Wakamoso POPIA Opt-In
How Wakamoso uses your personal information — please read this before accepting in the app or on WhatsApp.
Wakamoso is for users aged 16 and older. If you are younger than 16, this opt-in must be accepted by a parent or legal guardian on your behalf.
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1 Who we are
Wakamoso Africa (Pty) Ltd is a South African research and data company. We are registered with the South African Information Regulator under POPIA Registration Number 2026-018959. Our Information Officer is the CEO, Mélani Prinsloo. You can reach us at info@wakamoso.africa, by post at 14 King Street, Irene, Centurion 0062, or by reading our full Privacy Policy at https://wakamoso.africa/privacy-policy.
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2 What we collect from you
We collect your mobile number — which is how we contact you and how we keep your account unique on the platform. We collect any answers you choose to give us in any questionnaire on Wakamoso. If you drop a pin in a survey, we collect the location you mark. Some questionnaires may also ask for your name, address, ID number, photograph, email, or other personal details. Any field marked ‘Personal’ is given extra protection — see point 4 below.
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3 What we use it for
We use your information to: maintain your account on Wakamoso; invite you to surveys you may want to take part in; pay rewards to your Wakamoso Wallet for surveys you complete; generate pseudonymised community insights at geographic levels appropriate to the data, subject to the publication thresholds in the Wakamoso Data Publication Policy; provide the platform features you choose to use (your profile, your Wallet, your CV, incident reporting, and so on); and improve and develop Wakamoso.
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4 Personal information stays with Wakamoso
Some questions in Wakamoso questionnaires collect what we call ‘Personal’ information — things like your name, your ID number, your exact home address, your face photograph, your email, and similar identifying details. These Personal fields stay with Wakamoso. They are never shared with other organisations on the platform, even in anonymous form.
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5 Tenant surveys
Other organisations (Tenants) can run surveys on Wakamoso, after our Ethics Review Office has reviewed them in accordance with the Wakamoso Ethics Framework. Depending on the survey scope and your consent, the Tenant may see your answers anonymously, or linked to your name if they already have your contact details (for example, you are their customer or employee). You choose whether to take part each time.
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6 Pseudonymous targeting across Tenants
If you fill in a Wakamoso questionnaire — for example, your profile — Tenants on the platform can use your non-Personal answers as pseudonymous targeting criteria (your responses are matched on demographic and profile fields, not by name) to invite you to their own surveys. For example: a Tenant could ask Wakamoso to invite people who have said they speak Zulu and live in Mamelodi to take part in a survey. The Tenant doesn’t see who you are — they just define who they want to invite, and Wakamoso decides whether to send the invitation to you. Your Personal-tagged fields (name, ID, address, face, and similar) are never used this way.
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7 Sensitive topics
Some surveys may ask about your health, food security, safety, religion, or other sensitive topics — these get extra protection under POPIA. You are not required to disclose sensitive information: each such question includes an explicit answer option such as “I would prefer not to say” or “Other” (with an optional follow-up where you can elaborate or decline in your own words). Your reward is not affected if you choose this option. Every sensitive question has its purpose disclosed at the point of asking.
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8 Other parties that help us run the platform
We use trusted partners to run Wakamoso. Amazon Web Services (Cape Town region) hosts the platform and your data. FuseIT provides our technical support. Meta (WhatsApp Business) delivers our messages on WhatsApp. A payment partner handles your Wallet. Each of these partners is contractually required to protect your information and to use it only for the purposes Wakamoso agrees with them. They cannot use your information for their own purposes.
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9 Service messages and marketing
You’ll always receive messages from us about your account and about surveys you have already agreed to take part in — these are part of the service you signed up for, and you can’t opt out of them while your account is active. We may also send you marketing messages about other Wakamoso opportunities — these are separate, and you can opt in or opt out of them at any time without affecting your service messages. By default, marketing is off; you must specifically choose to receive marketing.
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10 People you tell us about
If you give us the contact details of other people — referees who can confirm something about you, friends you’d like us to invite to a survey — we will only contact them for the reason you have given. Our first message to them will tell them that you suggested they be contacted, and how to opt out. By giving us their details, you confirm that you have their permission to share their information with us.
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11 Your rights
Under POPIA, you have the right to: see what information we hold about you, correct it, delete it, object to your information being used for marketing or any other specific purpose, withdraw your consent at any time, and lodge a complaint with the South African Information Regulator at https://inforegulator.org.za. You can exercise any of these rights from inside the Wakamoso app, or by emailing info@wakamoso.africa. We respond to all requests within 30 days.
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12 Opting out and deleting
Every survey we push to you includes an OPT OUT option. Choosing OPT OUT stops further outbound Wakamoso survey invitations to your number, applied platform-wide. Reasonable processing for compliance, safety, and record-keeping continues as required by law (see clause on retention). You can reverse it later by messaging us again. You can also DELETE your account from inside the Wakamoso app — this removes your identifying information. Anonymous contributions you have already made to community insights remain (they no longer link back to you). The full details are in our Privacy Policy at https://wakamoso.africa/privacy-policy.
How to accept
To accept, reply YES on WhatsApp, or tap YES in the Wakamoso mobile app. To decline, reply NO. Your acceptance is recorded against your account.