Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how The Malka Ella Fertility Fund collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal information when you use this website, contact us, donate, apply for assistance, request a Section 18A certificate, request a care pack, or take part in an event or auction.

We process personal information in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA), and related South African privacy expectations. We only collect information that is reasonably needed for our work and we use it for clear, lawful purposes.

Who is responsible for your information

The Malka Ella Fertility Fund is responsible for the personal information processed through this website and our related charity administration. Privacy questions, access requests, correction requests, or objections can be sent to [email protected].

Information we collect

The information we collect depends on how you interact with us. It may include:

  • Identity and contact details, such as your name, email address, telephone number, and address.
  • Donation and administrative details, including donation records, Section 18A certificate information, and correspondence.
  • Funding, care-pack, or support request information that you choose to provide, which may include sensitive information about fertility treatment, health, family circumstances, finances, or related needs.
  • Event, auction, and campaign information, such as registrations, bids, purchases, delivery details, payment status, and communications.
  • Website and device information, such as IP address, browser type, pages viewed, referral information, and basic security logs.

We do not intentionally collect more information than is needed for the purpose at hand. If you provide information about another person, you should have a lawful basis or their permission to do so.

Why we use personal information

We use personal information to:

  • Respond to enquiries and manage communications.
  • Process donations, issue Section 18A certificates, and maintain financial records.
  • Assess and administer funding, care-pack, or other support requests.
  • Run events, campaigns, auctions, and related fulfilment.
  • Send relevant updates where you have asked for them or where we are permitted to do so.
  • Keep the website secure, understand basic site usage, and improve our services.
  • Comply with legal, accounting, tax, governance, and reporting obligations.

Our lawful reasons for processing may include your consent, steps taken at your request, performance of an agreement, compliance with a legal obligation, protection of legitimate interests, and the proper administration of the fund.

Sensitive information

Some funding, fertility, health, family, or financial information may be sensitive. We only process this information where it is relevant to the request or service, where you have supplied it for that purpose, where you have consented, or where POPIA or another law allows or requires us to process it.

Sharing information

We do not sell personal information. We may share personal information only where reasonably necessary with:

  • People who help administer the fund, donations, applications, care packs, events, auctions, communications, accounting, technology, or website services.
  • Payment, banking, delivery, email, hosting, analytics, and security service providers.
  • Professional advisers, auditors, regulators, law enforcement, or public authorities where required or permitted by law.
  • Medical, fertility, or support partners only where this is necessary for a request and there is an appropriate basis to do so.

Where service providers process information for us, we expect them to keep it confidential, use it only for the agreed purpose, and apply reasonable security safeguards.

Information outside South Africa

Some website, email, cloud, payment, or administrative service providers may process information outside South Africa. Where this happens, we take reasonable steps to use providers and arrangements that support appropriate protection for personal information, as required by POPIA.

Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational safeguards to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. No website, email, or online system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, so information should only be sent online when you are comfortable doing so.

Retention

We keep personal information only for as long as it is needed for the purpose for which it was collected, for a compatible lawful purpose, or for as long as required by law, accounting rules, tax obligations, donor records, governance requirements, dispute resolution, or legitimate operational needs. When information is no longer needed, we take reasonable steps to delete, de-identify, or securely archive it.

Your privacy rights

Subject to POPIA and other applicable laws, you may ask us to confirm whether we hold personal information about you, request access to that information, ask us to correct or delete inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, outdated, incomplete, misleading, or unlawfully obtained information, object to certain processing, or withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.

To exercise these rights, email [email protected]. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request.

Complaints

If you are concerned about how we process personal information, please contact us first so that we can try to resolve the issue. You may also lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator in South Africa.

Cookies, consent, and website analytics

We use essential technologies to keep the website secure, remember shopping-basket and account sessions, process forms, and provide features that you request. These technologies cannot be switched off through our cookie banner because the website cannot operate properly without them.

With your statistics consent, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) helps us understand how visitors find and use the website and whether important website journeys work. The production Analytics account is administered on Malka Ella’s behalf by our website agency, The Fancy Gadgeteer (Pty) Ltd. Authorised Malka Ella representatives have access, and the account and configuration can be handed over to Malka Ella.

GA4 may measure page views, scrolling, outbound links, site searches, file downloads, video engagement, product views, adding products to a basket, checkout, purchases, bidder registration, accepted bids, and successful application submissions. Our custom events do not send names, email addresses, telephone numbers, postal addresses, bidder or user identifiers, form answers, fertility or health information, order numbers, or bid amounts to Google Analytics.

Analytics storage is denied by default. Before you make a choice, Google may receive limited cookieless consent-state and measurement signals through Advanced Consent Mode. Analytics cookies are used only after you choose “Accept” or enable statistics in Preferences. Advertising storage, advertising user data, and advertising personalisation remain denied because advertising measurement is not in use.

We retain GA4 event-level data for 14 months. Google may process analytics data outside South Africa under its applicable data-processing terms and safeguards. The agency and authorised Malka Ella personnel use aggregate reports to understand traffic, improve the site, and measure applications, auction participation, and purchases.

You can accept, reject, or choose categories when the banner is shown. You can withdraw or change consent at any time using the “Manage consent” control on the website. Rejecting optional cookies does not prevent you from applying, bidding, purchasing, or using essential site functions. See our Cookie Policy for more information.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when our website, services, legal duties, or operational practices change. The latest version will be published on this page.