Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

RentMatch ("we", "us", "our") operates the website rentmatch.co.za and the application at app.rentmatch.co.za. We are a South African tenant verification platform that connects pre-verified tenants with landlords and estate agents.

Information Officer: privacy@rentmatch.co.za
For all privacy-related queries, rights requests, and complaints, please use the email address above.

2. Information We Collect

We collect the following categories of personal information:

From Tenants

• Full name, email address, and phone number (provided during registration)
• South African ID number (extracted from your ID document)
• Employment details and salary information (extracted from your payslip)
• Bank account transaction data — specifically income patterns, returned debits, and account behaviour (extracted from your bank statement)
• The documents themselves: SA ID, payslip, and bank statement (stored securely)
• Email and phone verification status

From Estate Agents

• Full name, email address, and phone number
• Business/agency name
• Payment records (processed via BobPay — we do not store card details)

Automatically Collected

• IP address and browser/device information (for security and abuse prevention)
• Pages visited and actions taken on the platform (for improving the service)

3. How We Use Your Information

We process your personal information only for the following purposes:

• Tenant verification: To verify the authenticity of submitted documents and generate a verification score.
• Profile creation: To create and display an anonymised tenant profile in the directory until an estate agent connects with you.
• Connecting tenants and estate agents: When a connection is made (token used), to reveal your contact details and provide a PDF verification report to the connecting estate agent.
• Communication: To send you verification status updates, connection notifications, and platform announcements.
• Security and fraud prevention: To detect and prevent abuse of the platform.
• Legal compliance: To comply with applicable South African laws.

We do not sell your personal information to any third party. We do not perform credit bureau checks, FICA assessments, or any regulated financial screening. RentMatch is a document verification tool only.

4. How We Store Your Information

• Documents (ID, payslip, bank statement) are stored on encrypted cloud storage (Amazon Web Services S3).
• All data in transit is protected via HTTPS/TLS encryption.
• Access to tenant documents is restricted to authorised RentMatch administrators and — only upon a confirmed token connection — the connecting estate agent.
• We retain your information for as long as your account is active, plus a reasonable period after deletion to comply with legal obligations.

5. Who We Share Your Information With

We only share your personal information in the following circumstances:

• Estate agents (upon connection only): When a verified estate agent uses a token to connect with your profile, your real name, contact details, and a PDF verification report are shared with that estate agent only.
• Service providers: We use Amazon Web Services (document storage and OCR processing) and BobPay (payment processing). These providers are bound by confidentiality obligations and only process data as instructed by us.
• Legal requirements: We may disclose information if required to do so by law or in response to valid legal process.

Until a connection is made, your profile is displayed anonymously in the directory (e.g. "Tenant #0042"). Your real name and contact details are never visible to unapproved or unconnected parties.

7. Right to Deletion & How to Request It

You have the right to request that we delete your personal information and close your account. Upon a valid deletion request, we will:

• Delete your profile from the tenant directory immediately
• Permanently delete your uploaded documents (ID, payslip, bank statement) from our storage
• Remove your personal details from our active database
• Confirm deletion to you via email within 10 business days

Please note: Where an estate agent has already connected with you (a token was used), the verification report shared at that time may be retained by that estate agent. We cannot delete information that has already been lawfully disclosed to a third party. We will retain minimal records as required by applicable law.

8. Cookies

This website uses essential cookies to function correctly (e.g. session management). We do not use advertising or tracking cookies. You can disable cookies in your browser settings, though some parts of the platform may not function correctly without them.

9. Children's Privacy

RentMatch is not intended for use by persons under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from minors. If you believe a minor has submitted information to us, please contact us immediately at privacy@rentmatch.co.za.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of the platform after any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.