or by identifying nearby mobile phone masts and Wi-Fi hotspots and you enable location-based services or features. It can also be less precise where, for example, a location is derived from your IP address or data such as a post code or name of a town or city;
  7. Your correspondence or contact with us Such as a note or recording of a call you make to one of our contact centres, a Live Chat, an email or letter sent, or other records of any contact with us;
  8. Your account information Such as dates of payment owed or received, subscriptions you use, account numbers or other information related to your account or included in My VodaPay app;
  9. Credential information We’ll collect passwords, hints and similar security information used for authentication and access to accounts and services;
  10. Your preferences for particular products, services and lifestyle activities when you tell us what they are, or we assume what they are, based on how you use the products and services;
  11. Cookies See the 'Cookies' section for details on what we collect using cookies, web beacons and other technologies including advertising data;
  12. Your data sessions We keep a history of the sites you visit in line with our retention policy. This is to enable connection to be made and for billing purposes, fraud investigations, network and store planning, campaign planning, marketing specific products such as URL bundles, identify visits to competitor websites, and personalization of services. To be able to provide detailed data usage on the VodaPay app, we aggregate data used and report per category of usage;
  13. Photographs and images when attending any of our events or functions or accessing premises with surveillance cameras;
  14. Biometric information such as fingerprints and images for identity verification, security and fraud prevention;
  15. Information we obtain from other sources, such as credit agencies, fraud-prevention agencies, and from other data providers. This includes demographic data and interest-based data.
  16. We’ll also get information about how you use our products and services, such as:
  • The level of service that you receive – for example, network or service faults and other events that may affect our network services or other services.
  • Details of your use of the specific services or products. You can refer to the specific privacy supplement for each product/service for more information on the data processed.
  1. Understanding what you want (the use of cookies). We use cookies (small text files stored in your browser) and other techniques such as web beacons (small, clear picture files used to follow your movements on our website). This, in turn, helps us make our website relevant to your interests and needs. They also help us find information once you have logged in or help us link your browsing information to you and your Personal Information, for example, when you choose to register for a service. We may use a persistent cookie (a cookie that stays linked to your browser) to record your details so we can recognise you if you visit our website again.
  2. Corporate or Business Customer.  When you engage with us as a corporate or business customer, we may collect and process certain information about your organisation and the individuals who act on its behalf. This may include:
    • Business and Registration Information:
      Your company name, trading name, business registration number, VAT number, industry classification, and other relevant corporate identifiers.
    • Company Representative Information:
      Personal information relating to individuals authorised to act on your behalf, such as directors, contract signatories, account managers, and operational contacts. This may include their full name, job title, business email address, business telephone number, and other professional contact details.
    • Company Contact and Communication Details:
      General company contact numbers, business addresses, office locations, postal addresses, and communication records related to the services we provide.
    • Authorisation and Compliance Information:
      Details of designated representatives for contractual, regulatory, or compliance purposes, including supporting documents where required by law (e.g., due diligence, verification checks).
    • Account and Service Information:
      Information related to your organisation’s account with us, such as service usage, billing contacts, support queries, and interactions with our teams.

Cookies by themselves cannot be used to discover your identity. Cookies do not damage your computer. You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie. This enables you to decide if you want to accept it or not. If you choose not to accept cookies from our website this may limit its functionalities or performance. For more details on how we use cookies and your rights in respect thereof, please refer to the “Our Cookies policy” section which can be accessed here.

How we use your personal information and our lawful basis to do so
 

We will use your Personal Information for a number of purposes ranging from enabling us to provide you with the products or services you have requested to ensuring we are keeping these secure from fraud.

We may use Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) to help us provide you with a requested product or service. If we use A.I. we will do so responsibly, and where necessary we will disclose that the content is generated by A.I.

Whenever we use your Personal Information, we do so based on a specific lawful bases under data protection law listed below:

  • The performance of your contract or to enter into the contract and to take action on your requests. For example, so you can make calls and texts, and browse the internet on your phone, we process things like the numbers you dial, how much data you’re using and when you’re doing it so we can provide connectivity. This also enables us to generate your bill, based on your usage. We also need to conduct credit checks when you apply for a product or service to verify your suitability for entry into such a contract.
  • Vodacom’s legitimate business interests for example, fraud prevention, prevention of tax evasion and financial crime, maintaining the security of our network and services, direct marketing, and the improvement of our services. Whenever we rely on this lawful basis to process your Personal Information, we assess our legitimate interest to make sure they do not override your rights. Additionally, in some cases you have the right to object to this processing. For more information, visit the “Your rights” section of this policy.
  • Protecting your legitimate interests – for example, providing notifications regarding network availability and performance in your area, notification of emergency services, and fraud prevention. For more information, visit the 'Your rights' section of this policy.
  • Compliance with a mandatory legal obligation, including for example, where a particular law requires Vodacom to process Personal Information for a defined purpose.
  • Consent you providewhere Vodacom does not rely on another legal basis (referred to above). Consent may be withdrawn at any time. When you give your consent, you will be given details on how to change your mind or visit the “Your rights” section of this policy for more information.

Third parties that we work with

We are not in the business of selling your data, we only share with suppliers who help us to provide services.

When you’ve purchased Vodacom products and services using a third party or partner organisation, we often need to exchange information with them as part of managing that relationship and your account – for example, to be able to identify your order and be able to pay them.

If we have a contract with a service provider or contractor to provide us with services or provide a service on our behalf, they may have access to your Personal Information. We don’t authorise them to use or disclose your Personal Information received from us except in connection with providing their services.

We collect and combine information in order to monitor your use of products and services, and that of our other customers, as well as to help us to improve the quality of our products and services. We provide this information to third parties (for example, to content providers and advertisers), but any such third-party reporting shall not include information which may identify an individual customer.

Mergers and Acquisitions

If we reorganised or merged with or divested part of our business to another organisation we may need to provide your information to that other organisation or their advisers or receive Personal Information from that other organisation.

Third party devices that you connect your sim with

You may connect your sim with a number of third-party devices, either manually with a sim card or electronically through our One Number product. These may include mobile phone devices or connected devices such as smart speakers or smart watches. When you connect your sim with these devices those third parties may record your sim details or your interaction with the network and provide that information to Vodacom for purposes of validating your eligibility for the OneNumber product offering. Those third-party device manufacturers will process your Personal Information in accordance with their privacy policies and we recommend that you read their privacy policies before choosing to connect your sim to their devices.

Third party products that you buy through your Vodacom account

Where you buy a third-party product or service through your Vodacom account (such as Charge to Bill for mobile), the contract for it is with the party selling that product or service. Vodacom is only charging the amount directly to your bill as part of its arrangements with the seller. As part of this, you’re agreeing that Vodacom may pass certain Personal Information to the seller to complete your purchase with them.

The seller’s terms and conditions, privacy and cookies policies will apply to how it uses your Personal Information – please read them carefully.

Below you can find an overview of the categories of Personal Information (not an exhaustive list) we process about you, the purposes for which we process that Personal Information and the lawful basis upon which we rely to conduct that processing.

a. To provide you with your service

It is necessary for us to process your Personal Information to enable us to provide you with your service. By service we mean any services or products that you buy or use such as broadband, mobiles, use of our apps or smart tech products.

How is your information used?What data is used?Lawful basis

To process your order and provide you with your products and services

· To process the products and services you’ve bought from us, install equipment at your property or deliver equipment to you and keep you updated with the progress of your order.

· To provide the relevant products or services to you. This includes other services not included in your agreement with us, (e.g. PayPal), services that use information about where you are, and to contact with you messages about changes to the products or services.

· Where you’ve purchased Vodacom products and services using a third party or partner organisation, we often need to exchange information with them as part of managing that relationship and your account – for example, to be able to identify your order and be able to pay them.

Basic Personal Information

Contact details

Account information

Financial details

Performance of your contract

Billing and Customer Care

· To bill you for using our products and services, or to take the appropriate amount of credit from you.

· Contact you if the billing information you provided us with is about to expire or we’re not able to take payment.

· To respond to any questions or concerns you may have about our network, products or services.

Basic Personal Information

Account information

Financial details

Your contact with us

Performance of your contract

Service messages

· We will contact you with customer service messages to keep you updated with current information about products and services you’ve purchased. For example, changes to our terms and conditions, price plan and data use, upgrade you might be entitled to, roaming or service interruptions.

Basic Personal Information

Contact details

Account information

Performance of your contract

b. To improve our service

We collect information such as on your use of our products and services on an aggregated or anonymous basis in order to help us manage and improve the services we offer to everyone.

How is your information used?What data is used?Lawful basis

Improving and innovating our products and services

· We anonymise, de-identify or aggregate information in order to improve the service we offer to everyone. None of these analytics are linked back to you in any way.

· We conduct surveys to understand various aspects of our interaction with you, the use of our services and products and the network.

Anonymised/

aggregated:

Financial details

Traffic data

Legitimate interest

 

Improving and innovating our products and services through third parties

· We collect and combine information in order to monitor your use of products and services, and that of our other customers, as well as to help us to improve the quality of our products and services. We provide this information to third parties (for example, to content providers and advertisers) but any such third-party reporting shall not include information which may identify an individual customer.

Anonymised/

aggregated: Account information

Legitimate Interest

Manage our networks and understand network usage

· To protect our networks and manage the volumes of calls, texts and other uses of our networks. For example, we identify peak periods of use so we can try and ensure the networks can handle the volume at those times.

Traffic data

Location data

Performance of a contract

 

· To understand how you use our networks, products and services. That way we can seek to review, develop and improve these, develop more interesting and relevant products and services, as well as personalising our products and services.Legitimate interest

Improving roaming services

· To improve your roaming experiences and understand how Vodacom is performing in providing roaming services, whether Roaming Services and related products are working as intended, or whether improvements are needed to make roaming better. Vodacom uses Personal Information such as your name, email address, password, mobile phone number and call records in order to do this.

Anonymised/

aggregated:

Basic Personal Information

Contact details

Credential information

Traffic data

Performance of contract
Vodacom creates aggregated and statistical management reports from this information that do not identify you individually. Vodacom may also take this Personal Information and anonymise it so that more in-depth analysis of our roaming services can be undertaken. This helps Vodacom to develop its roaming services for customers without identifying users in an individual way.Legitimate interest

c. Marketing and tailoring our service to you

We process your Personal Information for marketing and advertising purposes, such as to let you know about new products or services and send you special offers, as well as to help us tailor our service to you.

You can control your marketing permissions and the data we use to tailor these communications at any time by visiting the section “Your Rights” in this policy.

How is your information used?What data is used?Lawful basis

Marketing

· We process this data for the purpose of sending you marketing communications in the manner outlined in the row below. We can further tailor these messages using your calling and messaging activities, location information and browsing information, if you have authorised that we process this information for this purpose.

· If you have given your permission, we will also contact you to let you know about products and services of other Vodacom Group companies that are not same/similar to the products and services that you have bought including Vodacom Financial Services and Vodacom Insurance; Vodacom Payment Services and those of other companies which we think may interest you depending on your marketing preferences.

Basic Personal Information

Contact details

Your preferences

Browsing history

Account information

Location data

Consent

Marketing

· As our customer, we will keep you informed generally about new products and services, send you newsletters or white papers, invite you to participate in a survey or let you know about offers, promotions, prize draws or competitions. We tailor these messages based on the sorts of products and services you’ve bought from us (for example, we know not to market to you if you’re in the middle of your phone contract).

· We’ll contact you by post, online, phone or push notifications through our apps.

Basic Personal Information

Contact details

Account information

Questionnaire answers

Legitimate interest

Personalised/targeted advertising online

· To deliver advertising that is relevant to you, you’ll also see targeted advertising online based on the use of cookies. This is known as interest-based advertising. It can be on websites belonging to Vodacom, those of other organisations as well as other online media channels such as social media sites. We may also combine data collected via the cookies with other data we have collected. If you don't want any information processed through the use of cookies, check our cookies section. It explains how to control and opt out of cookies.

· Remember that not providing consent for interest-based advertising won’t stop advertisements from being displayed – but they won’t be tailored to your interests.

Cookie data

Browsing history

Account information

Consent

Research and analytics

We use a variety of analytics methods including what is commonly referred to as “Big data analytics”. Big data analytics are mathematically driven analysis techniques on large and varied data sets (that is why it is “big” data) to uncover hidden patterns and hitherto unrevealed trends. At Vodacom we take governance of big data analytics seriously. Our data scientists are required to sign up to a Code of Ethics. We have a strict use case process that requires that privacy and data protection law checks are carried out before any use case commences. We have strict rules for anonymisation and de-identified techniques where appropriate.

We use our analytics to:

· Market research and to carry out research and statistical analysis including to monitor how customers use our networks, products and services on an anonymous or personal basis;

· Frame our marketing campaigns and determine how we might personalise those;

· Provide reports to third parties (such reports don’t contain information which may identify you as an individual). These can be to third parties such as content providers and advertisers or as part of Vodacom Analytics.

