Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

The South African LGBT+ Management Forum NPC (registration number 2016/311001/08) is a South African non-profit company and public benefit organisation. For personal information processed through this website, our campaigns and our organisational activities, the Forum is the responsible party as contemplated in the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA).

Questions about this policy or our handling of personal information may be sent to our privacy contact at legal@lgbtforum.org.

2. Personal information we collect

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect:

• your name, work email address, telephone number, job title and communication preferences;
• organisation details, including its name, sector, size, operating footprint and website;
• information included in enquiries, event registrations, resource submissions, directory-listing requests, partnership discussions and SAWEI participation records;
• newsletter subscription details and records of the permissions or acknowledgements you provide;
• campaign and referral information, such as a campaign source, referring page or similar attribution data; and
• limited technical and security information generated when you use the website, such as an IP address, browser information, server logs and session or security-cookie data.

Please do not submit personal information that is not needed for your enquiry. We do not ask for sexual orientation, gender identity, health information or other special personal information through LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms.

3. How and why we use personal information

We process personal information only for a specific and lawful purpose, including to:

• respond to enquiries and provide information you request;
• manage SAWEI interest, briefings, participation and cycle administration;
• review resource, event and directory submissions and communicate about their status;
• manage memberships, partnerships, events and other Forum programmes;
• send newsletters or campaign follow-ups where you have requested them or where the law otherwise permits;
• maintain records, protect the website, prevent misuse and comply with legal obligations; and
• understand the effectiveness of our communications and improve our public-interest work.

Our justification for processing may be your consent, steps taken at your request, performance of an agreement, compliance with a legal obligation, or the legitimate interests of you, the Forum or a third party, as permitted by POPIA. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it for future processing.

4. LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms

If you submit a LinkedIn Lead Gen Form associated with the Forum, LinkedIn provides us with the fields shown on that form. These may include your name, work contact details, job title, organisation and any answers you choose to provide.

We use that information to respond to the campaign or request connected to the form—for example, to provide SAWEI information, arrange a briefing, follow up on employer interest, or send communications you expressly requested. We do not sell LinkedIn lead information or use it for an unrelated purpose without an appropriate legal basis and, where required, further consent.

Access is limited to authorised Forum personnel and service providers acting on our instructions. You can ask us to stop contacting you, withdraw consent, or request access, correction or deletion by emailing legal@lgbtforum.org. LinkedIn processes information under its own terms and privacy policy before making a lead available to us.

5. Sharing and cross-border transfers

We do not sell personal information. We may disclose it only when reasonably necessary to:

• authorised Forum staff, representatives and governance structures;
• service providers that support hosting, email, communications, event administration, security, professional advice or other operations and that must handle the information only for the agreed purpose;
• a regulator, court, law-enforcement body or other person when required or permitted by law; or
• another party with your direction or consent.

Some technology or communications providers may process information outside South Africa. Where this occurs, we take reasonable steps to ensure that an appropriate legal basis and safeguards apply, consistent with POPIA.

6. Retention and security

We retain personal information only for as long as it is needed for the purpose for which it was collected, to maintain necessary organisational records, or to meet legal, audit and dispute-resolution requirements. When information is no longer required, we delete, destroy or de-identify it in a manner appropriate to its format and sensitivity.

We use reasonable administrative, technical and organisational safeguards designed to protect personal information against loss, unauthorised access, misuse, alteration or disclosure. No internet transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, but we review safeguards proportionate to the information and risk involved.

7. Cookies, logs and external services

The website may use essential session and security cookies to operate forms, preserve a session and prevent fraudulent requests. Our hosting systems may also create standard access and error logs. Pages containing links to, or embedded content from, third-party services are also subject to those services’ privacy practices.

You can control non-essential cookies through your browser settings. Blocking essential cookies may prevent some website forms or features from working correctly.

8. Your rights

Subject to applicable law, you may ask whether we hold personal information about you and request access to it. You may also ask us to correct, update, delete or restrict information, object to certain processing, withdraw consent for future processing, or opt out of direct marketing.

To exercise a right, email legal@lgbtforum.org. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the South African Information Regulator. Current complaint channels and contact details are available at inforegulator.org.za.

9. Children and third-party links

Our website and professional participation forms are not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from a child through LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms. The website may link to external sites that the Forum does not control. Their privacy policies apply when you use those sites.

10. Changes and contact details

We may update this policy to reflect changes in our activities, technology or legal obligations. The effective date at the top of this page shows when the current version took effect.