Privacy Policy

AQS is the “responsible party” for personal information processed through this website, as that term is defined in POPIA.

• Trading name: AQS Consulting
• Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
• Contact email: info@aqsconsulting.co.za

We collect personal information in two ways:

Information you provide directly

When you submit an enquiry through the contact form, we collect the details you choose to provide: your name, company, email address, phone number, project type, project location, service required, and the content of your message. Name, email and message are required; the remaining fields are optional.

Information collected automatically

Our hosting provider automatically logs standard technical information for security and reliability purposes when you visit this website — such as IP address, browser type, and pages requested. This website does not currently use cookies, analytics scripts, or any other tracking technology. If that changes in future, this policy will be updated to describe what is used and, where required, your consent will be requested first.

We process personal information only for the purposes for which it was collected:

• To respond to enquiries submitted through the contact form
• To prepare proposals, quotes or correspondence relating to a potential or existing engagement
• To maintain a record of business correspondence
• To meet legal, regulatory or accounting obligations

We do not use contact form submissions for marketing purposes, and we do not sell, rent or trade personal information to third parties.

We process personal information submitted through the contact form on the basis that it is necessary to respond to a request you have initiated, and on the basis of our legitimate interest in managing business enquiries — consistent with POPIA’s processing limitation and purpose specification conditions. Submitting the form constitutes your consent to being contacted about the enquiry you raised.

We use a small number of third-party service providers (“operators” under POPIA) to run this website and respond to enquiries. These providers process personal information on our instruction and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes:

• Resend — used to deliver contact form submissions to AQS by email
• Google Workspace — hosts the AQS mailbox that enquiries are ultimately delivered to
• Vercel — hosts this website and processes standard technical server logs

We do not share personal information with any other third party except where required by law, or with your explicit consent.

Some of the service providers listed above may process information on servers located outside South Africa. Where this occurs, we rely on those providers’ own security and data protection commitments (including standard contractual and technical safeguards) to ensure your information continues to receive a comparable level of protection, as required by section 72 of POPIA.

We retain enquiry information for as long as reasonably necessary to respond to the enquiry, progress any resulting engagement, and meet our legal or accounting record-keeping obligations, after which it is deleted or anonymised. We do not currently maintain a separate marketing database or CRM — enquiries are retained as ordinary business correspondence within the AQS mailbox.

This website is served over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection. Contact form submissions are transmitted securely and access to the resulting correspondence is limited to those within AQS who need it to respond to your enquiry. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we take reasonable technical and organisational measures appropriate to the nature of the information involved.

Subject to POPIA, you have the right to:

• Request confirmation of whether we hold personal information about you, and access to it
• Request correction or deletion of personal information that is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, or collected unlawfully
• Object to the processing of your personal information on reasonable grounds
• Withdraw any consent you have given, without affecting processing carried out before withdrawal
• Lodge a complaint with our Information Officer or with the Information Regulator (contact details below)

To exercise any of these rights, contact our Information Officer using the details in Section 11.

This website is intended for businesses and professionals and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children, as defined by POPIA, through this website.

Enquiries, requests, or complaints about how AQS handles personal information should be directed to our Information Officer:

• Role: Information Officer
• Email: info@aqsconsulting.co.za

If you believe we have not adequately addressed a concern, you have the right to lodge a complaint with South Africa’s Information Regulator:

• Information Regulator (South Africa)
• Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191
• Complaints: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
• General enquiries: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za
• Website: inforegulator.org.za

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal obligations. The “last updated” date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision. Material changes will be reflected here before they take effect.