Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Emerge Consultancy ("Emerge", "we", "us") provides virtual staffing and outsourced support services. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why, and how we protect it, for clients, job applicants, and website visitors.

2. Our Information Officer

Under POPIA, our Information Officer is responsible for compliance with this policy and for handling requests about your personal information.

3. What we collect

• Contact details you give us: name, email, phone number, company name, when you enquire or apply.
• For virtual professional applicants: CV/resume contents, work history, qualifications, and references.
• Correspondence you send us by email or contact form.
• Basic website usage data (pages visited, browser type) if analytics are enabled.

4. Why we collect it

• To respond to enquiries and arrange consultation calls.
• To match applicants with suitable client roles.
• To deliver, invoice, and support our virtual staffing services.
• To meet legal, tax, and regulatory obligations.

We process personal information on the basis of consent, contract necessity, or legitimate business interest, as applicable, per POPIA section 11.

5. Sharing your information

We share personal information only where necessary: with prospective client businesses (for applicant matching), service providers who support our operations (e.g. payroll, email, hosting), or where required by law. We do not sell personal information.

Where Emerge connects clients in the United States with professionals in South Africa or elsewhere, personal information may be transferred across borders. We take reasonable steps to ensure any such transfer meets POPIA's cross-border transfer requirements (section 72).

6. How we protect it

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to keep personal information secure and to prevent loss, unauthorized access, or misuse, in line with POPIA's Condition 7 (Security Safeguards).

7. How long we keep it

We retain personal information only as long as necessary for the purposes above, or as required by law, after which it is securely deleted or anonymized.

8. Your rights

Under POPIA, you have the right to:

• Ask us to confirm what personal information we hold about you, and access it.
• Ask us to correct or delete inaccurate, outdated, or unlawfully held information.
• Object to how we process your information, on reasonable grounds.
• Withdraw consent at any time, where processing is based on consent.
• Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa) if you believe we have not complied with POPIA.

To exercise any of these rights, contact our Information Officer using the details in section 2.

9. Information Regulator

If you're unhappy with our response, you may contact South Africa's Information Regulator: inforegulator.org.za, complaints.IR@justice.gov.za.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The "last updated" date above reflects the most recent revision.