PRIVACY POLICY.

01 Who we are

FRWD Media is a social media agency working with veterinary practices in the United States. We operate from 227 Second Avenue, Alberton, 1449, South Africa.

We are the party responsible for the personal information described in this policy — the controller under the GDPR, and the responsible party under South Africa's POPIA.

Our information officer can be reached at hello@frwdmedia.co.za. Every request, question or complaint about privacy goes to that address and is handled by a person, not a queue.

02 What we collect

Four categories, and nothing beyond them:

• > Enquiry details. Your name, practice name, email address, phone number, the size of your practice, and anything you type into the message field on our contact form.
• > Business contact data. Practice names, published email addresses, websites and social handles, taken from publicly available business listings and directories and used for business-to-business outreach.
• > Client account data. For practices we work with: brand assets, content briefs, platform access, approvals, performance reports, invoicing and payment records.
• > Technical and usage data. IP address, browser and device type, pages viewed, referring URL, approximate location and time on page.

We do not knowingly collect special categories of personal information — health data, biometrics, political or religious views, or anything similar. Please don't send it to us. Our services are for businesses and are not directed at children.

Where a practice we work with shares information about its own clients or patients with us, we handle that information only on that practice's instructions and only to do the work they've asked for.

03 Why we use it, and our lawful basis

• > To reply to your enquiry and prepare a quote. Basis: taking steps at your request before entering a contract.
• > To deliver services to clients, invoice, and keep accounts. Basis: performance of a contract, and legal obligation for records we're required to keep.
• > To contact practices about our services. Basis: legitimate interest in business-to-business marketing, balanced against your interests — which is why we use published business addresses, identify ourselves clearly, and stop on request.
• > To understand how this site is used. Basis: your consent, given through the cookie banner and withdrawable at any time.
• > To keep records of people who've asked not to be contacted. Basis: legal obligation and legitimate interest — we have to remember, or we'd contact you again.

We do not sell personal information, we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, and we do not make automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

04 Cookies and analytics

This site sets a small number of cookies. Some are strictly necessary — they remember your cookie choice and keep the contact form working. Those load regardless, because the site cannot function without them.

Everything else is optional. We use Google Analytics 4 to understand which pages people read and where visitors come from. It only loads once you've accepted analytics cookies. If you decline, it doesn't run, and the site works exactly the same.

You can change your mind at any time using the Cookie settings link in the footer of any page, or by clearing cookies in your browser. Most browsers also let you block cookies outright.

We have not enabled Google Analytics advertising features, and we do not use the data for ad targeting.

05 Who we share it with

Only with providers who need it to help us run the business, and only for that purpose:

• > Netlify — website hosting and contact form submissions.
• > Google — business email (Google Workspace) and Google Analytics 4.
• > Our payment processor — for client invoicing and payments. We do not store your card or bank details ourselves.
• > Our contracted creative team — specialists who produce content for client accounts, bound by written confidentiality obligations.

We may also disclose information where the law requires it, or to establish or defend a legal claim. If our business were ever sold or restructured, information could transfer as part of that — and we'd tell you before it did.

We do not share your information with anyone else, and we never sell it.

06 International transfers

We're based in South Africa and most of our clients are in the United States, so information routinely crosses borders. Our providers also operate globally.

Where personal information moves out of the country it was collected in, we rely on the transfer mechanisms our providers have in place — Standard Contractual Clauses and equivalent safeguards — and on our own contractual commitments to handle it under this policy wherever it sits.

07 How long we keep it

• > Enquiries that don't become clients: 24 months, then deleted.
• > Client records: for the engagement, plus 5 years, to meet tax and accounting obligations.
• > Opt-out and do-not-contact records: kept indefinitely. This is the one thing we keep on purpose — deleting it is how businesses accidentally email you again.
• > Analytics data: 14 months, as configured in Google Analytics.

If you ask us to delete your information earlier, we will, except where we're legally required to keep it or need it for an active dispute.

08 Your rights

Wherever you are, you can ask us to:

• > Tell you what personal information we hold about you, and give you a copy.
• > Correct anything that's wrong or out of date.
• > Delete it.
• > Restrict or object to how we're using it, including our outreach.
• > Send it to you, or to someone else, in a portable format.
• > Withdraw a consent you previously gave.

If you're in California, you also have the right to know what we collect and why, to delete it, to correct it, to opt out of sale or sharing (we do neither), and not to be treated differently for exercising any of those rights.

Email hello@frwdmedia.co.za and we'll respond within 30 days. We may need to confirm who you are first, so that we're not handing your information to someone else.

If you think we've handled your information badly, please tell us first — we'd rather fix it. You also have the right to complain to your data protection regulator: in South Africa, the Information Regulator; in the EU or UK, your national supervisory authority; in California, the California Privacy Protection Agency or the Attorney General.

09 How to stop hearing from us

Reply to any email from us with "unsubscribe", "remove me", or anything else that makes your meaning clear, and we'll add you to our permanent do-not-contact list. One reply is enough. You don't have to explain why, and you won't hear from us again.

You can also email hello@frwdmedia.co.za directly. Every marketing email we send carries our physical postal address and an opt-out, as required by the US CAN-SPAM Act.

10 Security

This site is served over HTTPS. Accounts holding personal information are protected with strong, unique passwords and multi-factor authentication where the provider supports it, and access is limited to the people who need it to do the work.

No system is perfectly secure, and we won't claim otherwise. If a breach ever affected your personal information, we would notify you and the relevant regulator as the law requires.

11 Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the business changes. The version published here, with the date at the top of the page, is the current one.

If we make a change that materially affects how we use information we already hold about you, we will tell you directly where we have a way to reach you.

12 Contact

Any privacy question, request or complaint:

FRWD Media
227 Second Avenue, Alberton, 1449, South Africa
hello@frwdmedia.co.za

See also our terms of service.