Privacy policy

1. Who we are

GetBitcoinLoans (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2025/573818/07) is the responsible party for your personal information under POPIA. We are an authorised financial services provider (FSP 55552) and a registered credit provider (NCRCP22583), at 1st Floor, Paramount Place, 105 Main Road, Green Point, Cape Town, 8005. In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” mean GetBitcoinLoans, and “you” and “your” mean the person whose information we process.

Our Information Officer is Taryn Walker. You can reach the Information Officer at privacy@getbitcoin.loans for anything about this policy or your personal information.

2. What personal information we collect

Depending on how you use our site and whether you take a loan, we may collect:

• Identity and contact details: your name, identity or passport number, date of birth, address, email and mobile number, and, for a company or trust, its registration and beneficial-ownership details.
• Identity verification and biometric information: images of your identity document and a facial image or selfie used to verify that you are who you say you are. A facial image is biometric information, which POPIA treats as special personal information (see section 5).
• Financial information: bank account details, and other information we need to assess and administer a loan.
• Loan and collateral information: your loan details, custodial bitcoin wallet addresses, on-chain transaction data for your collateral, and your loan-to-value position over time.
• Payment and transaction information: payments you make and receive through our payment providers.
• Communications and support: messages you send us, and records of our dealings with you.
• Technical and usage information: your device, browser, IP address, and how you use our site, including through cookies (see section 11).

3. How we collect it

We collect most of this information directly from you, when you use our site, create an account, apply for a loan, or contact us. We collect technical information automatically when you use our site. We also collect information from third parties where the law allows or requires it, such as identity and verification providers, credit bureaux, and sanctions, politically-exposed-person and fraud-screening sources.

4. Why we use it, and our legal grounds

We use your personal information only for lawful purposes, each with a legal ground under POPIA:

• To provide and administer your loan, including custody of your collateral, monitoring, and liquidation where it applies (to perform our agreement with you).
• To verify your identity and meet our anti-money-laundering duties under the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, including sanctions and politically-exposed-person screening (to meet a legal obligation).
• To report to credit bureaux where required under the National Credit Act (to meet a legal obligation, and our legitimate interest in responsible lending).
• To prevent, detect and investigate fraud and to keep our site and your account secure (our legitimate interest, and to meet a legal obligation).
• To report to regulators and authorities where required, including the FSCA, the Financial Intelligence Centre and the National Credit Regulator (to meet a legal obligation).
• To send you service messages about your loan and account (to perform our agreement with you).
• To send you marketing about our products, where you have agreed or the law allows, which you can opt out of at any time (with your consent).
• To run and improve our site (our legitimate interest).

5. Biometric information and children

We process a facial image and identity-document image to verify your identity, which we are required to do under the Financial Intelligence Centre Act. Because this is biometric information, we process it with your consent and only as the law requires, through our identity-verification provider, and we do not use it for any other purpose. Our services are for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect the personal information of children, and if we learn that we have, we will delete it.

6. Automated monitoring and decisions

We monitor your loan-to-value position continuously and automatically, and our systems trigger margin calls and, where it applies, liquidation, based on that monitoring, as set out in your Loan Agreement. Parts of our application and approval process may also be automated. Where a decision that affects you is made only by automated means, POPIA gives you the right to be told, to make representations, and to ask for a person to review it. You can exercise these rights using the contact details in section 12.

7. Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only where we need to, and with parties who are required to protect it:

• Our service providers (operators under POPIA), who process it on our behalf and only on our instructions. These include our identity-verification, payments, communications, and technology, hosting and security providers. Each is bound to protect your information and to use it only for us.
• Credit bureaux, where the National Credit Act requires it.
• Regulators and authorities, including the FSCA, the Financial Intelligence Centre, the National Credit Regulator and the Information Regulator, where the law requires or allows it.
• Our professional advisers, including the independent attorney who holds one of the keys used to secure customer collateral, on a need-to-know basis.

8. Sending information outside South Africa

Some of the service providers we use store or process personal information outside South Africa, including in the United Kingdom. Whenever we transfer your information across a border, we do so on a basis that POPIA allows. In practice, the transfer is necessary to provide our service to you, and we put a written agreement in place with the provider that requires it to protect your information to a standard comparable to POPIA. You can ask our Information Officer for more detail about how a particular transfer is protected.

9. How we protect your information

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to keep your information secure, including encryption, access controls, and keeping customer collateral information segregated. No system is completely secure, but we work to protect your information and to meet our obligations under POPIA. You can read more on our Security page.

10. How long we keep it

We keep your personal information for as long as we need it for the purposes above, and for at least five years after our relationship or a transaction ends, as the Financial Intelligence Centre Act requires, or longer where the National Credit Act or other law requires. When we no longer need it, we delete or de-identify it.

11. Cookies and similar technologies

Our site uses cookies and similar technologies. Essential cookies make the site and your login work and cannot be turned off, including the session cookies our authentication provider sets when you log in. We also use error-monitoring and security tools that may process technical data such as your IP address to keep the site working and safe. Any non-essential cookies, such as analytics, are set only with your consent, and you can accept or decline them when you first visit and change your choice in your browser at any time.

12. Your rights

Under POPIA you have the right to:

• ask what personal information we hold about you and request access to it (through our PAIA manual, see section 13);
• ask us to correct or delete information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive or out of date;
• object to our processing on reasonable grounds;
• withdraw your consent where we rely on it, without affecting processing already done;
• not be subject to a decision based only on automated processing (see section 6); and
• opt out of direct marketing at any time.

To exercise any of these, contact our Information Officer at privacy@getbitcoin.loans. We may need to verify your identity first. You also have the right to complain to the Information Regulator (see section 14).

13. Our PAIA manual

Our manual under the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) explains what records we hold and how to request access. You can find it here.

14. Complaints to the Information Regulator

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your personal information, you can complain to the Information Regulator:

The Information Regulator (South Africa)

Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191.

General enquiries: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za.

POPIA complaints: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za.

Telephone: 010 023 5200. Toll free: 0800 017 160.

15. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version and its effective date will always be on this page. Where a change is material, we will bring it to your attention.

16. How to contact us

GetBitcoinLoans (Pty) Ltd, PO Box 16350, Vlaeberg, Cape Town, Western Cape, 8018

General queries: hello@getbitcoin.loans

Privacy and data queries (our Information Officer): privacy@getbitcoin.loans

Security reports: security@getbitcoin.loans