Legal Document
How we collect, use, and protect your personal information.
POPIA COMPLIANCE NOTICE: This Privacy Policy is prepared in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA) of South Africa. We are committed to protecting your personal information and processing it lawfully, fairly, and in a transparent manner.
Clearline Markets (Pty) Ltd ("Clearline Markets," "we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting your privacy and personal information. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you access our website, platform, and services.
By using our services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, please do not use our services.
This Privacy Policy should be read together with our Terms of Service and Risk Disclosure.
For purposes of POPIA, the responsible party for your personal information is:
Clearline Markets (Pty) Ltd
Republic of South Africa
FSP License: Pending
Information Officer:
Email: privacy@clearlinemarkets.com
Our Information Officer is responsible for ensuring compliance with POPIA and addressing any privacy-related concerns or requests.
In this Privacy Policy, unless the context indicates otherwise:
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| "Personal Information" | Information relating to an identifiable, living, natural person, and where applicable, an identifiable, existing juristic person. |
| "Special Personal Information" | Personal information concerning religious or philosophical beliefs, race, ethnic origin, trade union membership, political persuasion, health, sex life, biometric information, or criminal behaviour. |
| "Processing" | Any operation or activity concerning personal information, including collection, receipt, recording, organization, storage, updating, modification, retrieval, consultation, use, dissemination, erasure, or destruction. |
| "Data Subject" | The person to whom personal information relates (you). |
| "Responsible Party" | The person or entity who determines the purpose and means of processing personal information (Clearline Markets). |
| "Operator" | A person who processes personal information on behalf of the responsible party under a contract or mandate. |
| "POPIA" | The Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 of South Africa. |
| "FICA" | The Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 of South Africa. |
When you register for an account, we collect:
To comply with FICA and FSCA requirements, we collect:
For trading and payment purposes, we collect:
We collect data related to your trading activities:
We automatically collect:
When you communicate with us, we collect:
We collect information directly when you:
We collect information automatically through:
We may receive information from:
We process your personal information for the following purposes:
Under POPIA, we process your personal information based on the following lawful grounds:
| Legal Basis | Description |
|---|---|
| Consent | Where you have given express consent for specific processing activities (e.g., marketing communications). |
| Contract | Processing necessary for the performance of our agreement with you (e.g., account management, trade execution). |
| Legal Obligation | Processing required to comply with legal and regulatory requirements (e.g., KYC/FICA, FSCA reporting). |
| Legitimate Interest | Processing necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided these do not override your rights (e.g., fraud prevention, security, service improvement). |
| Protection of Data Subject | Processing necessary to protect your vital interests or those of another person. |
We may process special personal information (such as biometric data for identity verification) only with your explicit consent or where permitted by law for regulatory compliance purposes.
We may share your personal information with the following categories of recipients:
All operators are contractually bound to protect your information and process it only as instructed by us.
We may share information with lawyers, auditors, and other professional advisors for legitimate business purposes.
In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred to the acquiring entity, subject to continued protection under this policy.
We Do Not Sell Your Data: We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes.
Your personal information may be transferred to and processed in countries outside South Africa. When we transfer your information internationally, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place as required by POPIA:
Our services may utilize cloud infrastructure located in various regions. We ensure all cloud providers maintain appropriate security certifications and data protection standards.
We implement comprehensive technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information:
While we take extensive measures to protect your data, you also play a crucial role:
In the event of a security breach that compromises your personal information, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as required by POPIA, typically within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach.
We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected and to comply with legal obligations.
| Data Category | Retention Period |
|---|---|
| Account Information | Duration of account plus 5 years after closure |
| KYC/FICA Documents | 5 years after business relationship ends (FICA requirement) |
| Trading Records | 7 years (financial record-keeping requirements) |
| Transaction Data | 7 years (FSCA and tax requirements) |
| Communication Records | 3 years after last interaction |
| Technical Logs | 12 months (security and debugging purposes) |
| Marketing Preferences | Until consent is withdrawn |
When retention periods expire, we securely delete or anonymize your personal information. Anonymized data may be retained for statistical and analytical purposes.
As a data subject, you have the following rights under POPIA:
You have the right to request confirmation of whether we hold personal information about you and to request a copy of that information.
You have the right to request correction or deletion of personal information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading, or obtained unlawfully.
You have the right to request deletion of your personal information, subject to legal retention requirements and legitimate business needs.
You have the right to object to processing of your personal information for direct marketing purposes or on grounds relating to your particular situation.
You have the right to request restriction of processing in certain circumstances.
You have the right not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing that produces legal effects or similarly significant effects.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact our Information Officer:
We will respond to your request within a reasonable time, not exceeding 30 days. We may request additional information to verify your identity before processing your request.
Note: Some rights may be limited where we are required to retain information for legal or regulatory compliance purposes (e.g., FICA requirements).
We only send marketing communications where you have provided consent. Marketing may include:
You can opt out of marketing communications at any time by:
Please note that opting out of marketing does not affect transactional communications (account alerts, security notifications, etc.).
Our services are not intended for individuals under 18 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child, we will take immediate steps to delete such information.
If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us immediately at privacy@clearlinemarkets.com.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technologies, legal requirements, or business operations.
We will notify you of material changes by:
We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Your continued use of our services after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.
If you have concerns about how we handle your personal information, you have several options:
Contact our Information Officer first:
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa:
Information Regulator (South Africa)
SALU Building, 316 Thabo Sehume Street, Pretoria
P.O. Box 31533, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2017
Email: complaints.IR@justice.gov.za
Website: www.justice.gov.za/inforeg
For any privacy-related questions, concerns, or requests, please contact us:
Clearline Markets (Pty) Ltd
Republic of South Africa
Information Officer / Privacy Inquiries:
Email: privacy@clearlinemarkets.com
General Support:
Contact Form: www.clearlinemarkets.com/contact
We aim to respond to all privacy-related inquiries within 7 business days.