Account information

Basic Personal Information

 

Legitimate interest

d. Profiling, Fraud Management and Security

Profiling consists of the use of Personal Information in an automated form (automated decision) in order to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to an individual. We will process your Personal Information in this way for credit, fraud and security purposes. When we conduct such profiling or automated decision-making activities, we will do so in accordance with the provisions of the relevant legislation or lawful requirement.

How is your information used?What data is used?Lawful basis

Credit checks and ID

· We will carry out a credit check when you apply for a contract for any products or services with us.

· We will also use your Personal Information for identity verification purposes, for access to your account and for general account management. We sometimes supplement the information we collect about you with information from other sources (e.g. Home Affairs, Credit reference agencies) to assess the accuracy of the information that we hold.

Basic Personal Information

Financial details

Account information

Credential information

Consent

Fraud Prevention, Security and Debt Collection

· We will process your traffic data to protect against and detect fraud, to protect and detect misuse or damage to our networks, to recover debts or trace those who owe us money resulting from the use of our services.

Basic Personal Information

Traffic data

Account information

Financial details

Legitimate interest

Fraud management and law enforcement

· We may be obligated to release information to law enforcement for purposes of fraud prevention.

Obligation in law
· Processing for the purpose of protecting us against fraud, defending our rights or property, or to protect our legitimate interests or the interests of our customers.Performance of a contract/Legitimate interest

Network Security

· We will process your traffic data in order to protect and detect misuse or damage to our networks or to detect and resolve fraudulent use of our networks (and our partner roaming networks) and to solve technical issues you are experiencing.

Anonymous and aggregated contact details or credential related information

Traffic data

Legitimate interest

Physical Security

· We may use CCTV footage to safeguard our stores and sites.

Images

Video footage

Legitimate interest

e. To comply with mandatory legal obligation

Under certain circumstances, it is necessary for us to process your Personal Information in order to comply with the law, for example, when responding to law enforcement requests for data or to comply with tax requirements. which are subject to strict internal policies, procedures, and your right to restrict usage of your Personal Information, which control the scope of legal assistance to be provided. We are also required to also process your Personal Information pursuant to legislation including but not limited to the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, 38 of 2001 (FICA), the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provisions of Communication-related Information Act 70 of 2002 (RICA), the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 (ECTA), the Electronic Communications Act, 2005 (ECA), the Consumer Protection Act, 2008 (CPA), the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (PAIA), and the Cybercrimes Act, 2020.

How we share your personal information
 

Where applicable, we share information about you with:

  • Companies in the Vodacom and Vodafone Group, located across the globe, including but not limited to in the European Economic Area (EEA), Egypt, India and the US, for reporting purposes and where they are involved in providing products and services that you have signed up for;
  • Partners, suppliers, or agents involved in delivering the products and services you’ve ordered or used;
  • Companies who are engaged to perform services for, or on behalf of, Vodacom Group Limited, Vodafone Limited, or Vodafone Group which companies may be located outside of the borders of South Africa;
  • Credit reference, fraud-prevention or business-scoring agencies, or other credit scoring agencies;
  • Debt collection agencies or other debt-recovery organisations;
  • Law enforcement agencies, government bodies, regulatory organisations, courts or other public authorities if we have to, or are authorised to by law;
  • A third party or body where such disclosure is required to satisfy any applicable law, or other legal or regulatory requirement
  • Emergency services (if you make an emergency call), including your approximate location
  • Third parties for joint promotions with that third party or for contacting you about their specific products and services. They’ll be responsible for their own compliance with applicable privacy laws. Where required, we will ask for your consent before sharing this information;
  • Other third parties when you are signing up to their service and it is used by them for authentication and fraud-prevention purposes;
  • Third parties that we advertise with, in order to serve you advertisements online (e.g., Facebook, Google). You can opt-out of this by managing your account permissions. To do this see the ‘Your Rights’ section in the policy; or
  • Third parties that we use to serve you marketing.

International data transfers

Vodacom does transfer Personal Information of Data Subjects across the borders, including but not limited to countries in the European Union, United States of America, United Kingdom, India, Australia and to the Vodafone and Vodacom group companies and/or authorised third parties beyond the borders of the countries to achieve a defined purpose. The defined purposes include the i) achievement of its business functions, ii) provision of products and services that the customer has requested, iii) hosting or storage of some of its systems and infrastructure, iv) data warehousing activities and for the v) provision of centralised business activities within the Vodafone and Vodacom group of companies such as where we share technology and resources.

