Privacy Policy

1. Who we are and who this applies to

Driving School Finder (drivingschoolfinder.co.za) is a South African driving school directory. This policy explains how we collect and use personal information from:

• Visitors and learners who browse the site or submit lead forms
• School owners who create accounts and subscribe to paid plans

We are the responsible party under POPIA. Our information officer can be contacted at privacy@drivingschoolfinder.co.za.

2. What information we collect

From learners (via the lead form):

• Name, phone number, suburb
• Licence code, budget range, preferred timeline
• Whether you already hold a learner's licence
• Optional notes you choose to include

From school owners (via account registration and subscription):

• Name, email address, phone number
• School name, address, registration number
• Payment information (processed by Paystack — we do not store card details)
• Verification documents uploaded during the verification process

Automatically collected from all visitors:

• Anonymised page view data via Plausible Analytics (no cookies, no cross-site tracking, GDPR-compliant)
• Standard server logs (IP address, browser, pages visited) retained for up to 30 days

3. How we use your information

We use personal information only for the following purposes:

• Forwarding lead form submissions to the school the learner enquired about
• Creating and managing school owner accounts
• Processing subscription payments via Paystack
• Sending transactional emails (lead notifications, receipts, verification status) via Resend
• Verifying school credentials as part of the Verified badge process
• Improving the site using aggregated, anonymised analytics

We do not use your information for advertising, profiling, or sale to third parties.

4. Who we share information with

• The school you contacted — lead form data is shared only with the specific school you submitted the form for.
• Paystack — payment processing. Their privacy policy applies to card data.
• Resend — transactional email delivery.
• Supabase — our database provider (servers in the EU). Data is encrypted in transit and at rest.
• Plausible Analytics — anonymised, cookieless site analytics. No personal data is shared.

We do not share your information with any other third party without your explicit consent.

5. Your rights under POPIA

You have the right to:

• Request access to the personal information we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate information
• Request deletion of your information (subject to retention obligations)
• Object to processing for direct marketing purposes
• Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa

To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@drivingschoolfinder.co.za. We will respond within 30 days as required by POPIA.

6. Data retention

• Lead form data: retained for 2 years or until deletion is requested
• School account data: retained for the duration of the subscription plus 1 year
• Verification documents: retained for 3 years for compliance purposes
• Server logs: retained for 30 days

7. Cookies

We do not use advertising or tracking cookies. Plausible Analytics is cookieless. We use a session cookie only if you are logged in as a school owner.

8. Security

We use industry-standard security measures: HTTPS on all pages, encrypted database storage, row-level security on all sensitive tables, and Supabase Auth for account management. Payment card data is handled exclusively by Paystack and is never stored on our servers.

9. Children

This site is not directed at children under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has submitted personal information to us, contact us and we will delete it promptly.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The effective date at the top of this page will be updated. Material changes will be notified to registered school accounts by email.

11. Contact

Privacy enquiries: privacy@drivingschoolfinder.co.za
Information Regulator (SA): inforegulator.org.za