Privacy Policy

Aethercrafted (Pty) Ltd ("we", "us", or "our") operates the Marketing Achievement Awards ("MAA") and the website www.marketingawards.co.za (the "Website").

We are committed to protecting your personal information and processing it in a lawful, legitimate, and responsible manner in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 4 of 2013 ("POPIA").

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, with whom we share it, and what rights you have. By using our Website or submitting an entry to the MAA, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this policy.

Responsible Party (as defined in POPIA):

• Entity: Aethercrafted (Pty) Ltd
• Incorporated: Republic of South Africa
• Website: www.marketingawards.co.za

As the Responsible Party, Aethercrafted (Pty) Ltd determines the purpose of and means for processing your personal information.

In terms of POPIA, Aethercrafted (Pty) Ltd has designated an Information Officer responsible for overseeing compliance with POPIA and handling requests from data subjects.

You may direct any privacy-related queries, access requests, or complaints to the Information Officer via our contact form, using the subject line POPIA Information Request. We will respond within 30 days.

We collect personal information in the following contexts:

Website Visitors

• IP address and general geographic location
• Browser type, device type, and operating system
• Pages visited, time spent, and referring URLs
• Cookie data (see Section 9)

Contact Form Submissions

• Name and surname
• Email address
• Company or organisation name
• Message content

MAA Entry Submissions (via Awards Engine)

• First name, last name, job title
• Company or organisation name
• Email address (visible to MAA administrators only)
• Direct phone number
• Entry content, case study materials, and supporting media
• Team member names, roles, and organisations (published if the entry wins)
• Payment details (processed by PayFast - see Section 6)
• Partner communications opt-in preference
• Section D (Code, Culture & Commerce) responses, aggregated anonymously for industry research

Nominations

• Nominator name and contact details
• Nominee name, organisation, and motivating information

We process your personal information only for specific, explicitly defined purposes:

Purpose	Lawful Basis
Administering MAA entries, judging, and awards	Contractual necessity / legitimate interest
Processing payments via PayFast	Contractual necessity
Communicating with entrants regarding their submissions	Contractual necessity
Publishing winner information	Consent (obtained at entry) / legitimate interest
Producing the anonymised "State of Code, Culture & Commerce" industry report	Legitimate interest (data anonymised before use)
Sending competition updates and essential notices	Legitimate interest
Sending partner and sponsor communications	Consent (explicit opt-in at entry)
Analysing website usage to improve our services	Legitimate interest (anonymised)
Responding to contact form queries	Legitimate interest / consent
Compliance with legal obligations	Legal obligation

We will not process your personal information for any purpose incompatible with those listed above without your prior consent.

We do not sell your personal information. We may share it in the following limited circumstances:

Operators (Third-Party Service Providers)

We share personal information with service providers who process data on our behalf under written agreements requiring appropriate security and use of data only as instructed:

• Thought Bubble (Awards Engine) - Entry management platform. Processes entrant registration, submissions, media uploads, and entry administration on our behalf. Thought Bubble is registered under the UK Data Protection Act 1998 (ICO Reference: Z616670X). For information on Thought Bubble's data practices, see their Privacy Policy at www.thoughtbubble.com/privacy/
• PayFast - Payment processing. Subject to PayFast's own privacy policy and PCI-DSS compliance. We do not store card details.
• SiteGround - Website hosting. Website data is processed within SiteGround's infrastructure.
• Cloudflare - Content delivery and security. Web traffic passes through Cloudflare's network for performance and DDoS protection.
• Email platform - Used to deliver competition communications to entrants.

MAA Partners and Sponsors

Where you have explicitly opted in at the point of entry submission, we may share your contact details with MAA sponsors and partners for relevant communications. You may withdraw this consent at any time via the unsubscribe link in any partner email, or by using our contact form.

Judges

Entry content (excluding contact details and information marked [CONFIDENTIAL]) is shared with MAA judges for adjudication. All judges are bound by non-disclosure agreements.

Publication of Winner Information

If your entry wins, the following will be published: entry title, organisation, category, executive summary (public version), composite image, and team credits. Winner case studies are only published with your prior approval, after appropriate redaction of confidential information.

