Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Privacy Policy

How we collect, use, share and protect personal information.

1. Who we are (the Responsible Party)

Multicell is operated by Tegium Systems (registration number 2024/659492/07), a company incorporated in the Republic of South Africa ("Multicell", "we", "us"). For the purposes of POPIA we are the Responsible Party for the personal information described in this Privacy Policy. You can reach us in writing using the contact details in the "Contact & complaints" section below.

Our Information Officer can be reached by email at privacy@multicell.co.za.

2. The personal information we collect

• Account information - your name, email address, the company name you register, and a securely hashed password.
• Information you add to Multicell - details of your own clients, projects, tasks, materials, quotes and invoices. This may include personal information about your customers, for which you are the Responsible Party and we act as your Operator (see the Terms of Service below).
• Usage and technical information - sign-in events, IP address, browser type and basic activity logs, kept to keep the service secure and working.
• Communications - messages you send us for support.
• Public booking submissions - where a company using Multicell publishes a public booking form, the details a visitor submits on that form (such as name, contact details and the requested booking). The publishing company is the Responsible Party for this information; we hold it as their Operator, pending their review.

We do not knowingly collect special personal information (as defined in POPIA) or the personal information of children for our own purposes.

3. Why we use it, and our legal basis

• To create and operate your account, and to provide the service you have signed up for - performance of our contract with you.
• To verify your email address and secure your account - our legitimate interest and your consent.
• To send you essential service messages (for example, verification and account notices).
• To keep the service secure, prevent abuse, and meet our legal obligations.
• To respond to your support requests.

We process personal information lawfully and only for the purposes set out above, in line with POPIA's conditions for lawful processing.

4. Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with the service providers (Operators) that help us run Multicell, and only as far as needed:

• Hosting & infrastructure - our cloud hosting provider, where the application and database run.
• Email delivery - our transactional email provider, used to send verification and account emails.
• Legal - authorities where we are required by law to disclose information.

Each Operator is bound by a written agreement requiring them to process personal information only on our instructions and to keep it secure, as required by section 21 of POPIA.

5. Where your information is processed

We aim to host and process personal information in South Africa. Where any processing or transfer takes place outside South Africa, we ensure it is permitted under section 72 of POPIA - for example, the recipient is subject to laws or binding agreements that provide an adequate level of protection.

6. How long we keep it

We keep your account information for as long as your account is active, and for a reasonable period afterwards to meet legal, accounting and security obligations. When you close your account, we delete or de-identify your personal information unless we are required by law to retain it. You can request deletion at any time (see your rights below).

Public booking submissions are kept only as long as they are needed for the receiving company to review them. Submissions the company declines are automatically deleted 30 days after submission, and submissions that are never reviewed are automatically deleted 90 days after submission. A submission the company accepts becomes part of that company's client records and is then governed by the company's own retention practices.

7. How we protect it

• Passwords are stored only as salted hashes (BCrypt) - never in plain text.
• Traffic is encrypted in transit over HTTPS/TLS.
• Access is strictly separated per company (tenant isolation), so one company cannot see another's data.
• We apply reasonable technical and organisational measures to guard against loss, damage and unauthorised access, as required by section 19 of POPIA.

If a security compromise affects your personal information, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as required by section 22 of POPIA.

8. Your rights under POPIA

You have the right to:

• ask what personal information we hold about you, and request access to it;
• ask us to correct or delete personal information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive or out of date;
• object to processing in certain circumstances;
• withdraw consent where we relied on it (this will not affect processing already carried out); and
• complain to the Information Regulator.

To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@multicell.co.za. We will respond within a reasonable time.

9. Cookies

Multicell uses only the cookies it needs to work - principally a session cookie to keep you signed in and a CSRF token cookie to protect your requests. We do not use third-party advertising or tracking cookies.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy at any time - for example, to keep pace with changes in the law, in our service, or in our compliance obligations. When we make a change, we will update the "Last updated" date above, and the updated policy takes effect as soon as it is posted on this page. The version published here is always the current one. We may, but are not obliged to, additionally notify you of material changes. It is your responsibility to review this page regularly so that you remain aware of any updates, and your continued use of Multicell after a change is posted means you accept the updated policy.

Terms of Service

The agreement between you and Multicell when you use the service.

