Privacy Policy

At the Business Optimization Training Institute (Pty) Ltd (“BOTI”, “we”, “us”, “our”), we take your privacy seriously. We are a South African corporate-training provider, and in the course of helping businesses develop their people we collect and use a limited amount of personal information. This Privacy Policy explains, in plain language, what personal information we collect through our website, why we collect it, who we share it with, how we protect it, how long we keep it, and the rights you have under South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA / Act 4 of 2013). We encourage you to read it so you understand how your information is handled when you request a quote, make a booking, contact us, or sign up for our newsletter.

This policy applies to https://www.boti.co.za and to any personal information we collect through the forms and features on that website. By “personal information” we mean information that identifies or relates to you, as defined in POPIA.

1. Who we are

BOTI is the “responsible party” (data controller) for the personal information described in this policy. This means we are accountable for ensuring your information is processed lawfully and in line with POPIA’s eight conditions for the lawful processing of personal information. Our details are:

  • Legal name: Business Optimization Training Institute (Pty) Ltd
  • Company registration number: 2017/286086/07
  • VAT number: 4770208033
  • Address: 97 Greenlands Crescent, Sunningdale, 2192, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
  • Email: [email protected]
  • Phone: 011 882 8853
  • Website: https://www.boti.co.za

Information Officer

POPIA requires every organisation to have an Information Officer who is accountable for how personal information is handled and for the organisation’s compliance with the Act. You can reach our Information Officer for any question, request or concern about your personal information or about this policy:

  • Information Officer, Business Optimization Training Institute (Pty) Ltd
  • Email: [email protected]
  • Phone: 011 882 8853
  • Address: 97 Greenlands Crescent, Sunningdale, 2192, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa

2. What personal information we collect and how

We aim to collect only the information we genuinely need for the purposes set out in this policy. The personal information we collect through the website falls into the following categories.

Information you give us directly

When you complete a form on our site, you may provide us with:

  • Course quote and booking requests: your name, work email address, phone number, company name, job role, and the details of your training enquiry (for example the course you are interested in, the number of delegates, and your preferred dates or location).
  • Contact form: your name, email address, phone number, company name and the content of your message.
  • Newsletter signup (“Free Training & Career Tips”): your name and email address so we can send you our newsletter.

Information we collect automatically

Like most websites, we automatically collect certain technical and usage information when you visit, including your IP address, browser and device type, pages viewed, the website that referred you, and general analytics about how the site is used. This information is collected through cookies and similar technologies, and through our website host and analytics tools. See Section 8 (Cookies) for more detail.

What we do not collect

We do not intentionally collect “special personal information” (such as information about your health, race, ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, or biometric data) through the website, and we do not knowingly collect the personal information of children. Please do not submit such information through our forms. If you ever need to share special personal information in connection with a specific training arrangement, we will tell you how and why at that point, and will only process it where POPIA permits.

3. Why we collect your information and our lawful basis

POPIA requires us to have a clear, specific purpose and a lawful justification (under section 11 of the Act) for processing your personal information, and to limit our processing to what is adequate, relevant and not excessive. We collect and use your information for the following purposes:

  • To respond to your enquiries and provide quotes — so we can answer your questions and prepare an accurate quote or booking for the training you are interested in. Justification: to take steps at your request to enter into or perform a contract with you, and our legitimate interest in responding to enquiries.
  • To arrange and deliver training — including scheduling courses, registering delegates, issuing certificates, and liaising with facilitators and accreditation bodies where relevant. Justification: performance of a contract, and our compliance with applicable accreditation requirements.
  • To send you our newsletter and training tips — where you have signed up for it. Justification: your consent (which you can withdraw at any time).
  • To run, secure and improve our website — including analytics, troubleshooting and protecting the site against fraud and abuse. Justification: our legitimate interest in operating a safe, working website.
  • To meet our legal, tax and accreditation obligations — for example keeping records required by law or by the relevant SETA / QCTO. Justification: compliance with a legal obligation.

We will not further process your personal information for a new purpose that is incompatible with the purpose for which it was originally collected, unless you have consented or the law otherwise allows it. If a genuinely new and compatible purpose arises, we will let you know.

4. Direct marketing and your consent

We will only send you electronic marketing (such as our “Free Training & Career Tips” newsletter) where you have asked us to, in line with section 69 of POPIA. Signing up is entirely optional and is never a condition of receiving a quote or any other service from us.

You can opt out at any time. Every marketing email we send includes an easy “unsubscribe” link, and you can also ask us to stop at any time by emailing [email protected]. We will action your request promptly and free of charge.

Separately, where the law permits (section 69(3) of POPIA), we may occasionally contact you as an existing customer about training services similar to those you have already enquired about or booked. You can ask us to stop this kind of communication at any time using the same contact details, and every such message will offer you the chance to opt out.

