Privacy Policy

Last updated 6 October 2026

1. Who we are

Substrate Studios (Substrate Studios (Pty) Ltd, registration number 2026/598554/07) is a South African business based in Centurion. This policy explains how we look after personal information under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). Our information officer is Shaun Smit. You can reach us at admin@substratestudios.co.za.

2. Two roles, so it is clear whose information is whose

For our own clients (the businesses that use our console and websites) we are the “responsible party”: we decide why and how we use their details.

For the people our clients manage (for example the students and families of a dojo) our client is the responsible party and we are the “operator”. We process that information only on the client’s behalf, to run the service, and for no other purpose. If you are a student or parent and want to see, correct or delete your information, please ask your club first. It decides what it holds about you.

3. What we collect about our clients

• Name, email address and phone number of the people who sign up and use the console.
• The business’s name, address and plan, and the records of what it has paid us.
• What we need to support you, such as the messages you send us and technical information about errors.
• Proof of payment you upload when you pay us by EFT.
• When you claim an offer on our website, your name, email and mobile number, and a scrambled (hashed) version of your internet address, kept to stop abuse and to show when you accepted the terms.

4. Why we use it

To provide and support the service, bill you, send you quotes, invoices and service notices, keep the service secure, and meet our legal and tax obligations. We do not sell personal information, and we do not use the records of our clients’ students or families for anything beyond running the service for that client.

5. Who else handles it

We use trusted providers to run the service: for hosting and databases, for sending email, and (once it is live) for processing online payments through PayFast. They process information only to provide those services. Some of these providers operate outside South Africa, so information may be stored or processed in another country. We only use providers that protect it to a standard comparable to POPIA.

Card details are entered on PayFast’s own pages. We never see or store them.

6. How it is protected

Each client’s data is kept separate from every other client’s at the database level, access needs a login, and access inside a client’s account is limited by role. No system is perfectly secure. If we ever have reason to believe information was accessed without permission, we will tell the affected client and the Information Regulator as the law requires.

7. How long we keep it

While an account is open and for as long as the law requires afterwards (for example, tax records are normally kept for five years). A client can permanently delete its account and the information in it from inside the console.

8. Cookies

We use cookies only to keep you signed in and to keep the service secure. We do not use advertising cookies.

9. Your rights

You may ask what information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it where we are not required to keep it. Email admin@substratestudios.co.za. If you are unhappy with how we handle your information, you may complain to the Information Regulator at inforegulator.org.za.

10. Changes

We will update this policy when our practices change, and the date above will change with it. See also our Terms & Conditions.