Privacy Policy

Rently Privacy Policy

Last updated: February 24, 2026

Effective date: February 24, 2026

1. Introduction and Responsible Party

Welcome to Rently (accessible at rently.co.za). Rently (Pty) Ltd ("Rently", "we", "us", or "our") is a rental e-commerce platform that enables users to post items for rent and to rent items from other users. We are committed to protecting your personal information in compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA) of South Africa and, where applicable, aligned with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for international users.

Rently is the "responsible party" (as defined under POPIA) or "data controller" (as defined under GDPR) for the personal information we process through our platform. This privacy policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and your rights regarding your data.

2. Definitions

• Personal Information: Any information relating to an identifiable, living natural person or juristic person, including but not limited to names, contact details, identity numbers, biometric data, financial information, and online identifiers.
• Data Subject: The person to whom personal information relates (i.e. you, the user).
• Processing: Any operation performed on personal information, including collection, storage, use, modification, dissemination, or destruction.
• Operator: A third party who processes personal information on behalf of Rently.
• Special Personal Information: Information about a person's religious or philosophical beliefs, race, ethnic origin, trade union membership, political persuasion, health, sexual life, biometric information, or criminal behaviour.

3. Information We Collect

We collect and process the following categories of personal information when you use the Rently platform:

3.1 Identity Data

• First name, last name, and username
• South African identity number (encrypted at rest)
• Profile picture
• Date of account creation and updates
• Assigned user roles (e.g. renter, store owner, organisation owner, success ambassador)

3.2 Contact Data

• Email address
• Phone number(s)
• Physical addresses stored in your address book
• Temporary addresses set for browsing purposes

3.3 Verification and Biometric Data

To ensure trust and safety on the platform, we collect verification data including:

• Liveness check images and video: Used to confirm you are a real person during identity verification.
• Identity document images: Photographs of your ID card, ID book, or driver's licence processed via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to extract and verify your identity details.
• Facial comparison data: Biometric comparison between the image on your identity document and your liveness check to confirm your identity.
• Phone number verification: SMS-based verification of your mobile number.
• Email verification: Confirmation of your email address ownership.
• Bank account verification: Validation of banking details for withdrawal processing.
• Business verification documents: For store and organisation owners, business registration documents.

Note: Biometric information is classified as special personal information under POPIA. We process this data with your explicit consent and solely for the purpose of identity verification and fraud prevention.

3.4 Financial Data

• Bank account details (encrypted at rest) for withdrawal processing
• Wallet account balances, transactions, and ledger entries
• Payment information processed through our payment gateway partners (Ozow and Yoco)
• Transaction fee records and discount applications
• Withdrawal request history and payout records

3.5 Location Data

• Addresses entered via Google Location Services autocomplete
• Saved addresses in your address book
• Active address selection used to calculate distances to stores and rentals
• General location data derived from your IP address

3.6 Transaction and Order Data

• Rental orders placed, including order items, pricing selections, and order status updates
• Delivery and collection option selections
• Cancellation records and refund processing data
• Self-insurance documentation submitted during rental collection or return
• Date range selections and availability calculations

3.7 Technical Data

• IP address and approximate geolocation
• Browser type, version, and operating system
• Device tokens for push notification delivery
• Session data and authentication cookies
• SignalR connection identifiers for real-time features
• Two-factor authentication method preferences

3.8 Usage Data

• Rental search history and browsing patterns
• Popular search contributions (configurable via your privacy settings)
• Feature interaction data and platform usage analytics
• Saved rental lists and favourite rentals
• Notification preferences and delivery analytics

3.9 Communication Data

• In-app chat messages exchanged between users via our real-time messaging system
• Support case correspondence and ticket history
• Success Ambassador conversation records
• Email and SMS notification delivery records

3.10 Gamification and Trust Data

• Trust scores calculated from your platform activity
• Badges earned and title achievements
• Gamification journey progress and milestones
• Leaderboard participation data (configurable via your privacy settings)
• Discount eligibility and fee reduction records

3.11 Content Data

• Reviews and ratings you submit for rentals, stores, and users
• Blog post comments and likes
• Feature requests and poll votes
• Rental listing content (descriptions, images, pricing configurations)
• Store profile information and branding

3.12 Organisation Data

• Organisation/franchise membership and ownership details
• Store ownership and multi-store management records
• Team member invitations and role permission assignments
• Organisation privacy and visibility settings

3.13 Insurance Data

• Self-insurance policy configurations for rentals and stores
• Condition documentation (photos, descriptions) submitted at rental collection and return
• Insurance compliance evaluation records

3.14 Training Data

• Rently Academy course enrolment and progress
• Chapter and module completion records
• Quiz results and certification achievements

4. How We Collect Information

4.1 Directly From You

When you register an account, complete your profile, create a store, list rentals, place orders, submit reviews, participate in the blog or feature voting system, contact support, or communicate with other users or Success Ambassadors.

