Privacy Policy
Introduction
Vander Designs (“we,” “us,” or “our”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect your information when you visit our website, make an enquiry, or live in one of our residences.
Namibia does not yet have an enacted data protection statute. We apply the standards set out in South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) and, where it applies, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), because our systems are hosted in the European Union and because many of the people we hold data about are entitled to those protections.
Who We Are
Vander Designs (Louis van der Merwe Construction) is a Property Development and Construction company operating in Windhoek, Namibia since 2007. We are the data controller for the information described in this policy. Freya's Student Accommodation is our residence brand and is covered by this same policy.
Who This Policy Covers
Different people give us different information. This policy covers all of them:
Website Visitors
Anyone browsing vanderdesigns.com. We collect very little from you.
Enquirers
Anyone who submits our contact form or a Freya's accommodation enquiry.
Tenants
Residents of Freya's Student Accommodation, who hold a portal account and a lease with us.
Guarantors, Sponsors and Next of Kin
People named by a tenant. You may never have contacted us directly. Section 007 is written for you.
Information We Collect
From Enquiries and Construction Clients
- Name and contact information when you enquire about our services
- Project requirements and specifications
- Property and land details for development projects
- Payment and account information for contracted services
- Communication preferences
From Tenants
To let a room we are required to identify you, contract with you, and bill you. We collect:
- Full name, email address and phone number
- National identity number or passport number, and which of the two it is
- Next-of-kin name, relationship, phone number and email address
- Billing contact details, where someone else pays your rent
- Your lease, extensions, and any annexures
- A handwritten signature image, captured when you sign a document electronically
- Invoices, payments, deposits, statements and any late-fee or interest records
- Documents you upload to your portal account, and check-in and check-out inspection records
- Maintenance requests you submit
About Guarantors, Sponsors and Next of Kin
Where a tenant names you as a guarantor, sponsor or next of kin, we hold:
- Full name and relationship to the tenant
- National identity number, where you are a guarantor or sponsor
- Phone number and email address
- A handwritten signature image and the IP address used, where you sign a contract electronically
Collected Automatically
- Which pages are visited and which links are clicked, in aggregate
- Device type, browser family and referring website
- A daily-rotating one-way code derived from your IP address and browser, used to estimate visitor numbers. We do not store your IP address for analytics and cannot reverse this code back to you
- For security and legal-evidence purposes only, the IP address and browser recorded at the moment a contract is signed, and the IP address recorded against administrative actions in our audit log
Our analytics honours your browser's “Do Not Track” setting. If it is enabled, we record nothing. Admin and tenant portal pages are never tracked.
From Third Parties
- References from previous clients, with their consent
- Supplier and contractor information for projects
- Government and municipal records, for property development
Why We Use It, and Our Legal Basis
We only use personal data where we have a lawful reason to. For each purpose, that reason is:
To perform a contract
- Preparing quotes, proposals and building plans
- Managing construction projects, timelines and site work
- Granting and managing a tenancy, including leases and extensions
- Billing rent, issuing invoices and statements, and handling deposits and refunds
- Handling maintenance requests, check-in and check-out
Our legitimate interests
- Verifying identity before granting a tenancy, to protect other residents
- Recording who signed what, when, and from which IP address, so that a signed contract can be relied on
- Keeping an audit log of administrative decisions that move money or delete records
- Understanding which pages of our website are useful, using data that does not identify you
- Securing our systems and investigating misuse
To meet a legal obligation
- Keeping financial and tax records for the period Namibian law requires
- Responding to a lawful request from a court, regulator or the police
With your consent
- Sending you marketing or newsletter email, which you can stop at any time
- Using a photograph of a completed project that identifies you or your property
Where we rely on legitimate interests, you may object. See section 011.
What We Do Not Do
- We do not sell your personal data, and never have
- We do not share it with advertisers or data brokers
- We do not use tracking cookies, advertising pixels or third-party analytics
- We do not make automated decisions that produce a legal effect for you
- We do not use your data to train artificial intelligence systems
If a Tenant Gave Us Your Details
If you are a guarantor, sponsor or next of kin, your details reached us from a tenant rather than from you. You still have every right described in section 011, including the right to ask what we hold and to ask us to correct or delete it.
