Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Grocery Saver is a South African grocery price tracking service built to help users monitor Checkers product prices, manage recurring grocery baskets, and receive alerts when products or baskets become cheaper.

For purposes of South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 ("POPIA"), Grocery Saver is the responsible party for the personal information we decide to collect and use.

2. Personal information we collect

We collect only the information we need to run the service and improve the reliability of price tracking and alerts.

• Account information: your email address, authentication identifier, and sign-in status provided through Clerk.
• Basket and tracking information: product URLs, product names, quantities, basket labels, alert preferences, thresholds, selected time ranges, and tracked product status.
• Price and savings information: price snapshots, basket totals, alert history, purchase confirmations you record, estimated savings, and dashboard trend data.
• Subscription information: your plan, subscription status, billing period dates, Paystack customer and subscription references, and payment webhook events needed to keep your plan in sync.
• Referral and sharing information: referral codes and basket share links where you choose to use those features.
• Technical information: basic request data such as IP address, browser or device type, timestamps, logs, cookies, and service-worker cache data needed for security, authentication, troubleshooting, and PWA functionality.
• Support communications: messages and details you send us when asking for help.

We do not intentionally collect special personal information such as health, biometric, political, religious, or children's information.

3. How we use personal information

• To create and secure your account.
• To save your basket, product choices, labels, quantities, thresholds, and preferences.
• To monitor product prices and show price history, basket totals, and savings estimates.
• To send transactional emails such as price alerts, test alerts, reports, and account-related messages.
• To manage subscriptions, billing status, cancellations, and access limits.
• To detect abuse, fix bugs, improve data quality, and keep the service reliable.
• To respond to support requests and legal obligations.

4. Our legal basis for processing

We process personal information where it is necessary to provide the service you requested, perform a contract with you, comply with legal duties, protect legitimate interests such as security and fraud prevention, or where you have consented to optional communications or features.

You can opt out of non-essential communications where the product offers that setting. Transactional messages, such as security, billing, and active price alerts you requested, may still be sent when needed to provide the service.

5. Payments

Payment details are handled by Paystack. Grocery Saver does not store full card numbers or card security codes. We store only the references needed to identify your subscription and keep your plan status up to date.

6. Cookies and local storage

We use cookies and similar browser storage for authentication, session management, security, and PWA functionality. The application may also cache static files through its service worker so the site loads reliably. You can control cookies in your browser, but blocking essential cookies may prevent sign-in or dashboard features from working.

7. International transfers

Some providers may process or store information outside South Africa. Where this happens, we rely on appropriate safeguards, provider commitments, contracts, and security measures designed to protect personal information in line with POPIA.

8. Retention

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably needed for the purposes described in this policy, including providing the service, maintaining price and alert history, complying with legal or tax obligations, resolving disputes, and improving reliability.

If you ask us to delete your account, we will delete or de-identify personal information that is no longer required, unless we must keep it for legal, security, accounting, or legitimate operational reasons.

9. Security

We use technical and organisational safeguards such as authenticated access, provider security controls, limited access to production systems, and operational monitoring. No online service can guarantee absolute security, but we work to protect personal information from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, or alteration.

If we become aware of a security compromise involving your personal information, we will take appropriate steps and notify affected users and the Information Regulator where required by law.

10. Your rights

Subject to POPIA and other applicable laws, you may have the right to:

• Ask whether we hold personal information about you.
• Request access to your personal information.
• Ask us to correct, update, or delete inaccurate or unnecessary information.
• Object to certain processing or withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.
• Request that we restrict processing in appropriate circumstances.
• Complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa.

11. Children

Grocery Saver is not aimed at children under 18. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information without appropriate consent, please contact us so we can investigate and take appropriate action.

12. Product and retailer information

Grocery Saver tracks publicly available product and pricing information to help you monitor your own basket. Your personal basket choices and alert settings are treated as your account information. Grocery Saver is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Checkers, Shoprite Holdings, or their subsidiaries.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as the service changes or legal requirements evolve. If changes are material, we will take reasonable steps to notify users, such as updating this page, sending an email, or showing an in-app notice.