Privacy Policy
Your business information is private. We treat it that way.
This policy explains how Business Partner collects, uses, stores and protects personal information when you visit our website, create an account or use the Business Partner service. It also explains your rights under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).
Effective date: 28 July 2026
1. Who we are
Business Partner is provided by Contempo Curations (Pty) Ltd, trading as Business-Partner.co.za, registration number 2022/735084/07, with its physical address at Suite 1, Prism Office Park, Ruby Close, Fourways, Sandton. In this policy, “Business Partner”, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to that entity.
Our Information Officer is Stephen Oehley. Privacy requests should be sent to ask@business-partner.co.za with “Privacy request” in the subject line.
2. The two roles we play
We are the responsible party when we decide why and how to process personal information about account holders, website visitors, people who contact us and the operation of our own business.
When a subscriber uploads information about customers, suppliers, employees or other people, the subscriber remains the responsible party for that information. Business Partner acts as the subscriber’s operator: we process that information on the subscriber’s instruction and only to provide the service. The written operator terms are included in our Terms and Conditions.
3. Information we collect
We collect only the information reasonably needed to provide, secure and improve Business Partner. Depending on how you use the service, this may include:
Account information, such as your name, email address, authentication details and account status.
Business profile and compliance information, such as your business name, financial year end and whether you have employees on payroll.
Information you provide in documents, including invoices, debtor and creditor ledgers, bank statements, management accounts, payroll records and customer or supplier correspondence.
Your questions, Morning Briefs, recommendations, draft messages, edits, approvals, refusals, decisions and the reasons you record for them.
Subscription and payment information. If payments are handled by a payment provider, that provider may collect payment-card or bank details directly; Business Partner need not receive or store the complete payment credentials.
Communications you send to us by email, WhatsApp or another support channel.
Technical and security information, such as IP address, browser or device information, login times, session identifiers, error records and security events.
We collect information directly from you, from the documents you choose to provide, automatically when you use the website or service, and from service providers acting for us where necessary to deliver the service.
Business Partner does not currently require a connection to your accounting software, bank account or CRM. If a future feature allows you to connect another service, we will explain what information it will access before you choose to connect it.
4. Uploaded business information
Your documents may contain personal information about people who have no direct relationship with Business Partner. You remain responsible for deciding what to upload and for ensuring that you are entitled to provide it.
We use uploaded information only to provide the service to you. For example, we may use it to prepare your Morning Brief, identify invoices that may need attention, calculate business measures, answer questions about your figures, keep your compliance calendar and maintain your record of recommendations and the decisions you take on them.
Please do not upload personal information that is not reasonably necessary for those purposes. Where possible, remove irrelevant identity numbers, medical information, private addresses or other sensitive details before uploading a document.
Business Partner does not independently contact anyone named in your documents. A debtor-chasing message is a draft for you to review. It is sent only when you choose to send it, from your own email and in your own name.
5. Why we process information
We process personal information where it is necessary to:
Create and administer your account.
Provide the features you request and perform our agreement with you.
Authenticate users, prevent misuse, protect the service and investigate security incidents.
Provide support and respond to questions.
Administer subscriptions, payments and business records.
Improve the accuracy, reliability and usefulness of Business Partner.
Meet legal, regulatory, accounting and reporting obligations, and establish or defend legal claims.
We rely on one or more grounds permitted by POPIA, including your consent, performance of a contract, compliance with a legal obligation, protection of a legitimate interest and our legitimate interests or those of a third party. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time. Withdrawal does not affect processing that was lawful before withdrawal.
6. Recommendations, drafts and automated processing
Business Partner uses software-assisted analysis and may use machine-learning or language-model technology to organise information, perform calculations and prepare summaries, answers and drafts.
These outputs are assistive. Business Partner does not send debtor chases, contact third parties or make business decisions without your instruction. The service is not intended to make a decision about a person, based solely on automated processing, that produces legal consequences or affects that person to a substantial degree.
Every answer should identify the documents and dates it relied on. When the information is missing or insufficient, Business Partner should say so rather than invent an answer.
7. Who may receive information
We do not sell personal information. We do not disclose one subscriber’s identifiable information to another subscriber.
We may share information only with:
Service providers that help us host, store, secure, analyse, communicate, support or take payment for the service, including specialist technology or model-processing providers where that functionality is enabled.
Professional advisers, insurers, auditors or funders where access is reasonably necessary and subject to appropriate duties of confidentiality.
Courts, regulators, law-enforcement bodies or other persons where disclosure is required by law or reasonably necessary to protect rights, safety or the integrity of the service.
A buyer, investor or successor in connection with a genuine corporate transaction, subject to appropriate confidentiality and data-protection safeguards.
Our service providers may process information only for the services they provide to us and must be subject to appropriate confidentiality, security and data-protection obligations.
8. Aggregated and de-identified information
We may analyse information across subscriber accounts only after aggregating and de-identifying it so that no subscriber, customer, supplier, employee or other person is identifiable and the information cannot be re-identified.
We may use that de-identified information to understand how the service performs and to improve the quality of its recommendations. We do not disclose a subscriber’s identifiable information to another subscriber or use it to answer another subscriber’s questions.
9. Processing outside South Africa
Some of our service providers or their systems may be located outside South Africa. When personal information is transferred to a recipient in another country, we will use a lawful mechanism permitted by POPIA, such as a binding agreement, binding corporate rules or an applicable law that provides an adequate level of protection, or another basis allowed by section 72 of POPIA.
10. How long we keep information
We keep personal information only for as long as it is reasonably needed for the purpose for which it was collected, to provide the service, to maintain security and business records, or to meet legal, tax, accounting, dispute-resolution and enforcement obligations.
When information is no longer required, we will delete it, destroy it or de-identify it so that it cannot be reconstructed or linked to a person. Information in protected backups may remain for a limited period under our normal backup cycle and will not be used for any other purpose.
De-identified information that cannot be re-identified may be kept for product analysis and improvement.
11. Security
We use appropriate technical and organisational safeguards designed to protect personal information against loss, damage, unauthorised destruction, unlawful access and unlawful processing. These safeguards include measures appropriate to the nature of the information, the risks involved and the technology reasonably available.
No online service can promise absolute security. You are responsible for keeping your password confidential, using a secure device and telling us promptly if you believe your account has been compromised.
Where we act as an operator and have reasonable grounds to believe that uploaded personal information was accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person, we will notify the subscriber immediately and provide reasonable information and assistance so the subscriber can meet its own obligations.
Where Business Partner is the responsible party, we will notify the Information Regulator and affected data subjects as soon as reasonably possible after discovering a security compromise, as required by POPIA and subject to any lawful direction to delay notification.
12. Your rights
Subject to POPIA and any lawful limitations, you may ask us to:
Confirm whether we hold personal information about you.
Give you access to that information.
Correct or update information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading or obtained unlawfully.
Delete or destroy information that we are no longer authorised to retain.
Restrict certain processing or object to processing where POPIA allows.
Stop direct marketing communications.
Withdraw consent where processing depends on consent.
Send a request to ask@business-partner.co.za with “Privacy request” in the subject line. We may need to verify your identity before acting. We will respond within the period required by law.
If your request relates to information uploaded by a subscriber about you, that subscriber is normally the responsible party. We may refer the request to the subscriber and will provide reasonable assistance as its operator.
You may also lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator through inforegulator.org.za or at POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za.
14. Email, WhatsApp and direct marketing
We may send service communications that are necessary to operate your account, such as security notices, important service changes or responses to a request.
We will send marketing communications only where POPIA permits. You may opt out at any time by using the unsubscribe method provided or by contacting us.
If you choose to contact us through WhatsApp, WhatsApp processes information under its own terms and privacy practices. Do not send invoices, financial documents, identity documents or other sensitive business information through public email or WhatsApp channels. Use the signed-in document-upload process when Business Partner asks you to provide information.
15. Information about children
Business Partner is designed for people who operate or are authorised to act for a business. It is not directed at children. If a subscriber uploads information about a child, the subscriber remains responsible for ensuring that the processing is lawful and necessary, and Business Partner processes that information only as the subscriber’s operator.
16. Changes to this policy
Business Partner will continue to develop. Before we use personal information for a materially new or incompatible purpose, or introduce a feature that materially changes what information we collect, we will update this policy and provide any notice or choice required by law.
We will publish the current version on our website and show its effective date. Where a change materially affects your rights or how we use information, we will take reasonable steps to bring it to your attention.
17. Contact us
Privacy and information requests
Email: ask@business-partner.co.za
Information Officer: Stephen Oehley
Physical address: Suite 1, Prism Office Park, Ruby Close, Fourways, Sandton
Website: business-partner.co.za