COMENSA is committed to protecting your privacy and developing technology that gives you the most powerful and safe online experience. This Statement of Privacy applies to the COMENSA Web site and governs data collection and usage. By using the COMENSA website, you consent to the data practices described in this statement.

Collection of your Personal Information

COMENSA collects personally identifiable information, such as your e-mail address, name, home or work address or telephone number. COMENSA may also collect anonymous demographic information, which is not unique to you, such as your ZIP code, age, gender, preferences, interests and favourites. At this moment COMENSA is not set up to do so.

There is also information about your computer hardware and software that can be automatically collected by COMENSA, but is not set up to do this yet. This information can include: your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times and referring Web site addresses. This information is used by COMENSA for the operation of the service, to maintain quality of the service, and to provide general statistics regarding use of the COMENSA Web site.

Please keep in mind that if you directly disclose personally identifiable information or personally sensitive data through COMENSA public message boards, this information may be collected and used by others. Note: COMENSA does not read any of your private online communications.

COMENSA encourages you to review the privacy statements of Web sites you choose to link to from COMENSA so that you can understand how those Web sites collect, use and share your information. COMENSA is not responsible for the privacy statements or other content on Web sites outside of the COMENSA and COMENSA family of Web sites.

Use of your Personal Information

COMENSA collects and uses your personal information to operate the COMENSA Web site and deliver the services you have requested. COMENSA also uses your personally identifiable information to inform you of other products or services available from COMENSA and its affiliates. COMENSA may also contact you via surveys to conduct research about your opinion of current services or of potential new services that may be offered.

COMENSA does not sell, rent or lease its customer lists to third parties. COMENSA may, from time to time, contact you on behalf of external business partners about a particular offering that may be of interest to you. In those cases, your unique personally identifiable information (e-mail, name, address, telephone number) is not transferred to the third party. In addition, COMENSA may share data with trusted partners to help us perform statistical analysis, send you email or postal mail, provide customer support, or arrange for deliveries. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to COMENSA, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information.

COMENSA does not use or disclose sensitive personal information, such as race, religion, or political affiliations, without your explicit consent.

COMENSA keeps track of the Web sites and pages our customers visit within COMENSA, in order to determine what COMENSA services are the most popular. This data is used to deliver customised content and advertising within COMENSA to customers whose behavior indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area.

COMENSA Web sites will disclose your personal information, without notice, only if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on COMENSA or the site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of COMENSA; and, (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of COMENSA, or the public.

Use of Cookies

The COMENSA Web site use "cookies" to help you personalise your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the Web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalise COMENSA pages, or register with COMENSA site or services, a cookie helps COMENSA to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of recording your personal information, such as billing addresses, shipping addresses, and so on. When you return to the same COMENSA Web site, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the COMENSA features that you customised.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the COMENSA services or Web sites you visit.

Security of your Personal Information

COMENSA secures your personal information from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. COMENSA secures the personally identifiable information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. When personal information (such as a credit card number) is transmitted to other Web sites, it is protected through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

Changes to this Statement

COMENSA will occasionally update this Statement of Privacy to reflect company and customer feedback. COMENSA encourages you to periodically review this Statement to be informed of how COMENSA is protecting your information.

Contact Information

COMENSA welcomes your comments regarding this Statement of Privacy. If you believe that COMENSA has not adhered to this Statement, please contact COMENSA at members@comensa.org.za. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to promptly determine and remedy the problem.