Privacy Policy

This policy explains what personal information we collect when you use Spotlight, why we collect it, and the rights you have over it. It is written to meet the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).

1. Who we are

Spotlight is operated by Ace Marketing (Pty) Ltd t/a Spotlight (registration number 2014/199265/07), a South African company at Block A, 1st Floor, Little Fourways Office Park, Fourways, Sandton, 2191. We are the responsible party for your personal information. For any privacy question, contact our Information Officer at hello@spotlightseo.co.za.

2. Information we collect

• Account details: your name and email address, handled through our authentication provider when you sign up or sign in.
• Data you enter: the brand domains, competitors, and prompts you choose to track, and your settings.
• Usage and device data: pages visited and product interactions, plus your IP address, collected to run the product, secure it, and rate-limit the free audit.
• Billing data: your plan, invoices, and payment status. Card details are entered on our payment processor’s hosted page and are never seen or stored by us.

3. How we use your information

• To provide, run, and support the Spotlight service.
• To process payments and issue SARS-compliant tax invoices.
• To send transactional messages and the alerts you have switched on. Marketing emails are sent only with your consent and always include an unsubscribe link.
• To secure the service, prevent abuse, and meet legal obligations.
• To understand and improve how the product is used.

4. Lawful basis

We process your information to perform our contract with you (running your account and billing), to pursue our legitimate interests (securing and improving the product), to meet legal obligations (tax records), and on the basis of your consent where consent is required (such as marketing email).

5. AI models and your tracked prompts

To measure your visibility, we send the prompts you choose to track to third-party AI assistants (such as ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini) and record their responses. We send only the prompt text needed to run the check. We do not send your account or billing details to these providers.

6. Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with the operators (sub-processors) that make the product work, under appropriate safeguards:

• Authentication and account management.
• Payment processing (PayFast).
• Transactional email delivery.
• Product analytics.
• The AI assistants described in section 5.
• Our hosting and database providers (located in South Africa).

We may also disclose information where required by law, or to protect our rights and the safety of our users.

7. Cross-border transfers

Some of the processors above operate outside South Africa, so your information may be processed in other countries. Where it is, we rely on the conditions for lawful transfer in section 72 of POPIA, including recipients bound to comparable protection.

8. How long we keep it

• Account and tracking data: for as long as your account is active.
• Free-audit IP addresses: kept only for the rate-limit window (about 30 days), then removed.
• Tax invoices and related records: retained for the period South African tax law requires (currently five years).
• On a deletion request, we purge or anonymise your personal information within 30 days, except records we must keep by law.

9. How we protect it

We encrypt data in transit, restrict access to authorised systems and people, and rely on a dedicated authentication provider rather than storing passwords ourselves. More detail is on our Security page.

10. Your rights

You may ask us to access, correct, or delete your personal information, object to certain processing, or withdraw consent. Email hello@spotlightseo.co.za and we will respond as POPIA requires. If you believe we have not dealt with your information lawfully, you may complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa) at inforegulator.org.za.

11. Cookies

We use essential cookies to keep you signed in and to operate the service, and analytics cookies to understand product usage. Blocking essential cookies may stop parts of the product from working.

12. Children

Spotlight is a business tool and is not intended for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect information from children.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the product or the law changes. We will revise the date above and, for material changes, let account holders know.

14. Contact

Information Officer, Ace Marketing (Pty) Ltd t/a Spotlight, hello@spotlightseo.co.za, Block A, 1st Floor, Little Fourways Office Park, Fourways, Sandton, 2191.