4.2 Automatically

When you browse or interact with the platform, we automatically collect technical data, usage data, and session information through cookies, server logs, and our real-time communication infrastructure (SignalR).

4.3 From Third Parties

• External authentication providers: If you sign in using Google, Microsoft, or Facebook, we receive your name, email, and profile information from those providers.
• Payment gateways: Ozow and Yoco provide us with transaction confirmation data.
• Verification providers: Identity verification results and document processing data from our verification partners.
• Google Location Services: Address autocomplete and geocoding data when you search for or save addresses.

5. Purpose of Processing

We process your personal information for the following purposes:

• Service delivery: To operate the rental marketplace, process orders, facilitate payments, manage wallets, and enable communication between renters and store owners.
• Identity verification: To verify your identity through liveness checks, document OCR, and facial comparison to maintain platform trust and safety.
• Payment processing: To process rental payments, manage wallet transactions, handle withdrawals, and apply gamification discounts.
• Communications: To send transactional emails, SMS verifications, push notifications, in-app notifications, and facilitate real-time chat.
• Personalisation: To display relevant rentals and stores based on your location, show distance calculations, and provide personalised search results and suggestions.
• Gamification: To calculate trust scores, award badges and titles, manage leaderboards, and apply fee discount rewards.
• Platform improvement: To analyse usage patterns, improve our services, and develop new features based on user feedback and feature voting.
• Support: To manage support cases, resolve disputes, and provide assistance through our case management system.
• Insurance: To facilitate self-insurance processes for rental condition documentation and dispute resolution.
• Training: To provide educational content through Rently Academy and track course completion for badge rewards.
• Legal compliance: To comply with applicable laws, regulations, legal processes, and governmental requests.
• Security: To detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and security incidents through rate limiting, audit logging, and access controls.

6. Legal Basis for Processing

Under POPIA, we process your personal information based on the following conditions for lawful processing:

• Consent (Section 11(1)(a)): Where you have provided explicit consent, such as for biometric data processing during identity verification, marketing communications, and optional features like leaderboard participation.
• Contractual necessity (Section 11(1)(b)): Processing necessary to fulfil our agreement with you, including order processing, payment handling, and rental facilitation.
• Legal obligation (Section 11(1)(c)): Processing required to comply with laws such as the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA) for financial record-keeping.
• Legitimate interest (Section 11(1)(f)): Processing necessary for our legitimate interests, such as platform security, fraud prevention, service improvement, and analytics, provided these interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms.

7. Third-Party Service Providers and Data Sharing

We share personal information with the following categories of third-party service providers (operators under POPIA) who process data on our behalf:

7.1 Payment Processing

• Ozow: Processes instant EFT and bank-to-bank payments. Ozow receives transaction amounts and reference data necessary to complete payments.
• Yoco: Processes card-based payments. Yoco receives payment card details directly through their secure payment interface.

7.2 Identity Verification

• YouVerify: Provides liveness check and identity verification services, including facial comparison and document validation.
• Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services: Processes identity document images through OCR to extract text and verify document authenticity.

7.3 Communication Services

• WinSMS: Delivers SMS messages for phone number verification and notifications.
• Email service providers: Deliver transactional and notification emails on our behalf.

7.4 Location Services

• Google Maps Platform: Provides address autocomplete, geocoding, and mapping services. Address data you enter is sent to Google to provide location suggestions and distance calculations.

7.5 Authentication Providers

• Google, Microsoft, and Facebook: If you choose to sign in using an external provider, we receive basic profile information (name, email) from that provider through OAuth authentication.

All third-party operators are contractually obligated to process your data only as instructed by Rently and in compliance with applicable data protection laws. We do not sell your personal information to any third party.

8. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Rently uses the following cookies and similar technologies:

• Authentication cookies: Essential cookies that maintain your signed-in session and identity.
• Anti-forgery tokens: Security cookies that protect against cross-site request forgery attacks.
• Session cookies: Maintain your session state and preferences during your visit.
• SignalR connection tokens: Enable real-time features such as chat, notifications, payment updates, and document capture.

These cookies are necessary for the proper functioning of the platform. We do not use third-party advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

9. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information, including:

• Encryption at rest: Sensitive data such as identity numbers, bank account details, and wallet information is encrypted in our database using industry-standard encryption algorithms.
• Encryption in transit: All data transmitted between your browser and our servers is protected using TLS/HTTPS encryption.
• Access controls: Role-based access control ensures that only authorised personnel and services can access personal information appropriate to their function.
• Rate limiting: We apply rate limits to authentication, search, verification, and sensitive operations to protect against automated attacks.
• Audit logging: Security-relevant events are logged for monitoring and incident response.
• Two-factor authentication: Available for additional account security.

10. Data Retention

We retain personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law:

• Account data: Retained for the duration of your active account and for a reasonable period thereafter to comply with legal obligations.
• Transaction and financial records: Retained for a minimum of 5 years as required by South African tax and financial legislation.
• Verification data: Identity verification records are retained for the duration of your account to maintain verified status. Biometric source data (liveness images, document photos) is retained only as long as necessary for verification purposes.
• Communication records: Chat messages and support case records are retained for the duration of your account.
• Usage and analytics data: Aggregated and anonymised data may be retained indefinitely for analytical purposes.

When you request account deletion, we will delete or anonymise your personal information within a reasonable timeframe, except where retention is required by law.

11. Your Rights Under POPIA

As a data subject under POPIA, you have the following rights:

• Right of access (Section 23): You may request confirmation of whether we hold personal information about you and request access to that information.
• Right to correction (Section 24): You may request that we correct or delete personal information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading, or obtained unlawfully.
• Right to deletion (Section 24): You may request deletion of your personal information where we no longer have a lawful basis for retaining it.
• Right to object (Section 11(3)): You may object to the processing of your personal information on reasonable grounds.
• Right to data portability: You may request your personal information in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format.
• Right to withdraw consent: Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing prior to withdrawal.
• Right to complain: You have the right to lodge a complaint with the South African Information Regulator if you believe your personal information has been unlawfully processed.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at support@rently.mobi. We will respond to your request within a reasonable period, and no later than the timeframes prescribed by POPIA.

12. Your Privacy Controls

Rently provides you with granular control over your privacy through the following settings, accessible from your account management page:

• Profile visibility: Choose whether your profile is Private (visible only to you and the Rently system), Verified Members Only (visible only to signed-in users with fully verified accounts), or Public (visible to all users).
• Last name visibility: Control who can see your last name using the same privacy levels above.
• Profile picture visibility: Control who can see your profile picture using the same privacy levels above.
• Leaderboard participation: Opt in or out of appearing on gamification leaderboards.
• Comment privacy: Control whether your comments on blogs and other content are publicly visible.
• Search history: Enable or disable rental search history tracking.
• Top searches contribution: Control whether your search history contributes to the platform's popular/top searches feature.

13. Children's Privacy

The Rently platform is not intended for use by children under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. Our identity verification process, which requires a valid South African identity document, is designed to confirm that users meet the minimum age requirement. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child, we will take steps to delete that information promptly.

14. International Data Transfers

Your personal information may be transferred to and processed in countries other than South Africa where our service providers operate. Where such transfers occur, we ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place as required by Section 72 of POPIA, including ensuring that the recipient country has adequate data protection laws or that contractual protections are in place.

15. Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes to our practices, technologies, legal requirements, or platform features. When we make material changes, we will notify you through the platform (via notification or pop-up) and update the "Last updated" date at the top of this policy. Your continued use of the platform after such changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy. Where required by law, we will seek your renewed consent.

16. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, wish to exercise your rights, or have concerns about how your personal information is being processed, please contact us:

• Email: support@rently.mobi
• Information Officer: Rently (Pty) Ltd Information Officer, reachable at support@rently.mobi

You may also lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa):

• Website: https://inforegulator.org.za
• Email: complaints.IR@justice.gov.za