Privacy policy

Contact

After reviewing this policy, if you have additional questions, want more information about our privacy practices, or would like to make a complaint, please contact us via email at compliance.office@usn.co.za or by mail using the details provided below:

Ultimate Sports Nutrition (Pty) Ltd
Unit 4, Louwlardia Logistics Park
Nellmapius Road
Pretoria
Gauteng
1683
South Africa

Collecting Personal Information

www.usn.co.za (“the Site”) respects your privacy and makes a firm commitment to protecting your privacy. To provide you with the best products, efficient customer service, and timely updates, we record a variety of information from your visit to our site. This privacy policy explains how we collect, use and (under certain conditions) disclose your personal information. This privacy policy explains your options regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information. By visiting our Site, you accept the practices described in this policy.

In line with the obligations placed on us in terms of the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA), this policy serves to outline the framework within which USN shall apply the appropriate level of protection for consumer identification, collection, holding, using, disseminating, merging, collating, disclosing and protection of your personal information (“process” or “processing”).

One goal in collecting personal information from you is to provide an efficient, meaningful, and customised experience. We collect information from you in several different ways, including but not limited to one or more of the following sources:

  • Directly from you;
  • In the course of our relationship with you;
  • In the course of selling products and related services to you or your entity;
  • When you make your Personal Information public;
  • When you visit and/or interact with our website or our various social media platforms;
  • When you subscribe to any communication from us;
  • When you interact with any third party content or advertising on our website;
  • When you visit our offices;
  • When applying for an account with us on behalf of your entity or company;
  • We may also receive Personal Information about you from third parties;
  • Personal Information may be created by us about you such as records of your communications and interactions with us, including, but not limited to, your attendance at events or at interviews in the course of applying for a job with us, subscription to our newsletters and other mailings and interactions with you during the course of our digital marketing campaigns;
  • Personal Information about you may be obtained through marketing campaigns run in the various retail channels where our products are selling;
  • Collection information in website, specifically:
    • Registration and ordering
      Using certain parts of this Site or ordering products, you must complete an online registration form. During registration, you will be prompted to provide us with certain personal information, including but not limited to your name, delivery and billing address(es), phone number, email address, and credit card number. These kinds of personal information are used for billing purposes, to fulfil your orders, to communicate with you about your order and our site, and for internal marketing purposes. If we encounter a problem when processing your order, we may use the personal information you provide us to contact you.
    • Email addresses
      Locations of the Site permit you to enter your email address for purposes including but not limited to register for free promotional notices; to request us to notify you when we receive a new brand, or new product style; to sign up for our email newsletter. Your participation in a contest is completely voluntary, and you may choose whether to participate and disclose information to us. We use this information to notify contest winners and to award prizes. We may post the names of contest winners on our Site.
    • USN Yotpo reviews
      Please note when unsubscribing from USN Yotpo reviews you are exclusively unsubscribing from review@usn.co.za mailer subscription. You will not be unsubscribed from USN's general mailer subscription. 

Categories of Personal Information We May Process

We may process the following categories of Personal Information about you:

  • Personal details: name and photograph;
  • Demographic information: gender, date of birth/age, nationality and title;
  • Identifier information: passport or national identity number, bank statements, tenancy agreements, financial statements;
  • Contact details: correspondence address, telephone number, email address, and details of your public social media profile(s);
  • Attendance records: details of meetings and other events organised by or on behalf of USN that you have attended;
  • Payment details: billing address; payment method; bank account number or credit card number, invoice records, payment records, SWIFT details, International Bank Account Number details, payment amount, payment date and records of cheques;
  • Content and advertising data: records of your interactions with our online advertising and content, records of advertising and content displayed on pages, displayed to you, and any interaction you may have had with such content or advertising (including, but not limited to, mouse hover, mouse clicks and any forms you complete).

 


Information Use and Disclosure

  • We will process your Personal Information in the ordinary course of the business of selling sports supplements and related after-sale service.
  • We will primarily use your Personal Information only for the purpose for which it was originally or primarily collected.
  • We will use your Personal Information for a secondary purpose only if such purpose constitutes a legitimate interest and is closely related to the original or primary purpose for which the Personal Information was collected;
  • We may subject your Personal Information to Processing during the course of various activities, including, without limitation, the following:
    • operating our business;
    • analyse, evaluate, review and collation of information to determine credit worthiness if you or your organisation has applied to open an account with us, to provide you with product information or other related communication;
    • for business purposes, such as analysing and managing our business, market search, audits, developing new products, improving our services and products, gauging customer satisfaction;
    • compliance with applicable law and fraud prevention;
    • transfer of information to our Service Providers and other third parties;
    • recruitment.
  • We may process your Personal Information for relationship management and marketing purposes in relation to our business (including, but not limited to, processing that is necessary for the development and improvement of our products and related services), for accounts management and for marketing activities in order to establish, maintain and/or improve our relationship with you and with our Service Providers and/or Suppliers.
  • We may analyse your Personal Information for statistical purposes.
  • We may process your Personal Information for internal management and management reporting purposes which includes amongst others, the following:
    • conducting customer surveys;
    • implementing internal business controls;
    • providing central processing facilities;
    • for insurance purposes;
    • for management reporting analysis.
  • We may Process your Personal Information for safety and security purposes.
  • USN undertakes to minimise the processing of your Personal Information and only process Personal Information which is sufficient to fulfil the main purpose for which the Personal Information was collected or provided.

Minors

The Site is not intended for individuals under the age of 18 years. We do not intentionally collect Personal Information from children. If you are the parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with Personal Information, please contact us at the address above to request deletion.

Sharing Personal Information

We share your Personal Information with service providers to help us provide our services and fulfil our contracts with you, as described above. For example:

  • We use Shopify to power our online store. You can read more about how Shopify uses your Personal Information here.
  • We may share your personal information to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to respond to a subpoena, search warrant or other lawful request for information we receive, or to otherwise protect our rights.
  • We may share your personal information with third party service provider for as far as it is necessary to fulfil our service to you. These third-party suppliers include but are not limited to payment gateway service providers and delivery service providers. We want to provide you with excellent service and to offer you a great selection—we primarily sell goods, not information. We do not sell, rent, trade, licence, or otherwise disclose your specific personal information or financial information to anyone, except that:
    • We may disclose your personal information to our Associates and Service Providers, for legitimate business purposes, in accordance with applicable law and subject to applicable professional and regulatory requirements regarding confidentiality.
    • We sometimes use others to perform specific functions on our behalf. When we disclose information to these service providers, we disclose information to help them to perform their service. For example, to deliver products to you, we must share some information. We make use of couriers (such as Dawn Wing) to deliver products and so that we can obtain feedback, improve the quality of our service, and measure and improve the quality of the service of the third party. We provide the courier with some personally identifiable information such as your name, delivery address, email, and phone number.
    • Similarly, to help you buy products and provide customer service to you, we must provide your credit card number to financial-services corporations such as credit-card processors and issuers. When we submit your credit card number for authorisation, we use state-of-the-art data encryption to protect your information.
    • We will not sell (or trade or rent) personally identifiable information to other companies as part of our regular course of business. However, it is possible that we might acquire or merge with or be acquired by another company or that we might dispose of some or all of our assets. If that happens, your personal information may be disclosed to another company, but that disclosure will be subject to this privacy policy in effect.
    • We may share non-personal information (such as the number of daily visitors to a particular web page, or the size of an order placed on a certain date) with third parties such as advertising partners. This information does not directly personally identify you or any user.
    • In addition, we may disclose your personal information:
      • if required by law;
      • legal and regulatory authorities, upon request, or for the purposes of reporting any actual or suspected breach of applicable law or regulation;
      • third party operators (including, but not limited to, data processors such as providers of data hosting services and document review technology and services), located anywhere in the world;
      • where it is necessary for the purposes of, or in connection with, actual or threatened legal proceedings or establishment, exercise or defence of legal rights;
      • to any relevant party for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, including, but not limited to, safeguarding against, and the prevention of threats to, public security;
      • to any relevant third-party acquirer(s), in the event that we sell or transfer all or any portion of our business or assets (including, but not limited to, in the event of a reorganisation, dissolution or liquidation);
      • to any relevant third-party provider, where our Website uses third party advertising, plugins or content.

Behavioural Advertising

As described above, we use your Personal Information to provide you with targeted advertisements or marketing communications we believe may be of interest to you. For example:

  • We use Google Analytics to help us understand how our customers use the Site. You can read more about how Google uses your Personal Information here. You can also opt-out of Google Analytics here.
  • We share information about your use of the Site, your purchases, and your interaction with our ads on other websites with our advertising partners. We collect and share some of this information directly with our advertising partners, and in some cases through the use of cookies or other similar technologies (which you may consent to, depending on your location).
  • We use Shopify Audiences to help us show ads on other websites with our advertising partners to buyers who made purchases with other Shopify merchants and who may also be interested in what we have to offer. We also share information about your use of the Site, your purchases, and the email address associated with your purchases with Shopify Audiences, through which other Shopify merchants may make offers you may be interested in.
  • For more information about how targeted advertising works, you can visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s (“NAI”) educational page.
  • You can opt out of targeted advertising for the following sites:
  • Additionally, you can opt out of some of these services by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out portal.

