1. Who we are
Hydramatics Control Equipment (Pty) Ltd ("Hydramatics", "we", "us", "our") is a South African company supplying pneumatic and instrumentation components to industrial customers. We operate from 15 Village Crescent, Linbro Business Park, Frankenwald, Sandton, Gauteng, South Africa.
Our responsible party for the purpose of POPIA is Gareth Jones (Information Officer), contactable at info@hydramatics.co.za or +27 11 608 1340.
2. What information we collect
We collect personal information that you provide to us directly, and limited information that is collected automatically when you interact with our website.
Information you provide
- Account and order information – when you register an account or place an order: name, company name, email address, telephone number, VAT number, billing and delivery addresses, purchase history, and payment references.
- Drawings and specifications – technical documents you send to us for cross-reference, quoting, or specifying work.
- Communication records – emails, online-form submissions, WhatsApp messages, and call summaries. Calls may be recorded for quality assurance and training purposes; recordings are retained for the period reasonably required for those purposes.
Information collected automatically
- Usage data – IP address, browser type and version, operating system, time zone, pages visited, search terms, and session cookies on the storefront.
- Marketing-site analytics – our marketing site (www.hydramatics.co.za) uses Cloudflare Web Analytics, a cookieless analytics service that collects aggregated data (page views, referrer, country) without tracking individual visitors or setting cookies.
- Storefront cookies – our Zoho Commerce storefront sets cookies necessary for cart, login, and checkout functionality. See our Cookies Policy for details.
Third-party data
- We may receive information from credit bureaus (for trade-account approvals), payment processors (for transaction confirmations), analytics providers, and marketing partners where applicable.
3. Why we collect it (lawful basis)
We process your personal information for one or more of the following lawful purposes under POPIA:
- Performance of a contract – to quote, supply, deliver, invoice, and support the products you order.
- Legitimate business interests – to respond to enquiries, send technical follow-up after a sale, and maintain our customer records.
- Legal obligation – to comply with South African tax, accounting, and consumer-protection laws (e.g. retaining transaction records for SARS).
- Your consent – where applicable, for example if you opt into marketing communications (we do not currently run a marketing newsletter, but may introduce one with explicit opt-in).
4. Who we share it with
We share your personal information only where necessary, and only with parties bound by appropriate confidentiality:
- Service providers across the Zoho One application suite – Zoho Books (accounting), Zoho Inventory, Zoho Desk, Zoho Commerce, and Zoho CRM. Each is bound by Zoho's privacy commitments and operates under data-protection frameworks at least as protective as POPIA.
- Payment processors – Paystack processes card payments for storefront orders under PCI-DSS standards. We do not store full card details on our systems.
- Couriers and logistics providers – The Courier Guy and other carriers, for delivery of physical goods (name, delivery address, phone number).
- Manufacturers and suppliers – Camozzi Automation (Italy) and Hy-Lok Korea, where a special order or warranty assistance requires forwarding your technical specification. We do not share commercial details (pricing, end-customer information) unless required for warranty or product support.
- Professional advisors – accountants, auditors, lawyers, and insurers, on a need-to-know basis.
- Credit and fraud-prevention services – for trade-account approvals and risk checks.
- Marketing-site infrastructure – Cloudflare hosts our marketing website (www.hydramatics.co.za).
- Regulators and law enforcement – only where required by law (e.g. SARS audits, court orders).
- Successors – if we transfer or restructure our business, data may be transferred under appropriate safeguards.
We do not sell your personal information to third parties.
Some of our service providers operate outside South Africa. Where personal information is transferred across borders, we ensure adequate protection is in place per POPIA and, where applicable, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
5. How long we keep it
We retain personal information only as long as necessary for the purposes described, including any legal, accounting, or reporting obligations:
- Order and invoice records – at least 6 years, as required by the Income Tax Act and Value-Added Tax Act of South Africa.
- Trade account information – for the lifetime of the account plus 6 years after closure.
- Quote and enquiry data – 2 years from the last interaction, then archived or deleted.
- Correspondence – as long as relevant to the customer relationship; archived after 3 years of inactivity.
- Call recordings – retained for the period reasonably required for quality assurance and training purposes, typically not exceeding 12 months.
When personal data is no longer required, we securely delete or anonymise it.
6. Your rights under POPIA
As a data subject under POPIA, you have the right to:
- Access the personal information we hold about you
- Correct any information that is inaccurate or out of date
- Delete information where we no longer have a lawful purpose to hold it
- Object to processing for direct marketing (if applicable)
- Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa
To exercise any of these rights, email info@hydramatics.co.za with "POPIA request" in the subject line. We will respond within 30 days.
If you are unsatisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator: inforegulator.org.za.
7. Security
We apply reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information from unauthorised access, loss, or disclosure. This includes encrypted transmission (HTTPS), access controls on our internal systems, and contractual security obligations on our cloud providers.
No system is perfectly secure. In the event of a personal-information breach affecting you, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as required by POPIA.
8. Cookies and tracking
Our marketing site (www.hydramatics.co.za) uses Cloudflare Web Analytics, which does not set cookies and does not track individual visitors. Our storefront (store.hydramatics.co.za) uses cookies necessary for cart and checkout functionality. See the Cookies Policy for details.
9. Children's information
Our products are sold to industrial businesses. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If you believe we have inadvertently collected such information, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.
10. Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent change. Material changes will be communicated via our website and, where applicable, by email to trade-account holders.
11. Contact
For any privacy-related question:
Hydramatics Control Equipment (Pty) Ltd
15 Village Crescent, Linbro Business Park, Frankenwald
Sandton 2065, Gauteng, South Africa
📞 +27 11 608 1340
✉ info@hydramatics.co.za
