Privacy policy

Who we are

This website is run by H&C, a brand of Lincor Holdings (“H&C”, “we”, “us”). Under South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) we are the “responsible party” for the personal information described in this policy.

Our head office is at 298 Samantha Street, Strijdom Park, Randburg, Gauteng, South Africa. You can reach us about privacy through our General Enquiry form, by phone on +27 (0)11 793 7343, or in writing at our head office.

What we collect

Information you give us

When you send an enquiry through one of our contact forms, we collect:

• Your contact details: your name and email address, and if you choose to give them, your phone number, country, town or city, whether you’re a homeowner or in the trade, your company and how you’d like us to reply.
• The details of your enquiry: the topic, the products you ask about, your answers to the form’s questions (for example a project’s stage, or when a product was installed) and any message you write.
• Business details, for trade enquiries: if you apply to become a stockist or distributor, details about your business such as its name, type, size and the regions it covers. If you ask us to list your store on Find a Store, its address, phone number and opening hours.

Your name, email address and consent are needed for us to reply. Everything else is optional; leaving it out may just mean we need to ask a follow up question.

Information collected automatically

• Technical information: like any website, our hosting provider records basic technical details when you visit, such as your IP address, browser type and the pages requested, to keep the site running and secure.
• Your approximate country: worked out from your IP address so we can suggest the right region. It isn’t stored.
• Website analytics, only if you agree: if you accept cookies, Google Analytics records how the site is used (pages viewed, how you arrived, and actions like opening the catalogue or sending an enquiry). Microsoft Clarity also records how pages are used (clicks, scrolling and mouse movement, shown to us as heatmaps and session replays), with what you type into forms hidden. We use this in aggregate to improve the site. If you don’t accept, analytics cookies aren’t set and neither tool runs its tracking.

Information that stays on your device

Some things are kept only in your own browser and never sent to us: the region you choose, your cookie choice, and your contact details so you don’t have to retype them on your next enquiry. If you use “Use my location” on Find a Store, your device’s location is used in your browser to sort stores by distance; it isn’t sent to us. You can clear all of this at any time in your browser settings.

How we use it

We use your information to:

• reply to your enquiry and give you the information, quote, spare part or technical help you asked for;
• put you in touch with an H&C stockist or distributor who can help, when you ask where to buy or for pricing;
• consider your application to stock or distribute H&C, and list your store on Find a Store if you ask us to;
• handle guarantee questions;
• understand how the website is used so we can improve it, if you’ve agreed to analytics cookies;
• keep the website secure and meet our legal obligations.

We process your information because you’ve asked us to and given your consent on the form, to take the steps you’ve asked for, and for our legitimate interest in running and improving our business and website. We don’t send marketing emails, and we never sell your personal information.

Who we share it with

• Our team and partners who handle enquiries for us, including H&C’s sales partner Ward Distributors, and companies in the Lincor Holdings group where they help with your enquiry.
• H&C stockists and distributors, only where needed to answer your enquiry, for example to give you a price or tell you where to buy.
• Service providers who run parts of the website for us, under agreements that require them to protect your information and use it only on our instructions:
  • Supabase, which stores enquiries in our database (servers in Ireland, EU)
  • Vercel, which hosts the website (United States, with a global network)
  • Cloudflare, which delivers our images (global network)
  • Resend, which delivers enquiry emails to our team (United States)
  • Google, for website analytics, only if you accept cookies (United States)
  • Microsoft Clarity, for heatmaps and session replays, only if you accept cookies (United States)
  • OpenStreetMap, whose servers supply the map on Find a Store and so receive your IP address when it loads
• Authorities, if the law requires it.

Information stored outside South Africa

Some of our service providers store or process information outside South Africa, in the European Union and the United States. POPIA allows this when the information stays protected to a standard substantially similar to POPIA’s, for example through the provider’s data protection agreements, or with your consent. By sending an enquiry you agree to this transfer for the purposes in this policy.

How long we keep it

We keep enquiries only for as long as we need them to deal with your enquiry and any follow up (such as an order, a spare part or a guarantee question), and to meet our legal and accounting obligations. After that we delete them or make them anonymous. Details of stockists and distributors we work with are kept for as long as we work together. Analytics data is kept in an aggregated form by Google under the settings we choose, and Microsoft Clarity keeps session replays for a limited period under its standard retention.

How we protect it

The website uses encrypted connections (HTTPS). Enquiries are stored in a database that only authorised people can access, and our service providers are bound to keep information secure. No system is completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to prevent loss, misuse or unauthorised access, and we’ll tell you and the Information Regulator if a breach puts your information at risk, as POPIA requires.

Your rights

Under POPIA you can:

• ask whether we hold personal information about you, and for a copy of it;
• ask us to correct or delete it;
• object to how we use it, or withdraw your consent at any time (this doesn’t affect anything done before you withdrew it);
• complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa (inforegulator.org.za).

If you live in Botswana, Namibia, Zambia or Zimbabwe, you may have similar rights under your own country’s data protection laws, including the right to complain to its data protection authority.

To use any of these rights, contact us through our General Enquiry form or on +27 (0)11 793 7343. We may need to confirm who you are before acting on a request, and we’ll respond within a reasonable time.

Cookies and browser storage

We keep what we store in your browser to a minimum:

You can change your analytics choice at any time with the “Cookie settings” link at the foot of every page, or by clearing cookies in your browser.

Children, other websites and changes

This website is meant for adults and businesses, and we don’t knowingly collect information from children.

Links to other websites, such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Google Maps, are covered by those companies’ own privacy policies.

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top shows when it last changed.

Contact us

For anything about your personal information or this policy, contact us through our General Enquiry form, call us on +27 (0)11 793 7343, or write to us at 298 Samantha Street, Strijdom Park, Randburg, Gauteng, South Africa.