PRIVACY POLICY

The FUSE is a free news and information based service that is provided by Vodacom (Pty) Ltd (“Vodacom”; “us”; “we”; “our”) in conjunction with its appointed service provider Njuice AB (T/A SQUID), a Swedish company with company registration number 556801-9201, (“Njuice”) that is based in Stockholm

This Privacy Policy aims to inform you about what kind of personal data that might be processed when you use the THE FUSE News App (the “App Service”), the THE FUSE Web Service (the “Web Service”) or THE FUSE News Feed (the “News Feed Service”) (together the “Services”) and the purpose therefore.

This Privacy Policy may undergo amendments and updates from time to time. If we make significant changes to this Privacy Policy or changes concerning how we process your information, we will notify you before such a change becomes applicable. The current version of the Privacy Policy was issued in January 2024.

  1. WHO WE ARE AND LEGAL BASIS FOR PROCESSING YOUR PERSONAL DATA

The Services have been developed and are managed by our duly appointed service provider Njuice. Njuice is an ‘operator’ (as defined in the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (“POPIA”) of Vodacom and will only process personal data under the instructions of Vodacom and / or the applicable regulatory bodies / authorities.

Vodacom’s legal basis for processing your personal data is the following:

    1. Performance of a Contractual Obligation:

We process your personal data to the extent necessary as a part of our contractual obligation to provide you with the Services. For example, providing you with news within your selected topics of interest.

    1. Legitimate interests:

In limited instances, we may process some of your personal data to fulfil both our and your legitimate interests. In this regard, certain sets of personal data will be processed to analyze user behavior to improve and optimize the Services and / or your use thereof. However, in any instance where ‘legitimate interests’ are used as a lawful basis for processing personal data, we will analyse the impact that such a processing activity may have on you and your rights under POPIA or another applicable law. For example, we have made efforts to minimize the collection and storage of any information derived from your usage of the Services. Vodacom and its appointed service providers do not track the activities taken of a device with a certain IP-address. Instead, each user is assigned a pseudonymized ID which is used to deliver the Services.

    1. Consent:

To the extent that you have provided your consent for the use and storage of your personal data, we rely on your consent for such use and storage of your personal data.

    1. Legal obligation:

We may process your data if it is necessary for us to comply with a legal obligation, for example complying with a court order to disclose certain information.


  1. TYPES OF INFORMATION COLLECTED AND FOR WHAT PURPOSE

    1. Purpose of the processing

In order for the Services to work effectively and to constantly improve same, we will be collecting different kinds of personal data from you to enable us to: (a) administer the Services, (b) help us understand how to improve and optimize the Services in future updates, (c) customize the Services to your interests and needs, (d) reply to you if you contact us with feedback, comments or concerns, (e) provide maintenance and technical support and (f) provide advertising based on your preferred news topics, (g) provide you with more information if we think it necessary.

PLEASE NOTE: As it relates to the provision of the Service, only Vodacom will process your personal data in an identifiable form, while Njuice and / or other duly appointed third parties will only process your personal data in an aggregated non-identifiable format.

    1. Information we collect directly from you

We collect the following information from you:

      • Your preferred settings in the Services, such as information concerning the type of news feeds you selected and subsequent amendments. This information is stored dynamically, so as soon as you adjust any settings, the information stored is changed.
      • Any personal data, such as your name, e-mail address, phone number etc. that you provide to us by using the Services’ Feedback functions.

    1. Information collected via technology

Some information is provided to us by your device when you use the Services. We also collect information on how you interact with the Services.
Information we collect from your device is information such as:

      • Date and time that you downloaded the Services
      • Type of device that you are using and the operating system of that device (i.e., what Android or IOS version you are using)
      • Country and language settings on your device
      • Network type used (including information on network provider or wifi)
      • Application type, i.e., what service you are using, such as browser or widget.
      • What articles you read, save, and share.
      • Time spent when visiting our services and reading articles.
      • When you access our Services for the first time, we use the IP-address or other type of identifiers assigned to your device to create an anonymous ID. This ID is used for communication with the Services and tracking of your usage of the Services, which includes what news topics you are interested in.
    1. DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL DATA

Where applicable, we may share information about you with:

