Privacy policy

Who we are

Zeed Studios (Pty) Ltd (registration 2026/662342/07), trading as Zeed Studios, is the responsible party for the personal information described here. Our Information Officer is Zian Niemand. Reach us at info@zeedstudios.co.za or +27 60 897 9268. We are based in the Western Cape, and our registered office is given at the foot of this page.

This policy explains what we collect through this website, our client documents and our work, why, who else sees it, and what you can ask us to do with it. It follows the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).

What we collect and why

• Enquiries. The contact form asks for your name and phone number and the service you want. It stores nothing on our servers: it opens WhatsApp with a message you choose whether to send. We use what you send only to reply and quote.
• Messages. Emails and WhatsApp messages you send us, so we can answer them and keep a record of what was agreed.
• Client records. Contact details, company details (name, registration and VAT numbers, address), project notes, onboarding answers and files you upload, so we can quote, build and support your project and issue documents.
• Accepting a document. When you accept a proposal, quote or agreement online we record the name you typed, the date and time, your IP address and your browser type, as proof of the agreement.
• Payments. Online payments are taken by Stitch on its own checkout page. We never see or store card or bank login details. Stitch tells us the amount, the date, the payment method and a reference, and we record them against your invoice.
• Studio sign-in. Only our own staff sign in to this site, with a Google account. Visitors and clients never need an account.
• Server logs. Our web server keeps standard logs (IP address, browser, pages requested) to keep the site secure and working.
• Visit counts. We count visits ourselves, with no cookies and no outside analytics company. For each page opened we keep the page, the site you came from (its address only), any campaign tag in the link and whether you arrived from an ad, the kind of device and its language, how long the page was open, how far down it was read and which parts of it you looked at, how fast it loaded, the buttons and links you tapped, and whether you started or finished the project form or tapped WhatsApp, phone or email. We also keep the province and city your internet connection is in, looked up from your IP address at the moment of the visit; the IP address itself is not kept (location data by DB-IP, db-ip.com, CC BY 4.0). A random number ties the pages of one visit together, and a yes/no note in your browser tells us whether you have visited before. We do not keep anything that identifies you, and the counts never include what you type into the form or into WhatsApp. We use them only to see which pages, sources and areas work.

Giving us information is voluntary. Without contact details we cannot reply to you, and without business details we cannot issue valid quotes, agreements and invoices.

We rely on these POPIA grounds: carrying out or preparing a contract with you, our legitimate interest in running and protecting the business, laws that require records (such as tax law), and your consent where we ask for it.

Who else processes it

• Supabase: our database and file storage.
• Hetzner Online: the server this website runs on.
• Resend: sends our emails, such as quotes and invoices.
• ImprovMX and Google (Gmail): receive email sent to our address.
• Stitch: card and online payments.
• Meta (WhatsApp): messages you send us on WhatsApp.
• Anthropic: helps draft proposal wording from our meeting notes. We send it notes about a project, not payment or identity documents.

We use a small number of service providers (operators, in POPIA's terms). Each one handles personal information only to provide its service to us:

Information sent outside South Africa

Some of these providers store or process information in the European Union, the United States or elsewhere. We use providers whose data processing terms protect personal information to a standard comparable to POPIA, or where the transfer is needed to carry out our contract with you (POPIA section 72).

When we process information for our clients

When we build and host a system for a client, it may hold personal information about that client's own customers. For that information the client is the responsible party and we are its operator: we process it only on the client's instructions, under the data protection clause in our service agreement, and we do not use it for anything else. Questions about it should go to the business you dealt with.

How we protect it

• All traffic to this site is encrypted (HTTPS).
• Client documents and forms open only through long random private links, and are hidden from search engines.
• The database blocks access to everyone except our signed-in staff, and staff access is limited to the people who need it.
• If a security breach puts your information at risk, we will tell you and the Information Regulator as soon as reasonably possible.

How long we keep it

• Enquiries that do not become work: up to 12 months after our last contact.
• Agreements, invoices and payment records: 5 years after the last transaction, as tax law requires.
• Project files and onboarding material: until 60 days after our work or service for you ends, unless you ask us to delete them sooner or the law requires us to keep them.

Cookies

This site sets no analytics, advertising or tracking cookies. The only cookies are the sign-in cookies our staff get on the studio login and dashboard pages, which the site needs to work. That is why there is no cookie banner.

The visit counts described above use no cookies. Their random visit number lives in your browser tab's own storage and is gone when you close the tab; the yes/no note that you have visited before stays in your browser until you clear its site data.

Marketing

We only send marketing messages to people who have agreed to receive them, or to existing clients about similar services. After a project we may ask you once for a Google review. Reply STOP, or tell us in any other way, and we will not contact you for marketing again.

Your rights

You may ask us what personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it, delete it, or stop using it (including objecting to marketing). It costs nothing. Send the request to info@zeedstudios.co.za or by WhatsApp to +27 60 897 9268, and we will reply in writing within 30 days. Requests for records can also be made under our PAIA manual.

If you are unhappy with how we handled your information, you may complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa), Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191. Complaints: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za, or online at eservices.inforegulator.org.za.

Changes

We will update this page when our practices change. The date at the top shows the current version.