Privacy Policy

Oxford Economics is the world leader in global economic forecasting and global economic research. Founded in 1981, Oxford Economics provides economic advice and forecasts to international organisations. Oxford Economics produces projections, analysis and data on 200+ countries, 100+ industrial sectors and 7,000+ cities and regions. Oxford Economics Africa is majority-owned by Oxford Economics.

Oxford Economics Ltd ("Oxford Economics," "Us," or "We") is committed to protecting the privacy of the users of MyOxford Service (https://www.oxfordeconomics.com/my-oxford) and Global Data Services (https://data.oxfordeconomics.com), web sites (the "Service Sites") and company web sites (www.oxfordeconomics.com and www.africaneconomics.com the "Web Sites"), blog page/content hub (https://blog.oxfordeconomics.com/african-economics), and any other such sites that we may notify you of from time to time. The Web Sites were designed to help you and your company develop a good understanding of Oxford Economics' and Oxford Economics Africa's offerings.

PURPOSE OF PRIVACY POLICY

This privacy policy (the "Policy") discloses Oxford Economics and Oxford Economics Africa's information privacy practices for the Service Sites and where applicable to the Web Sites, and is intended to inform registered users and other visitors to the Sites of the data collection and use practices of personally identifiable information ('personal information') of the "Sites" (i.e. both "Service Sites" and "Web Sites")

In this Policy, we refer to ourselves collectively as 'Oxford Economics Africa', 'Oxford Economics', 'we', 'us' and 'our'.

BY USING THE SITES, YOU AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY, AND YOU EXPRESSLY CONSENT TO THE PROCESSING OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION ACCORDING TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY. YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION MAY BE PROCESSED BY US IN THE COUNTRY WHERE IT WAS COLLECTED AS WELL AS OTHER COUNTRIES (INCLUDING THE UNITED STATES) WHERE LAWS REGARDING THE PROCESSING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION MAY BE LESS STRINGENT THAN THE LAWS IN YOUR COUNTRY.

Amendments to this Policy will be posted on the Sites and will be effective when posted. Your continued use of the Sites following the posting of any amendment will constitute your acceptance of that amendment, except if your personally identifiable information will be used in a materially different manner. See the Revision to the Policy section below for further details.

This Privacy policy applies to all external parties ('You’/’Your') with whom we engage as part of Our business operations. As part of such engagement, we may collect, use, and share Your Personal information.

As part of a global company, Oxford Economics Africa (Pty) Ltd, in the operation of its business, uses several centralised functions and systems across the Oxford Economics Group. Your Personal information may be processed through these centralised functions and systems. Such Processing will be in accordance with the purpose and the manner as set out in this Privacy Policy.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact Oxford Economics Africa by email at africainfo@oxfordeconomics.com

WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

Oxford Economics Africa, in the conduct of its business operations, mostly engages and contracts with Juristic Entities. In dealing with such entities, we also engage with individuals within the Entities and collect and use such persons' Personal information. Accordingly, we will Process the Personal information of such individuals as stated in this Privacy Policy.

Registration is not mandatory to access certain public areas of the Web Sites. However, a pre-paid subscription or trial registration is required for access to certain areas of the Web Sites and all areas of the Service Sites and the products and services provided through those areas of the Sites. When you sign up for a subscription or register for a trial use of the Service Sites, you are given an account with MyOxford and Global Data Services (your "Account"). In addition, you will be assigned a username and password for purposes of accessing your Account, the Service Sites and the portions of the Web Sites available to registered users.

Oxford Economics and Oxford Economics Africa are not responsible for any loss or misuse of your username and password. Always remember that to protect your privacy, you should not share your username and password with others.

The personally identifiable information we may collect from you will include, by way of example:

Contact Information such as Company name, full names of contact persons and users, email addresses, physical address, phone and mobile numbers;
Account and payment information such as authorised account users, VAT and Income tax reference numbers, bank details, invoices and records, SWIFT and IBAN details;
Verification Information such as usernames and passwords;
Identifiers such as Company registration numbers, identity numbers, Supplier/Vendor number, B-BBEE status, physical addresses;
Contract information including product or services information, commercial terms of the contract, contract performance and non-performance;
Website, Mobile Applications and Social Media information: when you access any Oxford Economics Africa or Oxford Economics website (or special purpose portals), we collect your IP address and other technical information about the way you use our online services;
Recruitment information: CV/resume, SA ID number, passport number; training records, education and work history, address, contact details, certifications/qualifications; and
Other information volunteered by users such as information provided during surveys and Sites' registration.

YOU SHOULD NOT PROVIDE OXFORD ECONOMICS WITH ANY PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION OR SUBMIT OR POST ANY PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION TO THE SITE UNLESS YOU WOULD LIKE THAT INFORMATION TO BE USED BY OXFORD ECONOMICS AND OXFORD ECONOMICS AFRICA IN ACCORDANCE WITH THIS POLICY.

LIKEWISE, YOU SHOULD NOT SUBMIT OR POST ANY PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION TO THE WEB SITE UNLESS YOU WANT THAT INFORMATION TO BE ACCESSIBLE BY OTHER USERS OF THE WEB SITE, AS INFORMATION POSTED ON THE WEB SITE MAY BE MADE AVAILABLE TO OTHER USERS OF THE WEB SITE.

PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION POSTED TO THE SERVICE SITE IS NOT ACCESSIBLE BY OTHER USERS OF THE SERVICE SITE WHO DO NOT BELONG TO YOUR PEER USER GROUP OR ORGANISATION AND WHO ARE ALSO REGISTERED ON THE SERVICE SITE.

WHY WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION

We need to use some personal information to provide you with our service and fulfil our contract with you.

The personally identifiable information that Oxford Economics and Oxford Economics Africa collects from users of the Sites (both registered and unregistered) may be used for a variety of purposes, for example, to provide the services and products offered through the Sites to users of the Sites, to customise content and/or layout of the Sites for each individual user of the Sites, to notify users of the Sites about updates to and activities on the Sites and about goods and services that we feel may be of interest to you, to improve the content of the Sites, to analyse data and patterns regarding usage of the Sites, to contact users of the Sites for marketing purposes, and to contact users of the Sites for information verification purposes.

HOW WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION

We collect information directly from you when:

we engage directly with you as part of any onboarding process;
we negotiate and conclude an agreement with you;
you engage with us (whether by telephone, email or through the Oxford Economics Africa or Oxford Economics website) or complete a request for a service;
you enter any of Our Sites, Offices, Facilities and work areas (for example, via CCTV);
you interact with Our support, sales and account management teams; and
you sell products or render any services to Us as a third-party service provider or purchase services from us. We collect Personal information indirectly about You from:
other companies in the Oxford Economics Group of companies;
web sites, by phone, email, or through Your participation in a survey conducted through third-party web sites or social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram;
public sources and registers (such as company registers, online search engines, (title) deeds registries, public posts on social media);
third parties that we engage for the purposes of conducting its business (list providers, credit bureaux, regulators and government departments and third-party service providers); and
employment agencies, background check providers, former employers, credit reference agencies or other background check agencies.

WHAT WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION FOR

Though we make every reasonable effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personally identifiable information of certain users of the Sites when we have a reasonable and good-faith belief that the disclosure is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order, or legal process served on Oxford Economics or Oxford Economics Africa or the Sites. In this situation, we will use reasonable efforts to provide notice of this disclosure to all affected users, to the extent reasonably possible under the circumstances.

We also use your personal information to implement and manage relationships with you, including onboarding as a Vendor or Customer, Processing and fulfilling orders, sending invoices, processing payments, accounting, auditing, billing, collection and returns.

On occasion, it is necessary to send out service-related announcements. For instance, if the Sites or any of the services offered through the Sites are temporarily suspended for maintenance, we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their Account. These communications are not promotional in nature.

We send all new registrants of the Sites a welcoming email to verify passwords and usernames. Established members will occasionally receive information on products, services and special deals, and periodic newsletters in accordance with their subscription agreements.

Oxford Economics and Oxford Economics Africa may collect and publish statistics and usage information related to the Users consumption and feedback of content only in Anonymous Information cases. We may publish consumption data associated with a certain keyword or piece of content but never in relation to your Account. We may collect certain information from visitors to the Sites and users of the Services, such as Internet addresses. This information is logged to help diagnose technical problems and prevent security breaches.

We may share your personal information with –

third-party service providers who provide services to us, including but not limited to supporting, operating, securing and hosting Our information technology systems, providers of customer experience services, payment processing, order fulfilment, product management, logistics and returns, debt collection, document and information storage;
our professional advisors; and
law enforcement, government officials, or other third parties as may be necessary or appropriate in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringements, or other illegal activity or may expose us to legal liability.

As we continue to develop our business, we may participate in corporate transactions such as mergers and acquisitions, and it is possible that another company may acquire Oxford Economics Ltd and Oxford Economics Africa or its business assets in the future. If Oxford Economics and Oxford Economics Africa elects, in its reasonable discretion, to transfer ownership or control of the Sites to a third party, whether or not in the context of an acquisition of Oxford Economics and Oxford Economics Africa or a merger of Oxford Economics and Oxford Economics Africa with a third party, you consent to the transfer of your personally identifiable information and non-personally identifiable information to that third party, provided that all use of your information by that third party remains subject to the terms of this Policy

TRANSFER OF PERSONAL INFORMATION TO OTHER COUNTRIES?

We are a global organisation and may transfer certain Personal information across geographical borders to –

Oxford Economics Group companies;
service providers for the purposes set out in 6 above; and
verify and undertake risk assessments of new Vendors/Customers.

