Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Govermate, a service operated by Pace Online (Pty) Ltd ("Govermate", "we", "us" or "our"), collects, uses, shares and protects your personal information when you use https://www.govermate.com, the Govermate mobile application, and our related services (the "Service"). We process personal information in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 ("POPIA").

Govermate is an independent aggregator of public South African government opportunity data. We are not a government body and are not affiliated with or endorsed by any organ of state.

1. Responsible party and Information Officer

Pace Online (Pty) Ltd, which operates Govermate, is the "responsible party" for the personal information processed through the Service, as that term is used in POPIA.

Responsible party: Pace Online (Pty) Ltd Address: Building 10 HQ, 94 Bekker Road, Vorna Valley, Midrand, 1686, South Africa Information Officer: Xolani Nyuswa Email: nyuswa@paceonline.co.za

You can contact our Information Officer, Xolani Nyuswa, at nyuswa@paceonline.co.za or at the address above about anything in this policy, including to exercise your rights or raise a privacy concern. Every data-protection question is directed to the Information Officer first.

2. The personal information we collect, and why

We only collect personal information we need to provide and improve the Service. This includes:

Account information — your name and email address, and the password (stored in hashed form) you use to sign in, or the basic profile details supplied by Google or Apple if you choose those sign-in methods. If you use Sign in with Apple, Apple may give us a private-relay email address instead of your direct address. Revocable Apple account credentials needed to honour account deletion are encrypted at rest; we attempt revocation when deletion is confirmed and securely retry a failed revocation. We use this information to create and manage your account, authenticate you, communicate about the Service, and complete deletion obligations. Profile details — the details you choose to add to your profile, such as your first names and surname, date of birth, gender, employment status, phone number and contact email address, locations and social links, and any business profile (such as the business name, description, goods and services, annual turnover, addresses, links, keywords and provinces). We use the relevant details to match opportunities to you and to answer your questions. Job-seeker details — if you fill in the job-seeker part of your profile: your nationality, identity or passport number, immigration permit number, race, disability, whether you have a criminal or disciplinary record, professional memberships, qualifications, work history, referees (people whose contact details you give us, who must have agreed to this) and a motivation text. Some of this is special personal information, and you give it only if you choose to. We use these details only to help you prepare public-service job applications, such as the Z83 form, which ask for them. We store it with your profile and do not pass it to employers or other opportunity providers. Files you upload — CVs, certificates, identity and company documents you add to your profile, what we read from them (key facts, dates and the reminder schedule) and the reminders you create yourself. An AI supplier reads your files for us (see section 4), so we can remind you before, for example, a certificate expires. Subscription and billing information — the plan you choose and records of your payments. Card and payment details are collected and processed directly by our payment partners: Paystack or PayFast for subscriptions bought on our website (your billing page shows which one processes yours), or Apple for subscriptions bought in the iPhone app; we do not store your full card number. Preferences — the opportunity types, sectors, regions or keywords you follow, so we can send you relevant alerts. Watches and alerts — the opportunities and searches you watch, and your notification choices, so we can send you the alerts and reminders you asked for. Mobile notification information — if you opt in to push alerts in the mobile app, we store your Firebase Cloud Messaging push token, device platform, device identifier, app version and locale so we can deliver alerts to that device. You can turn push alerts off in the app at any time, which disables the device token for alert delivery. Typed-AI information — a typed chat, deep-research, search or Ask Govermate request on the website or in the mobile app, with or without an account, sends content to our AI suppliers (see section 4) as an inherent part of providing that feature; this policy and our Terms of Service are the disclosure, and there is no separate consent prompt before each request. Depending on the action and current supplier route, the information sent may include your prompt, relevant conversation history, selected opportunity or source evidence, and the profile, business, preference, or remembered context needed to answer. Our AI suppliers provide the routed chat, research, semantic-embedding and tool-processing capability. Mobile voice information — if you start a voice conversation in the mobile app, live microphone audio and the conversation context needed to answer are sent to the routed AI supplier, as disclosed in this policy and our Terms of Service. The audio is transmitted securely so the AI supplier can transcribe speech and return an AI-generated spoken response. Govermate does not store a copy of the raw microphone audio in its databases. We retain the resulting text transcript, model and tool activity, usage totals, and outcome as part of the agent history described below. The microphone is used only during an active voice session, and you can end the session at any time or withdraw microphone permission through your device settings. To help the AI supplier detect abuse, we also give it a one-way code made from your account identifier, which does not contain your name or email address. Conversations and memory — what you and the assistant say to each other, including voice transcripts, is saved so you can continue on any device. Facts the assistant remembers about you are stored with a search vector so it can find them again, and you can correct or forget them in the mobile app. Communications and support — messages you send us (for example via the contact form, native support ticket, or support email) and our replies. We may send a support ticket's subject, message, replies and the relevant ticket or account context to our AI suppliers to categorise the request and draft a response for our support staff, who review what is sent to you. Technical and usage information — your IP address, browser and device type, pages viewed and actions taken, collected through cookies and similar technologies and through analytics, to keep the Service secure, diagnose problems, and improve it. Account-linked route telemetry may retain pseudonymous hashes derived from IP address and user-agent information for security, abuse prevention, auditing and diagnostics; the raw values are not stored in those trace records. How you arrived — when you register on the website with your email address, we store the campaign, referring website and first page that brought you to Govermate, so we can see which campaigns and links bring people to the Service. Using Govermate without an account — if you use the Govermate app, or chat on the website, without an account, we create an anonymous record for your device to meter your free use and to keep your chat and any preferences and alerts you set (see section 7 for how long we keep it). Agent and support history — when Govermate acts on your behalf, we keep logs of the request, surface, context, tools used, support ticket state, and outcome so that the Service can be debugged, audited, improved, and explained. We do not use these logs to hide automated decisions from you. Our staff can see the messages you send to the assistant, and your support requests, when needed to give support, investigate abuse or fix a fault.

