GenDatabase.com is offering a service to Genealogy researchers and any individual interested in his/her family history. Our information we collect are done in the public interest and made available for Genealogy, Research, Historical and Statistical purposes.

1. Introduction

In light of various changes to laws abroad and upcoming local laws globally, which related to the protection of personal information, we have made various changes to our website, our privacy policy and the access to information we provide to registered users. In order to comply with all local and international laws, we removed various sets of information and restricted access to others, in order to fall within the ambit of various laws and ensure we act accordingly.

We take our responsibility to safeguard personal information very seriously. This privacy policy sets out the way in which we will process personal information collected or submitted to our website, interactive services, which collective are to be referred to as the ‘Platform’. This policy outlines the data we collect, how we use it, how we protect personal data and your rights regarding the personal information we may hold on you.

2. Data We Collect

Visitors or Users

Visitors or users of the Platform contacting us via our online contact form or directly via our e-mail address. In addition, users signing up with us in order to conduct historical research.

When contacting us, we require users to provide us with a name, surname, e-mail address and phone number. This information is only used to reply to communications received or come into contact with the person contacting us. The information is only being accessed by our online support staff, who are responsible for attending to user queries. After the query has been dealt with this information is deleted from our system and cannot be accessed any longer.

When a user signs up for an account with us, we do require a name, surname, phone number and e-mail address. This information is required to identify the user accessing and using our services. It also enables our automatic system to create a member account and send access confirmation to the user when registration processes are completed. We may also use this information to contact the user about any problems experienced with usage on the account. Our system also automatically logs all member IP Addresses, which are associated with every member for legal purposes should the need arise. In addition, IP Addresses allows us to exercise maximum security on our system and identify any potential misuse of login information. This information can only be accessed by our support, management and IT staff in the event any problem should arise on the account. The information will be kept safely secured as long as the member remains an active user of our services.

As part of security implementations and controlling who accesses information on our services, we also do log all search history conducted by users. All search terms are logged to all user accounts.

Registered Volunteers or Staff

Registered volunteers or staff assisting with data transcription or contribution of information.

When joining us as a registered volunteer or staff member, we do collect information such as names, surname, identity number, phone number, employment information, addresses, e-mail addresses and family reference information. This information is used only by our management to confirm the identities of staff or volunteers who will be working on sensitive data on our project. This information will be kept offline and will be accessible only by management of GenDatabase.com.

Record Subject

You may be a Record Subject on who data was collected from public sources and is included in our databases.

We collect and process publicly available documents, released by the South African Government or church groups either on online platforms or services such as the LDS project on FamilySearch.org. These documents consist of marriage certificates, death notices, baptism records and other historical documents. Although these documents may contain information such as identity numbers, names and surnames, address information and much more, we only collect the required information necessary for the purposes of Genealogy Research, Historical and Statistical reasons. This information only includes names, surnames, date of birth, spouse and children names and date of births and area information where available. In order to protect the personal information of Record Subjects, we do not keep or make available any other information that are available on these publicly accessible records.

Please note that we do not collect personal information on any Data Subjects outside South Africa. Our purpose is to collect Genealogy information on South African nationals from public sources. If you should hold dual nationality, or obtain such nationality or citizenship at any point in time, we consider your information as being a South African as it was mentioned and released by Government and church records.

We consider it legal, in terms of local and international laws, to process this information for research purposes, including statistical and historic purposes. This information is also made available in public interest. However, if you do find this information causing you distress, please contact us with immediate effect at info@gendatabase.com. We may require you to provide us with proof of identity and further information on why you consider the information to be causing any distress.

Written requests can also be submitted to:

info @ gendatabase.com

Should you come across any inaccurate information, please contact us at info@gendatabase.com. We do accept that transcription errors may occur. We will evaluate all requests for correcting information. Please note that if there were any errors in the original document, we will not be in a position to correct this information, as our intention is to properly record historic data on our system. In these events, we may add notes to inform researchers using our system of the possible error.

3. Communication

GenDatabase.com will never make use of newsletters, either in printed or electronic form to members. We may, however, need to contact users of our system in relation to activities on their accounts. These communications include e-mail notifications on account registration, expiry and renewal requests. Furthermore, we may send e-mail correspondence to users when we identify any problems on usage of the account registered with us.

These notifications are mandatory and cannot be cancelled by our service. They are designed in order to ensure that you gain access to your account when signing up with us, protect your account and communicate with us only when needed.

4. Information Disclosure

GenDatabase.com will not, without your consent, ever make your personal information available to any third party, with the exception:

1. Where our business is acquired by a third-party who agrees to our already determined privacy policy.

2. Where we are under legal obligation to disclose any information to law enforcement agencies around the world, either for the purposes of investigations or in order to apply our terms and legal agreements.

GenDatabase.com will never sell or share your personal data with third party organizations for any reason whatsoever.

5. Information Security

We will, at all times, use all reasonable technical and organizational precautions in order to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of personal data we collect. Our systems will always be equipped with the necessary security software and monitoring services in order to ensure the protection of data. In addition to this, we also have internal protection over information and data with only the authorized staff with required clearance to access and deal with the information.

6. Data Processors

GenDatabase.com do not make use of external data processors in storing or processing any personal information we collect. All information is received by GenDatabase.com, processed by GenDatabase.com and stored on our own secure servers. All data will only be collected by GenDatabase.com, accessed and processed by authorized staff members appointed by GenDatabase.com. GenDatabase.com remains solely responsible for protection of data received.

7. Storing Data

We only keep personal information for as long as legally necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it is being collected. In addition, we also have the responsibility to fulfil other legal, accounting and reporting requirements, which means that we may have a legal obligation to store certain data sets for longer periods of time. Other than this, data will be destroyed and deleted from our systems when no longer required.

8. Transferring Data

It may be required from us to Transfer certain information cross-border, such as when registering a new account and making payment via payment processing services like Paypal in the United States. In these events we ensure that all information is transferred using secure encryption technology to our payment solution provider. These technologies are aimed at protecting the information we transfer cross-border.

9. Third-Party Websites

When registering with us and making payment in order to activate your account, we do make use of third-party websites and systems. We may also provide links on our own website to third-party websites related to Genealogy research. We cannot accept responsibilities for any issues concerning your data collected by websites that are not directly under our control. Please also be aware individual organizations operate their own policies regarding the use and sale of personal data and the use of cookies. If you have a concern regarding the way your personal data will be used on other sites, then you are advised to read the relevant privacy statement on their sites.

10. Google Analytics

Please note that we do make use of Google Advertising on our website. When visiting our site, you will see adverts originating from Google on most pages. If you have chosen to enable Google to associate your web and app browsing history with your Google account, and to use information from your Google account to personalize ads, Google Analytics will collect Google-authenticated identifiers associated with your Google Accounts (and therefore, personal information).

11. Privacy Policy Changes

Please note that we may make continuous changes to our privacy policy in order to ensure that we offer the best protection in securing your personal information. Users are free to visit this page at any time. We will also focus your attention on any new changes to this policy throughout our website when visiting.

Due to a total collapse in all South African Postal Services and unavailability of Postal Boxes, all legal correspondence can only be sent in digital format to us at:

info @ gendatabase.com