Privacy and Cookie Policy

Who We Are Our website address is: https://www.ear2hear.co.za What Personal Data We Collect and Why We Collect It This privacy policy informs you about how we collect and use your personal data during your visit to our website. This policy applies to the majority of our websites. However, there may be occasions when a specific website of EAR2HEAR requires a slightly different privacy policy. If such a situation arises, it will be clearly stated that the privacy policy differs from this general EAR2HEAR privacy policy. Please check the privacy policy of each website you visit and do not assume that this policy applies universally to all EAR2HEAR websites. Comments When visitors leave comments on the site, we collect the data shown in the comments form, along with the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to assist with spam detection. An anonymised string created from your email address (a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to determine if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy can be found here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After your comment is approved, your profile picture will be visible to the public in the context of your comment. Media If you upload images to the website, avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS). Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the site. Contact Forms We request personal details such as your name, country of residence, and email address to facilitate communication with you. This information will be kept private and will not be used for marketing purposes unless you have expressly requested this. We may, however, correspond with you from time to time regarding EAR2HEAR activities. We use a third-party service, Mailchimp, to handle the delivery of our newsletters. Please refer to their legal policies here. When you subscribe, you provide your name and email address. We use this platform to keep our supporters informed, and the information you provide is kept confidential. Cookies We use the term “cookies” to refer to cookies and other similar technologies as defined by the EU Directive on privacy in electronic communications. Embedded Content from Other Websites Articles on our site may include embedded content (e.g., videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves exactly as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with the embedded content, including tracing your interaction if you have an account and are logged in to that website. Cookie Policy Please consider reading our cookie policy here. How Long We Retain Your Data If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely to allow automatic recognition and approval of any follow-up comments. For users who register on our website (if any), we store the personal information they provide in their user profile. You can edit or delete your personal information at any time (except for your username). What Rights You Have Over Your Data If you have an account on this site or have left comments, you can request an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you, except for data we are required to retain for administrative, legal, or security purposes. Where We Send Your Data Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service. Your Contact Information If you wish to review, update, or delete any personal information we hold about you, please contact us using the details provided below. Additional Information: Special Notice for Children Under 13 Years Old Our website is not intended for children under 13 years old. We do not knowingly collect or process personal information from children under 13. If you are under 13 years old, please do not send us any personal information. If you wish to ask questions or use the website, please have your parent or guardian submit your personal information on your behalf. How We Protect Your Data & Security Measures We implement a range of technology and policies to protect your privacy from unauthorized access and misuse. These measures will be updated as new technology becomes available. Third-Party Data Sources We may use third-party services for feedback, notice boards, chat rooms, or email communications. Any personal information you disclose in these settings is subject to this privacy policy, though we cannot control how third parties use your personal data.