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Privacy Policy – Fairhost (Pty) Ltd.
Last Updated: 30 April 2025
Fairhost (Pty) Ltd. (“Fairhost”, “we”, “our”, or “us”) is committed to protecting your privacy. We are a South African web hosting company serving both local and international clients, and we comply with applicable data protection laws (South Africa’s POPIA). This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect when you use our services (including account creation and domain registration), how we use it, and how we protect it. It also describes your rights and how to exercise them.
Table of Contents
Information We Collect
We collect the personal and technical information you provide and generate through our services. These may include:
Account and registration data: Names, postal and email addresses, phone numbers, company name, and billing information (including payment/card details). These are collected during account sign-up, order processing, and domain registration.
Domain registration details: Contact and registration data required by domain registries (e.g. domain owner name, address, email) to register or manage domains on your behalf.
Usage and transaction records: Records of support communications, service usage logs, billing history, and any messages or tickets you submit.
Technical and online identifiers: IP addresses, browser and device information, cookies, and other online identifiers when you visit our website or use our services. These may include analytics cookies.
All of the above are considered “personal information” under POPIA and similar laws, which broadly cover identifiers like names, addresses, emails, IP addresses, and any data that can identify you.
Use of Cookies and Third-Party Tracking
We use cookies and similar tracking technologies on our website and client portals to improve functionality and analyze usage. Cookies may remember your login status, language preferences, and other settings. We also use third-party analytics and advertising tools to collect anonymized usage data so we can understand how visitors use our site.
In addition, we may use Meta (Facebook) Pixel, Google and TikTok Pixel on our site. These are pieces of code that collect information about actions taken on our site (such as page views or purchases) and send that data (in hashed or anonymized form) to Meta, Google and TikTok for ad tracking and conversion measurement. These pixels use first- and third-party cookies to track visitor behaviour across pages. You can opt out of such tracking via your Facebook settings or your browser’s cookie settings. Most browsers allow you to block or delete cookies; please refer to your browser help documentation. Note that disabling cookies may affect the functionality of our website and services.
Infrastructure Services
To provide reliable hosting and DNS services, Fairhost uses certain third-party infrastructure providers:
Cloudflare DNS/CDN: We use Cloudflare for DNS resolution (including their 1.1.1.1 public DNS service) and as a content delivery network (CDN) and DDoS protection for our servers. This means DNS queries and some web traffic are routed through Cloudflare’s network. According to Cloudflare’s privacy policy, their public DNS service does not log personally identifying information and does not combine your DNS queries with any other personal data. Cloudflare also uses encryption and other security measures to protect data in transit. Any data sent through Cloudflare remains under Fairhost’s control, and Cloudflare serves only as a conduit for information we store and transmit.
QuickCloud services: Fairhost also utilizes QuickCloud’s cloud hosting services for scalability. QuickCloud is a cloud infrastructure provider; importantly, QuickCloud states that all data stored on your dedicated servers is fully owned by you. In other words, Fairhost retains full ownership and control of client data on QuickCloud servers. QuickCloud also employs industry-standard security measures (network security, access controls, etc.) to protect the data on its platform.
When we route data through Cloudflare or QuickCloud, those services may process your data to the extent necessary to provide DNS, hosting, or CDN services. We encourage you to review Cloudflare’s and QuickCloud’s privacy policies for details, but note that under both services your data ownership remains with Fairhost (and thus with you).
Email Marketing and Communications
Fairhost may send marketing and promotional emails to customers who have opted in or with whom we have an existing business relationship. If you subscribe to newsletters or marketing offers, we will only contact you with your consent. Each marketing email clearly identifies us as the sender and includes an easy-to-use unsubscribe link or opt-out mechanism. In compliance with POPIA, we honour all unsubscribe requests promptly. Under these laws, you have the right to object to direct marketing and ask that communications cease.
We do not sell or share your email address with unrelated third parties for marketing. We also comply with anti-spam laws (such as POPIA’s provisions and South Africa’s ECTA), which require that any unsolicited email include our contact information and opt-out instructions.
Compliance with POPIA
Fairhost is committed to complying with local privacy laws as applicable to our customers:
POPIA (South Africa): As a South African company, we adhere to the Protection of Personal Information Act. POPIA broadly defines “personal information” to include identifiers such as names, addresses, emails, IP addresses, and more. We process personal information only for lawful purposes, as required by POPIA’s conditions. For instance, we collect data necessary for providing hosting services (contract performance) and complying with legal obligations.
