Privacy Policy

Effective date: 10 October 2026
Last updated: 10 October 2026

In short

You come to us at one of the hardest moments of a family's life. The information you share with us (your name, your phone number, the name of the person you have lost, the words you want carved in stone) is private, and we treat it that way.

This policy explains, in plain language, what we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, and what you can tell us to do with it. It is written to meet our obligations under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 ("POPIA").

If you would prefer this explained to you in isiXhosa, ask any Dignity consultant or email info@dignitytombstones.co.za and we will take you through it.

1. Who we are

Dignity Tombstones & Funeral Supplies (Pty) Ltd, trading as Dignity Tombstones, registration number 2018/251541/07. VAT number 4480323700.

We are the responsible party for your personal information, as POPIA uses that term. It means we decide what is collected and why, and we are accountable to you for it.

Our offices

Komani: 31 Komani Street, Komani, 064 523 7963
Lady Frere: 85 Mpangele Street, Lady Frere, 064 547 9145
Cofimvaba, 061 580 6924
King Williams Town, 064 516 0732
Aliwal North: Shop 1B Bridgegate Shopping Centre, Aliwal North, 061 549 4379

Email: info@dignitytombstones.co.za
Website: https://dignitytombstones.co.za
Office hours: Monday to Friday 08:00–17:00, Saturday 08:00–13:00

Our Information Officer

Name: Lubabalo Nontsele
Email: info@dignitytombstones.co.za
Telephone: 064 547 9145
Postal address: 31 Komani Street, Komani

The Information Officer is the person you deal with about anything in this policy: access to your information, correcting it, deleting it, or a complaint.

2. What we collect

Information you give us

Who you are: your name and surname, ID number where we need it for a contract or a policy, your phone number, WhatsApp number, email address and physical or postal address.
Your family and the deceased: the full name of the person who has passed, their dates of birth and death, the cemetery or village where they are buried, the grave number, and the relationship between you and them.
What you want made: the design or catalogue code you choose, the material, the inscription and wording, portraits or photographs you give us to etch or print, and any emblem, scripture, church or traditional element you ask us to include.
Money matters: quotes, invoices, deposits, instalment and lay-by payment records, proof of payment, and the bank account details you use to pay us. We do not store your card number or card PIN.
Policy information: if you take out a funeral or memorial policy through us, the information that policy requires, including beneficiaries.
Anything you send us: WhatsApp messages, emails, website form submissions, call recordings where we tell you a call is being recorded, and review or complaint correspondence.

Information we collect automatically when you use our website

Your IP address, device type, browser, approximate location (city or town level), the pages you view, how long you stay and what you click.
Cookies and similar technologies (section 8).
Session recordings: we use Microsoft Clarity, which records how a visitor moves through and clicks on our pages so we can see where the site is confusing. It records behaviour on the page; it is configured to mask text you type into form fields.

Information we get from other people

We do not always get your details directly from you. We may receive them from:

A family member or the person organising the funeral, who gives us your details as the next of kin or as the person paying.
A funeral parlour, church, burial society or community structure you belong to.
One of our field agents working in your village or area.
Meta (Facebook and Instagram) when you fill in a lead form or send us a message through one of our adverts.
Publicly available sources, such as a Google review you have posted about us.

If someone else gave us your details and you did not expect to hear from us, tell us, and we will tell you where we got them and remove you on request.

3. Information about a person who has died

POPIA protects living people. A person who has passed away is not a "data subject" under the Act. We nevertheless treat the details of your loved one, their name, their photograph, their dates, the words you choose for them, with the same care and confidentiality as your own information, because that is what the work deserves, and because those details usually identify the surviving family too.

4. Sensitive information: religion, belief and health

POPIA calls some information special personal information, and religious or philosophical belief is on that list.

A memorial very often reveals belief: a cross, a crescent, a scripture verse, a church name, a traditional or cultural emblem. When you choose those elements you are giving us that information, and by placing the order you are consenting to us using it for the purpose of designing, quoting for, manufacturing and installing your memorial. We do not use it for anything else, and we never sell it.

If cause of death or health information comes up, for example in a policy claim, we process it only where you have consented or where the law or the policy requires it.

5. Children

If the deceased was a child, or a child is named as a beneficiary on a policy, we process that information only with the consent of a parent, guardian or other competent person, as POPIA requires.

