Last updated: September 2026

The Breast Interest Group of Southern Africa (BIGOSA, “we,” “us,” “our”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).

This policy explains what personal information we collect through bigosa.co.za, why we collect it, and what rights you have over it. It applies to visitors, members, congress delegates and anyone who submits a form on this site.

Who we are

BIGOSA is the responsible party for the personal information described in this policy.

• Email: info@bigosa.co.za
• Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

If you have a question about this policy or how your information is handled, contact our Information Officer at carlan.apple@gmail.com

Information we collect

We collect personal information when you interact with the site directly. We don’t collect anything beyond what you choose to give us.

General enquiries. Our contact form asks for your name, email address, phone number (optional), organisation (optional), the nature of your enquiry, and your message.

Membership applications. Our membership form asks for your name, contact details, professional role, institution, and country or province, so we can process your application and put you in touch with the right person.

Breast Centres Initiative registrations. If you register your interest in the Breast Centres Initiative, we collect your institution, contact name, role, email, phone number, province or country, and any message you add.

Congress registration. Registration for the BIGOSA Annual Scientific Meeting happens on a separate platform run by African Agenda (client.conf-manage.com), not on this site. Their own privacy terms apply to information you submit there. We receive delegate information from African Agenda only as needed to run the event.

Newsletter sign-up. We collect your name and email address to send updates. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any email we send.

Automatically collected information. Like most websites, ours uses cookies and similar tools to keep the site working properly and to understand how it’s used. See the Cookies section below.

Why we collect it

We use your personal information to:

• respond to enquiries and requests
• process membership applications and manage membership records
• register interest in BIGOSA initiatives and follow up accordingly
• send you information you’ve asked for, including newsletters you’ve subscribed to
• understand how the site is used, so we can improve it
• meet our legal and regulatory obligations

We don’t sell your personal information, and we don’t use it for anything beyond what it was collected for.

Who we share it with

We share personal information only where it’s needed to run BIGOSA’s operations:

• African Agenda, who manage congress registration and event logistics
• Mailchimp, if you subscribe to a newsletter, to send that communication
• Website host, who store the site’s data on our behalf
• Carla Norval, BIGOSA’s membership secretary, for membership applications specifically

Any third party handling personal information on our behalf is required to keep it secure and use it only for the purpose we’ve asked them to.

Some of these providers may store information on servers outside South Africa. Where that happens, we take reasonable steps to make sure your information is protected to a standard consistent with POPIA.

How long we keep it

We keep personal information only for as long as it’s needed for the purpose it was collected, or as required by law. 

Keeping your information secure

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect the personal information we hold against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, and disclosure. No online system is completely secure, but we review our safeguards regularly.

Your rights

Under POPIA, you have the right to:

• ask what personal information we hold about you and why
• ask us to correct or update information that’s wrong or out of date
• ask us to delete your personal information, where we’re not required to keep it
• object to how we’re using your information
• withdraw consent at any time, where we’re relying on your consent
• lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa) if you believe we’ve handled your information incorrectly

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at info@bigosa.co.za.

The Information Regulator can be reached at: Email: complaints.IR@justice.gov.za Website: inforegulator.org.za

Cookies

Our site may use cookies to remember your preferences and to understand how visitors use the site (for example, via Google Analytics). You can control or disable cookies through your browser settings, though some parts of the site may not work as well if you do.

Children’s information

This site isn’t directed at children, and we don’t knowingly collect personal information from children.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or the law. The date at the top shows when it was last revised.

Contact us

If you have any questions about this policy or how your information is handled, contact us at info@bigosa.co.za.