Privacy Policy

Introduction

Bocha News (Bocha, we, us, or our) is a South African digital publication focused on sustainability news and insights across Africa’s evolving green economy. Our website address is https://bochanews.com

We are committed to protecting personal information and upholding privacy rights in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 4 of 2013 (POPIA), the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2 of 2000 (PAIA), and Section 14 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996.

Where relevant, we also take into account broader African and internationally recognised data protection principles.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store and protect personal information when you interact with our website, content or editorial services.

Legal and Regulatory Framework

Bocha News processes personal information in accordance with POPIA, PAIA, and applicable constitutional protections relating to privacy and access to information.

We also consider emerging data protection frameworks across African jurisdictions such as Kenya and Nigeria, as well as internationally recognised privacy standards where relevant.

Bocha News acts as the Responsible Party for personal information processed through its platforms as defined under POPIA.

Information We Collect

We collect personal information when you subscribe to newsletters or updates, contact us via email or forms, submit editorial pitches, articles or news tips, or engage with surveys and correspondence. This may include your name and surname, email address, organisation or professional affiliation if provided, and any content submitted through communication or editorial engagement.

When visitors leave comments on the site, we collect the data shown in the comments form as well as the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to assist with spam detection.

An anonymised string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to check whether you are using it. The Gravatar privacy policy is available at https://automattic.com/privacy/
. After approval, your profile picture may be visible to the public in the context of your comment.

We also collect certain information automatically, including IP address, device type, browser type, operating system, pages visited, time spent on pages, referral sources, and general usage data. This is collected through cookies and analytics tools used to improve performance and content delivery.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS). Visitors to the website may be able to download and extract location data from uploaded images.

If you leave a comment, you may opt in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies for convenience so you do not need to re-enter details when commenting again. These cookies last for one year.

If you visit our login page, a temporary cookie may be set to determine whether your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when the browser is closed.

When you log in, cookies are set to save login information and display preferences. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for one year. If you select “Remember Me”, login will persist for two weeks. When you log out, login cookies are removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie is stored in your browser. This cookie contains no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article edited. It expires after one day.

You may disable cookies in your browser settings, although this may affect functionality of certain parts of the site.

Embedded Content

Articles on this site may include embedded content such as videos, images or articles. Embedded content from other websites behaves in the same way as if the visitor has visited the other website directly.

These external websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction if you are logged into those platforms.

Purpose of Processing Information

We process personal information to operate and maintain the Bocha News platform, deliver editorial content and communications, respond to enquiries and submissions, manage journalist and contributor engagement, improve content relevance and audience experience, maintain website security and prevent misuse, and comply with legal obligations where required. We do not process personal information beyond a defined and lawful purpose.

Disclosure of Information

Bocha News does not sell, rent or trade personal information.

If you request a password reset, your IP address may be included in the reset email for security purposes.

We may share limited information with trusted service providers that support website hosting, email distribution, analytics, and spam protection services. These providers are required to handle data securely and in accordance with applicable data protection obligations.

We may also disclose information where required by law, court order, or regulatory authority, including the Information Regulator of South Africa.

Data Retention

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely to allow automatic approval of follow-up comments.

For users that register on the website, we store the personal information provided in their user profile. All users can see, edit or delete their personal information at any time, except that they cannot change their username. Website administrators can also view and edit that information.

We retain personal information only for as long as necessary for editorial, operational, legal, or security purposes, after which it is securely deleted or anonymised.

Your Rights

If you have an account on this site or have left comments, you may request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided.

You may also request that we erase personal data we hold about you, excluding data we are required to retain for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Under POPIA, you also have the right to access, correct, object to processing, and lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa.

Where Your Data Is Sent

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service. In some cases, data may also be processed by third-party services that support analytics, hosting, or security functions.