2. Information We Collect

We only collect information we need to operate the platform safely. Depending on how you use Anarblink, this may include:

a) Account information

• Your username, email address, and password (stored in encrypted/hashed form).
• Your account type (worker or employer), display name, and optional bio.

b) Identity verification information (special personal information)

• If you request a "Verified" badge, you may upload a clear photo of your South African ID, valid passport, or asylum document, together with a selfie photograph.
• Under POPIA, identity documents and photographs are treated with heightened care. You provide this information voluntarily and consent to its use for verification when you upload it.
• These documents are never shown to other users. They are visible only to Anarblink staff carrying out a verification check or investigating a report, and every such viewing is logged.

c) Location information

We use location in three separate ways, and they are not the same thing:

• The job-site pin. An employer may mark on a map where a job takes place. This is stored with the job and shown to the worker who is hired, so they can find it. Applicants who were not chosen do not see it.
• Live location sharing during a job. A worker may choose to share their live position with the employer while a job is active. This is off by default, is switched on only by the worker, stops when the job ends, and can be switched off at any moment. Declining to share it has no effect on your account or your rating.
• Directions. When you ask for directions to a job, your browser asks whether it may share your position. If you agree, that position is used at that moment to open a map. It is not stored by Anarblink and is not shared with the other party. If you decline, we simply show you where the job is instead.
• Approximate home area. If you have set one, we use it to calculate how far a job is from you. Other users see the distance in kilometres, never your address or coordinates.
• We do not track your location in the background at any other time.

d) Payment and banking information

• Your wallet balance, deposits, withdrawals and transaction records. Your wallet is held with TradeSafe, a licensed South African escrow service, and not by Anarblink.
• Your bank account details are given to TradeSafe, not to us. Anarblink stores only the name of your bank and the last four digits of the account number, so that you can confirm which account you are being paid into. We never hold your full account number.
• Card details for deposits are entered on TradeSafe's own payment page and are never seen by Anarblink.
• Because TradeSafe fixes your receiving account when your payment profile is created, banking details cannot be edited afterwards. See our Terms for what to do if they are wrong.

e) Communications and proof of work

• Messages and images sent through the in-app chat are stored in our evidence vault.
• Proof-of-work photographs uploaded by a worker to show completed work. These are shown to the employer on that job so they can decide whether to release payment. They are not public and do not appear on profiles.
• Workers are asked to photograph the work itself and not people, households, or anything unrelated to the job.

f) Emergency contact information

• If you set up the GPS Safety Shield, you may provide the name and phone number of an emergency contact, so we can alert them if you trigger an SOS.
• This is information about another person. By providing it, you confirm you have that person's permission to share their details with us for this safety purpose.

g) Usage, device and technical information

• Basic technical information such as your interactions with the platform, and information needed to keep your account secure.
• Your IP address, which we record when you register and accept our Terms, as a security measure and as a legal record of acceptance.

3. Why We Use Your Information

POPIA requires that we collect personal information only for a specific, lawful purpose. We use your information to:

• Operate your account — create and manage your profile, log you in, and provide platform features.
• Verify identity — perform a basic identity check for the "Verified" badge, to build trust and safety between users. A verified badge confirms a basic check was done; it is not a guarantee of quality or character.
• Enable safety features — power the GPS Safety Shield, SOS alerts, and job-site pins to help protect users during on-site work.
• Process payments — instruct TradeSafe to hold funds in escrow, release payment when work is approved, and pay withdrawals to your bank account. Anarblink never takes custody of your money.
• Show you what you will be paid — we ask TradeSafe what a given job will actually pay out, after fees, so the figure you see matches the money that arrives.
• Facilitate communication — allow employers and workers to chat and exchange proof of work.
• Resolve disputes and investigate reports — administrators may review chat logs and images only where a report has been made or an account is under investigation.
• Maintain security and prevent fraud — detect fake accounts, off-platform payment attempts, and abuse.
• Keep a record of agreement — record your acceptance of our Terms (including the date, version and IP address) as a legal record.
• Comply with the law — meet our legal obligations where required, including financial record-keeping.

We do not sell your personal information. We do not sell or rent your personal information to advertisers or data brokers.

4. Sharing & Third Parties

We share personal information only where necessary to run the platform. The third parties who may process your information ("operators" under POPIA) include:

• TradeSafe Escrow (Pty) Ltd — our escrow and payment provider, a licensed South African escrow service. TradeSafe holds your wallet balance and your banking details, processes deposits and withdrawals, and pays workers directly. Your money is held in TradeSafe's trust account, not by Anarblink. TradeSafe has its own privacy policy, which governs how it handles the information you give it.
• Email delivery — account, verification and notification emails are sent from our own mail server at our hosting provider. Your email address is used to send these and is not shared for marketing.
• Mapping services — maps, address lookups and directions are provided by third-party mapping services, including OpenStreetMap (and Nominatim for address search) and Google Maps for directions to job sites. When you open directions, your destination — and, if you agreed to share it, your starting position — is passed to that mapping service in order to draw the route.
• Hosting provider — our website, database and mail are hosted on a third-party hosting service, which stores your information on secure servers.

We previously used PayFast as our payment gateway. We no longer do. Records of payments made through PayFast while it was in use remain in our transaction history for accounting and dispute purposes.

We may also disclose information where we are legally required to do so, or where necessary to investigate fraud, abuse, or a credible safety threat.

Other users will see limited profile information you choose to make public — such as your display name, bio, ratings, reviews, and verified status. Your ID documents, selfie and banking details are never shown to other users.

Cross-border note. TradeSafe and our hosting provider operate in South Africa. Some other services, such as mapping, may process data outside South Africa. Where this happens, we take reasonable steps to ensure your information remains protected to a standard comparable with POPIA.

5. Storage, Security & Retention

Security

• Passwords are stored in hashed form and are never visible to us in plain text.
• Sensitive credentials and configuration are stored outside the public web area on our server.
• Payments are protected through TradeSafe's escrow system, and access controls limit who can view sensitive records.
• Chat logs and proof-of-work images in the evidence vault are accessed by administrators only where a report has been made or an account is under investigation.
• Administrative access to identity documents and evidence is recorded, so that every viewing can be accounted for.

How long we keep things

• Identity documents and verification selfies — kept while your account is verified, and deleted within 90 days of your account being closed or your verification being withdrawn, unless an investigation is open.
• Proof-of-work photographs — kept for 12 months after the job is completed, so that a dispute or a chargeback can be investigated, then deleted.
• Chat messages — kept for 12 months after the job they relate to is completed.
• Transaction and withdrawal records — kept for five years, as South African financial record-keeping rules require.
• Terms acceptance records — kept for as long as your account exists and for five years afterwards, as proof of what you agreed to and when.
• Location coordinates for a job pin — kept with the job record. Live location during a job is not stored after the job ends. Positions used for directions are not stored at all.

Deleting your account

• When you delete your account, we anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer identify you, while retaining limited records where the law or legitimate dispute-resolution needs require it.
• Any money still in your wallet must be withdrawn before deletion. If you have closed your account and still hold a balance, contact us and we will always attempt to return it to you.

Children

• Anarblink is strictly for users aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If we learn that an under-18 user has registered, we will remove the account.

6. Your POPIA Rights

Under POPIA, you have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you.
• Correct information that is inaccurate or out of date.
• Delete your information, or request that we stop processing it, subject to legal limits.
• Object to certain processing of your information.
• Withdraw consent you previously gave (for example, for identity verification or location sharing), understanding that some features may no longer be available as a result.
• Complain to the Information Regulator if you believe we have not handled your information lawfully.

A note on banking details. Your account details are held by TradeSafe, so a request to correct them has to be made through us to them, and may require us to create a new payment profile for you. Contact us before attempting a withdrawal if your details are wrong.

How to exercise your rights

To make any of these requests, contact our Information Officer at privacy@anarblink.co.za. We will respond within a reasonable time.

The Information Regulator (South Africa)

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your information, you may contact the Information Regulator:

• Website: inforegulator.org.za
• Email (POPIA complaints): POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za

Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated through the platform. The "Effective date" at the top shows when this version took effect.

Final note. By using Anarblink, you confirm that you have read and understood how we handle your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy.

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