1. Acceptance. By creating an account or otherwise using Multicell, you acknowledge that you have read and understood, and agree to be bound by, these Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy above - including any updated version in effect at the time you use the service. If you are using Multicell on behalf of a business, you confirm that you are authorised to bind that business to these terms. If you do not agree to these terms, you must not use Multicell.
2. The service. Multicell is a multi-tenant CRM and project-management tool. We provide it on an "as available" basis and may add, change, suspend or remove features at any time as the product evolves.
3. Licence to use Multicell. Subject to these terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable and revocable licence to access and use Multicell for your own internal business purposes for as long as your account is active and in good standing. Multicell - including its software, source code, design, look and feel, branding and all related intellectual property - remains owned by Tegium Systems and its licensors, and nothing in these terms transfers any ownership or intellectual-property rights to you. This licence ends automatically if these terms end or your access is suspended, restricted or withdrawn.
4. Where Multicell may be used (South Africa only). Multicell is built, operated and made available for use only within the Republic of South Africa. Our legal, tax and data-protection compliance - including under POPIA - is designed for South Africa, and we make no representation that Multicell is appropriate, lawful or compliant for use in any other country. You agree to access and use Multicell only from within South Africa and for a business operating in South Africa. If you choose to access or use the service from outside South Africa, you do so on your own initiative and at your own risk, and you are solely responsible for compliance with any laws that may apply to you in that location.
5. Your account. You are responsible for keeping your login details confidential and for activity under your account. Tell us promptly at support@multicell.co.za if you suspect unauthorised access.
6. Fees. Your first 2 users are free. Each user beyond the first 2 is charged at R1,000 per user per month (so 3 users is R1,000/month, 4 users R2,000/month, 5 users R3,000/month, and so on). Fees are quoted in South African Rand. Tegium Systems is not currently registered for VAT, so no VAT is charged; should VAT registration become applicable, VAT will be added and shown separately with reasonable notice. We will give you reasonable notice before any change to pricing.
7. Acceptable use and restrictions. You agree to use Multicell only as intended and lawfully. In particular, you must not, and must not permit or assist anyone else to:
   • access, or attempt to access, any data, account, company or part of the service that you are not authorised to access - whether directly, by exploiting a vulnerability, or through any third-party application, script, automated tool or integration;
   • copy, modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, tamper with, or attempt to derive the source code of, or create derivative works from, the Multicell software or any part of the service, except to the extent this restriction cannot lawfully be excluded;
   • interfere with, disrupt, probe, scan or test the vulnerability of, or circumvent any security or access-control measure of, the service or its infrastructure;
   • use any robot, scraper, crawler or other automated means to access, monitor or extract data from the service, except through interfaces we expressly provide for that purpose;
   • upload unlawful, infringing or malicious content (including malware), or use Multicell to breach any law or the rights of others; or
   • resell, rent, sublicense or otherwise make the service available to any third party outside your own business without our written consent.
   Unauthorised access to, interference with, or modification of a computer system, program or data may be a criminal offence under South African law (including the Cybercrimes Act, 2020), and we may report suspected offences to the relevant authorities.
8. Your data and ownership. The data you put into Multicell - your clients, projects, quotes, invoices and related records - remains yours. We claim no ownership of it. We will not use it except to provide and support the service, as described in the Privacy Policy.
9. Data protection - POPIA Operator clause. Where the data you put into Multicell contains personal information about your own clients, staff or other people, you are the Responsible Party for that information and we act as your Operator under POPIA. In that role we agree that we will:
   • process that personal information only on your documented instructions and only to provide the service;
   • treat it as confidential and ensure that people who process it are bound by confidentiality;
   • apply appropriate, reasonable technical and organisational security measures to protect it (section 19 of POPIA);
   • not engage another operator (sub-operator) without your general authorisation, and remain responsible for any sub-operator we use;
   • assist you, as far as reasonably possible, to respond to data-subject requests and to meet your own POPIA obligations;
   • notify you without undue delay if we become aware of a security compromise affecting that personal information (section 22 of POPIA); and
   • on termination, delete or return that personal information at your choice, unless the law requires us to keep it.
   You, in turn, confirm that you have a lawful basis to collect and process the personal information you put into Multicell, and that your instructions to us comply with POPIA. Multicell is a general business CRM and is not designed or intended to store "special personal information" as defined in section 26 of POPIA - that is, information concerning a person's religious or philosophical beliefs, race or ethnic origin, trade-union membership, political persuasion, health or sex life, biometric information, or criminal behaviour - or the personal information of children. You warrant that you will not upload, store or process such information through Multicell except with our prior written agreement and under any additional terms we may require. You are responsible for ensuring you have all necessary consents and a lawful basis for the personal information you process using Multicell, and you indemnify us against any claim, loss, fine or penalty arising from your breach of this clause.
10. Availability. We aim to keep Multicell available and to maintain reasonable backups, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted, error-free or secure service, or that no data will ever be lost. We may carry out maintenance from time to time and will aim to limit disruption where practical. You remain responsible for keeping your own copies of any data that is critical to you.
11. Suspension and termination. You may stop using Multicell and close your account at any time. For non-urgent issues such as overdue fees, we will normally give you reasonable notice and an opportunity to fix the problem before suspending or ending access. However, we reserve the right to suspend, restrict or terminate your access immediately and without prior notice where we reasonably believe - including where we reasonably suspect - that you have breached these terms (including the licence and acceptable-use restrictions), are using Multicell unlawfully, or pose a security or operational risk to the service, other users or us. We are under no obligation to monitor for violations, and choosing not to act in one case does not waive our right to act in another. Except where the law requires otherwise, or where doing so would facilitate the suspected breach or harm, you will normally be able to export your data for a reasonable period before it is deleted.
12. Liability. To the extent permitted by law, Multicell is provided without warranties beyond those that cannot lawfully be excluded, and our total liability arising from the service is limited to the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the claim. We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited under South African law.
13. Changes to these terms. We may update these terms (and the Privacy Policy above) at any time. We will update the "Last updated" date, and the updated terms take effect as soon as they are posted on this page. We may, but are not obliged to, additionally notify you of material changes. The version published on this page is always the one that applies, and it is your responsibility to review this page regularly for updates. Your continued use of Multicell after a change is posted means you accept the updated terms.
14. Governing law. These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa, and the South African courts have jurisdiction over any dispute.

Contact & complaints

How to reach us, and how to complain to the regulator.

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your personal information, you may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa: