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Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions

Updated 24 July 2024

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Specifying Techniques CC Registration number: 98/052094/23 (hereinafter referred to as “ST“, “we“, “us” or “our“) is committed to ensuring the best service to all our visitors (“Visitors”) to our website (“Website”) at www.spectechonline.com (the “Website“) as well as all persons (“Customers”) who have registered for an account with us or who use our Apps and Services (“Account”).

 

Terms & Conditions

All information supplied by ST is subject to copyright and shall not be reproduced, copied, disclosed, provided or resold in either its original form or in any remixed form to any person other than the user.

 

The use of our website is subject to these Terms & Conditions and the Privacy Policy located herein.


Security

Any person that implements or attempts to deliver any damaging code to this Website or attempts to gain unauthorised access to any page on this Website shall be prosecuted and civil damages shall be claimed in the event that ST suffers any damage or loss.


You agree and warrant that your log-in name and password shall be used for your personal use only and shall not be disclosed to any third party.


You allow ST to take all reasonable steps to ensure the integrity and security of the Website and other applications.

 

Privacy

We respect the privacy of all site visitors and will not disclose personal information to third parties for marketing purposes if you have requested us not to do so (which you are able to do at any time). The manner in which we use your information is regulated in more detail as described in our Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”).

The Privacy Policy is incorporated into these Terms & Conditions. If you are not satisfied with the level of privacy or disagree with anything in the Privacy Policy, then you are deemed to not agree to these Terms & Conditions and you should not use the Website. Your continued use of the Website will constitute acceptance of the Terms & Conditions, including the Privacy Policy.

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ST's information is as follows:

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Full name:

Specifying Techniques, registered in South Africa, registration number 98/052094/23

Main business:

Specifying products in projects

Website:

www.spectechonline.com and official email addresses: office [at] spectechonline.com, spectech [at] iafrica.com

Customer support contactable at:

+27 (0)31 561 5812

Information Officer:

data [at] spectechonline.com

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Privacy Policy

 

This privacy policy (“this Policy“) describes the ways in which we collect, store, use and protect your personal information. Throughout this Policy, we use the term “personal information” to describe information that can be associated with a specific person and can be used to identify that person. We do not consider personal information to include information that has been made anonymous so that it does not identify a specific user.

You need to read and accept all the provisions in this Policy in order to use the Website and/or our services. By accepting this Policy, you are deemed to have read and agreed with all the provisions thereof. If you do not agree with anything in this Policy, then you may not use the Website and any of the services available there from.

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Changes to this policy

ST may, at its sole discretion, change these Terms & Conditions or any part thereof at any time on notice to Customers and Visitors. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are satisfied with the amendments.
Should you not be satisfied with the amendments, you must refrain from using in any way, the Website or extending any subscriptions on the Website.

 

We may amend this Policy at any time by posting a revised version on our Website. The revised version will apply to Visitors with effect from the time we post it.

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Types of Information we collect

As a Visitor or registered Subscriber you agree that we may electronically collect, store and use the following of your information:

  • internet usage information, including your internet protocol address, browsing habits, click patterns, unique user ID, version of browser software installed, system type, screen resolutions, colour capabilities, plug-ins, language settings, cookie preferences, search engine keywords, JavaScript enablement, the content and pages that you access on the Website, and the dates and times that you visit the Website, paths taken, and time spent on sites and pages within the Website (“Usage Details”); and

  • additional information you may provide on a voluntary basis, such as demographic information or information relating to your participation in competitions, promotions, surveys, and/or additional services (“Optional Details”).

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Notice of data processing, recording or collection

You may receive an email which contains a notice of data processing note. This means that we will legally record or process any data deemed necessary to fulfil our obligations to you or any contracts we have. You can request a copy of the data we have on record by emailing our designated Information Officer. You may opt out of data processing directly in the email or alternatively by emailing our designated Information Officer.

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How we collect such information:

  • Voluntarily provided by you:

    • Optional Details may be submitted by you to us if you decide to upload or download certain content from the Website, enter competitions, take advantage of promotions, respond to surveys, register and subscribe for certain additional services, or otherwise use the optional features and functionality of the Website.

    • We also collect any comments or reviews which may be left on the site. If you load any media such as profile pictures, or photos of products, we store that and based on its intended use, it may be shown to the public. If you upload images to the Website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the Website can download and extract any location data from images on the Website.

  • Automatically gathered via various technologies:

    • “Cookies” Information: When you access the Website, we may send one or more cookies (small text files containing a string of alphanumeric characters) to your computer to collect certain Usage Details and for the functionality of the Website. We may use both session cookies (which disappear after you close your browser) and persistent cookies (which remain after you close your browser which can be removed manually) and may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to the Website. Please note that the use of cookies is standard on the internet and many major websites use them. Please review your web browser “Help” file to learn more about modifying your cookie settings. We do not use cookies to track your activity across the web, and we do not integrate any third party marketing on the Website. ​

  • Other tracking technology:

    • ​When you access the Website or open one of our HTML emails, certain Usage Details may be automatically collected and recorded by us or our service providers from your system by using different types of tracking technology.

    • Web Beacons:

      • ​Our Website may contain electronic image requests (“web beacon”) that allow us to count page views and to access cookies. We may also include web beacons in HTML-formatted newsletters that we send to opt-in subscribers in order to count how many newsletters have been read.

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The purpose for which we collect this information:

  • We may use any Optional Details provided by you for such purposes as indicated to you at the time you agree to provide such Optional Details.

    • For example, the submission of Continuing Professional Development registers to verification or accreditation bodies.

  • We may use your Usage Details to:

    • ​remember your information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you access the Website;

    • monitor aggregate Website usage metrics such as total number of visitors and pages accessed;

    • recommend such of our services to you which we believe you might like based on your browsing history; and

    • track your entries, submissions, and status in any promotions or other activities in connection with your usage of the Website.

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Third party features

Our Website may integrate some third party services in order to provide our service to you. These services may embed their own cookies, and track our website Visitor. This policy does not cover the integration of these third party services. Examples of these services may include:

  • articles with embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.).

    • embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

  • Website feature providers such as content management systems.

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Children

Protecting the privacy and sanctity of the very young is especially important. The ST Website (www.spectechonline.com) is not designed to attract children under the age of 16 and ST does not knowingly collect personal information from children on our Web site.

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How we protect and store personal information

We store the personal information of our Customers and Visitors on our servers in South Africa, Ireland and the United States. We use computer safeguards such as firewalls and data encryption, we enforce physical access controls to our buildings and files, and we authorise access to personal information only for those employees who require it to fulfil their job responsibilities.

  • You should not divulge your Account password to anyone. We will never ask you for your password in an unsolicited telephone call or e-mail. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your account password and account information at all times.

  • If you are a legal entity and not an individual, we will liaise only with your named contact or alternative contact provided by your named contact. It is your responsibility to let us know of any changes to your named contact.

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Who we share your personal information with

Your information is never publicly available and will never be shared outside of our direct service providers. Your data is securely stored and will only be shared to fulfil the services we are offering, such as passing on your registration details to a webinar host for accreditation and if agreed to by you, direct contact and marketing.

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We may share the personal information of each of our Visitors and Customers with:

  • enforcement, government officials, fraud detection agencies or other third parties when

    • we are compelled to do so by a subpoena, court order or similar legal procedure; or

    • we need to do so to comply with any law; or

    • we believe in good faith that the disclosure of personal information is necessary to prevent physical harm or financial loss, to report suspected illegal activity, or to investigate violations of our User Agreement

  • our service providers under contract who help with parts of our business operations (fraud prevention, marketing, technology services etc).However, our contracts dictate that these service providers only use your information in connection with the services they perform for us and not for their own benefit.

  • Other third parties, but only with your consent or direction to do so.

  • Also note that should ST sell, transfer or close its business, or undergo a merger, consolidation, change in control, transfer of substantial assets, reorganisation or liquidation, then ST shall be entitled to transfer, sell or assign any or all information collected via the Website (including your personal information) to one or more relevant third parties, but only to be used by them in accordance with the provisions of our Privacy Policy.

  • Note that ST will not sell or rent any of your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes and only shares your personal information with third parties as described in this Policy.

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How long we retain your data for

Your data is retained indefinitely, as long as is required to provide the continuous service to you. Your personal details for online courses are stored and archived securely after 24 months. If you would like your data deleted, please contact us to request it.

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If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

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For users that register on our Website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their login email). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

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What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

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If you would like to review or change the details that you have supplied us with at any time you will need to send us the updated information in writing by emailing us on office@spectechonline.com. Processing your request may take up to 5 business days.

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You consent to the processing of your personal information

By accepting this Policy, you consent to our collection, storage, processing and disclosure of your personal information as described in this Policy. Should you terminate your registration with us and/or close your Account, you consent to our retention of the information we have already collected from you for record-keeping purposes only.

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Optional consent to marketing & service communications

Although you cannot opt out of receiving communications we need to send you relating directly to your Website services, you can opt out of receiving various other types of communications from us, being as follows:

  • notifications of new continuing professional development courses

  • newsletters to inform you about offers and other things that may be of interest to you (based on your selected interests) or to our Customers generally

  • service communications concerning activity on your Account. You can also opt out on a specific type of communication by following the unsubscribe link at the bottom of each email.

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While we do our best to act on your preferences as soon as we can, please be aware that it may take up to 14 days for changes to your preferences concerning newsletters or service emails to take effect.

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Non-personal information

Notwithstanding anything contained in this Policy regarding your information, the following information is not regarded as personal information for purposes of this Policy:

  • Permanently de-identified information that does not relate and/or cannot be traced back to you specifically. We may compile, use, share and otherwise process such information as we deem fit.

  • Non-personal statistical information collected and compiled by us. We own and retain all rights in such information.

  • Information which you have provided voluntarily in an open, public environment or forum including (without limitation) any blog, chat room, albums, community, classifieds or discussion board. Because the information has been disclosed in a public forum, it is no longer confidential and does not constitute personal information subject to protection under this Policy

    • Since such public environments are accessible by third parties, it is possible that third parties may collect and collate and use such information for their own purposes and you should accordingly be careful when deciding to share any of your personal information in such public environments.

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How you can contact us about privacy questions

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Policy, you should contact us at office@spectechonline.com or +27 (0)31 561 5812. (Contact hours: Weekdays 07:30 – 16:30)

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Education and training

ST has implemented a company-wide education and training program about security that is required of every ST employee. If ST learns of a security systems breach, we may attempt to notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate protective steps. By using this Web site or providing personal information to us you agree that we can communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy and administrative issues relating to your use of this site. We may post a notice on our Website if a security breach occurs. If this happens, you will need a Web browser enabling you to view the ST Website. ST may also send an e-mail to you at the e-mail address you have provided to us in these circumstances. Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive notice of a security breach in writing. To receive free written notice of a security breach (or to withdraw your consent from receiving an electronic notice) you should notify us at office@spectechonline.com.

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If you believe your Specifying Techniques account has been compromised, please report the incident using our contact form. In the event that you believe that your personal safety is at risk or if you believe that you may be the victim of identity theft or other illegal conduct, please contact the appropriate federal, state or local law enforcement agencies directly.

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