Legal Requirements

We may disclose personal information where required to do so by law, court order, or to protect the rights and safety of Aethercrafted (Pty) Ltd or others.

Some service providers process personal information outside the Republic of South Africa. These include Cloudflare (United States), our email platform, and Thought Bubble's Awards Engine platform (hosted on AWS eu-west-1, Republic of Ireland). In each case, we take reasonable steps to ensure the receiving party provides a level of protection substantially similar to POPIA, including through contractual safeguards and, where applicable, registration under equivalent data protection frameworks.

PayFast operates within South Africa. Awards Engine data is hosted on Amazon Web Services infrastructure in the eu-west-1 region (Republic of Ireland). Thought Bubble operates under UK GDPR, which we consider to provide a level of protection substantially similar to POPIA. This transfer is further governed by a Data Processing Agreement between Aethercrafted (Pty) Ltd and Thought Bubble, which constitutes a binding contractual safeguard in accordance with section 72(1)(c) of POPIA.

Data Type	Retention Period
Entry submissions (non-winners)	12 months after the relevant season closes
Winner information (published)	Indefinitely (forms part of the MAA public record)
Payment records	5 years (tax and accounting obligations)
Contact form enquiries	12 months after resolution
Website analytics	As per analytics provider settings (anonymised)

At the end of the applicable retention period, personal information is securely deleted or anonymised.

Our Website uses cookies and similar technologies. A cookie is a small text file placed on your device that helps us deliver a better browsing experience.

Type	Purpose
Strictly necessary	Required for the Website to function. Cannot be disabled.
Functional	Remember your preferences and improve usability.
Analytics	Anonymised data about how visitors use the site.
Third-party	Set by Cloudflare for security and performance.

You may configure your browser to refuse cookies. Some features of this Website may not function correctly if cookies are disabled. Consent for non-essential cookies is requested on your first visit.

Under POPIA, you have the following rights in relation to your personal information:

Right	What it means
Access	Request confirmation of whether we hold your personal information, and a copy of it.
Correction	Request correction of inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated information.
Deletion	Request deletion of your information, subject to our legal retention obligations.
Object	Object to processing based on legitimate interest on grounds relating to your particular situation.
Withdraw consent	Where processing is based on consent, withdraw that consent at any time without affecting prior lawful processing.
Complain	Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa.

To exercise any of the above rights, please use our contact form with the subject line POPIA Information Request. We will respond within 30 days.

Information Regulator of South Africa
Website: www.justice.gov.za/inforeg/

We implement appropriate technical and organisational security measures to protect your personal information against unauthorised access, loss, disclosure, or alteration. These include:

• HTTPS encryption across all pages
• Cloudflare DDoS protection and firewall
• Access controls limiting who can view personal information
• Non-disclosure agreements with judges and contractors who access entry data
• Secure payment processing via PayFast (PCI-DSS compliant)

No method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your information, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

In the event of a personal information breach that poses a risk to affected individuals, we will notify both the Information Regulator and affected data subjects as required by POPIA.

The MAA is a professional marketing industry competition. This Website is not directed at children under the age of 18 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from minors. If you believe a minor has submitted personal information to us, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

We may send competition-related communications (entry reminders, deadline notices, results announcements) to registered entrants on the basis of our legitimate interest in administering the competition.

Where you have downloaded the MAA Entry Kit, you have consented at the point of download to receive occasional communications from us, including entry deadline reminders and competition updates relevant to your download.

Where you have previously entered the MAA or attended an MAA event, we may contact you about future seasons on the basis of our legitimate interest in maintaining relationships with the marketing community. You may unsubscribe at any time.

We will only send marketing or partner communications where you have given explicit consent. You may withdraw consent and unsubscribe at any time using the link in any email, or via our contact form.

Our Website may contain links to third-party websites. These links do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. We have no control over the content, privacy practices, or availability of third-party sites and accept no responsibility for them. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party site before providing personal information.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or operational needs. The updated date shown in the metadata block below will reflect the date of the most recent revision. We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Continued use of the Website following any changes constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy.

For any queries, concerns, or requests relating to this Privacy Policy or the processing of your personal information, please use our contact form and include POPIA Information Request in the subject field.