Privacy policy

The short version

You do not create an account. We do not ask for your name, identity number or contact details to show you a comparison. There is no advertising network on this site, no third-party analytics, and no tracking cookies. The answers you give in a comparison tool are kept for 12 months and then deleted automatically. We never sell them.

Who is responsible for your information

Vulo is operated by Webafy, which is the “responsible party” for the personal information described here under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA). You can contact us at vip@webafy.co.za. Privacy requests are handled by the person who operates Vulo, who acts as our information officer.

What we collect, and why

1. The answers you give in a comparison tool. Depending on the category this can include the device or plan type you want, data and call usage, budget, contract preference and priorities (cellphone contracts); household type, age, cover amount and province (funeral cover); contribution amount, age, advice preference and transfer status (retirement annuities); or the school name, EMIS number, area or fee filters you search for (school fees). While you use a tool, your answers are held in your browser's session storage, which your browser clears when you close the tab.

When you finish a comparison for cellphone contracts, funeral cover or retirement annuities, those answers are also saved to our database with a random identifier (called vulo_session_id in your browser) generated for that visit. We do this so your comparison can be reproduced and so we can see in aggregate which categories and answers people use. The identifier is random and is not derived from anything about you. School searches are not saved.

Age, province and household type can describe a person, so we treat these answers as personal information under POPIA even though they are not linked to your name.

2. Technical data. When you visit, our hosting and database providers (named below) necessarily receive your IP address and details of the request, such as the page you asked for, your browser and your device type. They use this to deliver the site, keep it secure and prevent abuse. We do not use it to identify you or to build a profile of you.

3. Preferences stored on your device. Your light or dark theme choice is saved in your browser's local storage, and the two phones or plans you pick to compare are held in session storage. These stay on your device and are not sent to us.

4. Messages you send us. If you email us, we keep the message and your email address so we can reply and act on it, for as long as needed to deal with it and any follow-up.

We use this information only to run the comparison tools, to keep the site working and secure, to understand in aggregate how the site is used, and to answer you. We rely on your use of the tool, and our legitimate interest in running a secure, useful service, as the basis for this processing.

What we do not collect

We do not collect your name, identity number, address, phone number, health information or banking details. We do not run Google Analytics, advertising pixels or session-recording tools. Vulo does not set cookies. If that changes, this policy will say so before it does.

Who handles it for us

We use two service providers to run the site. Each processes information on our behalf as an “operator” under POPIA, to provide its service to us:

• Cloudflare, which serves the website and protects it from attack.
• Supabase, which hosts the database that holds product data and saved comparisons.

Phone photos are not stored by us. Your browser loads each one directly from the relevant network's own website (Vodacom, MTN, Cell C or Telkom), so that network receives a request from your browser that typically includes your IP address, the same way it would if you visited its own site. We do not control what that network does with that request.

Where it is processed

Our providers may process and store information outside South Africa, so your information may be transferred abroad. We use providers that commit to protecting personal information to a standard comparable to POPIA, and by using the site you understand and accept that transfer.

How long we keep it

Answers held in your browser are cleared when you close the tab. Comparisons saved to our database are deleted automatically after 12 months by a scheduled job that runs daily. Server logs are kept by our hosting providers under their own retention periods. Emails you send us are kept as described above. We will delete a saved comparison sooner if you ask (see below).

Security

The site is served over an encrypted connection. Our database restricts access so that a visit can read back and revise only its own saved record, never anyone else's, and the public cannot delete saved records. No system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee that information will never be accessed without authority. If a breach affects your personal information we will notify you and the Information Regulator as POPIA requires.

We do not sell your answers

Your answers are never sold, rented or passed to insurers, brokers, networks, schools or lead-generation companies. No provider is told that you looked at their product or anyone else's. We use no marketing lists and send no marketing messages.

Your rights

Under POPIA you may ask whether we hold personal information about you and what it is, ask us to correct or delete it, and object to how we process it. Because a saved comparison is linked to you only by its random identifier, we need that identifier to find it: in most browsers it is visible in the site's session storage under vulo_session_id while the tab is open. Without it we cannot tell which record is yours, which is also why we cannot identify you from a record.

Send requests to vip@webafy.co.za. We may ask you to confirm who you are before acting on a request.

You may also complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa at any time, whether or not you have raised the matter with us first. Current contact details are on their website, inforegulator.org.za.

Automated ranking

Results are ranked by a fixed calculation against the answers you entered and the published prices. This does not produce a decision that has legal effect on you or significantly affects you, and nothing about the ranking is personalised beyond the answers you entered in that visit.

Children

Vulo is for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. School fee searches describe schools, not children.

Changes

If this policy changes in a way that affects what we collect or who sees it, the date at the top of this page changes with it.