Privacy Policy

Who we are

PureDrops Drillers provides borehole surveying, drilling, pump installation, solar pumping, water quality testing and maintenance services. This privacy policy explains how we handle personal information that reaches us through this website — through the contact form, the quotation request form, or an email to our team.

Where the South African Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) or comparable legislation applies to you, we treat you as an information subject with the rights set out below.

What we collect

Information you give us

Contact and enquiry forms. When you contact us we ask for your name, email address and message. A telephone number, company name and subject line are optional, but they usually let us answer you faster and more completely.

Quotation request forms. To prepare an engineering quotation we ask for:

• Your name, email address and telephone number
• Your company or organisation name (optional)
• The address of the site where water is required
• GPS coordinates of the proposed borehole position (optional, but it saves a site visit)
• The land use of the site — residential, agricultural, commercial, industrial or other
• The intended use of the water
• Estimated daily demand in litres (optional)
• Any existing water source at the site (optional)
• Any additional information you believe is relevant
• Attachments — up to five files in JPEG, PNG or PDF format, each no larger than 10 MB

We only ask for the details needed to understand the site, size the borehole and respond to you. We do not ask for identity numbers, banking details or passwords, and we will never ask you to send those by email.

Information collected automatically

• Your IP address, used to record where a submission originated and to protect the forms against abuse
• Your browser and device information (user agent), used for the same purpose
• The page you came from when you submitted a form

Information created during a project

If we go on to survey, drill or install equipment for you, we create project records: site surveys, borehole logs, yield test data, water sample results, photographs of the site and handover documentation. These records belong to the project and are handled as described below.

Why we collect it

We collect the information you send us for a specific and limited purpose: to prepare and respond to an engineering quotation, and then to deliver the work you ask for. Specifically, we use it to:

• Assess the site, estimate depth and sustainable yield, and select a pump and installation method
• Prepare a written quotation with a scope, a price and a programme
• Reply to your questions and keep a record of our correspondence with you
• Plan mobilisation, drilling, installation, commissioning and maintenance visits
• Prepare and keep the handover documentation, and meet record-keeping obligations
• Comply with water-use permits, the drilling regulations and other legal requirements that apply to the work
• Improve our website and our services, using aggregated information that does not identify you

We do not use your details to send marketing email. We do not sell your information to anyone, and we do not share it for anyone else's advertising.

Who can see it

Your information is visible to the PureDrops Drillers team — the engineers, hydrogeologists, surveyors and administrators who need it in order to quote for and deliver your project. Access is limited to those people and limited to what the work requires.

We also use a small number of service providers who host our systems, deliver our email and analyse our water samples. They act on our instructions, are bound by confidentiality terms, and are not permitted to use your information for their own purposes.

We may also disclose information where we are legally required to — for example to a regulator, a water authority or a law-enforcement body. Where it is lawful to do so, we will tell you that we have done so.

How it is stored and protected

Information submitted through this website is stored on our secured web server and in our application database, and is transmitted over an encrypted connection. Attachments you upload are held in our media library. Access is restricted by user accounts and role-based permissions, and data is backed up so that it can be recovered if a system failure occurs.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your information we will take the steps the law requires of us, including notifying you and the relevant regulator where that is required.

How long we keep it

Enquiries and quotations that do not lead to a project are retained for up to 24 months from our last contact with you, so that we can pick up a conversation where it left off, and are then deleted or anonymised.

Project records — borehole logs, yield test reports, water quality certificates, survey data and handover documentation — are retained for as long as the project requires and for the period that the applicable water authority, permit conditions or professional obligations require. These records usually need to be kept for the life of the installation, because they describe the asset you own.

Server logs are retained for a short operational period and then deleted. These retention periods are reviewed from time to time and may be changed; the version published on this page at the time your information was collected applies to it.

Cookies and analytics

This website uses only the cookies that are needed to make it work: a session cookie and a security token that protect the forms and keep you signed in where relevant. These are strictly necessary and do not require consent.

We may also use privacy-friendly analytics to understand which pages are useful. Where analytics is enabled, it is configured to record aggregated page views rather than personal information, and where the law requires consent, it is only loaded after that consent is given. You can remove or block cookies in your browser settings; the forms will still work, but your session will not be remembered between visits.

Photographs and media

Photographs you attach to a quotation request are treated as confidential project material and are not published. Photographs of completed projects are published on this website only with the client's agreement, and credit lines are shown where the photographer or licence requires it.

Your rights

Subject to the law that applies to you, you have the right to:

• Ask us what personal information we hold about you, and get a copy of it
• Ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete
• Ask us to delete information we no longer have a lawful reason to keep
• Object to, or ask us to restrict, a particular use of your information
• Withdraw consent, where we relied on consent as our basis for processing
• Complain to the relevant supervisory authority, which in South Africa is the Information Regulator

We do not charge for a copy of your information, and we do not require a particular form to be used — an email is enough.

How to make a request

Send a message using the contact form or email us at the address below, with the subject line “Data request”. Tell us how to identify you — the email address or telephone number you used when you contacted us is usually enough. We will confirm receipt, and we will respond within 30 days of a valid request. If we need to check your identity before we release information, we will tell you what we need and why.

We keep the information you send us accurate only for as long as it is current. If you are told that information we hold is wrong, please tell us so that we can correct it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as our services, our systems or the law change. The “last updated” date at the top of this page shows when it was last revised, and material changes will be noted there. Continuing to use this website after a change means you accept the revised policy.

Contacting us

Questions about this policy, or about anything we hold about you, can be sent to PureDrops Drillers using the details below.

• Email: info@hydrodrillafrica.com