Scout Beta Privacy Notice

1. Who is responsible for your information?

Scout is currently operated in South Africa by Luan van der Westhuizen, trading as Scout. For the beta, the operator determines why and how personal information is processed and is the responsible party for purposes of the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).

Information Officer: Luan van der Westhuizen. Website: scoutsa.co.za. Privacy contact: luanvdwest@gmail.com. Service address: 267 Beach Road, Arthur Seat Mansions, Sea Point, Cape Town, Western Cape, 8005. Privacy and data requests can also be submitted from Settings → Privacy & security while signed in.

2. What Scout is

Scout Renter Passport is software that helps renters organise rental information and documents and create controlled, time-limited shares for agents or landlords. Scout is not an estate agent, landlord, credit bureau or tenant-screening service, and Scout does not make rental approval decisions.

3. Information we collect

Depending on what you choose to provide, Scout may process account and contact details, profile information, profile photo, date of birth, nationality, address, employment and income information, household information, rental history, rental references, supporting documents, sharing choices, consent records, support or privacy requests, and activity records such as when a Passport share is opened.

Scout does not require a full identity or passport number in the current beta. Documents may nevertheless contain sensitive personal information, so only upload information that is reasonably necessary for your rental application.

4. Where information comes from

Most information is collected directly from you. Scout may also create technical and activity records when you use the service or when a recipient opens a share you created. Where you provide information about another person, such as a landlord or rental reference, you should have a reasonable basis to provide those details for your rental application.

5. Why we process it

Scout processes personal information to create and maintain your account and Renter Passport, store documents, create and manage secure shares, provide temporary document access to recipients you authorise, record share activity, provide support, respond to privacy requests, protect the service against misuse, and improve the beta product.

Depending on the activity, Scout relies on your consent, processing necessary to provide the service you request, legal obligations, and legitimate interests such as securing and improving the service. Scout does not sell renter personal information.

6. What is required and what is optional

Basic account information and the minimum fields shown as required are needed to create and use a Scout account. Most Passport fields and documents are optional. If you choose not to provide optional information, the relevant part of your Passport may simply be incomplete. Nothing is shared with an agent or landlord merely because you upload it.

7. Sharing with agents or landlords

Your Passport is not public. You choose the intended recipient, the profile sections and documents to include, and the access period. Scout asks you to confirm the share before it is created. Active shares can be revoked, and an expired or revoked share can no longer be used to obtain new temporary document links.

Recipients remain responsible for how they handle information they receive after you deliberately share it with them. Consider whether each document or field is necessary before including it.

8. Service providers and international processing

Scout uses third-party technology providers to operate the service. This includes Base44, Inc. and its sub-processors for application infrastructure, hosting and related services. These providers process information on Scout's behalf under their contractual data-protection terms.

Some service providers or sub-processors may process information outside South Africa. Where personal information is transferred internationally, Scout will use a basis permitted by POPIA and take reasonable steps to ensure appropriate protection. International processing may be necessary to provide the cloud service you request.

9. Security

Scout uses technical and organisational safeguards appropriate to the beta, including user-specific data access rules, private document references, server-side ownership checks, strong random Passport share tokens stored as hashes, time-limited and revocable shares, and short-lived signed document URLs. Administrative access is restricted to operational purposes.

No online service can guarantee absolute security. Scout reviews security controls as the beta develops. If Scout has reasonable grounds to believe personal information has been accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person, Scout will follow the notification duties required by POPIA.

10. Retention and deletion

Account, Passport and document information is generally retained while your account is active and for as long as needed to provide the service or meet a lawful purpose. Expired or revoked share metadata and security/activity records may be kept for a limited period for security, support and dispute-resolution purposes. Scout aims to remove personal information as soon as reasonably practicable when it is no longer authorised or needed, subject to lawful retention requirements and provider backup cycles.

You can remove individual documents or submit an account-deletion request from Settings. Some minimal consent, security or request records may need to be retained where reasonably required to demonstrate compliance, resolve disputes or comply with law.

11. Your POPIA rights

You may request access to personal information Scout holds about you, ask for inaccurate information to be corrected, request deletion where appropriate, object to certain processing, or withdraw consent where processing depends on consent. Scout also provides a data-export function for account metadata. Requests can be submitted through Scout Settings.

12. Children

Scout accounts are intended for people aged 18 or older. The beta does not intentionally create accounts for children. A renter may state the number of children in a household without providing identifying information about those children.

13. Complaints

Please give Scout an opportunity to resolve a privacy concern through the Privacy & security section in Settings. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa).

Information Regulator: inforegulator.org.za · Telephone 010 023 5200 · POPIA complaints may be submitted through the Regulator's eServices/complaints process.

14. Changes to this notice

Scout may update this Privacy Notice as the beta changes. Material changes will be reflected by a new version and effective date, and Scout may require users to acknowledge or accept an updated notice where appropriate.