6. Why we process your information, and on what basis

To quote, design, manufacture, deliver and install your memorial: necessary to perform our contract with you, or to take steps before entering into it.
To take and reconcile payment, including lay-by and instalment arrangements: contract, and our legitimate interest in being paid.
To keep you updated on your order, your design approval, your delivery date and your installation: contract.
To meet the law: tax and VAT records, company records, consumer protection obligations, and any policy or financial services requirement.
To improve how we work: analysing quotes, wins, losses and response times so that families are not left waiting. Legitimate interest.
To market to you: see section 7. Consent, or the limited existing-customer basis POPIA allows.
To defend or bring a legal claim: legitimate interest.

Giving us your information is voluntary. But if you do not give us the details needed to quote and manufacture (the name, the dates, the inscription, the grave location), we cannot make the memorial. That is the only consequence.

7. Marketing, WhatsApp and your right to say no

We use WhatsApp, SMS, email, phone calls and social media to tell people about specials, new designs and memorial services.

If you are already our customer, we may contact you about similar products and services, and we will give you a way to opt out every time.
If you are not yet a customer, we contact you for direct marketing only where you have given us permission, for example by submitting a form, claiming an offer, or messaging our advert.
You can stop it at any time. Reply "STOP" to any WhatsApp or SMS, click unsubscribe in any email, tell the consultant you are dealing with, or email info@dignitytombstones.co.za. We will action it, and it costs you nothing.

Opting out of marketing does not stop us contacting you about an order you have already placed.

Photographs of completed memorials. We are proud of our work and we like to show it. We will only publish a photograph of your memorial, or your family's name, testimonial or review, on our website, in our catalogue or on social media if you have given us permission. You can withdraw that permission later, and we will remove it from anything we control going forward.

8. Cookies and tracking on our website

Our website uses:

Strictly necessary cookies: to make the site work, keep your session, and remember your cookie choice. These cannot be switched off.
Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager: to count visitors and understand which pages work.
The Meta pixel: so that we can measure our Facebook and Instagram adverts and show relevant adverts to people who have visited us.
Microsoft Clarity: session recording and heatmaps, as described in section 2.
LeadConnector / HighLevel form widgets: the enquiry, quote, catalogue and booking forms embedded on our pages.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. If you do, parts of the site, particularly the enquiry forms, may not work properly.

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only as set out here.

Inside Dignity: the consultant handling your file, the design and factory team who produce the memorial, the installation team, and the office staff who invoice and reconcile payment. Our staff only see what their job requires.

Service providers who process information on our behalf (our "operators" under POPIA), each under a written agreement to keep it confidential and secure:

HighLevel / LeadConnector: our customer relationship system, where enquiries, contact details, opportunities and WhatsApp conversations are stored.
Meta Platforms: WhatsApp Business, Facebook and Instagram messaging and advertising.
Google: Analytics, Tag Manager, Google Business Profile and reviews, and email.
Zoho: invoicing, quotations and accounting records.
Supabase and Vercel: the databases and hosting behind our website and our internal reporting tools.
Microsoft: Clarity website analytics.
Anthropic: the AI service we use to summarise and prioritise customer conversations (see section 10).
Our website maintenance provider and our email provider.
Payment processors and our bank, to receive and reconcile payment.

Other third parties

Installation contractors and transport providers, who need the family contact, the cemetery and the grave location in order to deliver and install.
Cemetery, municipal and traditional authorities, where a permit or permission is required before we may install.
Insurers, underwriters and administrators, where you have taken out a policy through us.
Burial societies and field agents, limited to confirming that a member they referred has been assisted, never the contents of your file.
Our auditors, accountants and attorneys, under professional confidentiality.
SARS, a court, a regulator or the police, where the law compels us.

10. Automated processing and artificial intelligence

We use software, including artificial intelligence, to read and summarise customer conversations, to flag enquiries that look urgent, and to rank which families our consultants should call back first. The purpose is to make sure that nobody who contacts us is forgotten.

A human being always makes the decisions that affect you: the quote, the price, the design, and whether we can meet your deadline. We do not make decisions about you based only on automated processing.

If you would rather we did not run your conversations through these tools, tell us and we will handle your file manually.