We hold your details only for as long as the tenancy you are attached to is live, plus the record-keeping period in section 010. We do not market to you, and we will not use your details for anything other than the tenancy you were named in.
Tenants: please tell the people you name that you have given us their details, and point them at this policy. It takes one message and it is the fair thing to do.
Who We Share It With
We share personal data only with the following, and only as far as each needs it:
Resend — email delivery
Sends invoices, statements, one-time codes and contract links on our behalf. Resend sees the recipient address and the contents of the message.
Contabo GmbH — hosting
Provides the server our application and database run on, in Germany. Contabo does not access the data in the ordinary course, but as our hosting provider it holds the infrastructure the data sits on.
Professional advisers and authorities
Our accountants, auditors and lawyers where they need it, and courts, regulators or the police where we are legally obliged to respond.
Each provider is bound by a written agreement to process personal data only on our instructions.
Where Your Data Is Stored
Our application, database and uploaded documents are hosted on servers located in Germany, in the European Union. This means personal data collected in Namibia is stored and processed in the EU, under a legal framework that offers a high standard of protection. We transfer it there because it is necessary to run the services you have asked us for.
How Long We Keep It
We do not keep personal data indefinitely. Our retention periods are:
- Website enquiries and contact form messages — 12 months from your last contact with us, unless you become a client or tenant
- Waiting-list and accommodation applications — 12 months from the application, or until you ask us to remove you
- Website analytics — 24 months, in a form that does not identify you
- Tenant records, leases and signed contracts — 5 years after the tenancy ends, to meet tax and record-keeping requirements
- Financial records, invoices and payments — 5 years from the end of the relevant financial year
- Guarantor, sponsor and next-of-kin details — deleted with the tenancy record they belong to
- Administrative audit logs — 7 years, because they evidence decisions about money and records
- Maintenance requests and inspection records — 3 years after the tenancy ends
- Unsuccessful login attempts and security logs — 90 days
When a period expires we delete the data or anonymise it so it can no longer identify you.
Data Security
We implement appropriate security measures to protect your personal data:
- Passwords and one-time codes are stored hashed, never in readable form
- Access to tenant records is restricted by role, and administrative actions are logged
- Identity numbers and next-of-kin details are masked in our internal audit trail
- Contract signing links are single-purpose, time-limited and confirmed by a one-time code
- The website and portal are served over encrypted connections
- Secure storage of physical and digital records, with backup and recovery procedures
- Regular security assessments and updates
Your Rights
Under applicable privacy laws, you have the right to:
- Access the personal data we hold about you
- Request correction of anything inaccurate
- Request deletion of your data, where we are not required to keep it
- Receive a copy of your data in a portable format
- Object to processing based on our legitimate interests
- Object to processing for marketing purposes at any time
- Withdraw consent, where consent is what we relied on
- Ask us to restrict processing while a dispute is resolved
To exercise any of these, email vander@vanderdesigns.com. We will respond within 30 days. We may ask you to confirm your identity first, so that we do not disclose someone else's information to the wrong person. Exercising these rights is free.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, please contact us first at vander@vanderdesigns.com so we can try to put it right.
Namibia has not yet established a data protection regulator. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa where POPIA applies to you, or to the data protection authority in your country of residence where the GDPR applies to you. You may also pursue the matter through the Namibian courts.
Age
Our services are directed at adults. Tenants must be 18 or older to hold a lease with us. Where a prospective resident is under 18, a parent or legal guardian must contract with us on their behalf and act as guarantor. We do not knowingly collect personal data from a child other than in that context. If you believe we hold a child's data without a proper basis, contact us and we will delete it.
Cookies
We use one strictly necessary cookie to keep you signed in, and no tracking cookies at all. This is set out in full in our Cookie Policy.
Contact
For questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices:
Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Significant changes will be communicated to you via email or website notice, and the effective date at the top of this page will change. Your continued use of our services constitutes acceptance of any modifications.