POPIA notice
Privacy policy
What we collect when you deal with us, why we need it, who sees it and how long we keep it. Written to meet the Protection of Personal Information Act.
1. Who we are
We Buy Salvage buys used, damaged and non-working appliances, electronics, solar equipment and damaged stock in Gauteng, and provides salvage management to insurers. For the purposes of the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA), the responsible party is:
- Trading name
- We Buy Salvage
- Registered name
- We Buy Salvage (Pty) Ltd
- Registration number
- 2026/498337/07
- Where we operate
- Gauteng, South Africa. Our physical address is available on request from the Information Officer.
- Telephone
- 087 822 2626
- 069 203 5435
- offers@webuysalvagesa.co.za
- Website
- www.webuysalvagesa.co.za
Requests and questions about personal information go to our Information Officer at offers@webuysalvagesa.co.za (mark the subject "Information Officer") or on 087 822 2626.
2. What this policy covers
This policy explains what personal information we collect when you use this website, contact us on WhatsApp, phone or email, or sell an item to us, and what we do with it. It applies to private sellers, to people who contact us on behalf of a business, and to the insureds, brokers and adjusters we deal with on insurance claims.
3. What we collect, and when
On this website
Nothing that identifies you. This website does not use cookies, analytics, tracking pixels or any third-party embedded content. Our web host keeps standard server logs (the IP address that requested a page, the page requested and the time) for security and fault-finding. Those logs are not used to identify or profile visitors.
When you contact us
When you WhatsApp, email or phone us, we receive whatever you send: usually your name, your phone number or email address, photographs of the items, and the suburb or address where they are. If you contact us about an insurance claim we may also receive the claim number and the details of the insured.
Before and during a collection
We are a dealer in second-hand goods and the Second-Hand Goods Act 6 of 2009 requires us to record who we buy from and to verify it. Once you accept an offer, and before we book the collection, we ask you to send us a copy of your identity document and the details of the bank account in your name that we will pay. On collection we check the original document against the copy, record your full name, identity number and address, photograph the items and the collection, and record the payment.
Copies of identity documents are stored only with the record of the transaction they belong to, are not used for anything else, and are deleted if the purchase does not go ahead.
We do not collect any special personal information (such as health, religious or biometric information), and we ask that you do not send it to us.
4. Why we use it
We use your personal information only to:
- price the item and make you an offer;
- arrange the collection and pay you;
- keep the records the law requires us to keep, in particular the register required by the Second-Hand Goods Act and the records required by tax law;
- report to the insurer, broker or adjuster where an item is collected on an insurance claim;
- guard against stolen goods and fraud, and cooperate with the South African Police Service where the law requires it;
- answer your questions and resolve any dispute.
Under POPIA our lawful grounds for this are that the processing is necessary to carry out the transaction you have asked for, that it is required by law, and that we have a legitimate interest in protecting ourselves and the public against stolen goods.
5. Who we share it with
We do not sell or rent personal information. We share it only:
- with the insurer, broker or adjuster who instructed a collection, where the item is claim-related;
- with the South African Police Service, where the Second-Hand Goods Act or another law requires us to make our register or records available;
- with our bank, to pay you;
- with the service providers who host our website and email, who may only use it to provide that service to us;
- where a court order or the law requires it.
6. WhatsApp and email
WhatsApp is provided by Meta Platforms. Messages you send us on WhatsApp are handled under WhatsApp's own terms and privacy policy, and Meta's servers are outside South Africa. By choosing to contact us on WhatsApp you accept that. If you would rather not use WhatsApp, phone us on 087 822 2626 or email offers@webuysalvagesa.co.za. Our email is hosted by our web hosting provider in South Africa.
7. How long we keep it
We keep the record of a purchase, including your identity details and the photographs, for at least five years after the transaction, which is the period tax law requires us to keep transaction records, or for longer where the Second-Hand Goods Act or another law requires it. Photographs and messages about an item we did not buy are deleted within 3 months of the last contact, unless you ask us to keep them or a dispute is open.
8. How we protect it
Records are kept on password-protected devices and accounts with access limited to the people who need them. Paper records, where we keep them, are stored in a locked office. If we become aware of a security breach that affects your personal information we will notify you and the Information Regulator as POPIA requires.
9. Your rights
You can ask us, free of charge, to confirm whether we hold personal information about you and to give you a copy of it. You can ask us to correct it or, where we no longer need it or the law does not require us to keep it, to delete it. You can object to our processing of it, and you can withdraw consent where our processing relies on consent. To do any of this, email the Information Officer at offers@webuysalvagesa.co.za. We will respond within a reasonable time and in any case within the period POPIA allows.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information you may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa) at www.inforegulator.org.za.
Our manual under the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA) is available on request from the Information Officer.
10. Under 18s
We do not buy from anyone under 18 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you are under 18, please ask a parent or guardian to contact us.
11. Marketing
We will only contact you about the item you asked us about. We do not add you to a marketing list and we do not send unsolicited messages. If you would like to hear from us about anything else, tell us and we will ask for your consent first.
12. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy we will publish the new version on this page with a new effective date. If the change is significant and we have your contact details from an open matter, we will tell you directly.