3. Lawful basis for processing

We process your personal information on one or more of the following lawful bases recognised under POPIA:

with your consent (for example, optional analytics cookies and marketing emails, which you may withdraw at any time); because processing is necessary to perform our contract with you (providing the Service you signed up for, including billing and alerts); to comply with a legal obligation that applies to us; and for our legitimate interests (such as securing the Service and preventing fraud), where these are not overridden by your rights.

Account, billing, security, support, alert and reminder emails are part of the Service you signed up for. Onboarding tips and offers about your subscription are service messages, and each one has a link to stop them. Marketing emails (occasional news about new Govermate features and opportunities, beyond the alerts you set up) are sent only if you asked for them at sign-up or in your notification settings, and you can withdraw at any time.

4. How we share your information — operators and third parties

We do not sell or rent your personal information. The one exchange we make is described under "AI suppliers" below.

We share personal information with trusted service providers who process it on our behalf and on our instructions (these are "operators" under POPIA), under agreements that require them to keep it secure and use it only for the purposes we specify, except where an item below says otherwise:

Paystack — payment processing and subscription management. PayFast (PayFast (Pty) Ltd, part of Network International) — payment processing and subscription management for subscriptions bought on our website. We give PayFast your email address and a reference to your Govermate account and plan; you enter your card details on PayFast's own payment page. PayFast processes your payment for us as our operator, and also uses payment details for its own purposes, such as preventing fraud and money laundering, under its own privacy policy (https://payfast.io/privacy-policy/). Brevo — sending our emails, such as email-verification and password-reset links, receipts and billing notices, the alerts and reminders you set up, support replies and, only if you asked for them, marketing emails (see section 3). Railway — secure hosting for the Service and for the database where your account data is stored. AI suppliers — the independent artificial-intelligence providers that supply the model, transcription, speech, vision, embedding, ranking and support-assistance capability behind the Service's agentic features. We do not name AI suppliers individually in this policy: they are selected, verified and replaced through Govermate's AI catalog as capability and price evolve, now and in future. We send each AI supplier only the context needed for the task, supplier credentials remain on Govermate's servers and are never returned to your device, we log which supplier and model family handled each task, and supplier-bound content is handled under that supplier's own API data-use and retention terms, so we do not promise a specific supplier retention period here. We use our AI suppliers to work on our instructions, but we have not been able to verify, for every supplier a task can be routed to, that its terms stop it from using what we send to train its own AI models. One exception: Govermate has chosen to share with one of its AI suppliers the content of the requests we send it and the answers it returns, and that supplier may use that content for its own purposes, including to improve and train its AI models. In return that supplier gives Govermate some free daily usage. This covers everything sent to that supplier, which can include your chat and deep-research questions, voice conversations, remembered context and the information we send to answer them. For that use the supplier is not acting as our operator: it decides how the content is used and kept, under its own terms. Depending on how a task is routed, what we send to that supplier can also include your search and Ask Govermate questions, the details we use to answer you (such as your name, business details, sectors, provinces and interests), the details used to write the summary at the top of your alert emails, the subject and text of your support requests, and the text we turn into search vectors. It can also include the text of files you upload to your profile, such as certificates and identity documents. Our AI suppliers process information outside South Africa (see section 5). For voice conversations specifically, the routed AI supplier receives the live microphone audio for transcription and spoken response; raw audio is not stored in Govermate's databases. Using the Service's chat, deep-research, search, Ask Govermate, voice, support, alert or file-reading features is how you accept this processing, as described in this policy and our Terms of Service. Questions about our AI suppliers — including which supplier handled a specific interaction — can be directed to our Information Officer, Xolani Nyuswa, at nyuswa@paceonline.co.za. Apple — Sign in with Apple authentication, including optional private-email relay. We retain only the revocable credential material needed to authenticate and to request Apple-side token revocation when a linked account is deleted, encrypted at rest and subject to secure revocation retry. Apple also processes subscriptions you buy through the App Store in the iPhone app. Google — authentication, if you choose to sign in with Google. Firebase Cloud Messaging — mobile push-notification delivery when you opt in to push alerts. Analytics provider (Google Analytics) — to understand and improve how the Service is used, subject to your cookie consent. Cloudflare — private storage for files you upload to your profile and for encrypted copies of our database. Sentry — reports of technical errors on our servers and in your browser, so we can find and fix faults. We set it up not to attach personal details, such as your IP address or account, to those reports. Cloudflare Turnstile — a check, run in your browser, that you are a person, before you chat on the website without an account.

We may also disclose personal information where required by law, to comply with a lawful request from a competent authority, or to protect our rights, users or systems.

5. Cross-border (international) transfers

Some of our operators store or process personal information on servers located outside South Africa. Our AI suppliers process information in the United States and, for some suppliers, in Singapore and other countries. Where we transfer your personal information across borders, we do so in line with section 72 of POPIA — for example, where the recipient is subject to laws or binding agreements that provide an adequate level of protection comparable to POPIA, where the transfer is necessary to perform our contract with you, or where you have consented. By using the Service you acknowledge that your information may be processed in other countries by these operators.

6. Your rights under POPIA

Subject to POPIA, you have the right to:

be told what personal information we hold about you and to request access to it; request that we correct, update or delete personal information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, or unlawfully obtained; object, on reasonable grounds, to our processing of your personal information; withdraw consent you previously gave (this will not affect processing already carried out lawfully); not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing that has legal or similarly significant effects on you; and lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (see section 11).

To exercise any of these rights, contact our Information Officer, Xolani Nyuswa, at nyuswa@paceonline.co.za. We may need to verify your identity before acting on your request.

7. Retention

We keep your personal information only for as long as necessary to provide the Service, to comply with our legal and tax obligations, to resolve disputes, and to enforce our agreements. Voice transcripts follow the same retention and account-deletion rules as other agent conversation history; raw microphone audio is not retained in Govermate's databases. When information is no longer needed for a lawful purpose, we will delete it or de-identify it. If you close your account, we will delete or de-identify your personal information within a reasonable period after verification, except where we are required or permitted by law to retain certain records (for example, billing records, security logs, or audit records needed to investigate fraud, abuse, support decisions, or system integrity).

To give each person one free trial, we keep a one-way fingerprint of your email address (a code that cannot be turned back into the address) with the plans you have tried or subscribed to. We keep it after you delete your account, so a new account with the same address does not get a second free trial.

Your chat history, including voice transcripts, is kept until you close your account. Facts the assistant remembers about you are kept until you forget them in the mobile app or close your account. Chats you start without an account, and the anonymous device record that holds them, become part of your account if you later create one or sign in on that device, and are deleted when you close it; if you never do, we keep them with no set end date. We keep technical and audit logs that refer to your account while your account exists; records of what AI work cost and our billing records are kept for as long as your account exists or the law requires.

Encrypted copies of our database are kept for 30 days (daily copies) and 12 months (monthly copies). Information you delete is removed from those copies when they expire, and we do not restore it from them except to recover from a disaster.

Closing your account does not recall information an AI supplier has already received. The AI supplier described in section 4 as using what we send it for its own purposes may keep and use it as described there.

8. Security

We apply appropriate, reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information against loss, unauthorised access, and misuse — including encryption of data in transit, hashed passwords, access controls, and reputable hosting and payment providers. No system is completely secure, but we work to protect your information and, where the law requires it, we will notify you and the Information Regulator of a security compromise affecting your personal information.

9. Cookies and analytics consent

We use cookies and similar technologies that are strictly necessary to run the Service (for example, to keep you signed in), and — only with your consent — optional cookies for analytics that help us understand how the Service is used. You can give or withdraw consent for optional cookies at any time, and you can control or block cookies through your browser settings. Disabling strictly necessary cookies may stop parts of the Service from working.

10. Children

The Service is intended for adults. You must be at least 18 years old to create an account or subscribe. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a person under 18 has provided us with personal information, please contact us at support@govermate.com and we will delete it.

11. Complaints and the Information Regulator

If you have a concern about how we handle your personal information, please contact our Information Officer first so we can try to resolve it. You also have the right to complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa:

Information Regulator (South Africa) Website: https://inforegulator.org.za Email: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za Telephone: 010 023 5200

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or the law. When we make material changes we will update the "Last Updated" date above and, where appropriate, notify you. Please review this page periodically.

13. Contact

For any questions or requests relating to this Privacy Policy or your personal information:

Email: support@govermate.com

By using Govermate, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.