Privacy policy

This policy explains how Evolve Designs Co. ("Evolve Designs", "we", "us") handles personal information collected through evolvedesignsco.com, in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA).

1. Who is responsible

Evolve Designs Co. is the responsible party for personal information collected on this website. Our directors, Declan de Kock and Matthew Wessels, act as our information officers. You can contact them at declandekock@evolvedesignsco.com or matthewwessels@evolvedesignsco.com.

2. What we collect

When you send an enquiry, we collect the information you choose to give us:

• Your name, company, email address and phone number
• Project details such as type, location, size, timeframe and your message
• Any drawings or photos you attach
• How you heard about us, and the website or campaign that referred you (if any)

Attachments are emailed directly to our directors. They are not stored on the website server; we only keep each file's name, type and size with your enquiry.

3. Analytics and cookies

We use our own privacy-friendly analytics to understand how the website is used, for example which sections are viewed and how many enquiries we receive. We do not use advertising trackers or third-party analytics, and we do not set cookies on your device for analytics.

• Visits are counted with an anonymous code that changes every day and cannot be used to identify you or recover your IP address.
• We record general information only: pages and sections viewed, buttons clicked, device type, browser, country and referring website.
• If your browser sends a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal, we do not record your visit.
• Your browser stores your light or dark theme choice (local storage) and how you arrived at the site for the current tab (session storage). Neither is sent to anyone else.
• The private admin area uses one strictly necessary, secure sign-in cookie for authorised staff only.

4. Why we use it

• To respond to your enquiry, prepare quotations and manage any project that follows
• To keep records of our communication with you
• To improve our website and understand which services people are looking for
• To protect the website against spam and abuse

We process this information with your consent (given when you submit the form), to take steps you have asked for before entering into an agreement, and for our legitimate interests in running and securing our business. We never sell your information or use it for unrelated marketing.

5. Who we share it with

We share information only with service providers (operators) that help us run the website and our email, such as our website host and Google Workspace. Some of these providers may store information on servers outside South Africa. Where this happens, we use providers that are bound by data-protection laws or agreements that offer protection comparable to POPIA. We may also disclose information where the law requires it.

6. How long we keep it

We keep enquiries for as long as we need them to respond to you and manage any resulting project, and to meet legal or tax record-keeping requirements. Enquiries that do not lead to work are deleted when no longer needed. Anonymous analytics records are deleted automatically after two years.

7. How we protect it

The website uses encrypted connections (HTTPS), strict security headers, spam and rate-limit protection, and validates every upload. Enquiry records can only be viewed in an admin area protected by Cloudflare Access and restricted to our directors, with a log of every change and refused attempt.

8. Your rights

Under POPIA you may:

• Ask whether we hold personal information about you and request a copy
• Ask us to correct or delete your information
• Object to us processing your information, or withdraw your consent
• Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa) at inforegulator.org.za

To make a request, email declandekock@evolvedesignsco.com. We may need to confirm your identity before acting on it.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top shows when it last changed.