Responsible Party and Information Officer
- Responsible Party (legal entity): Curve Concepts (Pty) Ltd, trading as Mobile Pet Groomers
- Company registration number: 2005/003178/07
- Registered address: 25 Enkeldoring Street, Randpark Ridge Ext 3, 2156, South Africa
- Information Officer: David Bondi — info@mobilepetgroomers.co.za
- Information Regulator: inforegulator.org.za
This policy describes how Mobile Pet Groomers (“we”, “us”), operated by Curve Concepts (Pty) Ltd, collects, uses, stores and shares your personal information. We process personal information in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 4 of 2013 (“POPIA”).
Who we are
Mobile Pet Groomers operates a South African lead-generation platform connecting pet owners with mobile pet groomers in their area. You can contact us at info@mobilepetgroomers.co.za.
What we collect
From pet owners: name, phone number, email (optional), street address and approximate coordinates (when you pick your address from the Google Places suggestions; otherwise suburb only), region, pet breed, requested service, and any free-text notes about your pet that you provide. We use Google’s Places service to power the address suggestions; your typing is sent to Google to generate those suggestions and is subject to Google’s own privacy policy.
From groomers: name, business name and type, phone number, email, regions and services offered, customer references (name + phone + relationship), South African ID document, business registration document (CIPC, where applicable), proof of address, and grooming-related profile information.
Automatically: we record technical information such as IP address, browser, time stamps, and request paths in our application logs for security and reliability purposes.
Why we collect it
- To match pet owners with verified groomers in their area (the core service).
- To verify groomer identity, business registration (CIPC) and proof of address before allowing them onto the platform.
- To process wallet top-ups via PayFast.
- To send transactional notifications (application status updates, booking receipts, lead notifications).
- To meet our legal, regulatory and tax obligations.
Our lawful basis for processing (POPIA section 11)
We process personal information on one or more of the following grounds:
- Consent. When a pet owner submits a booking enquiry, they consent to their contact details being shared with a groomer who unlocks that lead, so the groomer can contact them about the requested grooming service.
- Performance of a contract (or to take steps before a contract), where processing is necessary to provide the service you have requested.
- Compliance with a legal obligation (for example tax, record-keeping and verification).
- Our legitimate interests in operating, securing and improving the platform, balanced against your rights.
Providing the information requested by our forms is voluntary, but without it we may be unable to provide the service (for example, we cannot match a booking without a contact number).
Who sees your information
Pet owners: when you submit a booking, your contact details remain hidden until a groomer pays to unlock the lead. Once unlocked, your name, phone number, email, suburb and address (if provided) are visible to the groomer who paid for the unlock. That groomer then acts as an independent responsible party for their own use of your information, under the obligations set out in our Terms of Service. We never sell your data to third parties.
Groomers: your application documents are visible only to our internal verification team. After approval, your business name, regions, services, ratings and reviews are visible to pet owners browsing the platform.
Operators (processors acting on our instructions), on a need-to-know basis: Supabase (database + storage hosting), Fly.io (API hosting), Vercel (web hosting), Resend (email delivery), Meta WhatsApp Cloud API (WhatsApp delivery), PayFast (payments), and Google Maps Platform (address autocomplete suggestions when you start typing your address).
Where your information is processed (cross-border transfers)
Some of our operators process or store information outside South Africa. Where personal information is transferred across borders, we do so in accordance with POPIA section 72 — the recipient is subject to laws, binding rules or contractual terms providing an adequate, comparable level of protection, or the transfer is otherwise permitted (for example with your consent or because it is necessary to perform our contract with you).
Direct marketing
We send transactional messages (such as application updates, receipts and lead notifications) as a necessary part of the service. We will only send you marketing messages where you have consented, or as otherwise permitted by POPIA and the Consumer Protection Act. You may opt out of marketing at any time using the unsubscribe option in the message or by emailing info@mobilepetgroomers.co.za; opting out of marketing does not stop essential transactional messages.
How long we keep it
Booking records, lead unlocks and wallet ledger entries are retained indefinitely for accounting and dispute purposes. Application documents are retained for the lifetime of the groomer’s account, plus seven years after closure to comply with our record-keeping obligations.
Your rights under POPIA
You may request to see, correct or delete your personal information, and you may object to certain processing. Pet owners can request deletion at any time by emailing us; if you have unlocked leads against your record we will retain the financial ledger entries but anonymise personal identifiers. Groomers can request deletion after they have settled any wallet balance.
Security
Personal information is stored on Supabase (Postgres) with TLS in transit and at-rest encryption. Sensitive documents (ID, proof of address, business registration) live in a private storage bucket accessible only via short-lived signed URLs we mint for our verification team.
Cookies and analytics
We use cookies and local storage that are necessary to run the platform — for example to keep you signed in and to remember your cookie choice. These essential items are always active.
We also use optional analytics and advertising cookies to measure our marketing and improve your experience: Google Analytics 4 (usage analytics), Google Ads (conversion tracking) and the Meta (Facebook) Pixel (advertising and retargeting). These are switched off by default and are only set if you choose Accept on our cookie consent banner. If you choose Decline, no non-essential cookies are set and the site stays cookieless beyond what is needed to run it. You can change your mind at any time by clearing your saved choice in your browser, which makes the banner appear again.
Updates to this policy
We may update this policy as the platform evolves. Material changes will be communicated via email to anyone with an account; minor clarifications will be posted here with an updated effective date.
Contact and complaints
Email info@mobilepetgroomers.co.za for any privacy questions, access requests or complaints. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the South African Information Regulator at inforegulator.org.za.