Privacy policy

Hey there! Welcome to Gel With Us, and we are super impressed you are taking the time to read through this. Your privacy is just as important to us as it is to you.

We are based in Hillcrest, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. You can contact us via:

Whichever option you choose, we check all correspondence daily. You should get a reply within 24 hours on workdays.

As we are based in South Africa, our site falls under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI Act). For those of you outside of South Africa, this is South Africa's counterpart to the EU GDPR. To learn more about the POPI Act you can follow this link: popia.co.za.

Now let's talk about how we handle your info when you visit our website gelwithus.co.za - we'll call it "our site" for short. We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting any personal information you share with us.

We have tried to keep this as uncomplicated as possible, but here is a breakdown of what we collect, how we use it, and when we might share it.

1. General visitors

We gather some basic info like browser type, language preference, referring site, and date and time of your visit. This isn't to spy on you, but rather to help us monitor how the general visitor uses our site.

If you are under 18 and buying things with your parent's credit card and doing stuff on the internet that you should not be doing, not cool! We can't stop you and we won't know, but if you are, then we are officially sending you our sternest mom look.

Example: 80% of you might be visiting our site from a mobile phone, which means we need to make sure our images are clear enough even on a teeny tiny screen.

2. Personally identifying information

When you interact with us, like leaving a review and telling us how awesome your nails look, or signing up for our occasional yet riveting newsletter, we may ask you to share your first name and email address. That way we know you aren't some random bot and, well, who wants to get an email that starts with "Hi Jig589x?"

If you save items to your wishlist, we keep a record of what you've saved so it's there when you come back – and yes, so we can see which styles are secretly everyone's favourite.

We will only ask for and use information that is lawfully and reasonably required, with minimal privacy infringement.

We only keep your information for as long as we need it. Order records are kept for at least five years, because that is how long South African tax rules expect us to hold on to them. Newsletter details are kept until you unsubscribe. After that, we delete your information or strip out anything that identifies you.

You have the right to access, correct, delete, or restrict your information, and to object to us using it for marketing. Depending on where your information has been used:

  • Newsletters: you can unsubscribe at any time.
  • Reviews: to edit or remove any reviews you have left on the site, contact us and make a request directly.
  • Account details: you can log in, update, or alter information as you require.
  • Anything else: contact us using the details at the top of this page and we will sort it out.

3. Third party links

Third party links are when you go from our site to another site using a link, for example, if you click on our Instagram link or follow a link listed in a blog. When you click that link you are officially leaving our site and going to wherever that link leads.

We are unable to edit, delete, or control information shared via third parties like Google, banks, social media, and so on, these are between you and the third party. We are not responsible for the privacy terms, conditions, and practices of those third parties.

4. Security

We really do our best to protect your personal information. But the truth is, no method of online transmission or storage is 100% secure. To combat this as best as possible, we use industry-standard practices to keep your data safe, but we simply cannot guarantee absolute security.

5. Advertising and remarketing

We use advertising tools from Meta (Facebook and Instagram), TikTok and Google to show our ads to people who have visited our site. For example, if you visited our site but didn't complete a purchase, you might see an ad reminding you to come back. These tools work by placing small trackers (see Cookies below) that tell those platforms you stopped by. They do not hand us your name or contact details.

You can manage how each of these platforms advertises to you, or opt out entirely, in your Meta, TikTok and Google account settings or in your own browser settings at any time.

6. Who we share your information with

We can't do it all ourselves. To accept payments, send you newsletters, and provide an online shop, we have to use banks, Google, couriers, and various other suppliers. To make all this happen, we only share your personal info with employees, contractors, and affiliated organisations who absolutely need to know it in order to provide required services… and breathe, that was a long sentence.

The main ones are:

  • Shopify, which runs our online shop and stores your order and account details.
  • Omnisend, which sends our newsletters.
  • Stitch, Payfast and PayJustNow, which process payments.
  • Pargo, our courier partner, who needs your name, address and phone number to get your parcel to your chosen Pargo Point or your door.
  • Wishlist Hero, which saves the products you add to your wishlist (and your email address if you're logged in).
  • Judge.me, which collects and displays product reviews.

Some of these companies store information on servers outside South Africa. When that happens, your information is still protected by their own privacy and security commitments.

In these cases, we only do so if they have agreed to keep the information confidential and have their own privacy policies in place. We will never sell or rent your information to anyone. We may disclose your info if required by law or to protect our rights.

7. Cookies

Why "they" had to call these Cookies is anyone's guess. Between internet cookies and raisin cookies there is a reason we have trust issues. That being said, cookies help us enhance your experience on our site. They help us keep track of your preferences and in some instances personalise your content. Some cookies also come from the advertising tools described in section 5.

You have some control here, you can set your browser to refuse cookies. It may affect how the site functions for you, but that is completely your choice.

8. E-commerce

When you buy something from us, we ask for the information necessary to process your order: your name, delivery address, phone number and email address. We use this information only to complete your transaction and don't share it beyond what's described in this policy.

Your card or banking details go straight to our payment partners. We never see them and we never store them.

9. Privacy policy changes

We may update this policy from time to time, so please check back regularly. If you are subscribed to our newsletter, you will most likely receive a notice. When you continue to use this site it means you accept any changes.

10. Complaints

If you have any complaints or questions about this policy, please reach out using the contact details listed at the top of this page. We will investigate and attempt to resolve any complaints and disputes. If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa:

  • Email: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
  • Phone: 010 023 5200 or toll-free 0800 017 160
  • Website: inforegulator.org.za
Thank you for reading this far. We genuinely appreciate it, and your nails are going to look great.