Privacy Policy

This page describes how this store is actually configured to handle customer information. It is a factual description of our current technical setup, not a certification of legal compliance, and it is not legal advice. Sections that require formal legal or business review are marked below.

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information Bholat’s IT World collects when you use this website, why we collect it, and how it is handled.

Information we collect

Name, email address, phone number, billing address, and shipping address — provided when you place an order or create an account.
Account username and a securely hashed password — if you create an account. We never store your password in plain text; it is processed using WordPress’s standard password hashing.
Order history — the products, quantities, and totals of orders you place.
Messages you send us — if you use our contact form, we receive the name, email address, enquiry type, and message you provide.
Basic technical information — such as your IP address, which is included automatically in some system emails (for example, a password-reset email) and in our web server’s standard access logs.

Why we collect it

To process and fulfil your orders.
To create and manage your account, if you choose to have one.
To respond to questions you send us through the contact form.
To keep the store secure and functioning correctly.

Cookies and sessions

This site uses cookies for core shopping functionality: keeping track of your cart contents between pages, and keeping you logged in to your account. Login cookies last two days by default, or two weeks if you select “Remember me”. If you log out, your login cookies are removed.

We do not currently use any advertising, marketing, or analytics cookies or tracking scripts — none are installed on this site.

Payment processing

Payment information may be processed by the payment methods made available at checkout. Where a third-party payment provider is used, payment information may be processed by that provider in accordance with its own privacy practices.

Delivery providers

We do not yet have a confirmed courier or delivery partner, so no delivery-related data-sharing arrangement is described here. This section will be updated once a delivery partner is confirmed.

Return and refund requests

If you submit a return, refund, warranty, or cancellation request, we collect the order and product you’re referring to, the type of issue, your description of it, and any photos you choose to attach as evidence. If you submit a request as a guest (without an account), we also collect the order number and email address you use to look up your order.

This information is only visible to authorised staff reviewing the request. Any internal notes staff add while reviewing a request are never shown to you — only status updates and messages specifically intended for you are visible in your account. Evidence photos are stored securely and are not publicly accessible.

If you ask us to export or delete your personal data (see “Your rights” below), any return/refund requests linked to your email address are included. For a deletion request, we remove your uploaded evidence photos and anonymise your written description, but we keep the underlying request record itself — in the same way we keep order records — since it may form part of the operational history of a real order (for example, a record of why a refund was or wasn’t issued).

Other service providers

This website’s fonts are self-hosted rather than loaded from a third-party font service, so visiting this site does not send your information to an external font provider. We do not currently use any other third-party analytics, marketing, or customer-support tool that would receive your information.

Security

Passwords are never stored in plain text. Account access is protected using WordPress’s standard, unmodified authentication system.

How long we keep your information

Our store is currently configured to retain order and account information indefinitely (we have not set an automatic deletion period). You can ask us to review or delete your information at any time — see “Your rights” below.

Your rights

You can contact us at any time to ask what personal information we hold about you, to correct it, or to request that it be deleted, subject to any information we are legally required to keep (for example, for tax or accounting records).

Confirming our specific obligations and processes under South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) requires review by the business or its legal advisor. This page describes our current technical configuration; it does not itself constitute a POPIA compliance assessment.

Children

This store is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Contact us about this policy

If you have a question about this policy or your personal information, please contact us.

Changes to this policy

We may update this page as our store, processes, or the services we use change. We recommend checking back periodically.