Where we transfer your personal information outside of South Africa, we ensure that we do so in accordance with the requirements for lawful transfer outside of South Africa as set out in the Protection of Personal information Act No.4 of 2013 ("POPIA").

As part of a global company, in the operation of Our business, we use several centralised functions and systems across the Oxford Economics Group. Your Personal information may be processed through these centralised functions and systems. Such Processing will be in accordance with the purpose and in the manner as set out in this Privacy Policy.

You consent to the transfer of Your Personal information outside of South Africa across geographical borders for the purposes set out in this policy transfer section.

HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We will retain your Personal information for as long as necessary to achieve the purpose for which it was collected or subsequently processed.

Personal information may be held for more extended periods where –

retention of the record is required or authorised by law;
we reasonably require the record for lawful purposes related to our functions or activities;
retention of the record is required by a contract between you and us; or
you have consented to the retention of the record.

HOW WE KEEP YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION SECURE

We secure the integrity and confidentiality of Personal information in our possession or under our control by taking appropriate, reasonable technical and organisational measures to prevent loss of, damage to or unauthorised destruction of personal information; and unlawful access to or Processing of personal information.

To ensure such security, we have in place policies, controls and related processes, which are reviewed and updated regularly.

Our policies, controls and procedures cover, for example –

physical, technical and network security;
access controls and monitoring access;
secure storage, destruction and encryption of records of Personal information;
personal information security incident reporting and remediation; and
by way of written agreements, imposition of security and confidentiality obligations on Operators and reserving the right to audit their systems to ensure compliance with such obligations

We will use at least industry standard measures on the Sites to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of the information under our control. We use a secure server hosting location, firewall protection, controlled access and secure data storage to protect your data. We do not store your passwords in plaintext, nor do we store your credit card information on our systems. The Sites fully support SSL and current encryption standards. We also limit access to your data to our employees who we believe reasonably need to come into contact with that information. While no system is guaranteed to be completely secure, we work hard to ensure our security measures protect all information in a responsible manner

COOKIES

Oxford Economics and Oxford Economics Africa use "cookies" to improve the experience of the Sites. A cookie is a text file placed on your hard disk by a web page server, often including an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

We may use cookies for various purposes, for example, to save user preferences, customise Site content for individual users, ensure that users are not repeatedly sent the same content, record session information, alert users to new areas that might be of interest upon return to the Sites, and to save certain information about users of the Sites and others who visit the Sites. We also use cookies to record current login information; however, you are still required to log in to your Account after a certain period of time has elapsed to protect you against others accidentally accessing your Account.

To learn more about cookies and how to manage them, visit AboutCookies.org. Or please visit the cookies policy to find out more about how and where we use cookies.

YOUR RIGHTS

You have the right to –

request a record of your personal information. We may charge you a fee to provide such a record, but we will tell you how much this is beforehand. In certain circumstances, we cannot tell you what personal information we have about you. For example, to protect (a) the privacy of others; (b) confidential information of third parties; (c) the safety of others;
request correction of your personal information if it is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, misleading or obtained unlawfully;
request deletion of your personal information where there is no lawful basis to retain it;
withdraw consent previously given in respect of the Processing of your personal information. Withdrawal of consent may limit our or a third party's ability to carry out certain functions regarding our commercial relationship.

We will comply with your request unless we have a reasonable explanation for why we cannot comply, for example –

if we cannot agree on whether to correct or delete the Personal information and if you ask us to, we will indicate on the personal information register that a correction was requested but was not made; and
if changes to the Personal information impact any earlier decisions that affect you, if reasonably practicable, we will inform all persons to whom the Personal information has been disclosed of those steps.

We will notify you of the action taken by us because of your request.

All requests can be made via email at africainfo@oxfordeconomics.com. Of course, we will always require that you verify that you are the owner of such personal information.

Third-party web sites may be accessible through the Sites. These third-party web sites have their own privacy and data collection policies and practices. Oxford Economics and Oxford Economics Africa are not responsible for any actions or privacy policies of such third parties. You should check the applicable privacy policies of those third parties when providing personally identifiable information through linked Web Sites.

HOW TO LODGE A COMPLAINT

You may lodge a complaint in respect of this Privacy Policy or any of our personal information processing activities with the Information Regulator, whose contact details are available on its website at https://www.justice.gov.za/inforeg/ or www.justice.gov.za

REVISIONS TO THE POLICY

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes to this Privacy Policy will not necessarily be preceded by a notice posted on the website, and we encourage you to check the Privacy Policy periodically for changes.

If we decide to make material changes to the Policy, we will either notify users by way of an email or post material changes on the Sites, so our users are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and if we disclose it. Unless we seek and receive your consent, we will use information in accordance with the Policy under which the information was last collected.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on 30 June 2021.