PAIA Manual

1. Our details and information officer

We have no deputy information officers. Send all requests under this manual to the information officer.

2. The Information Regulator's guide

The Information Regulator publishes a guide on how to use PAIA and POPIA, in each official language. It explains your rights and how to make a request. You can get it from the Information Regulator at inforegulator.org.za, by email at enquiries@inforegulator.org.za, or at its offices: Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191 (tel. 010 023 5200).

3. Records available without a request

Anyone can see the information on our website without making a PAIA request, including our services and prices, our Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Cookie Policy and this manual. We have not published a notice under section 52 of PAIA.

4. Records we keep because the law requires it

We keep records in line with these laws, among others:

• Companies Act 71 of 2008
• Income Tax Act 58 of 1962 and Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011
• Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008
• Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002
• Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013
• Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000

5. The records we hold

• Company records: registration documents, director details, and records of decisions.
• Financial and tax records: invoices, quotes, payments received, expenses, bank statements and tax returns.
• Client records: company and contact details, quotes, agreements, invoices and payment history, correspondence, and the website content and files clients give us.
• Supplier records: agreements, invoices and correspondence with the providers we use.
• Enquiries: messages sent through our contact form, by email or by phone.
• IT and security records: account, access and security logs for our systems and the client panel.
• Website records: website content, and website statistics from visitors who accept analytics cookies.

TechOnEdge has no employees, so it holds no employment records.

6. How to request a record

1. Fill in Form 2 (Request for access to a record), available from the Information Regulator's website or from us, and send it to the information officer by email or post.
2. Give enough detail for us to find the record, say which right you want to exercise or protect and why you need the record, and say how you want to receive it (for example, a copy by email).
3. If you are asking on someone else's behalf, include proof that you may act for them.
4. We will decide within 30 days. We may extend this once by up to 30 days if the request involves many records or other parties. If we do, we will tell you how long the extension is, why we need it, and that you may complain to the Information Regulator about it.

We may refuse access on the grounds set out in Chapter 4 of Part 3 of PAIA, for example to protect another person's privacy, commercial information of a third party, or confidential information. If we refuse, we will tell you why.

7. Fees

The fees are set by the PAIA Regulations. A request fee applies to requests for records other than your own personal information, and an access fee for searching for, preparing and copying records may apply. We will tell you the fee before we do any work, and may ask for a deposit when the search will take long. If you ask for your own personal information you don't pay the request fee (section 54(1) of PAIA). We will confirm free of charge whether we hold personal information about you (section 23 of POPIA), but a reasonable access fee may apply for copies.

8. How we process personal information (POPIA)

Purposes

• Answering enquiries, preparing quotes, and building, hosting and maintaining our clients' websites and systems.
• Invoicing, collecting payment and keeping financial and tax records.
• Running the client panel at edgepanel.techonedge.co.za, where clients see their invoices.
• Keeping our systems secure, and meeting our legal obligations.

People and information

• Clients and their contact people: company name and registration details, names, email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, billing and payment history, correspondence and sign-in records.
• People who contact us: name, email address, phone number and the content of the message.
• Website visitors: technical information such as IP address and browser, and analytics data if they accept analytics cookies.
• Suppliers: company and contact details and payment information.

Who receives it

Service providers that process information for us under written terms: Vercel (hosting), Supabase (database and sign-in), our email provider, Cloudflare (domains and form spam protection), Google Analytics (only with consent), and Anthropic (Claude, an AI assistant we use to run our administration, including billing). We also share information with SARS and other authorities when the law requires it. We don't sell personal information.

Information sent outside South Africa

Our database is in the United Kingdom, and some of our providers process information in the United States and elsewhere. We use providers bound by data protection law or written terms that give protection similar to POPIA's, as section 72 of POPIA requires.

Security

Encrypted connections, sign-in protection on every system, access limited to the information officer, separate client and staff logins, and providers that must keep information confidential and secure. We will tell affected people and the Information Regulator if information is compromised.

Objections and corrections

To object to how we process your personal information, or to ask us to correct or delete it, email the information officer or use Form 1 (objection) or Form 2 (correction or deletion) under the POPIA Regulations, 2018, available from inforegulator.org.za.

9. If you're unhappy with our decision

If we refuse your request, don't decide within the time allowed, or you disagree with the fee or the form of access, you can complain to the Information Regulator within 180 days (section 77B of PAIA). You can apply to court only after the Regulator's complaint process is finished (section 78). Contact the Regulator at inforegulator.org.za or PAIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za.

10. Updates

We review this manual at least once a year and update the date at the top when it changes.