Privacy
Privacy policy
How RentSignal collects, uses, shares, protects and retains personal information under South African privacy law.
Effective 14 June 2026 / Version 2026-06-14
The responsible party's final registered particulars and Information Officer must be confirmed and registered before public paid launch. The product and data-flow disclosures below reflect the current RentSignal application.
1. Responsible party and contact
The responsible party is RentSignal operator - legal entity name to be confirmed, trading as RentSignal. Its final legal status, registration number, physical address and Information Officer are listed as pending in the Terms of use. Privacy requests may be sent to privacy@rentsignal.co.za.
2. Scope
This policy applies to visitors, tenants, landlords, administrators, applicants, reviewers and other people whose information is processed through RentSignal. It should be read with the consent, assessment, cookie and PAIA policies.
3. Personal information we process
- Account and contact details, including name, email, telephone number, role and authentication records.
- Tenant profile information, current city, verification status, rental history context and trust indicators.
- Landlord profile, business, verification, package and subscription information.
- Property listings, addresses, photographs, descriptions, pricing, availability and amenities.
- Applications, applicant messages, profile requests, consent decisions and access history.
- Viewing invitations, lease details, payment-related tenancy signals and structured assessments.
- Disputes, evidence, moderation decisions, correspondence and audit records.
- Technical information such as IP-related logs, device/browser information, timestamps, security events and cookies.
- Billing and transaction references when paid billing is introduced; RentSignal does not currently store card details.
4. Information we avoid or restrict
RentSignal does not ask users to publish race, religion, health, political beliefs, sexual orientation or other protected characteristics. Government identity numbers are not displayed to landlords. Users must not upload children's information, bank statements, identity documents, criminal allegations or special personal information unless a lawful, clearly disclosed product flow specifically requests it.
5. Sources of information
We collect information directly from users, from other users participating in a genuine rental workflow, from platform activity and security logs, and from service providers acting on our instructions. A landlord may provide an assessment about a tenant only where a verified rental relationship exists. Where information is collected indirectly, RentSignal limits it to the rental purpose and gives affected users access and dispute mechanisms where appropriate.
6. Purposes and lawful justification
| Purpose | Typical justification |
|---|---|
| Create and secure accounts | Perform the user agreement and protect legitimate security interests. |
| Publish and manage listings | Perform the landlord service agreement and provide requested services. |
| Process applications and viewings | Take steps requested by users and perform platform services. |
| Share a tenant passport | Specific tenant approval plus the rental-purpose workflow. |
| Record leases and assessments | Platform performance, legitimate rental-history interests, fairness controls and legal obligations. |
| Resolve disputes and moderate | Protect rights, prevent harm, enforce terms and establish or defend legal claims. |
| Send workflow and security emails | Perform the service and protect accounts; marketing requires a separate lawful basis. |
| Billing, accounting and fraud prevention | Perform the subscription agreement and comply with legal obligations. |
| Improve reliability and safety | Legitimate operational and security interests, using minimised or de-identified data where practical. |
7. Mandatory and voluntary information
Fields marked required are needed to create an account or complete the selected workflow. If required information is not supplied, RentSignal may be unable to create an account, publish a listing, submit an application, verify a rental relationship, grant profile access, or resolve a dispute. Optional fields may be left blank.
8. Tenant-controlled profile access
Tenant profiles are not intended to be publicly searchable. A landlord must request access in connection with a genuine application. Approval is limited to the requesting landlord, relevant workflow and permitted information. Rejected, revoked or expired access should no longer expose the private passport view. RentSignal keeps an access audit trail for accountability and disputes.
9. Automated processing and trust indicators
RentSignal may calculate summaries or trust indicators from verification and structured rental data. These indicators are informational and are not intended to make a final decision that has legal or similarly significant effects without meaningful human consideration. Users may request correction and dispute inaccurate assessment inputs.
10. Recipients and operators
Information may be shared with the tenant or landlord participating in the relevant workflow, authorised RentSignal administrators, professional advisers, law-enforcement or regulators where lawfully required, and contracted operators that provide database, authentication, hosting, storage, deployment, email, support and security services.
Current core providers include Supabase for database, authentication and storage; Vercel for application hosting and deployment; Resend for transactional email; and GitHub for source-code hosting and deployment workflows. Providers may process information outside South Africa. RentSignal must maintain appropriate operator terms and cross-border safeguards required by section 72 of POPIA.
11. Retention
RentSignal keeps information only while needed for the stated purpose, the user relationship, disputes, fraud prevention, security, accounting, legal claims and statutory obligations. Accounts and active profiles are kept while active. Application and viewing records may be kept for up to 24 months after completion; profile-access logs for up to 24 months; leases, assessments and disputes for up to five years after the relationship or dispute ends; billing records for the legally required accounting period; and security/audit records for up to five years. Backups may persist for a limited additional recovery period.
These periods are a proposed operational schedule for counsel review. A record may be kept longer where law, a tribunal, litigation hold, fraud investigation or unresolved dispute requires it, or shortened where the purpose ends earlier.
12. Security and breach response
RentSignal uses role-based access, database row-level security, server-held privileged keys, authentication controls, audit records and restricted storage. No internet service can guarantee absolute security. Where there are reasonable grounds to believe personal information has been accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person, RentSignal will investigate and notify the Information Regulator and affected data subjects as required by POPIA.
13. Your rights
- Ask whether RentSignal holds your personal information and request access.
- Request correction, completion, deletion or destruction where legally available.
- Object to processing based on legitimate interests in the prescribed manner.
- Withdraw consent without affecting processing that was lawful before withdrawal.
- Request restriction while accuracy, lawfulness or a dispute is considered.
- Complain to RentSignal or the Information Regulator.
Requests are handled under the PAIA and information-access process. We may verify identity and may refuse or limit a request where law permits or another person's rights must be protected.
14. Children
RentSignal is intended for adults aged 18 or older. We do not knowingly create accounts for children or intentionally process children's information. Contact the privacy address if you believe children's information was submitted.
15. Cookies and communications
Current cookies are primarily essential for authentication, security and session continuity. RentSignal does not currently use advertising cookies. See the Cookie policy. Transactional messages are sent for account and rental workflows. Direct marketing will require an appropriate opt-in or other lawful basis and an unsubscribe method.
16. Complaints to the Information Regulator
You may complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa), Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191; telephone 010 023 5200 or toll-free 0800 017 160; email enquiries@inforegulator.org.za. Current complaint channels should be confirmed on the Regulator's website.
17. Changes
We may update this policy when data practices, providers, products or laws change. Material changes will be communicated through the platform or email and will show a new effective date.