 


Using Personal Information

We use your personal Information to provide our services to you, which includes: offering products for sale, processing payments, shipping and fulfilment of your order, and keeping you up to date on new products, services, and offers.

Cookies

A cookie is a small amount of information that’s downloaded to your computer or device when you visit our Site. We use a number of different cookies, including functional, performance, advertising, and social media or content cookies. Cookies make your browsing experience better by allowing the website to remember your actions and preferences (such as login and region selection). This means you don’t have to re-enter this information each time you return to the site or browse from one page to another. Cookies also provide information on how people use the website, for instance whether it’s their first time visiting or if they are a frequent visitor.

We use the following cookies to optimise your experience on our Site and to provide our services. Be sure to check this list against Shopify’s current list of cookies on the merchant storefront.

Cookies necessary for the functioning of the store

Name Function Duration
_ab Used in connection with access to admin. 2y
_secure_session_id Used in connection with navigation through a storefront. 24h
_shopify_country Used in connection with checkout. session
_shopify_m Used for managing customer privacy settings. 1y
_shopify_tm Used for managing customer privacy settings. 30min
_shopify_tw Used for managing customer privacy settings. 2w
_storefront_u Used to facilitate updating customer account information. 1min
_tracking_consent Tracking preferences. 1y
c Used in connection with checkout. 1y
cart Used in connection with shopping cart. 2w
cart_currency Used in connection with shopping cart. 2w
cart_sig Used in connection with checkout. 2w
cart_ts Used in connection with checkout. 2w
cart_ver Used in connection with shopping cart. 2w
checkout Used in connection with checkout. 4w
checkout_token Used in connection with checkout. 1y
dynamic_checkout_
shown_on_cart
Used in connection with checkout. 30min
hide_shopify_pay_
for_checkout
Used in connection with checkout. session
keep_alive Used in connection with buyer localisation. 2w
master_device_id Used in connection with merchant login. 2y
previous_step Used in connection with checkout. 1y
remember_me Used in connection with checkout. 1y
secure_customer_sig Used in connection with customer login. 20y
shopify_pay Used in connection with checkout. 1y
shopify_pay_redirect Used in connection with checkout. 30 minutes, 3w or 1y depending on value
storefront_digest Used in connection with customer login. 2y
tracked_start_
checkout
Used in connection with checkout. 1y
checkout_one_
experiment
Used in connection with checkout. session

Reporting and analytics

Name Function Duration
_landing_page Track landing pages. 2w
_orig_referrer Track landing pages. 2w
_s Shopify analytics. 30min
_shopify_d Shopify analytics. sesssion
_shopify_s Shopify analytics. 30min
_shopify_sa_p Shopify analytics relating to marketing & referrals. 30min
_shopify_sa_t Shopify analytics relating to marketing & referrals. 30min
_shopify_y Shopify analytics. 1y
_y Shopify analytics. 1y
_shopify_evids Shopify analytics. session
_shopify_ga Shopify and Google Analytics. session

The length of time that a cookie remains on your computer or mobile device depends on whether it is a “persistent” or “session” cookie. Session cookies last until you stop browsing and persistent cookies last until they expire or are deleted. Most of the cookies we use are persistent and will expire between 30 minutes and two years from the date they are downloaded to your device.

You can control and manage cookies in various ways. Please keep in mind that removing or blocking cookies can negatively impact your user experience and parts of our website may no longer be fully accessible. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can choose whether or not to accept cookies through your browser controls, often found in your browser’s “Tools” or “Preferences” menu. For more information on how to modify your browser settings or how to block, manage or filter cookies can be found in your browser’s help file or through such sites as www.allaboutcookies.org.

Additionally, please note that blocking cookies may not completely prevent how we share information with third parties such as our advertising partners. To exercise your rights or opt-out of certain uses of your information by these parties, please follow the instructions in the “Behavioural Advertising” section above.

Do not track
Please note that because there is no consistent industry understanding of how to respond to “Do Not Track” signals, we do not alter our data collection and usage practices when we detect such a signal from your browser.

Changes

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons.

Complaints

As noted above, if you would like to make a complaint, please contact us by email or by mail using the details provided under “Contact” above.

If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, you have the right to lodge your complaint with the relevant data protection authority.

Last updated: 2022/07/27