Privacy Policy

pleaseinvoice.me — Last updated: 30 August 2026

1. Who we are

pleaseinvoice.me is operated by Garden Route Innovation and Technology Hub NPC (CIPC registration number 2021/502703/08), a non-profit company registered in the Republic of South Africa (“we”, “us”, “the Company”), with its registered address at Office Suite #2, York Street Blvd Shopping Center, George South, George, Western Cape, 6529, South Africa.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share, and protect personal information in connection with the pleaseinvoice.me website and application (the “Service”), in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (“POPIA”).

Our Information Officer is:

• Name: Marshall Grant (Chief Executive Officer)
• Email: marshall@grithub.org.za

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests relating to your personal information, please contact the Information Officer directly.

2. Scope — two roles under POPIA

It’s important to understand that we act in two different capacities, and different rules apply to each:

• As Responsible Party, for the personal information you (the business owner using pleaseinvoice.me) provide about yourself when you register and use the Service — your account details, business details, and billing/plan status.
• As Operator, for personal information you enter about your own clients in order to generate and send invoices (your client’s name, email address, and contact/billing details). In this respect, you are the Responsible Party for your clients’ personal information, and you are responsible for ensuring you have a lawful basis to collect and process it (for example, because you have a business relationship or contract with them). We only process that data on your instructions, to provide the Service to you.

3. Information we collect

3.1 Information you provide directly

• Account information: name, email address, password (stored as a secure hash, never in plain text)
• Business information: business name, trading address, VAT number (if applicable), logo, and other details you choose to add to your invoice letterhead
• Client information you enter: your clients’ names, email addresses, and any billing/contact details you add to generate invoices
• Invoice data: line items, amounts, due dates, and payment status you record

3.2 Information collected automatically

• Technical information such as IP address, browser type, device type, and general usage/log data, collected for security, fraud prevention, and to keep the Service running reliably
• Basic analytics on how the Service is used, to help us improve it

We do not currently use advertising cookies or sell personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.

4. Why we process your information (purpose and lawful basis)

We process personal information only for purposes that are:

• Necessary to provide the Service to you (creating your account, generating invoices, sending invoices to your clients by email on your instruction)
• Necessary to enforce the free-plan client limit and manage your subscription tier
• Necessary for security, fraud prevention, and maintaining the integrity of the Service
• Required to comply with a legal obligation
• Based on your consent, where we ask for it separately (for example, optional product update emails)

We do not use your information, or your clients’ information, for any purpose beyond what is needed to provide and improve the Service, unless we have your consent or are required to by law.

5. Sharing your information — third-party service providers

We use trusted third-party service providers (“Operators” under POPIA) to run the Service. These providers only process personal information on our instructions, for the specific purpose of delivering their service to us, and are contractually required to keep it secure and confidential. As at the date of this policy, these include:

• Hosting and infrastructure (e.g. Vercel) — to host the application and store data
• Database hosting (e.g. Neon / Vercel Postgres) — to store your account, client, and invoice data
• Transactional email delivery (e.g. Resend) — to send invoices and account-related emails to you and, on your instruction, to your clients
• Authentication services — to manage secure sign-in to your account

5.1 Payments — important note

pleaseinvoice.me does not process, collect, or store any payment card or banking information, and we do not take payment from your clients on your behalf.

Where we in future offer the ability for your clients to pay an invoice online, this will work by connecting your own, existing account with a third-party payment service provider (for example, a payment gateway operating in South Africa). In that case:

• You will need to hold your own merchant/account with that third-party provider,
• Payment happens directly between your client and your chosen provider under that provider’s own terms and privacy policy, and
• We will only pass through the minimum information necessary (such as the invoice amount and reference) to facilitate the connection — we will not hold or process the payment itself.

We are not responsible for the privacy or security practices of any third-party payment provider you choose to connect. Please review their terms and privacy policy separately.

5.2 Cross-border transfers

Some of our service providers may store or process information outside South Africa (for example, on servers located in the European Union or United States). Where this happens, we take reasonable steps to ensure the recipient is subject to a law, binding corporate rules, or contractual terms that provide an adequate level of protection substantially similar to POPIA, as required by section 72 of POPIA.

We do not sell, rent, or trade personal information to third parties for their own marketing purposes.

6. Data retention

We retain personal information for as long as your account is active, and for a reasonable period afterward to comply with legal, tax, and accounting recordkeeping obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. When information is no longer needed for these purposes, we will delete or anonymise it.

7. Security safeguards

We implement reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against loss, unauthorised access, interference, or disclosure, including encrypted password storage, encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS), and access controls limiting who can view stored data. No system is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we take our obligations under POPIA’s security safeguard condition seriously.

8. Your rights

Subject to POPIA, you have the right to:

• Be told what personal information we hold about you and why
• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Request correction or deletion of inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, or unlawfully obtained personal information
• Object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances
• Withdraw consent, where processing is based on consent, without affecting processing already carried out
• Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa) if you believe your rights under POPIA have been infringed

Information Regulator contact details:

• Website: https://inforegulator.org.za
• Email: complaints.IR@justice.gov.za

To exercise any of these rights in relation to your own account, contact our Information Officer using the details in section 1. If your query relates to personal information we hold as an Operator on behalf of one of our users (i.e., you are the client of a business using pleaseinvoice.me), please direct your request to that business first, as they are the Responsible Party for your information.

9. Children’s privacy

The Service is intended for business use by adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children, and the Service is not directed at children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us so we can delete it.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to the Service or our legal obligations. We will post the updated version on this page with a revised “Last updated” date, and where changes are material, we will take reasonable steps to notify you.

11. Contact us

Garden Route Innovation and Technology Hub NPC
Office Suite #2, York Street Blvd Shopping Center, George South, George, Western Cape, 6529, South Africa
Email: marshall@grithub.org.za