1. Introduction
AutoGuard Pro ("we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting your personal information and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our vehicle security and recovery platform, including:
- the AutoGuard Pro web portal at app.autoguardpro.co.za
- the AutoGuard Pro mobile application
- the Pound Scanner mobile application (yard-walk / pound-list scanning)
- related training and support services
This policy complies with the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) of South Africa and other applicable data protection laws.
2. Information We Collect
2.1 Personal Information
What we collect depends on how you use the service:
Web portal registration (fleet managers and brokers) — we collect:
- Identity: Full name (first and last name on the registration form)
- Contact: Email address and phone number
- Organisation: Registered company name, broker code and insurer (where applicable)
- Account credentials: Email (used to sign in) and password (stored encrypted; we never store plain-text passwords)
We do not collect South African ID numbers or dates of birth on the web registration form.
Mobile app and profile — clients and drivers may additionally provide:
- Emergency contact name and phone number
- Medical conditions relevant to emergency response (optional)
- Driver's licence photo (optional, for identification)
- FCM device token for push notifications (mobile app)
Pound Scanner — yard operators may capture vehicle identifiers (plate, VIN, make/model/colour), photos, and optional scanner identity / pound location for pound-list ingest. Pound Scanner does not require an AutoGuard user login; access is controlled by a device/API key issued by AutoGuard.
2.2 Vehicle Information
When you enroll or scan vehicles, we may collect:
- Vehicle details: Make, model, year, color, license plate number
- Identification numbers: VIN, engine number
- Registration information: Licence disk details, registration number
- Photos: Vehicle images for identification purposes
- Tracker information: Tracker company and tracking numbers (where provided)
2.3 Location Data
With your consent (mobile app permissions or when you submit a web/mobile incident report), we collect:
- Incident GPS: Coordinates submitted with a panic or incident report
- Incident address: Where you provide a street address or description of the scene
We do not maintain a continuous travel-history log or background route tracking. Location is tied to incidents and service delivery, not general movement profiling.
2.4 Automatically Collected Information
- Security and audit logs: IP address, browser or app user-agent, timestamps, and significant account actions
- Incident metadata: Report source (web or mobile) and device description where submitted
- Push notifications: FCM token (mobile) or Web Push subscription (operator portal, with browser permission)
- Session storage (web): Non-sensitive UI preferences — not used for cross-site tracking
2.5 Incident and Emergency Data
- Incident details: Type, date, time, description
- Emergency information: Medical conditions, emergency contacts
- Supporting evidence: Photos, voice notes, witness information
3. How We Use Your Information
3.1 Service Delivery
- Create and manage accounts
- Enroll and manage vehicles; maintain pound lists from scanner ingest
- Provide monitoring, BOLO, and recovery coordination
- Process and respond to incident reports
- Coordinate with emergency services when needed
3.2 Communication
- Service notifications and alerts
- Support and account status messages
- Security updates and important notices
3.3 Security and Safety
- Detect and prevent fraud or unauthorised access
- Verify identity and authenticate access
- Investigate suspicious activity or policy violations
- Protect the rights and safety of our users and others
3.4 Legal and Compliance
- Comply with legal obligations and lawful requests
- Maintain records as required by law
- Enforce our Terms of Service
3.5 Service Improvement
- Analyse usage patterns and improve services
- Develop features and anonymised statistics
4. Legal Basis for Processing (POPIA)
- Consent — where you have given explicit consent for specific purposes
- Contract — necessary to fulfill our service agreement with you
- Legal obligation — required by law
- Legitimate interest — necessary for our legitimate business interests
- Vital interests — protecting life or health in emergencies
5. Information Sharing and Disclosure
5.1 Emergency Services
During active emergencies, we may share information with police, medical emergency services, fire and rescue, and private security / recovery teams.
5.2 Service Providers (processors)
- Platform development & support: Impact Elements (Pty) Ltd (South Africa)
- Hosting: Self-hosted application and database infrastructure (HTTPS in transit)
- Email: Microsoft 365 SMTP for account and incident notifications
- Mobile push: Google Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM)
- Web push: Browser push services (operator portal)
- Voice transcription: Groq Whisper and/or Google Cloud Speech-to-Text (when you submit voice notes)
- Messaging: Telegram and/or WhatsApp for operational alerts (where configured)
5.3 Business Partners
With your consent, we may share information with insurance companies and brokers, tracker companies, and fleet management partners.
5.4 Legal Requirements
We may disclose information when required by law, court order, or government request, or to protect our rights and safety.
6. Data Security
- Encryption in transit: TLS/HTTPS for all production access
- Password protection: Industry-standard hashing (bcrypt)
- Access controls: Role-based access, JWT/httpOnly session cookies, CSRF protection on the web portal
- Audit logging: Significant actions recorded for accountability
- Infrastructure: Hosted on controlled, monitored servers
7. Data Retention
We retain personal information while your account is active, as needed for the purposes in this policy, and as required by law. After an account is closed (deactivated), we retain certain data for up to 5 years for legal and operational purposes, then purge personal data unless a longer period is required by law.
8. Your Rights (POPIA)
- Access — request a copy of personal information we hold about you
- Correction — request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information
- Deletion — request deletion, subject to legal retention. Step-by-step: Request data & account deletion
- Object — object to certain processing
- Portability — request transfer of your data
- Withdraw consent — where processing is based on consent
To exercise these rights, use Download my data on your profile (web portal), submit a request via data deletion, email privacy@autoguardpro.co.za, or call +27 65 074 5023.
9. Cross-Border Data Transfers
Your data may be transferred to and processed in countries outside South Africa. We use appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses, adequacy determinations, and binding corporate rules where applicable.
10. Children's Privacy
Our service is not intended for individuals under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from minors.
11. Cookies and Similar Technologies
The web portal uses only essential technologies — we do not use advertising or third-party analytics cookies.
- Essential session cookies (httpOnly): Keep you signed in after login
- Local storage: Cookie-notice acknowledgement and non-sensitive UI preferences
- Web Push (optional): Only if you enable desktop notifications on the operator portal
The marketing website (this site) does not set advertising cookies. Theme preference may be stored in localStorage.
Mobile apps use device permissions (location, notifications, camera) rather than browser cookies.
12. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Significant changes will be notified by email or through the platform. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
13. Contact Information
- Email: privacy@autoguardpro.co.za
- Information Officer: Charolet Peens — info.officer@autoguardpro.co.za
- Phone: +27 65 074 5023
- Address: AUTOGUARD PRO (Pty) Ltd, 51 Union Forest Plantation, Delmas, Mpumalanga, 2210, South Africa
14. Complaints
You may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa:
- Email: inforeg@inforeg.org.za
- Phone: 010 213 3472