      • Companies in the Vodacom and Vodafone Group, located across the globe, including but not limited to in the European Economic Area (EEA), Egypt, India and the US, for reporting purposes and where they are involved in providing products and services that you have signed up for
      • Companies who are engaged to perform services for, or on behalf of, Vodacom Group Limited, Vodafone Limited, or Vodafone Group which companies may be located outside of the borders of South Africa
      • Law enforcement agencies, government bodies, regulatory organisations, courts or other public authorities if we have to, or are authorised to by law
      • A third party or body where such disclosure is required to satisfy any applicable law, or other legal or regulatory requirement
      • Third parties that we advertise with, in order to serve you advertisements online (e.g. Facebook, Google). You can opt-out of this by managing your account / cookie permissions

Social Network Services (“SNS”)
Some of the features the Service offers require the connection to SNSs (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, etc.). If you decide to use these features and share an article on any of the SNS connected to the Services, we will provide the requested article to the selected third party SNS provider. Please note that when you share an article on an SNS, terms of use and privacy policies of that particular SNS apply.

    1. TRANSFER OF PERSONAL DATA

Our processing of identifiable personal data is primarily carried out within the borders of South Africa.
However, if such transfer is necessary, we will ensure that a similar or materially similar degree of protection is afforded to you as may be provided for under POPIA and or the applicable data protection legislation.

    1. YOUR RIGHTS

Vodacom respects your legal rights to your personal data. If you would like to exercise these rights feel free to direct requests, or other questions and comments regarding this contact@thefuse.co.za

Below are the rights that you have under law:

    1. Right of access

You have a right to access your personal data that we store.

    1. Right to erase

You have the right in certain circumstances to request the deletion or removal of personal data, for example if the data collected is no longer needed.

    1. Right to rectification

You have the right to ask us to rectify the data we hold if it contains inaccuracies or is incomplete.

    1. Withdraw consent

If we rely on your consent to the use of your personal data you have the right to, at any time, withdraw your consent.

    1. Right to restriction of processing

In certain circumstances, you have the right to “block” or suppress the processing of your personal data.

    1. Right to object

You have the right to know if your personal data is used for direct marketing and you have the right to object to this kind of processing at any time.

    1. Right to complain

Certain use of your personal data is based on our or others legitimate interest. You have the right to object to the use of your personal data based on a legitimate interest for reasons which concerns your situation. Moreover, you have the right to at any time object to our use of your personal data for direct marketing purposes.

For further information on your rights, how to exercise them, and / or Vodacom’s general personal data processing activities, please see Vodacom’s privacy policy here.

    1. SECURITY OF INFORMATION

Security plays a crucial role for us. We are extremely committed to protecting your personal information. We have implemented commercially reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data against abuse and loss. Nevertheless, as no electronic method of data transmission and storage is totally secure, Vodacom and its service providers, despite its reasonable efforts to protect the security of your personal information, cannot guarantee its absolute efficacy.

    1. DATA RETENTION

We will not retain personal data longer than is necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected or as required by applicable law or regulations. Information which has been anonymized may be stored for a longer time. Yet, some information in non-personally identifiable form may still be available for the Services in the archives. Personal data that you provide to us by using the Services feedback function will be erased following a period after the matter has been completed.

    1. NOTE ABOUT CHILDREN

It is not our intention to collect personal information from users who are under the age of 18. However, if personal information of a child under 18 is collected in our Services and we learn about it, we will attempt to delete all information about the child as soon and effectively as possible. Accordingly, if you believe that we might be in possession of personal information from a child under 13, please contact us at: contact@thefuse.co.za

    1. OUR USE OF COOKIES

When you use the Services, we, and some of our third-party service providers use cookies and similar tracking technologies (together “cookies”) to learn how the Services are used and to improve both your experience and the functionality of the Services. Advertising platforms and analytical services such as Google and Facebook use cookies and IDs to deliver targeted ads and to provide Vodacom and its appointed service provider with analytical statistics. For more info on these cookies and below see the links to the respective websites listed above.

You can change your cookie settings at any time, e.g., manage if and how cookies may be stored and erase cookies from your device. However, please note that the Services may not work as intended if you change your cookie settings.

For more information in this regard, kindly see our cookies policy here.


CONTACT AND QUESTIONS
If you have any questions, concern or complaint concerning our Privacy Policy, data collection, storage, and processing practices, or if you want to report a violation of your privacy or need a translation of the privacy policy in your local language, please contact us at: contact@thefuse.co.za