11. Sending information outside South Africa

Several of the providers listed in section 9 (including HighLevel, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Zoho, Supabase, Vercel and Anthropic) store and process information on servers outside South Africa, mainly in the United States and Europe.

As POPIA section 72 requires, we transfer your information across the border only where the recipient is bound by rules or a contract that give your information a level of protection substantially similar to POPIA, or where the transfer is necessary to perform our contract with you, or where you have consented.

12. How long we keep it

Customer and order records: for 5 years after your last transaction with us, because tax, company and consumer law require it.
Design files, inscriptions and artwork: we keep these for longer, so that a family who comes back years later for a matching memorial, an added name or a repair can be helped. Tell us if you would rather we did not.
Enquiries that never became orders: 3 years, after which we delete or de-identify them.
Marketing lists: until you opt out, and then we keep only a suppression record so that we do not contact you again by mistake.

When a period ends we delete the information, or de-identify it so that it can no longer be linked to you.

13. How we protect it

We take the steps POPIA section 19 requires, including access control so that staff see only what their role needs, password and multi-factor protection on our systems, encrypted connections to our website and internal tools, written confidentiality undertakings from staff and contractors, and secure storage of paper files at our branches.

No system is perfect. If a breach happens that puts your information at risk, we will report it to the Information Regulator and notify you as soon as reasonably possible, as section 22 requires.

14. Your rights

You have the right to:

Be told what personal information we hold about you, and who we have given it to.
Get a copy of it. We must confirm free of charge whether we hold it; a copy may carry the prescribed fee.
Correct or update anything that is wrong, misleading or out of date, such as a misspelled name on an inscription record, a changed phone number.
Ask us to delete information that we no longer have a lawful reason to keep.
Object to processing that we base on legitimate interest, on reasonable grounds.
Object to direct marketing at any time, free of charge (section 7).
Withdraw consent you have given, without affecting what we did lawfully before you withdrew it.
Complain to us, and then to the Information Regulator.

How to exercise them. Email the Information Officer at info@dignitytombstones.co.za, or write to 31 Komani Street, Komani. For a formal access request, POPIA requires the prescribed Form 2, available from the Information Regulator's website. We will respond within 30 days, and will tell you if we need more time.

We may ask you to prove who you are before we act. That is to protect you.

15. How to have your information deleted

You can ask us to delete the personal information we hold about you at any time. This includes anything that reached us through Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp: a lead form you filled in, a message you sent our Page, or a comment on one of our posts.

To ask for deletion:

Send a WhatsApp to 064 547 9145, or email info@dignitytombstones.co.za, with the subject "Delete my information".
Tell us your name and the phone number or email address you used with us, so we can find your record.
We will confirm that we have received your request within 5 working days, and complete it within 30 days.

We delete your details from our customer system, our reporting tools and our mailing lists. Two things we may have to keep: records the law requires (tax invoices and payment records for an order, for the period in section 12), and a short "do not contact" note so we never message you again by mistake. We will tell you if either applies.

About our Facebook app. Our "Dignity Dashboard" app is used only by our own staff, to publish posts to the Dignity Tombstones Facebook Page and to read how those posts and our adverts perform. It does not offer "Log in with Facebook", and it does not collect information from people who use Facebook. If you have commented on or reacted to one of our posts, you can remove that yourself on Facebook at any time, or ask us as described above.

16. Complaints to the Information Regulator

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your information or your request, you may complain to:

The Information Regulator (South Africa)
Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191
Telephone: 010 023 5200 · Toll free: 0800 017 160
POPIA complaints: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
PAIA complaints: PAIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
General enquiries: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za
Website: https://inforegulator.org.za

We would appreciate the chance to put it right first, but you do not have to come to us before going to the Regulator.

17. Access to records (PAIA)

We also have obligations under the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000. Our PAIA manual, which explains what records we hold and how to request them, is available from the Information Officer on request.

18. Changes to this policy

We will update this policy when our business or the law changes. The current version always lives at https://dignitytombstones.co.za/privacy-policy/, and the effective date is at the top. If a change materially affects your rights, we will tell you directly.

19. Talk to us

Lubabalo Nontsele, Information Officer
Dignity Tombstones & Funeral Supplies (Pty) Ltd
Email: info@dignitytombstones.co.za
Telephone: 064 547 9145
31 Komani Street, Komani