1 Important information and who we are
Purpose of this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy aims to give you information on how DigsConnect collects and processes your personal data through any form of your engagement with us.
This Privacy Policy complies with, and facilitates the obligations required from, the European Commission's General Data Protection Regulation, 2016/679 ("GDPR") as well as the South African Protection of Personal Information Act, No. 4 of 2013 ("POPI"), as amended.
It is important that you read this Privacy Policy together with any other privacy policy or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data, so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This Privacy Policy supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.
Save as expressly set out in this Privacy Policy — in particular the DigsManage section below, where special personal information (such as health or medical information and, where you provide it, information relating to your ethnicity) may be processed with your explicit consent and for specific application and accommodation purposes — we do not process special categories of personal data. Other than in those circumstances, do not provide us with any such personal data, where the provision of same will constitute an immediate and automatic material breach of these terms. We may in limited instances process the data of minors, where we assist a minor tenant. Should you be a minor tenant, you may only use the Services and/or provide us with your personal data if your parent/guardian accepts this Privacy Policy on your behalf and supervises your use of the Services/Website at all times. In such a situation, your parent/guardian expressly consents to our processing of their child's/ward's personal data and accepts all liability for their child's/ward's use of the Services/Website at all times.
Data Controller and Processor
DigsConnect is the "Data Controller" (as defined in the GDPR) and is responsible for your personal data in instances where we decide the processing operations concerning your personal data.
We also operate as a "Processor" of personal data on behalf of a Data Controller (such as for referral accommodation providers Student.com), where that Data Controller's privacy terms will apply. For example, should you voluntarily choose to have accommodation services provided by Student.com via our platform, we will share your limited data with them. We have appointed a data representative at DigsConnect who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the representative using the details set out below.
Our Contact Details
Full name: DigsConnect (Pty) Ltd
Email address: [email protected]
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the office of the South African Information Regulator or any relevant European Information Regulator. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach any such regulator, so please contact us in the first instance.
Changes to the Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy version was last updated on 15 June 2026 and historic versions are archived and can be provided on request.
Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your relationship with us. We will not be liable for any incorrect personal data it may hold on/about you if you do not notify us of changes.
This Privacy Policy is subject to change without notice and is updated or amended from time to time and will be effective once we upload the amended version to the Platform. Your continued access or use of our Services constitutes your acceptance of this Privacy Policy, as amended. It is your responsibility to read this document periodically to ensure you are aware of any changes.
Third-Party Links on Website or otherwise
The Website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins, and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements or terms. When you leave our Website, or engage with such third parties, we encourage you to read the distinct privacy policy of every third-party you engage with.
Where your personal information has been shared with DigsConnect by any of our third-party affiliates we accept that you have provided your consent to such third party for the sharing of your personal information or there is a legal justification for its sharing in accordance with that third-party's privacy statement or terms.
2 The data we collect about you
"Personal data", or "personal identifiable information", means any information about an individual, both natural and juristic entities, from which that entity can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).
We may collect, use, store and transfer ("process") different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:
- Identity Data including full name, country of residence, username or similar identifier, date of birth and gender;
- Contact Data including email address, social media contact details and telephone numbers;
- Financial Data including bank account details, payment details, third-party payment provider information and payment card details;
- Transaction Data including details about payments to and from you, contracts, contractual terms, contract fees, signups, subscriptions, invoices and other details of products and Services you have obtained from us;
- Social Media Data including information accessible on your publicly available profile such as full name, comments, display pictures, direct messages and email address;
- Technical Data including internet protocol address/es, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, cookies, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access the Website;
- Profile Data including your Website username and password, educational information (including the location, area, and level of your studies), preferences, feedback, ratings and reviews, any information which you provide to DigsConnect upon creating your DigsConnect account and survey responses;
- Usage Data including information about how you use our company, Website, Website-based messages between registered users on the Website, recorded telephone calls between us and a tenant or landlord and/or tenant and landlord and us, surveys, events and services;
- Marketing and Communications Data including your preferences in receiving notices and marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences as well as details of which communications were sent to you and how they were sent. When you make an enquiry on our platform, we may offer you the option to provide your explicit consent to receive communications from third-party partners, including financial services partners, regarding student loan products and related offers. Your consent to this is entirely voluntary, and you can choose to opt out at any time by updating your preferences or contacting us directly;
- Support Data including all messages you send to us via email, via social media or through the Website as well as records of all conversations had with you over telephone.
We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific Website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you.
3 How is your personal data collected?
We use different methods to collect data from and about you, including through:
Direct interactions: You may give us your personal data by using our Services or by corresponding with us through the Website, social media, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
- use our Services (as a landlord, tenant or otherwise);
- use our Website;
- contract with us;
- consult with us;
- provide us with your services;
- complete forms;
- interact with us via webinar or social media;
- subscribe to any of our publications;
- request information to be sent to you; or
- give us some feedback.
Automated technologies or interactions: As you interact with our Website, we may automatically collect Technical and Usage Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We may collect this personal data by using cookies, tracking, server logs and other similar technologies. We may also receive Technical Data about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies.
Third parties or publicly available sources: We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources including:
- analytics providers;
- marketing platforms and providers;
- messaging and communication platforms;
- customer relationship management software;
- social media platforms;
- third parties who DigsConnect has partnered with for marketing and business development;
- private third parties such as various college and university partners of DigsConnect.
4 How we use your personal data
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to and for legitimate reasons, which you hereby expressly understand and consent to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
- where we have your express consent to do so;
- where we need to consult with you or perform on the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you;
- where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests;
- where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.
5 Purposes for which we will use your personal data
We have set out below the purposes for which we will process your personal data, which include:
- to engage with you after you have contacted us via our Website or otherwise;
- to allow you to use our Services and Website and provide you with our Services as contracted;
- to contract with you as a service provider or contractor to DigsConnect;
- to provide your personal data to our service providers and contractors who need your personal information to provide their services to us or to you directly;
- to process and service your payment for any Services rendered by DigsConnect or our service providers;
- to manage payments, fees, and charges;
- to meet our regulatory and compliance requirements;
- to manage our relationship with you which may include notifying you about changes to our Terms, Privacy Policy, or Services or the delivery of communications and the effectiveness thereof;
- to administer and protect our company, Website and Services (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data);
- to use data analytics to improve our Website, Services, client relationships and experiences;
- to provide you with direct marketing and make suggestions about Services or events that may be of interest; and
- to create remarketing lists and/or third-party audience segments. These lists and segments may be shared with third-party companies for marketing purposes. Please note that your personal data will not be shared directly with these third-party companies and is fully anonymised and processed in a manner that does not disclose your personal information.
Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data.
Quality Control
To provide you with the best service and ensure we are transparent in our communications with you, all communications with us including telephone calls will be recorded and logged for quality control, staff training, and regulatory compliance purposes. You are welcome to request a copy of or a recording of any call or interaction you have with us.
Marketing
We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. To manifest your rights attached to any marketing sent to you, please use the in-built prompts provided on those communications, or contact us.
You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested our Services, requested information from us, or provided us with your details in any other circumstance and, in each case, have not opted-out of receiving that marketing.
You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by using the built-in prompts or contacting us and requesting us to cease or change your marketing preferences. Where you opt-out of receiving marketing messages, this opt-out will not apply to other personal information of yours which we process for another lawful basis.
Your personal data may be used to conduct credit assessments for purposes of verifying your ability to fulfil financial obligations, provide advertising, promotions or other products and services that may be of particular interest to you.
Third-Party Marketing
We may share your personal information with third parties, such as our financial services partners, for the purpose of contacting you about student loan products and related offers. This will only occur if you explicitly opt in during the enquiry process. Your consent allows these partners to process your personal data in accordance with their privacy policies. You may withdraw this consent at any time by updating your preferences through our platform or contacting us directly.
Change of Purpose
We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.
If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by national law.
6 Disclosures of your personal data
We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out above.
- Internal Third Parties including other entities or parties in the DigsConnect group and their respective directors and employees, acting as joint controllers or processors;
- External Third Parties including:
- third parties under contract with DigsConnect who need your personal data to provide their services to us or to you directly pursuant to your use of our services (such as software service providers and developers);
- service providers and contractors providing their services to us and acting as processors of your personal data;
- third party marketing companies making use of our custom audience segments;
- college and university partners engaging with DigsConnect to offer our Services to their students;
- Website partners who have partnered with DigsConnect to offer accommodation in various countries (including Student.com);
- FG Nexus Proprietary Limited, which owns the software that powers DigsManage and acts as an Operator processing booking and profile data on our behalf;
- Prop Data (Pty) Ltd ("PropData"), which syndicates registered-agency listings to the Platform via DigsList and to which enquiries/leads on those listings are routed;
- national governments and/or their respective authorities pursuant to our adherence with legislative requirements such as tax; and
- professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services as required.
- Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our organisation or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other organisations or merge with them. If a change happens to our organisation, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this Privacy Policy.
We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions and standards.
8 International transfers
We share your personal data within the DigsConnect group of organisations, partners, and affiliates, and this may involve transferring and processing your data outside of South Africa or the European Economic Area ("EEA").
Whenever we transfer your personal data out of either territory, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:
- We will always have a contract in place covering the processing of data between the parties;
- We will only provide your personal data to an entity that processes personal information at standards equal to or better than ours; or
- Where personal data is being shared out of the EEA, we will share personal data in accordance with the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.
Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when sharing your personal data.
9 Data security
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed by using appropriate technical and organisational measures. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those persons who have a legitimate need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instruction and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
10 Data retention
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data, any other applicable law requiring us to retain the data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
We may anonymise your personal data for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
11 DigsManage and DigsList
This section explains how we process your personal data in connection with two specific services offered through the DigsConnect Platform: DigsManage and DigsList. It supplements the rest of this Privacy Policy.
DigsManage (booking & property management)
DigsManage is powered by proprietary software owned and developed by FG Nexus Proprietary Limited (registration number 2022/534988/07) ("FG Nexus"), which is licensed to DigsConnect. Where you use DigsManage, DigsConnect acts as the Responsible Party (Data Controller) in respect of your personal data, and FG Nexus acts as an "Operator" (processor) as defined in POPIA, processing your personal data on our behalf, in accordance with our instructions and applicable Data Protection Laws.
When you sign up for DigsManage, you expressly consent to your personal data being shared between DigsConnect and FG Nexus, and processed by each of them, for the purposes of operating, maintaining, supporting and improving the service and giving effect to your booking.
The personal data shared and processed in this way may include your Identity Data, Contact Data, Profile Data, Financial Data and Transaction Data, your accommodation application details, and your booking statuses — including your application status, lease status, payment status, room or unit allocation and move-in/occupancy date. We use this information to create and manage your account, to track and display the status of your booking, to confirm placements, to raise, reconcile or reverse invoices, and otherwise to administer your booking.
FG Nexus processes this personal data only as necessary to provide, support and maintain the DigsManage software. Your personal data may be stored on servers controlled by DigsConnect or by FG Nexus, and any transfer of your personal data outside South Africa or the EEA is subject to the safeguards described in the "International transfers" section above. You may withdraw your consent to the DigsManage data sharing described here at any time by contacting us, although doing so may mean that we can no longer provide the DigsManage service to you.
Special personal information: where you complete an accommodation application through DigsManage, the processing may involve special personal information (as defined in POPIA) and special categories of data (under the GDPR) — such as health or medical information and, where you choose to provide it, information relating to your ethnicity. We and FG Nexus process such information only where you have given your explicit consent, and only for the purposes of assessing and administering your application, accommodation and wellbeing, or where the processing is otherwise permitted by law. You may withdraw this consent at any time, subject to the effect this may have on our ability to provide the service.
To protect your most sensitive data, certain fields — including your identity/ID number, ethnicity, medical conditions, and the identity numbers of any next-of-kin, emergency contact or guarantor — are retained only within the core booking platform and are excluded from onward mirroring to our marketing and customer-relationship-management tools, in line with the data-minimisation principle.
In providing DigsManage we use trusted third-party processors, which may include cloud-hosting providers, payment and accounting providers (such as Xero), identity-verification providers, electronic-signature and document-processing services, messaging providers (such as the WhatsApp Business platform) and customer-relationship-management tools (such as HubSpot). These parties process your personal data only on our instructions and subject to appropriate safeguards, and we are not responsible for their own independent privacy practices where they act as separate controllers.
We may aggregate, de-identify or anonymise data generated through DigsManage (including rental, occupancy and booking data) and may use, and share with FG Nexus and other third parties, such aggregated or de-identified data for benchmarking, analytics, research and product-improvement purposes. Aggregated and de-identified data does not identify you and is not treated as personal data in law.
DigsManage may be used by student tenants who are minors. Where this is the case, the minor may only use DigsManage if their parent or guardian has accepted this Privacy Policy on their behalf and consents to the processing described here, as set out in section 1 above.
DigsList (agency listings via PropData)
DigsList listings are syndicated to the DigsConnect Platform from Prop Data (Pty) Ltd ("PropData"). Where you make an enquiry on a DigsList listing, you acknowledge and consent to your enquiry and contact details being routed to, and processed by, PropData and the relevant registered agency for the purpose of responding to your enquiry, in accordance with PropData's processes, its privacy policy and applicable POPIA consent requirements (including opt-in confirmation).
Such leads are handled within PropData and are not made directly available to the agency on the DigsConnect Platform. PropData and the relevant registered agency are independent parties responsible for their own processing of your personal data, and we encourage you to review PropData's privacy policy. DigsConnect is not responsible for the privacy practices of PropData or of any agency that receives your enquiry.
12 Your legal rights
You have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data where we are the Data Controller over such personal data. Please contact us to find out more about, or manifest, these rights:
- request access to your personal data;
- request correction of your personal data;
- request erasure of your personal data;
- object to the processing of your personal data;
- request a restriction of processing your personal data;
- request transfer of your personal data; and/or
- right to withdraw consent.
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made several requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
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