Privacy policy.

Who we are

Kick-O-Mart (Pty) Ltd, trading as Kick-O-Mat Sneaker Cleaning, is the responsible party for the personal information described here.

2018 Waterkloof Residential Estate, Arnoldistad Road, Rustenburg, North West, 0300, South Africa.

You can reach us on WhatsApp at +27 73 155 8847.

What we collect

When you book

• Your name, phone number and email address.
• Your address, if you choose pick-up or delivery.
• What you booked: the service, the number of pairs, any notes you add about your sneakers, and your chosen date and time.
• Photographs of your sneakers, before and after we clean them.

When you pay

Payments run through Payfast. Your card or banking details go straight to them and are never sent to us or stored on our systems. We only receive confirmation that a payment succeeded or failed, and the reference for it.

When you message us

The content of your WhatsApp messages, your WhatsApp number and your display name.

When you apply to partner with us

Your name, contact details, your social media handle or business name, and whatever you tell us in the application.

Why we need it

• To do the job. We cannot clean, collect or return your sneakers without knowing who you are, where you are and what you booked.
• To keep you updated. Booking confirmations, a message when your sneakers are ready, and a receipt.
• To take payment and keep the records the law requires us to keep.
• To answer your questions when you message us.
• To show our work. We post before and after photographs of sneakers on social media. These show the sneakers, never your name or contact details. If you would rather we did not post yours, tell us and we will not.

We do not sell your personal information to anyone, and we never will.

Our WhatsApp assistant

Some WhatsApp messages are answered by an automated assistant rather than a person. You should know how it works.

• Your message is sent to Google Gemini, which generates the reply.
• Before your message leaves our system we strip out details we can detect, including email addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, booking reference numbers and street addresses. This reduces what is shared, but it is not perfect. Please do not send card numbers, passwords or ID numbers over WhatsApp.
• The assistant keeps the recent back and forth of your conversation so its answers make sense in context.
• If the assistant is unsure, it hands you to a person. You can also ask for a human at any point and one will pick it up.

Who else sees it

We use these services to run the business. Each one sees only what it needs to.

• Google holds our bookings, customer records and photographs, and sends our email. Google Gemini processes assistant messages as described above.
• Meta carries WhatsApp messages between you and us.
• Payfast processes payments.
• Netlify hosts this website.

Some of these store information on servers outside South Africa. We otherwise share your information only where the law requires it.

Cookies and tracking

This site stores a little information in your browser so a booking you have started is still there if you reload the page. That stays on your device.

We also use the Meta Pixel, which tells us whether our Facebook and Instagram adverts are working and lets us show adverts to people who have visited the site. It sets cookies and reports back to Meta. You can turn this off in your browser settings, through your Facebook and Instagram ad preferences, or with any ad blocker.

How long we keep it

• Booking and payment records: five years, because tax law requires it.
• WhatsApp conversations: up to twelve months, so we can look back if a question comes up about a past job.
• Sneaker photographs: until you ask us to delete them.
• Partner applications we turn down: twelve months.

Your rights

Under the Protection of Personal Information Act you may ask us to:

• Tell you what information we hold about you.
• Correct anything that is wrong.
• Delete it, where we are not required by law to keep it.
• Stop sending you marketing messages. Every one we send has an unsubscribe option.

Message us on WhatsApp and we will deal with it. If we get it wrong, you can complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa at inforegulator.org.za.

Security, and changes to this policy

Our records sit behind password-protected accounts with two-factor authentication, and the staff dashboard needs a separate key. No system is perfect, but we treat your details as if they were our own.

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of this page.