This notice explains how Neighbili processes your personal information in terms of South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA). It sits alongside our broader Privacy Policy.
1. Responsible Party
Neighbili, operated by House Down Studios (South Africa). For anything in this notice, contact us at ziyaad@housedownstudios.co.za.
2. Information Officer
Ziyaad Jina — ziyaad@housedownstudios.co.za. All POPIA requests (access, correction, deletion, objection) go to the Information Officer.
3. Personal information we process
- Identity & contact: name, email address, sign-in provider.
- Profile: display name, bio, profession, interests, what you offer / need, area label.
- Selfie: a photo you capture during onboarding for human verification.
- Location: the precise coordinates you set for "home" (only an approximate distance is shown to other neighbours).
- Activity: posts, messages, neighbour connections, reports, endorsements.
- Technical: device, browser, IP address, log and diagnostic data.
4. Purpose of processing
- To create and operate your account and the neighbour network.
- To verify you're a real person living in the area you claim.
- To show neighbours nearby posts, chats and requests.
- To prevent abuse, fraud and harassment.
- To send service emails (sign-in, password reset, neighbour requests, chats).
- To comply with legal obligations.
5. Lawful basis (s.11 POPIA)
- Consent — given when you tick the consent box at signup.
- Performance of a contract — to deliver the service you signed up for.
- Legitimate interest — keeping the platform safe and abuse-free.
- Legal obligation — where law requires us to retain or disclose data.
6. Who we share information with
- Other neighbours — only the fields described in our Privacy Policy, scoped by the visibility rules of each post or chat.
- Operators processing data on our behalf under written contract: hosting & database (Lovable Cloud / Supabase), email delivery, mapping (Google Maps).
- Law enforcement — only when legally compelled.
- We do not sell your personal information and do not run third-party advertising.
7. Cross-border transfers (s.72 POPIA)
Some of our operators store or process data outside South Africa (for example database hosting and Google services). Where this happens, we rely on the recipient being subject to a law or binding agreement that provides an adequate level of protection comparable to POPIA, or on your consent.
8. Security safeguards (s.19 POPIA)
Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS) and at rest. Sensitive columns (home coordinates, selfie path) are restricted at the database level via Row-Level Security. Passwords are hashed. Admin access to sensitive data is logged.
9. Retention
We keep your information while your account is active and for up to 30 days after deletion (for abuse and fraud review). Selfies are deleted within 7 days of account deletion. Backups roll off within 90 days. We may retain anonymised aggregate data indefinitely.
10. Your rights as a data subject
Under POPIA you have the right to:
- Be notified that your personal information is being collected (this notice).
- Request access to your personal information.
- Request correction or deletion of inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive or out-of-date information.
- Object, on reasonable grounds, to the processing of your personal information.
- Object to processing for direct marketing.
- Withdraw consent at any time (this does not affect the lawfulness of prior processing).
- Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (see below).
To exercise any of these rights, email the Information Officer at ziyaad@housedownstudios.co.za. We will respond within a reasonable time (and in any event within the periods required by POPIA / PAIA).
11. Information Regulator (South Africa)
If you believe we've mishandled your personal information you may complain to:
The Information Regulator (South Africa)
JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001
Email: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
Website: inforegulator.org.za
12. Children
Neighbili is not intended for anyone under 16. We do not knowingly process personal information of children. If we learn an account belongs to a child, we will delete it.
13. Changes to this notice
We may update this notice from time to time. Material changes will be communicated to you in-app or by email before they take effect.
14. Consent
When you signed up, you ticked a box confirming you had read this notice and consented to the processing described here. You can withdraw your consent at any time by deleting your account from Profile settings, or by emailing the Information Officer.