5. Who we share your information with

We do not sell your personal information, and we never will. We share it only where it is necessary to provide our services, run our business, or meet a legal obligation, and only with parties who are required to protect it. These may include:

  • Operators (service providers) who process information on our behalf — such as our email and marketing platform, our website host (which sits behind Cloudflare), and our analytics providers. These operators may only use your information to provide their service to us, and are required by written agreement to process it only on our instructions and to keep it secure and confidential, in line with sections 20 and 21 of POPIA.
  • SETAs, the QCTO and certification bodies — where this is relevant to a specific booking, for example to register delegates, verify accreditation, or issue recognised certificates.
  • Our facilitators and trainers — where they need delegate details to deliver a course you have booked.
  • Professional advisers and authorities — such as our auditors, or regulators and law-enforcement bodies, where we are legally required or permitted to disclose information.

Cross-border transfers

Some of our service providers (for example Cloudflare, and certain cloud-based email, marketing and analytics tools) operate on servers located outside South Africa. This means your personal information may be transferred to and processed in other countries. Where this happens, we comply with section 72 of POPIA by ensuring that the recipient is subject to laws, binding corporate rules or binding contractual terms that provide an adequate level of protection comparable to POPIA, or that the transfer is otherwise permitted under section 72 (for example, with your consent or because it is necessary to perform a contract with you).

6. How long we keep your information and how we protect it

Retention

We keep personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes set out in this policy, or for as long as the law requires us to. For example:

  • We keep enquiry and quote details for as long as needed to follow up with you and respond to your request.
  • We keep booking, training and financial records for the periods required by tax, accreditation and other applicable laws.
  • We keep newsletter details until you unsubscribe or ask us to remove them.

When we no longer have a lawful reason to keep your information, we will securely delete, destroy or de-identify it.

Security safeguards

In line with section 19 of POPIA, we take appropriate, reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information against loss, damage, unauthorised or unlawful access, and unlawful processing. These include measures such as secure hosting, encryption of data in transit (HTTPS), access controls, and written contracts with our operators requiring them to maintain appropriate security. While no system can ever be guaranteed completely secure, we work continually to keep your information safe and to keep our safeguards up to date.

If something goes wrong

If there are reasonable grounds to believe that your personal information has been accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person, we will notify both you and the Information Regulator as soon as reasonably possible, in line with section 22 of POPIA.

7. Your rights

POPIA gives you a number of rights over your personal information. Subject to the conditions and exceptions in the Act, you have the right to:

  • Be informed that we are collecting your information, and to request confirmation of whether we hold personal information about you (sections 23 and 24).
  • Access the personal information we hold about you (section 23).
  • Request correction or updating of information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, misleading or out of date, and to request the deletion or destruction of information we are no longer entitled to keep (section 24).
  • Object, on reasonable grounds, to the processing of your information (section 25 and section 11(3)).
  • Withdraw your consent at any time where we rely on your consent (for example, for our newsletter), without affecting the lawfulness of processing that took place before you withdrew it.
  • Not be subject to unsolicited direct marketing, and to opt out of marketing at any time (section 69).
  • Complain to us and, if you are not satisfied, to the Information Regulator.

How to exercise your rights

To exercise any of these rights, please contact our Information Officer at [email protected] or on 011 882 8853. We may need to verify your identity before acting on your request to protect your information, and we will respond within a reasonable time. Where the Act requires it (for example, certain access requests), a formal request may need to be made on the prescribed PAIA/POPIA request form, which we can provide on request along with our PAIA manual.

Lodging a complaint with the Information Regulator

If you believe we have not handled your personal information lawfully, we would appreciate the chance to put things right, so please contact us first. You also have the right to lodge a complaint directly with the Information Regulator of South Africa:

8. Cookies

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies. Cookies are small text files placed on your device that help the site work properly, remember your preferences, keep the site secure, and help us understand how visitors use the site so we can improve it. Some cookies are essential to the site’s operation, while others (such as analytics cookies) are optional and help us measure and improve how the site performs. You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings; please note that blocking some cookies may affect how parts of the site function.

9. Children’s and special information

Our website and services are intended for businesses and working professionals, not for children. We do not knowingly collect the personal information of children through the site, and we do not seek to collect special personal information through the site. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us so that we can delete it.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology or the law. When we make material changes, we will post the updated policy on this page and update the effective date below. We encourage you to review this page periodically to stay informed.

Effective date: 5 June 2026

11. Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or about how we handle your personal information, please contact our Information Officer:

  • Business Optimization Training Institute (Pty) Ltd
  • Email: [email protected]
  • Phone: 011 882 8853
  • Address: 97 Greenlands Crescent, Sunningdale, 2192, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa