POPIA Privacy Notice Department of Community Safety 2021

We collect and hold a broad range of personal information relating to:

- Correspondence from members of the public or organisations addressed to us or our Provincial Minister.

- Correspondence from other Provincial Ministers and organs of state.

- Employment and personnel matters relating to staff and contractors.

- Facilitating appointments.

- Facilitating meetings.

- Administering programs for which the Department of Community Safety is responsible for.

- Research we have commissioned.

- Contract management.

- Complaints (including privacy complaints) and feedback provided to us.

- Requests in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (PAIA).

- Legal advice provided by internal state law advisors and external lawyers.

- The performance of legislative and administrative functions.

- For Audit and record keeping purpose

- For the detection and prevention of fraud, crime, and other malpractice

- To confirm and verify your identity or to verify that you are the authorised user for security purposes

We collect personal information in a variety of ways. These include:

- Correspondence and submissions.

- Paper-based forms.

- Online (web-based forms and e-mails); and

- Phone calls, faxes, and face to face meetings.

- We often collect personal information directly from you. However, in some circumstances we may also collect information about you from another organ of state or organisation.

- Certain third-party service providers may collect or check information from or about you on our behalf. For example, where we use external employment agencies, vetting agencies, credit bureaus, lawyers, accountants, consultants, professional bodies, banks, travel agencies, non-government organisations and security companies.

- We work with public bodies or organs of state such as local, provincial, and national government departments, which may collect or check information from or about you on our behalf.

- We only collect personal information where that information is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, one or more of our functions or activities.

We collect personal information from and about:

Visitors to our website:

• We collect information that you give to us directly via our website contact forms.
• We also use common technologies (including ‘cookies’) to anonymously and automatically track website use and improve user experience. You can usually disable these if you prefer. Our website privacy notice has more information.

Our job applicants, bursary applicants, intern applicants and employees:

• We collect information from you when you apply for a job, internship, or bursary and if you are successful and we employ you, give you an internship or a bursary.
• We may also collect information about you from third parties, like educational bodies or previous employers.
• We also collect information about employees’ and interns’ use of email and the internet to monitor and review e-mail and internet activity, where we believe it is reasonable and necessary to detect abuse or unlawful activity on the department’s resources. You cannot expect privacy in this regard.

Our suppliers, service providers, contractors, and consultants:

• We collect information from you when you apply to be listed on our supplier database and bid to supply goods or services to us.
• We may also collect or check information about you from various private or public bodies, such as banks or tax authorities.

Our citizens and users of public services and facilities provided by the Department of Community Safety:

• We collect information you give us when you send us a letter, an email or text message, or when you use social media or our call centre to contact us.
• We also collect personal information when it is directly relevant to the specific public services, we provide to you.

We also collect information from visitors to our buildings and facilities in terms of the Control of Access to Public Premises and Vehicles Act, 1985.