In summary, we handle personal data in accordance with these laws’ requirements, including transparency, purpose limitation, data minimization, and data subject rights. We keep our privacy practices under review to ensure ongoing compliance.
Your Rights in South Africa
As a resident of South Africa, you have specific rights under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) regarding the personal information we collect and process. These rights are designed to give you control over your personal data and ensure transparency in how we handle it. Below are the rights available to you:
Right of Access: You have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you. We will provide this information to you upon request, as long as it does not conflict with any legal or regulatory requirements.
Right to Rectification: If any of the personal data we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right to request that we correct it.
Right to Deletion (Right to be Forgotten): You may request the deletion of your personal information if it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, or if you withdraw your consent where consent was the basis for processing. We will honor your request unless we are required to retain the data for legal reasons.
Right to Object: You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information under certain circumstances. For example, you can object if we process your data for direct marketing purposes, or if we process it based on a legitimate interest that does not outweigh your rights and freedoms.
Right to Restriction of Processing: In certain cases, you may request that we restrict the processing of your personal information. This could occur, for example, while we verify the accuracy of your data or if you object to the processing and we are determining whether our legitimate grounds override your rights.
Right to Portability: If applicable, you have the right to request that we provide your personal information in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, so that you can transfer it to another service provider.
Right to Withdraw Consent: If we rely on your consent for the processing of your data, you may withdraw your consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out prior to the withdrawal of consent.
If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details provided below. We are committed to responding to your requests within the required timeframes set by POPIA.
Data Security
We take appropriate technical and organizational measures to safeguard your personal information. We use strong encryption (TLS/SSL) for data in transit. We store data in secure data centers with physical and electronic access controls. Our servers run up-to-date operating systems and anti-malware software. Access to personal data is restricted to authorized personnel who need it for their work. We also perform regular security reviews, vulnerability scans, and backups to prevent data loss.
However, no system can be completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute protection. In the event of a data breach, we have an incident response plan in place and will follow applicable breach notification laws.
Data Retention and Deletion
We retain personal data only as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected or to comply with legal obligations. We keep billing and accounting records for the time required by South African tax law (generally 5 years) and then delete them. When you close your account or cancel services, we may keep certain information (like account name and email) to prevent fraud and to comply with legal retention rules. Otherwise, once personal data is no longer needed after account deletion or domain expiration, we securely delete or anonymize it.
As required by POPIA, we will destroy, delete, or permanently de-identify personal information once we have completed the relevant purpose. If you request deletion of your data (and we have no legal obligation to retain it), we will remove it in a timely manner.
Hosting and Data Storage
Fairhost (Pty) Ltd. provides web hosting services through third-party infrastructure partners. The hosting services are provided by a globally recognized hosting provider with data centers located in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
When you use our hosting services, your data may be stored in these data centers, located within those regions. We take necessary steps to ensure that any data hosted with us is handled securely and in compliance with relevant data protection laws.
By using our hosting services, you consent to the storage of your data in these regions, and you acknowledge that such data may be processed and stored in the respective data centers to provide the hosting services you have requested.
Payment Information
Fairhost (Pty) Ltd. uses third-party payment processors, Paystack and PayFast, to securely process card payments for our hosting and domain registration services. We do not store or process your credit card information directly on our systems. Instead, payment details are encrypted and handled by Paystack and PayFast, both of which comply with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS).
By making a payment through our platform, you acknowledge and accept that Paystack and PayFast may collect, process, and store your payment information in accordance with their respective privacy policies. For more details on how Paystack and PayFast handle your payment information, please refer to their privacy policies:
Paystack Privacy Policy: https://paystack.com/za/terms
PayFast Privacy Policy: https://www.payfast.co.za/privacy
Acceptance of Terms
By using the services provided by Fairhost (Pty) Ltd., you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to our Privacy Policy, as well as our Non-Payment and Data Deletion Policy, Terms of Service and Refund Policy. Your use of our services constitutes your acceptance of these terms.
Should you choose not to agree with any part of these policies, we respectfully ask that you refrain from using our services. We may occasionally update or modify these policies, and any changes will be promptly reflected on this page.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about our Terms of Service or need to contact us for any reason, please reach out to:
Fairhost (Pty) Ltd.
Email: info@fairhost.co.za
Website: https://fairhost.co.za