Privacy Policy

This policy explains what personal information I collect through tovstudio.co, why I collect it, who processes it for me and what your rights are. Tov Studio is run by Daniel Lun in Johannesburg, South Africa. In this policy “I”, “me” and “Tov Studio” mean Tov Digital (Pty) Ltd, trading as Tov Studio, and Tov Studios LLC for clients billed in US dollars.

Who is responsible

I am the responsible party under South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), and the controller under the UK and EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for visitors those laws cover. I am also the Information Officer. You can reach me at daniel@tovstudio.co or 17 Alice Road, Kensington, Johannesburg, South Africa.

What I collect

• When you use the contact form: your name, email address, company or project name if you give one, the project type, timeline and budget you choose, your message, and the price range from the pricing page if you arrived from there.
• When you email me: your email address and whatever you choose to include.
• When analytics is on: the pages you visit, how you reach and move through them (clicks, scrolling), your device and browser type, and your approximate location (country or city, worked out from your IP address). It also records when you use the pricing calculator and which project type and price range it shows. See “Cookies and analytics” below for when analytics is on.
• Every visit: technical information such as your IP address and browser details, which my hosting provider handles to deliver the site and protect it from abuse, and which the contact form’s spam check uses.

The pricing calculator runs in your browser. Your choices are not sent to me unless you send them with the contact form. I don’t ask for, and please don’t send, special personal information such as health or financial details.

Why I use it

• To reply to your enquiry, prepare an estimate or quote and, if we work together, run the project. This is done at your request and, once we agree a project, to perform our agreement.
• To understand how the site is used and improve it. In the EU, UK and Switzerland this only happens with your consent; elsewhere it relies on my legitimate interest in running a useful website, and you can switch it off at any time.
• To keep the site and the contact form secure and free of spam, which is my legitimate interest.

I don’t sell personal information, use it for advertising, or add you to a mailing list.

Who processes it for me

I use a small number of service providers. Each one only processes information to provide its service to me:

• Cloudflare: hosts and delivers the website, protects it from attacks, and runs Turnstile, the spam check on the contact form.
• Resend: delivers messages from the contact form to my inbox.
• Google Workspace: my email.
• Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager: website analytics. Advertising features are switched off.
• Microsoft Clarity: shows how pages are used, through heatmaps and recordings of clicks and scrolling.

I may also share information if the law requires it, or with a professional adviser (such as my accountant) where needed to run the business.

Information stored outside South Africa

These providers store and process information outside South Africa, mainly in the United States and the European Union. I rely on their contractual commitments and safeguards (such as standard contractual clauses) to protect it to a standard comparable with POPIA and the GDPR.

How long I keep it

• Enquiries: as long as needed to reply and follow up. If we work together, for the length of the project and afterwards for as long as tax and accounting law requires. If we don’t, I delete them when they’re no longer needed, or sooner if you ask.
• Google Analytics data: 14 months.
• Microsoft Clarity: recordings for 30 days and heatmaps for up to 13 months, under Microsoft’s standard settings.

Cookies and analytics

Analytics only sets cookies once it’s allowed to. Visitors in the European Union, the United Kingdom and Switzerland are asked first in a cookie banner, and nothing is set until they accept. Elsewhere, analytics is on by default and you can switch it off at any time.

The cookies and stored values are:

• _ga, _ga_* (Google Analytics): tell visits and sessions apart. Kept for up to 2 years.
• _clck, _clsk (Microsoft Clarity): link the pages viewed in a visit. Kept for up to 1 year and 1 day respectively.
• tov-consent (this website, stored in your browser): remembers your cookie choice for 12 months.

Cloudflare may also set a strictly necessary cookie to protect the site and the contact form from bots. You can change your analytics choice at any time with the Cookie settings link at the bottom of every page.

Your rights

You can ask me to tell you what personal information I hold about you, correct it, delete it, or stop using it. Where I rely on your consent you can withdraw it at any time, and where I rely on legitimate interest you can object. Email me and I’ll respond as soon as I can, within the time the law allows. I may need to confirm who you are first.

If you’re unhappy with how I handle your information, you can complain to the Information Regulator in South Africa (inforegulator.org.za), the Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK (ico.org.uk), or the data protection authority where you live in the EU. I’d appreciate the chance to put it right first.

Security

The site is served only over HTTPS, and only I have access to enquiries and analytics. No method of sending or storing information online is completely secure, but I take reasonable steps to protect it and will tell you and the regulator if a breach affects you, as the law requires.

Children

This site is for businesses and isn’t aimed at anyone under 18. I don’t knowingly collect information from children; if you think a child has sent me information, tell me and I’ll delete it.

Changes to this policy

If I change how I handle personal information, I’ll update this page and the effective date at the top.

Contact

Questions or requests about your information: daniel@tovstudio.co.