Privacy
Policy

Refined Furniture is a South African furniture retailer operating through our online store at refinedfurniture.co.za. We offer premium furniture for residential and commercial use, including custom-order pieces, and deliver nationally across South Africa.

For the purposes of POPIA, Refined Furniture acts as the Responsible Party — meaning we determine the purpose and means of processing your personal information. Our Information Officer is contactable at the details provided in Section 13 of this policy.

We collect personal information only when it is necessary to provide our services to you. The categories of information we may collect include:

Information you give us directly

• Full name and surname
• Email address
• Phone number (including WhatsApp)
• Delivery address and billing address
• Payment details — processed securely through our payment gateway; we do not store card numbers on our servers
• Order history and product preferences
• Custom order specifications, measurements, and design requests
• Communications you send us, including queries, complaints, and returns requests

Information collected automatically

• IP address and approximate geographic location
• Browser type, operating system, and device identifiers
• Pages visited, time spent on pages, and referring URLs
• Clickstream data and cart activity
• Cookie identifiers (see Section 6)

Information from third parties

• If you contact us via WhatsApp, we receive your WhatsApp profile name and phone number
• If you pay via a third-party gateway (e.g. PayFast, Yoco), that provider may share transaction reference details with us

We do not collect special personal information (such as race, health data, political affiliation, or biometric data) and we do not knowingly collect information from children under 18. See Section 11.

We use the personal information we collect for the following purposes:

To fulfil your orders

• Processing and confirming purchases
• Arranging delivery and coordinating with couriers
• Handling custom-order specifications and production timelines
• Issuing invoices and processing refunds

To communicate with you

• Sending order confirmations, shipping updates, and delivery notifications
• Responding to queries sent via email, phone, or WhatsApp
• Sending post-purchase care instructions
• Notifying you of changes to your order or our policies

To improve our business

• Analysing browsing and purchase patterns to improve our website and product range
• Identifying and fixing technical issues
• Conducting internal audits and quality control

For marketing (with your consent)

• Sending promotional emails about new arrivals, specials, and exclusive offers — only where you have opted in or are an existing customer and have not opted out
• Retargeting advertising on platforms such as Meta (Facebook/Instagram) and Google — using anonymised or hashed data only

You may unsubscribe from marketing communications at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any email or by contacting us directly. Opting out of marketing does not affect our ability to send you transactional communications related to your orders.

Under POPIA, we may only process your personal information if we have a lawful reason to do so. The bases we rely on are:

• Contract performance — processing necessary to fulfil the contract when you place an order with us
• Legitimate interest — where we have a legitimate business interest that does not override your rights, such as fraud prevention, website security, and improving our services
• Legal obligation — where we are required to process or retain information to comply with applicable South African law, including tax and consumer protection legislation
• Consent — for direct marketing communications, where consent is required

Where we rely on consent, you have the right to withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only in the following circumstances and only to the extent necessary:

Service providers (operators)

• Courier and logistics partners — to deliver your order, we share your name, delivery address, and contact number with our delivery partners
• Payment processors — your payment details are processed by our third-party payment gateway. We do not store full card details
• Email service providers — to send you transactional and marketing emails
• Website hosting and analytics — our website is hosted on servers that may process your data as part of normal operation

All service providers are contractually required to handle your data securely, use it only for the purposes we specify, and comply with applicable data protection laws.

Legal requirements

We may disclose your information to law enforcement, regulatory bodies, or courts where we are legally compelled to do so, or where disclosure is necessary to protect our rights or the safety of others.

Business transfers

If Refined Furniture is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you before your information is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

We do not transfer your personal information outside of South Africa unless adequate protections are in place as required by POPIA.

Our website uses cookies — small text files stored on your device — to make the site function correctly and to understand how visitors use it.

Cookies we use

• Essential cookies — required for the website and shopping cart to function. These cannot be disabled
• Analytics cookies — used to understand how visitors interact with the site (e.g. Google Analytics). Data is anonymised where possible
• Marketing cookies — used to show you relevant advertising on other platforms. These are only set with your consent
• Preference cookies — remember your choices, such as wishlist items and currency preferences

You can manage cookie preferences through your browser settings. Disabling cookies may affect the functionality of the website, including your ability to complete a purchase. Note that even if you opt out of marketing cookies on our site, you may still see advertising from us on other platforms managed through those platforms' own settings.

We keep your personal information only for as long as necessary for the purposes set out in this policy, or as required by law.

• Order records — retained for 5 years from the date of purchase in accordance with South African tax and consumer protection law
• Customer accounts — retained for as long as your account is active, plus 2 years after your last interaction with us
• Marketing consent records — retained for the duration of the marketing relationship plus 3 years
• Support and complaints correspondence — retained for 3 years from resolution
• Payment records — retained for 5 years as required by the South African Revenue Service (SARS)

When personal information is no longer required, we securely delete or anonymise it.

As a data subject under POPIA, you have the following rights in relation to your personal information:

• Right of access — you may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you
• Right to correction — you may request that we correct inaccurate or outdated information
• Right to deletion — you may request that we delete your personal information where we no longer have a lawful basis to retain it
• Right to object — you may object to processing based on legitimate interests, including direct marketing
• Right to withdraw consent — where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time
• Right to complain — you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa if you believe we have violated your privacy rights

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details in Section 13. We will respond within 30 days. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request.

We take the security of your personal information seriously and implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it against unauthorised access, loss, alteration, or disclosure. These measures include:

• SSL/TLS encryption on all pages of our website (indicated by the padlock in your browser)
• Secure, PCI-DSS compliant payment processing — we never store your card details on our servers
• Restricted access to personal information on a need-to-know basis
• Regular security reviews of our systems and third-party integrations

No method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee absolute security. If you believe your personal information has been compromised, please contact us immediately at info@refinedfurniture.co.za.

In the event of a data breach that is likely to harm you, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as required by POPIA.

Our website may contain links to third-party websites, including social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. These websites have their own privacy policies and we are not responsible for their practices. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of any third-party sites you visit. The inclusion of a link on our website does not imply our endorsement of that site or its privacy practices.

Our website and services are intended for persons 18 years of age and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If you are a parent or guardian and believe that your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at info@refinedfurniture.co.za and we will take steps to delete the information promptly.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, notify you by email or through a prominent notice on our website.

Your continued use of our website after any changes to this policy constitutes your acknowledgement of those changes. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your rights, or want to raise a concern about how we handle your personal information, please contact our Information Officer using any of the following:

We aim to respond to all privacy-related queries within 30 business days. If your query is urgent, please mark your email subject line with "PRIVACY — URGENT".