Privacy notice

We handle personal information in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act (PoPIA) and, where it applies, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We collect only what we need, use it only for the purpose it was given, and keep it no longer than necessary.

For people who sign in we keep a name, work email address, an optional profile picture, the workspace and roles they hold, and a record of the terms and privacy wording they accepted.

We use this to give access, keep the workspace secure, and keep an audit trail of who did what.

For people who receive a survey we keep the mobile number and optional name loaded by the workspace, the delivery outcome of each SMS, the answers given, and whether a reward was allocated.

At the end of a survey each person is asked whether their personal details may be kept. If they say no, the name and number are removed and only the anonymous answers remain.

Survey links are single-purpose, expire after a period the workspace chooses, and can be switched off at any time.

Names, mobile numbers, the wording of messages sent, and survey link clicks can only be read by the workspace owner, campaign managers and reward managers. A brand viewer sees counts, charts and reports, never a personal detail, this is enforced by the database itself, not only by the screens.

Screens that everyone in a workspace may open, such as reports and progress tracking, receive mobile numbers partly hidden.

Live updates that keep dashboards current carry only counts and statuses. Names, mobile numbers and message wording are never sent to a browser through them.

A workspace may issue keys so other software can connect. A key belongs to one workspace and can never reach another. Read-only keys receive mobile numbers partly hidden and never receive a redeemable reward code.

Keys are stored only as a one-way fingerprint, can be given an expiry date, and stop working the moment they are removed. Every call made with a key is recorded.

SMS network providers, to deliver messages and report on delivery and cost.

Our hosting and database provider, to run the portal securely.

We never sell personal information and never share it for someone else's marketing.

Information is kept in secured, access-controlled cloud infrastructure, encrypted in transit and at rest. Access inside a workspace is limited by role, and no workspace can see another workspace's data.

Campaign records are kept for as long as the workspace needs them for reporting, and then deleted on request. Audit and billing records may be kept longer where the law requires it.

You may ask what we hold about you, ask for a correction, ask for deletion, object to processing, or ask for a copy in a portable format.

Write to The Information Officer, MBOS at privacy@mbos.co.za. You may also complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa, or to your local supervisory authority in the EU/UK.

While a survey is being filled in, the survey page measures how it is being used: how long each question is on screen, how far the page is scrolled, how often an answer is changed, whether text is pasted, whether the person switches away, and the screen size and whether a touch screen is used. A short notice on the survey page says so before answers are submitted.

This is used only to tell considered answers apart from rushed ones, so research results can be trusted. We do not record keystrokes, the content of anything pasted, location, IP-based tracking, advertising identifiers or any device fingerprint, and we do not track anyone across other websites.

These measurements are stored with the answers they belong to, are visible only to the workspace running that survey, and are deleted whenever that response is deleted or anonymised.

Reward eligibility is decided by a simple, published rule: the first people to finish, up to the limit the workspace set. No profiling is used, and the order is recorded so it can be checked.

Answer-quality scores are an aid for researchers only. They never decide whether someone gets a reward and are never used to make a decision about a person on their own.