Privacy
Privacy notice.
How your information — and your child's — is collected, used, stored and protected under POPIA.
Fortitudo Studios Drama ("we", "I") is the responsible party for the personal information described here. This notice is written to be read, not to be survived. If anything in it is unclear, ask.
1. Information collected
- Enquiry information: your name, email address, phone number, town or city, and whatever you choose to tell me in the enquiry form.
- Learner information: the learner's first name, age or grade, prior experience, and the competitions or events they are preparing for.
- Enrolment information: billing details for EFT payment, an emergency contact, and any medical or accessibility information you volunteer that affects participation.
- Progress information: coaching notes, pieces performed, results achieved, and drafts of the learner's own written work.
- Session recordings: online sessions are recorded so the learner can review their own performance. This is a core part of the method and is covered in more detail below.
2. Session recordings
Because coaching is delivered online, recording is straightforward and genuinely useful — watching yourself is the fastest way to improve. It is also personal information about a child, so it is handled carefully:
- Recording happens only with your written consent at enrolment, and you may decline without affecting the coaching.
- You may ask for recording to be switched off for any individual session, at any time, without giving a reason.
- Recordings are shared only with you and the learner, via a private link. They are never posted publicly, never used in marketing, and never shown to another family.
- They are stored in access-controlled cloud storage with two-factor authentication and deleted at the end of the term in which they were made, or sooner if you ask.
3. Children's information
POPIA treats the personal information of a child as a special category requiring the consent of a competent person. In practice that means:
- Enquiries and enrolments concerning a learner under 18 must be made by a parent or legal guardian, who provides consent.
- No image, video, recording or name of a learner is published, posted on social media or used in any marketing without separate, specific written consent — and consent for one use is not consent for another.
- Consent can be withdrawn at any time, in writing, without affecting the learner's place or standing.
4. Why the information is used
- To respond to your enquiry and recommend a suitable format.
- To deliver the coaching you have engaged, including selecting appropriate material.
- To invoice and collect fees.
- To report progress to you.
- To declare coached learners to eisteddfod organisers, as required by the adjudication policy. This declaration covers the learner's name and the sections entered, and nothing else.
- To send occasional coaching notes and studio news, where you have opted in. Every such email carries an unsubscribe link.
5. Who it is shared with
Personal information is not sold, rented or traded, ever. It is shared only with:
- Eisteddfod organisers — the coached-learner declaration described above, which exists to protect the integrity of your child's result.
- Service providers — the video platform that carries the session (Microsoft Teams, or Zoom or Google Meet by arrangement), the email service that carries the contact form, and accounting software used for invoicing. Each processes information only as needed to provide that service.
6. How long it is kept
- Enquiries that do not become bookings: 12 months, then deleted.
- Coaching and progress records: for the duration of coaching plus 3 years, so that a past student can request a reference or a record of pieces performed.
- Financial records: 5 years, as required by South African tax law.
- Session recordings: deleted at the end of the term in which they were made, unless you ask for them sooner.
7. How it is protected
Records are held in access-controlled, password-protected cloud storage with two-factor authentication. Paper records are not kept. Devices used for studio work are encrypted. Only I have access; there are no other staff at present, and any future assistant will be bound in writing before being given access.
8. Your rights
Under POPIA you may, at any time:
- Ask what personal information is held about you or your child.
- Ask for it to be corrected if it is wrong.
- Ask for it to be deleted, subject to the retention periods above where law requires them.
- Object to its use for marketing, which will be actioned immediately.
- Withdraw a consent you previously gave, including consent to recording.
- Complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa if you are not satisfied with how I have handled a request.
Requests go to gertjiefourie@icloud.com and are answered within 30 days, usually much sooner.
9. Cookies and analytics
This website sets no tracking or advertising cookies. Fonts are loaded from Google Fonts and the enquiry form is delivered by a third-party email service; both receive your IP address as an unavoidable part of serving the request. No profile of you is built and no advertising network is used.
10. Changes
This notice is reviewed annually. Material changes will be communicated to enrolled families by email before they take effect.
Contact
Fortitudo Studios Drama · South Africa
gertjiefourie@icloud.com · 072 243 6950