Your information. Handled with care.
Social Circle brings people together through curated gatherings. This notice explains how we collect, use, protect, share, retain, and delete personal information when you use our website, mobile app, membership services, and events in South Africa.
Last updated: 19 August 2026 Effective: 19 August 2026
1. Who is responsible for your information?
Social Circle is the responsible party for personal information it controls for the Social Circle service. Our operating address is FutureSpace, 61 Katherine Street, Sandton 2146, South Africa.
Information Officer: Social Circle Information Officer
Privacy contact: admin@socialcircle.co.za
Postal address: FutureSpace, 61 Katherine Street, Sandton 2146, South Africa.
Our Information Officer oversees privacy governance and handles requests and complaints about personal information. You may also complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa).
2. Our commitment
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We use it only to operate, secure, improve, and communicate about Social Circle, to provide the membership services you request, and where law requires or permits it. We apply the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA) and other applicable South African law to our processing.
Social Circle uses reasonable technical and organisational safeguards designed to protect information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. No online system can promise absolute security, but we continuously work to keep your information protected.
3. Information we collect
| Category | Examples | Why we need it |
|---|---|---|
| Account and contact information | Name, email address, password, profile details, preferred location | To create and manage your account, communicate with you, and provide member support. |
| Gathering and compatibility information | Age range, social style, languages, interests, availability, location preference, and optional introduction | To curate compatible small-group dinners, drinks, and runs. This is not shared in full with other members. |
| Membership and payment information | Membership level, subscription status, order references, and payment outcomes | To administer membership. Card data is processed by Stripe; Social Circle does not store full card numbers or CVCs. |
| Safety and integrity information | Reports, verification records where required, account-security events, and correspondence | To protect the community, prevent fraud, respond to concerns, and enforce our rules. |
| Device, cookie, and usage information | IP address, browser, device information, pages viewed, and cookie choices | To keep the service secure, remember privacy choices, diagnose problems, and understand service performance. |
4. Identity and community safety
We use proportionate account, payment, and community-integrity checks to help maintain a safer member environment. Where Social Circle asks for identity verification, we use the information only to confirm eligibility, reduce fraud, and protect the community; we do not display identity documents to other members. A verification step reduces risk, but it is not a guarantee of another person’s identity, conduct, or safety. Members should continue to use sensible judgment at every gathering and report concerns promptly.
5. Lawful reasons for processing
We process personal information to perform our agreement with you, with your consent where consent is appropriate, to pursue legitimate interests such as service security and community integrity, and to meet legal obligations. You can withdraw consent for optional processing at any time; this does not affect processing already lawfully performed.
Our compatibility matching uses the profile choices you provide to help curate gatherings. It does not make a decision with legal or similarly significant effect solely by automated means. You may ask us to review a matching concern by contacting the Information Officer.
6. Sharing and operators
We share only the information necessary with trusted operators that help us run the service, such as secure hosting, email, payment, customer-support, analytics, and app-service providers. Each operator must process information only on our instructions and apply appropriate safeguards. We may also disclose information where required by law, to protect people or property, or to investigate fraud or serious misuse.
Some operators may process information outside South Africa. Where this happens, we take reasonable steps to ensure an adequate level of protection or other lawful safeguards consistent with POPIA.
7. How long we keep information
We retain information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, to maintain your active account, to resolve disputes, to protect the community, and to comply with legal, tax, accounting, or record-keeping duties. We delete, anonymise, or securely archive information when it is no longer needed. Identity-verification material, if requested, is kept only for the verification and retention period that applies to that purpose.
9. Your POPIA rights
Subject to applicable law, you may ask whether we hold information about you, request access to it, ask us to correct inaccurate information, request deletion where appropriate, object to certain processing, or opt out of direct marketing. To exercise a right, email admin@socialcircle.co.za with enough detail for us to identify your account and request. We may need to confirm your identity before responding. If you are dissatisfied with our response, you may contact the Information Regulator.
10. Children and changes
Social Circle is for adults aged 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we learn that a child has provided personal information, we will take appropriate steps to remove it. We may update this notice when our service or the law changes; we will post the updated version here and change the effective date.
11. Contact us
For privacy questions, rights requests, or concerns, contact the Social Circle Information Officer at admin@socialcircle.co.za or write to FutureSpace, 61 Katherine Street, Sandton 2146, South Africa.