Privacy Policy (POPIA)

Last Updated: 1 September 2026 · Compliant with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA)

POPIA & Bank-Grade Data Protection

DealSafe processes and stores personal and biometric information in full accordance with South African law.

1. Introduction & Responsible Party

DealSafe (Pty) Ltd ("DealSafe", "we", "us", or "our") is dedicated to protecting your privacy and ensuring your personal information is handled responsibly. This Privacy Policy governs the collection, processing, storage, and protection of personal information gathered through our mobile applications, web portals (dealsafe.ai), and associated escrow and vehicle valuation services.

DealSafe acts as the Responsible Party under the Protection of Personal Information Act No. 4 of 2013 ("POPIA") for personal data collected in South Africa.

2. Information We Collect

To provide secure escrow, biometric fraud prevention, and peer-to-peer vehicle marketplace transactions, DealSafe collects the following categories of information:

Identity & KYC Information: Full legal name, South African National ID number or Passport number, date of birth, residential address, copies of SA Smart ID or Green ID book.
Biometric Data: Real-time liveness selfies, facial geometry vectors for 85%+ biometric matching against official Home Affairs records.
Automotive Data: Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN), engine numbers, vehicle registration certificates (RC1), license disc scans, mileage history, service records, and high-resolution vehicle imagery.
Financial & Transactional Data: South African bank account details (for escrow payout disbursements), TradeSafe escrow transaction history, and proof of payment metadata.
Device & Usage Data: IP address, device model, operating system, geolocation during in-person vehicle handover, and application telemetry.

3. Purpose & Legal Basis of Processing

We process your personal information strictly for legitimate business and regulatory purposes:

To verify identity and prevent vehicle syndicates, cloned listings, and impersonation fraud.
To execute secure, FSCA-compliant escrow transactions via our authorized escrow partner (TradeSafe).
To perform vehicle history, SAPS stolen checks, and microdot validation via Kredo CarTrust™.
To provide automated license disc recognition and 360° studio image renders via CarScan™.
To comply with South African Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) mandates.

4. Data Security & Storage

DealSafe employs AES-256 encryption at rest and TLS 1.3 encryption in transit for all data payloads. Biometric facial templates are encrypted using salted one-way mathematical vectors and are never stored as raw unencrypted images.

All South African user records are hosted on secure, POPIA-compliant cloud infrastructure with localized data residency in the AWS Cape Town (af-south-1) region.

5. Your Rights Under POPIA

As a data subject under POPIA, you retain the following rights:

Right to Access: Request confirmation of personal information held by DealSafe.
Right to Rectification: Request correction or updating of outdated or inaccurate information.
Right to Deletion: Request destruction of personal information, subject to mandatory FICA and tax retention statutory periods (minimum 5 years for financial transactions).
Right to Object: Object to processing on reasonable grounds where permitted by law.

6. Information Officer & Contact

For privacy inquiries, data subject access requests, or POPIA complaints, please contact our designated Information Officer:

Information Officer: DealSafe Compliance Office
Email: privacy@dealsafe.ai
Physical Address: Sandton, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa