MBendi Information Services (Pty) Ltd is committed to safeguarding the privacy and security of the MBendi web site users while providing a valuable business service. This Privacy and Security Policy Statement is intended to explain our data processing practices and their underlying reasons. If you have any requests concerning your personal information or any queries with regard to these practices please contact us.

When you visit the MBendi web site simply to browse the information it contains, you do so anonymously. If you do nothing during your visit but browse through the Web site, reading pages, viewing the results of searches, viewing images, or downloading information, we will gather and store certain information about your visit automatically. This information does not identify you personally.

The following are representative of the types of information automatically collected and stored about your visit to the MBendi web site:

• the Internet domain and Internet Protocol (IP) address from which you access the site;
• the type of Internet browser and the operating system of the computer you use to access the site;
• the date and time you visit the site;
• the pages you visit on our site;
• if you linked to the site from another web site, the address of that web site; and,
• if you linked to our Web site from a search web site, the address of that web site and the search keywords used.

We automatically log this kind of visitor information and aggregate it to create summary statistics which are used to audit usage of the site, to aid strategic development, to build up marketing profiles, for site management and development, and for client support.

Some of the services offered by the MBendi web site (such as sending an e-mail to a company on our database, or posting a trade enquiry) require you to identify yourself personally, and to provide MBendi Information Services (Pty) Ltd with limited personal information. You might also e-mail us with a specific query or request. The information which you provide about yourself to MBendi Information Services (Pty) Ltd will be used for the effective administration of the MBendi web site and for communication with you by MBendi Information Services (Pty) Ltd. This information is stored in a secured database and we will not pass on this information to third parties unless specifically requested to do so by you or in aggregate form with no personal details revealed.

Where you use a credit card to purchase goods and services from the MBendi website, then details of the credit card number, name of cardholder, expiry date and security codes are neither captured nor stored by MBendi Information Services (Pty) Ltd and we refer you to the privacy policy statements of the online credit card processing companies who act as agents of MBendi Information Services (Pty) Ltd and collect this information as part of the payment / refund process.

If you have provided us with information about yourself in the past, and would like to amend this information or remove it from our records, please contact us.

A cookie is a small piece of information sent by a web server to a web browser, which enables the server to collect information back from the browser. Cookies are generally stored in your browser's directory or folder on your computer's hard drive in a file named cookie.txt (MagicCookie on a Macintosh). We do not use cookies to gather and store information about your visits to the MBendi web site. We do, however, use cookies on a temporary basis to overcome shortcomings in Internet technology. For the duration of each of your sessions on the MBendi web site, cookies are used to help the MBendi web server to keep track of the pages you are visiting and the transactions you are conducting, so as to provide you with a relatively seamless experience. These cookies disappear once you close down your computer after a visit to the MBendi web site.

The MBendi website uses a database containing contact details and other information on tens of thousands of companies and organisations. In order to ensure that:

• the E-mail addresses of these organisations cannot be collected by spiders for spamming purposes;
• users of the MBendi website can only send E-mails to one organisation at a time;
• E-mail messages sent to any organisation cannot contain viruses or large attached files and;
• the sender has a valid E-mail address

MBendi does not publish the E-mail addresses of non-client organisations on the website and only allows registered MBendi website users, whose E-mail addresses have previously been verified by sending the id and password to the E-mail address, to send E-mail messages, clearly marked as originating on the MBendi website, to these organisations using software on the MBendi server which creates a simple text E-mail.

The MBendi web site contains very few links to web sites not on the MBendi web server. However, the web sites to which we do link may have information practices which differ from ours. Please take care to consult privacy notices as we have no control over sites which are not on our server.

When you register as an MBendi site user or log on to make use of various MBendi web site services (see Information collected from registered users of the MBendi web site above), the registration or logon form uses Thawte SSL encryption (the https: protocol) to encrypt your logon details, thus keeping your personal details secure from illegal interception. If your browser does not support the SSL protocol, you may choose to use the non-secure version of this form. By doing this, though, you must be aware that your User Number and Password will not be encrypted whilst in transit over the internet and are thus not secure from illegal interception.

This privacy policy is governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa.