Privacy Policy
1. Who we are and what this covers
KitsFlits (“we”, “us”) provides the KitsFlits mobile app for Android and iOS – Afrikaans news, weather and prices (the “App”) – and this website, kitsflits.co.za. This policy explains what information the App and the website collect, why, who receives it and what you can do about it. It is written to meet the South African Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) and, where they apply to you, similar laws such as the GDPR. You can reach us at the address in section 14.
2. You need an account
The App can only be used after you register or sign in with an email address and password. There is no guest mode. By creating an account you agree to this policy and to our Terms of Service.
3. Information we collect
Information you give us
- Account details: your email address, your display name and your password. The password is handled by Firebase Authentication (Google); we cannot read it. We also keep a profile record with your user ID, email, display name and the date you registered. We send a verification email when you register; password-reset and verification emails are sent by Firebase on our behalf.
- Comments and replies: the text you post, the time, your user ID and the display name you had when you posted. Other signed-in users of the App can see your comments and display name. Your comments are not shown to people who are not signed in to the App.
- Reactions: your reaction to an article or comment (for example a like or a heart) is stored with your user ID. Other users see the totals for each reaction, not who gave them.
- Reports and blocks: if you report a comment we store the report (the comment, its author, the article, the reason you chose, the time and your user ID) so we can review it. If you block someone, that is stored in a private list under your account, together with the name that person was using. Neither the person you reported nor the person you blocked is told.
- Messages to us: if you use the contact form or email us we receive your name, email address and message and use them only to reply. The contact form on this website is processed by Netlify (see section 7).
Information from your device
- Approximate location (optional): if you tap the button to use your location on the weather tab and allow it, the App reads your approximate (coarse) location on your device to find the nearest town in its list. The coordinates are not sent to us, not stored by us and not attached to your account. You can decline or revoke the permission in your device settings; you can then pick towns by hand.
- Stored on your device: the App’s language setting; and, separately for each account, the weather towns you pinned, which articles you have already seen, where you stopped reading in each news category, and how often you pick or open each category (used to order your news feed). None of this is uploaded. Article images are also cached on your device. If you delete your account in the App, the per-account data is removed from the device too.
- Anonymous usage counters: when you view, open or share an article the App adds one to that article’s counters (and to a total for its category) so we can rank popular articles. These counters contain no user ID and cannot be traced to you.
- Technical data: like any online service, Google Firebase and our hosting providers receive technical data with each request, such as your IP address, device type and operating system, and app version.
Advertising information
The App is free and shows ads supplied by Google AdMob, as a native ad in the news feed after every fifth article. AdMob (Google) may collect and use your device’s advertising identifier, IP address, device information and your interactions with ads to select, show and measure ads and to prevent fraud. We do not receive your name or email address from AdMob and we do not pass them to AdMob.
- iOS: before the ad service starts, the App asks for your permission under Apple’s App Tracking Transparency. If you decline (or later turn it off in Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking), AdMob does not get your advertising identifier; ads may still be shown, but they will not be personalised using it.
- Android: ads use your Google advertising ID. You can reset it, delete it or opt out of ad personalisation in your device’s Google settings (Settings → Google → Ads).
More about how Google handles this data: policies.google.com/technologies/ads.
What we do not collect
We do not use Google Analytics or Firebase Analytics, and we do not use a separate crash-reporting service. We do not ask for your phone number, home address, ID number, contacts, photos or payment details. We do not use push notifications. We do not sell your personal information.
4. How we use information
- to create and run your account, sign you in and let you reset your password;
- to show your comments, replies and reactions and keep the discussion safe, including reviewing reports and removing content or accounts that break our Terms;
- to show you news, weather and prices and order the news feed;
- to show and measure ads (section 3), which pay for the App;
- to rank articles by popularity using anonymous counters;
- to answer your messages, comply with the law and protect our rights.
We process your information because it is needed to provide the App to you, because you have consented (for example to location or to ad tracking on iOS), because we have a legitimate interest in running and securing the App and funding it with ads, or because the law requires it.
5. What the App shows you
The App displays information we collect from other sources, none of which is about you: news headlines, short summaries, images and links, gathered from the public RSS feeds of Afrikaans publishers (currently Maroela Media, Die Suid-Afrikaner and Republikein of Namibia) with the source named on each article; weather forecasts for a list of South African towns from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET Norway); and the rand exchange rates of the US dollar, euro, pound and yen (from Alpha Vantage) and gold, silver and Brent crude oil prices (from Financial Modeling Prep). Our servers collect this data several times a day and store it in our Firebase database, and the App reads it from there; your device does not contact these sources, apart from news images and article links. When you open an article’s link, you leave the App and the publisher’s own privacy policy applies. News images are loaded from the publisher’s servers.
6. Who receives your information
- Google (Firebase): Firebase Authentication and Cloud Firestore store your account and the content described above and process it on our behalf.
- Google (AdMob): receives the advertising data described in section 3 and handles it under Google’s own policies.
- Other users of the App: see your display name and comments as described above.
- Authorities and advisers: we may disclose information where the law requires it, to respond to lawful requests, to protect rights and safety, or in a sale or restructuring of the service, in which case this policy continues to apply.
We do not sell your personal information or share it with advertisers or data brokers ourselves.
7. This website
The website is hosted by Netlify. Netlify, like any host, processes technical data such as IP addresses in its server logs, and processes what you type into the contact form. The website does not use analytics or advertising cookies and sets no cookies of its own.
8. Keeping and deleting your information
- Delete your account in the App: open Settings and choose “Skrap rekening” (Delete account), then confirm with your password. This permanently deletes your sign-in account, your profile record, all comments you wrote, all reactions you gave, and your block and reported-comment lists, and removes the App’s data for your account from your device.
- Cannot open the App? Use the contact form and choose “Data Deletion Request”, or email us from the address on your account. We may ask you to confirm it is you.
- What can remain: reports you filed about other people’s comments are kept for moderation records. Reactions that other people gave to your deleted comments are no longer shown anywhere. Deleted data can persist in Google’s backups for a limited time before it is overwritten. Anonymous article counters stay because they cannot be linked to you.
- Apart from that, we keep your information for as long as your account exists, or as long as we need it for the purposes above or to meet legal obligations.
9. Your rights
Under POPIA, and where they apply the GDPR and similar laws, you may ask us to confirm what we hold about you, to give you a copy, to correct it, to delete it, to restrict or stop processing, and you may withdraw consent at any time (for example by revoking location permission or iOS tracking permission). You can change your password in the App. To use these rights contact us (section 14). You may also complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa (inforegulator.org.za) or to your local data-protection authority.
10. Security
Data travels between the App and our servers over encrypted connections, and our database rules allow users to write only their own content. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. Please choose a strong password and keep it to yourself.
11. Transfers outside South Africa
Google Firebase, Google AdMob and Netlify operate data centres in several countries, so your information may be processed outside South Africa. These providers are bound by their own data-protection commitments.
12. Children
The App is for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has an account, contact us and we will delete it.
13. Changes
If we change this policy we will post the new version here and update the effective date above. For significant changes we will also tell you in the App.
14. Contact us
Questions, requests or complaints about your information: email rikusswart103@gmail.com or use our contact form.