Privacy Policy

01Introduction

This Privacy Policy explains how Sitemarch, a sole proprietorship operated by Calvin Sullivan and based in the Republic of South Africa ("Sitemarch", "we", "us", "our"), collects, uses, stores, and shares personal information about visitors to sitemarch.co and about the businesses and individuals who engage Sitemarch for services.

Sitemarch respects your privacy. We collect only the personal information we need to run our business, deliver our services, and comply with the law. We do not sell your personal information.

02Scope of this policy

This policy applies to:

• Visitors to sitemarch.co and any related Sitemarch-owned pages.
• Prospective clients who contact Sitemarch by email, book a call, or otherwise reach out.
• Clients who engage Sitemarch under a signed proposal.

03Information we collect

When you visit sitemarch.co. Our hosting provider (Cloudflare) records standard server log data, including your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring page, and the pages you view. This is used for security, diagnostics, and traffic analysis.

Third-party font loading. Our site loads typefaces from Google Fonts, which may result in your IP address being sent to Google's servers.

When you email us. If you contact us at [email protected], we receive your email address, name (if provided), and the contents of your message.

When you book a call. Bookings are handled by Calendly. When you click a "Book a call" link, you are directed to Calendly's platform where you provide your name, email address, time-zone, and any details you choose to share. Calendly's own privacy policy applies to your interaction with their platform, and Calendly shares the booking details with us so we can attend the meeting.

When you become a client. After you accept a proposal, we collect the information needed to deliver the Services, including your business name, website details, brand assets, Google Business Profile access, hosting and domain credentials, service list, and any other information you provide through our onboarding form.

Payment information. Payments are processed by a third-party payment processor. Sitemarch does not receive or store your full card details. We receive limited transaction confirmation data (amount, date, last four digits).

04How we use information

We use personal information to:

• Respond to your inquiries and communications.
• Deliver, manage, and improve the Services described in an accepted proposal.
• Send service-related emails (invoices, reports, notices, updates).
• Maintain the security and integrity of our website and systems.
• Comply with our legal, tax, and accounting obligations.
• Enforce our Terms of Service and defend legal claims.

We do not use your personal information for automated decision-making or profiling in ways that produce legal or similarly significant effects on you.

05Legal bases for processing

Under the Protection of Personal Information Act ("POPIA") in South Africa, and where applicable the EU General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"), we rely on the following legal bases:

• Consent when you voluntarily contact us or provide information.
• Contract performance when we process information to deliver Services under a signed proposal.
• Legitimate interest for security logging, fraud prevention, and improving our Services.
• Legal obligation for tax, accounting, and record-keeping requirements.

06Cookies and tracking

When you first visit sitemarch.co, a cookie banner asks for your consent. Only strictly necessary cookies are set before you choose.

• Necessary: cookies needed for the site to work, including the one that remembers your cookie choice. Our hosting provider and font loader may also set essential technical cookies. These are not used to track you across other websites.
• Statistics: with your consent, we use Google Tag Manager with Google Analytics, and Microsoft Clarity, to understand how visitors use the site (for example, which pages are viewed and where people click or scroll). This helps us improve the site.
• Marketing: we do not currently use advertising pixels. If that changes, they will only run with your consent.

You can change or withdraw your consent at any time using the Cookie Settings link in the footer.

These are the cookies used on this site:

07Third-party services

Services we use to run sitemarch.co and support prospects:

• Cloudflare, our hosting provider. May process server log data including your IP address.
• Google Fonts, for typography. May receive your IP address when the font loads.
• Calendly, for booking strategy calls. Governed by Calendly's own privacy policy.
• Email provider, for sending and receiving correspondence with you.
• Payment processor, for handling invoices when you become a client.

Services we operate on a client's behalf when engaged. When we deliver Services to a client, we may use their accounts on Google (Ads, Business Profile, Search Console, Analytics), Meta (Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads), and other platforms. These are operated on the client's own accounts and are governed by the client's own agreements with those platforms. Personal information collected by those platforms (including from the client's website visitors) is subject to those platforms' privacy policies and to the client's own privacy policy.

08Data retention

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purposes described in this policy, or as required by law.

• Server logs: up to 90 days.
• Prospect inquiries (email): up to 12 months from last contact, unless you become a client.
• Client engagement records: for the duration of the engagement plus 5 years after termination, for tax, accounting, and legal purposes.
• Payment records: as required by tax law (typically 5 years).

After the applicable retention period, information is deleted or anonymized.

09Your rights

Depending on where you are located, you may have the following rights in respect of your personal information:

• Access: request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Correction: ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Deletion: ask us to delete your personal information, subject to legal retention requirements.
• Restriction: ask us to limit how we process your information.
• Objection: object to processing based on our legitimate interests.
• Portability: receive a copy of your information in a machine-readable format.
• Withdraw consent: withdraw consent for processing where consent was the legal basis.

To exercise any of these rights, email [email protected]. We will respond within a reasonable period, and no later than 30 days from receiving your request.

If you are in South Africa and are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator at inforegulator.org.za.

10International data transfers

Sitemarch is based in South Africa. Some third-party services we use (including Cloudflare and Google Fonts) may store or process data on servers located outside South Africa, including in the United States and the European Union.

Where personal information is transferred internationally, we rely on the safeguards permitted by POPIA, including standard contractual clauses or the recipient country's own adequate data-protection regime.

11Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect personal information against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and loss. These measures include HTTPS encryption for our website, restricted access to client credentials, and secure storage of business records.

No system is completely secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security, but we treat any suspected breach seriously and will notify affected parties as required by POPIA.

12Children's privacy

Our services are intended for business owners and are not directed at children under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

13Sitemarch as data processor on client websites

This clause is important for our clients and for the visitors to their websites.

When Sitemarch builds, hosts, and operates a website for a client, the client is the data controller of any personal information collected from their own visitors (including homeowner names, email addresses, phone numbers, form submissions, AI-chat conversations, and missed-call callback data). Sitemarch acts as the data processor, handling that information strictly according to the client's instructions and only for the purpose of delivering the Services.

Homeowners and other visitors interacting with a client's website should refer to that client's own privacy policy, not this one.

Sitemarch does not use client visitor data for its own marketing, does not sell it, and does not share it with third parties except as instructed by the client or as required by law.

14Changes to this policy

Sitemarch may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be notified by updating the Effective Date at the top of this page and, for active clients, by email. Continued use of sitemarch.co or our Services after an update is treated as acceptance of the updated policy.

15Contact

For questions about this Privacy Policy, or to exercise your rights, contact:

Sitemarch (a sole proprietorship operated by Calvin Sullivan)
Email: [email protected]