Vodacom will only engage in the cross-border transfer of information if one of the following conditions are met and the transfer has been assessed and approved by the Deputy Information Officer:

  • The recipient is subject to existing legislation in his /her/it’s country, a binding corporate or binding agreement that provides an adequate level of protection for the Personal Information that is substantially similar to the data protection laws applicable to South Africa:
  • The Data Subject has consented to such cross-border transfer;
  • The transfer is necessary for the conclusion and/or performance of a contract between Vodacom and the Data Subject;
  • The transfer is necessary for the conclusion or performance of a contract entered into, in the interest of the Data Subject, between Vodacom and the relevant Vodacom Group company or the Authorised Third Party;
  • The transfer is to the benefit of the Data Subject and must take place in circumstances under which it is not reasonably possible to obtain the Data Subject’s consent and if it were reasonably possible to obtain such consent, the Data Subject would be likely to give it.

The processing of Personal Information in a foreign jurisdiction may be subject to the laws of the country in which it is held, and may be subject to disclosure to the Governments, Courts of law, Enforcement or Regulatory Agencies of such other country, pursuant to the laws of such country. As a measure, Vodacom conducts Transfer Impact Assessments to assess the legislative framework that governs disclosures of information in jurisdictions where information is transferred and implements security and contractual measures to limit the risk exposure. However, where such disclosures are required, Vodacom will ensure the adequate protection of your Personal Information.

How long do we keep your personal information for?

We may not retain your Personal Information any longer than is necessary for achieving the purpose for which your Personal Information was collected or subsequently processed, unless:

  • The retention of your Personal Information is required or authorised by law;
  • We reasonably require your Personal Information for lawful purpose related to our function or activities;
  • The retention of your Personal Information is required by a contract that we enter into with you; or
  • You or competent person consent to the retention of Personal Information relating to a child.

As a general rule, subscriber identity documents and communication records are retained for a period of 5 years after termination of services.  However, given other lawful and legitimate business needs the information may be retained longer to fulfil the business or legal requirements.

We’ll keep some Personal Information for a reasonable period after your contract with us has finished. We, or one of our partners, may contact you about Vodacom services during this time if you haven’t opted out of receiving marketing communications from us.

Keeping your personal information secure

We have specialised security teams who constantly review, improve, and ensure the implementation of appropriate, reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your Personal Information from unauthorised access, accidental loss, disclosure, or destruction.  We are required in terms of POPIA to notify you and the Information Regulator, if any of your Personal Information has been compromised.

Communications over the internet (such as emails) aren’t secure unless they’ve been encrypted. Your communications may go through a number of countries before being delivered, as this is the nature of the internet.

We cannot accept responsibility for any unauthorised access or loss of Personal Information that is beyond our control.

We’ll never ask for your secure personal or account information by an unsolicited means of communication. You’re responsible for keeping your personal and account information secure and not sharing it with others.

Our website may provide links to third-party websites. We cannot be responsible for the security and content of such third-party websites. You are therefore required to make sure you read that company’s privacy and cookies policies before using or putting your Personal Information on their site.

The same applies to any third-party websites or content you connect to using our products and services.

You may choose to disclose your information in certain ways such as social plug-ins (including those offered by Google, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest) or using third-party services that allow you to post reviews or other information publicly, and a third party could use that information.

Social plug-ins and social applications are operated by the social network themselves and are subject to their own terms of use and privacy and cookies policies. You should make sure you’re familiar with these.

Unauthorised third-party access to your information

Despite the security measures we have in place to protect your Personal Information, (firewalls, password access and encryption methods) you acknowledge that it may be accessed by an unauthorised third party, e.g., as a result of an illegal activity.

In the unlikely event of such access, we will notify you, where possible, via email, SMS or using the address you have provided us with, within a reasonable time of us becoming aware of such occurrence.

Your rights

Below we set out details on how you can exercise your rights. If you have a question or cannot find the answer, please contact our Customer Services team at 082 135 or contact the Vodacom Deputy Information Officer at [email protected]

Right to access Personal Information

You have the right to request a record or description of the Personal Information that Vodacom holds about you. This includes the right to request Vodacom to confirm, free of charge, whether or not we hold any Personal Information about you; as well as information about the categories of third parties who have, or have had, access to your Personal Information. To make this request as an individual or an authorised third party, visit our Subject Access Rights page of this Privacy Portal which gives details on how to do this. Alternatively, you can contact our Customer Services team at 082 135.

Right to correct Personal Information

You have the right to correct information held about you if it’s not accurate, out-of-date, excessive, irrelevant, or misleading. If the information we hold about you is inaccurate or needs to be updated, you can log in to My VodaPay app to update it or you can contact our Customer Service team at 082 135.

To manage Cookies and understand more about what they are:

Want to disable a cookie, or understand more about what these are? Check the cookies section of this policy for full details on how to do this.

Right to object to use of Personal Information

You have the right, in certain circumstances, to object to Vodacom processing your Personal Information. In order for Vodacom to provide you with products and services, Vodacom is required to process your Personal Information and as such the provision of your Personal Information is mandatory and you may not object to same in order to continue using our products or services. For more information or to exercise this right, please contact our Customer Services team at 082 135. If this relates to an automated decision performed on you (this means with no human involvement), please let us know and we will review your request. 

To opt out of marketing messages

If you no longer want to receive marketing messages from Vodacom, you can choose to opt out at any time. If you’ve previously opted in to receive personalised content based on how and where you use our network, you can also opt out at any time.

The easiest way to opt out is by using the notification settings in the VodaPay app.

There are also various other ways to opt out:

  • Contact our customer services team at 082 135
  • Click the link at the end of a marketing email, text or picture message to unsubscribe from that channel
  • Change your communication preferences by dialling *135*181#
  • Tell the customer care agent if you receive a marketing call
  • Disable push notification messages, including marketing messages, at any time in our apps by changing the notification settings on your device or by uninstalling the app
  • Contact our customer care team for guidance

If you’re opted out of marketing, you may still receive service-related messages.

You may have received marketing from Vodacom even if you’re not a customer or have never had contact with us. This is a result of third-party marketing lists which Vodacom may acquire from time to time, stating that you have given permission to be contacted by other organisations. If you’ve registered with us to opt out of marketing from Vodacom, you shouldn’t receive such communications. If you still do, we ask that you let us know immediately by contacting our customer care team on 082 135. This will only stop marketing from us and not stop the third parties from sharing your Personal Information unless you contact them directly. If you no longer want to receive marketing messages from Vodacom, you can elect to opt out of all marketing communications or only selected methods (email, SMS MMS, phone or post). 

Right to restrict use of your Personal Information

If you feel that the Personal Information we hold on you is inaccurate, or you believe we shouldn’t be processing your Personal Information, please contact our Customer Services team on 082 135 to discuss your rights. In certain circumstances, for example where you contest the accuracy of your information, or where Vodacom no longer requires your information for achieving its purpose but must maintain it for purposes of proof, you have the right to ask us to restrict processing.

Right to deletion

Vodacom strives to only process and retain your Personal Information for as long as we need to. In certain circumstances, for example, where you indicate that your Personal Information is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading, or obtained unlawfully, you have the right to request that we erase your Personal Information that we hold. If you feel that we are retaining your Personal Information longer than we need, it is worth first checking that your contract with Vodacom has been terminated, which you can do with Customer Services on 082 135. If your contract with Vodacom has been terminated, we may still have lawful grounds to process your Personal Information.

How to lodge a complaint

If you want to contact us about any of your rights or should you believe that Vodacom has used your Personal Information contrary to applicable law, you undertake to first attempt to resolve any concerns with Vodacom directly. Kindly contact our customer care team on 082 135. We will do our best to help but if you are still unhappy, you can contact the Deputy Information Officer at [email protected].  If you are not satisfied with such process, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator at:

The Information Regulator (South Africa)

Woodmead North Office Park
54 Maxwell Drive
Woodmead
Johannesburg, 2191

Email: [email protected]

Complaints email: [email protected]

Notification of changes to Privacy Policy

We are continually improving our methods of communication and adding new functionality and features to this Website and to our existing products and services. Because of these ongoing changes, changes in the law and the changing nature of technology, our data protection practices will change from time to time.  If and when our data protection practices change, we will update this privacy policy to describe our new practices.  We will notify you of significant and material changes to the Policy. We encourage you to check this page regularly.