Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Solar Energy Distributor Pty Ltd, trading as SED Energy, collects, uses, stores, shares and protects personal information when you visit sed.energy, request a quotation, contact us, subscribe to communications or otherwise interact with us.

Please read this Privacy Policy together with any specific notice or consent statement displayed when we collect personal information from you.

1. Who we are

Solar Energy Distributor Pty Ltd, trading as SED Energy ("SED Energy", "we", "us" or "our"), is a South African solar equipment distributor and importer.

For purposes of the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 ("POPIA"), SED Energy is the responsible party for the personal information described in this Privacy Policy.

Our contact details are:

• •Company: Solar Energy Distributor Pty Ltd, trading as SED Energy
• •Website: https://sed.energy
• •Address: 3 Rydal Lane, Longlake, Johannesburg, South Africa, 1609
• •Telephone: 010 006 8246
• •Email: info@sed.energy
• •Privacy contact: The Information Officer, Solar Energy Distributor Pty Ltd

2. Scope of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to personal information processed through sed.energy and related interactions with SED Energy, including:

• •Quotation requests
• •Contact forms
• •Email and telephone communications
• •WhatsApp communications
• •Events and exhibitions
• •Trade enquiries
• •Customer and supplier relationships
• •Newsletter subscriptions
• •Email marketing

The SED Energy website may contain links to external websites, online stores, social-media services or third-party platforms. These services operate under their own privacy policies. We recommend reading their privacy policies before providing personal information to them.

3. Personal information we collect

Depending on how you interact with SED Energy, we may collect the following categories of personal information:

• •Identity information, such as your full name.
• •Business information, such as your company name, job title, role, position or industry relationship.
• •Contact information, such as your email address, telephone number, WhatsApp number and location.
• •Enquiry information, including enquiry type, quotation requirements, product interests, project details and messages.
• •Customer, supplier and transaction information, such as account, order, delivery, invoice, warranty, service and payment-related records where relevant.
• •Marketing information, including subscription status, communication preferences, consent records, campaign interaction information and unsubscribe records.
• •Correspondence and support information contained in emails, telephone calls, WhatsApp messages or other communications with us.
• •Technical and website-usage information, such as your IP address, browser type, device type, approximate location, pages visited, referral source, dates and times of visits, and cookie or similar identifiers.
• •Any other information you voluntarily provide to us.

Please do not send us special personal information—such as health, biometric, political, religious or criminal information—unless it is genuinely necessary and we have specifically requested it.

4. How we collect personal information

We may collect personal information:

• •Directly from you when you complete a form, request a quotation, contact us, subscribe, place an order or communicate with our team.
• •Automatically through website technologies such as server logs, cookies and analytics tools.
• •From your organisation, authorised representative, installer, reseller, project partner or another person authorised to provide the information.
• •From lawful public sources, business directories, events, professional networks, social-media platforms or service providers.
• •From existing business records where you are a customer, supplier, prospect or business contact.

If you provide another person's personal information to us, you must be authorised to do so and ensure that the person is informed about this Privacy Policy where required.

5. Why we process personal information

We process personal information only for lawful and specific purposes, including to:

• •Respond to enquiries and provide quotations.
• •Communicate about products, stock availability, pricing, delivery and support.
• •Create and manage customer, supplier, installer, reseller and other business relationships.
• •Process orders, payments, deliveries, returns, warranties and after-sales support.
• •Operate, secure, maintain and improve our website, systems, products and services.
• •Personalise communications and understand how visitors and customers interact with us.
• •Send marketing communications where legally permitted.
• •Manage subscriptions and honour objections or unsubscribe requests.
• •Prevent fraud, abuse, security incidents and other unlawful activities.
• •Maintain business, tax, accounting, audit, warranty and compliance records.
• •Establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
• •Protect our rights, property, employees, customers and the public.
• •Comply with applicable laws, regulatory requirements, court orders and lawful requests.

6. Lawful grounds for processing

Depending on the circumstances, we may process your personal information because:

• •You have given your consent.
• •Processing is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you.
• •Processing is required by law.
• •Processing protects a legitimate interest of you, SED Energy or a third party.
• •Another lawful justification under POPIA applies.

Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time.

Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that was lawful before the withdrawal. It may also not prevent us from continuing to process information when another lawful reason applies.

7. Website forms and quotation requests

When you use our Quick Quote or other website forms, we may request information including:

• •Full name
• •Company name
• •Job title, role or position
• •Email address
• •Telephone number
• •Location
• •Enquiry type
• •Product or project requirements
• •Your message

We use this information to:

• •Respond to your enquiry.
• •Prepare a quotation.
• •Assess your requirements.
• •Direct your enquiry to the appropriate team member.
• •Follow up about the products or services you requested.

Fields marked as required must be completed so that we can process your request. If you do not provide required information, we may be unable to respond or provide the requested quotation, product or service.

8. Email marketing and Brevo

SED Energy uses Brevo as an email marketing and contact-management service.

If you subscribe to or lawfully receive SED Energy marketing communications, relevant information may be processed through Brevo on our behalf, including:

• •Your name
• •Company name
• •Email address
• •Subscription status
• •Communication preferences
• •Consent records
• •Email interaction information
• •Unsubscribe records

We may send marketing communications where:

• •You have given valid consent; or
• •You are an existing customer and applicable law permits us to market our own similar products or services to you, with a clear opportunity to object.

Our marketing communications may include:

• •Solar deals and promotions
• •New product announcements
• •Stock arrivals
• •Company news
• •Industry updates
• •Events
• •Practical energy information

You may unsubscribe at any time by using the unsubscribe link included in our marketing emails or by contacting info@sed.energy.

Unsubscribing from marketing communications will not stop essential transactional or service messages relating to an enquiry, quotation, order, account, warranty or other ongoing business matter.

We may retain a minimal suppression record after you unsubscribe. This allows us to respect your choice and helps prevent your email address from being accidentally added back to our marketing lists.

9. Cookies and similar technologies

Our website may use cookies, pixels, local storage and similar technologies.

Cookies are small data files stored on or read from your device. Depending on the website features enabled, these technologies may be used for:

• •Strictly necessary purposes: Website security, network management and essential website functionality.
• •Preferences: Remembering your settings or choices.
• •Analytics and performance: Understanding website visits, page usage and technical performance.
• •Marketing measurement: Measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns or advertisements where enabled and legally permitted.

Where consent is required, non-essential cookies will only be used after you make a choice through our cookie banner or cookie-settings tool.

You can change your browser settings to block or delete cookies. However, some website functions may then work differently or become unavailable.

10. When we share personal information

SED Energy does not sell your personal information.

We may share personal information only where it is reasonably necessary and lawful, including with:

• •Employees and authorised representatives who require the information to perform their work.
• •Website hosting and website-management providers, including the provider supporting sed.energy.
• •Brevo and other communication, customer relationship management, cloud, IT, cybersecurity, analytics or document-management providers.
• •Payment, accounting, banking, logistics, courier, installation, technical-support, warranty and professional-service providers.
• •Suppliers, manufacturers and project partners when necessary to respond to or fulfil your request.
• •Insurers, auditors, legal advisers, regulators, courts, law-enforcement bodies and other authorities where required or permitted.
• •A purchaser, investor, funder or successor in connection with a proposed or completed merger, restructuring, financing or sale of all or part of our business, subject to appropriate safeguards.

Service providers that process personal information for us are expected to:

• •Use the information only for authorised purposes.
• •Protect the information appropriately.
• •Comply with applicable privacy and confidentiality obligations.

11. Cross-border processing

Some of our service providers or their computer systems may be located outside South Africa. This may result in personal information being stored or processed in another country.

Where we transfer personal information across borders, we take reasonable steps to ensure that the transfer complies with POPIA.

These steps may include using recipients that are subject to appropriate legal protections, binding agreements or other safeguards permitted under POPIA.

12. How long we retain personal information

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary:

• •For the purpose for which it was collected.
• •To maintain an ongoing customer, supplier or business relationship.
• •To comply with legal and regulatory recordkeeping duties.
• •To resolve disputes.
• •To establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Retention periods vary depending on the nature and sensitivity of the information and may be influenced by:

• •The duration of an enquiry, customer, supplier, warranty, service or other business relationship.
• •Applicable tax, accounting, company, consumer, employment and other legal requirements.
• •Limitation periods that may apply to disputes or legal claims.
• •Consent, subscription and suppression records needed to demonstrate and respect marketing choices.

When personal information is no longer required, we will delete, destroy, de-identify or securely archive it, as appropriate.

13. Information security

We use reasonable and appropriate technical and organisational safeguards to protect personal information against:

• •Accidental or unlawful loss
• •Destruction
• •Alteration
• •Unauthorised access
• •Unauthorised use
• •Unauthorised disclosure

Our safeguards may include:

• •Access controls
• •Password protection
• •Staff confidentiality obligations
• •Computer and network security
• •Data backups
• •Service-provider checks
• •Security incident-response procedures

No internet transmission or information-storage system is completely secure.

If we become aware of a security compromise affecting personal information, we will investigate the incident and notify affected persons and the Information Regulator where required by POPIA.

14. Your rights

Subject to POPIA and other applicable laws, you may have the right to:

• •Ask whether we hold personal information about you.
• •Request access to your personal information.
• •Request correction or updating of inaccurate or incomplete information.
• •Request deletion of information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading or unlawfully obtained.
• •Object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
• •Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.
• •Object to direct marketing.
• •Unsubscribe from electronic marketing communications.
• •Request information about the identity of third parties that have had access to your personal information, where applicable.
• •Submit a complaint to the Information Regulator.

To exercise any of these rights, contact the Information Officer at info@sed.energy.

Please describe your request clearly. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request.

Your rights may be subject to lawful limitations, and certain records may need to be retained even after a deletion request.

15. Children's personal information

Our website, products and services are intended for businesses and adults and are not directed at children.

We do not knowingly collect children's personal information through our website without the consent of a competent person or another lawful basis.

If you believe a child has improperly provided personal information to us, please contact us so that we can investigate and take appropriate action.

16. Automated decisions

SED Energy does not ordinarily make decisions through solely automated processing that produce legal consequences or similarly significant effects for website visitors.

If this changes, we will provide appropriate notice and apply the safeguards required by law.

17. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in:

• •Applicable laws
• •Our business operations
• •Our website or systems
• •The way we process personal information

The latest version will be published on sed.energy with an updated effective date.

Material changes may also be communicated through our website or another appropriate channel.

18. Contact us

For privacy questions, objections, complaints or requests, please contact: