Terms of Use

1. Who these terms bind

These terms of use ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the search and verification services operated by The Big Data Showroom (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2025/921835/07), a company incorporated in the Republic of South Africa ("TBDS", "we", "us").

They apply to the business that holds the account ("you", the "Account Holder") and to every individual user who searches under that account. The person who opens the account warrants that they are authorised to bind the Account Holder. Where a principal invites team members, the principal remains responsible for everything those users do.

By applying for an account, activating one, or running any search, you accept these Terms. If you do not accept them, do not use the service.

2. Definitions

3. Eligibility and vetting

Access is not open to the public. Every account is vetted before activation, and we may decline any application without giving reasons.

To be eligible you must:

• be a juristic person or a practising professional carrying on business in South Africa;
• supply accurate company, registration and contact details;
• record a lawful purpose for the searches you intend to run; and
• satisfy any product-specific eligibility requirement.

Contact Trace is a restricted product. It is available only to vetted attorneys and legal practitioners, registered estate agents, debt collectors, and financial services providers or accountable institutions. We confirm eligibility during vetting and may require proof of professional registration, and may re-confirm it at any time.

You must tell us without delay if your professional registration lapses, your business changes, or the purpose for which you search changes.

4. Your account

Accounts are personal to the individual user. You may not share credentials, and you may not allow anyone who has not been vetted under your account to run searches. Two-factor authentication is required on every account and may not be disabled.

You are responsible for all activity under your account and under every seat you invite, including searches run by an employee who has left, until you remove that seat. Tell us immediately if you suspect any credential has been compromised.

5. Permitted use and lawful purpose

You may use the service only for your Registered Purpose, and only where you have a lawful basis under POPIA to process the personal information you receive. Every search is recorded against a user, a timestamp and that purpose.

You must be able to justify each search on request. Searching outside your Registered Purpose is a material breach of these Terms.

6. What you may not do

You may not:

• resell, sublicense, publish or otherwise redistribute results to any third party, except to your own client in the matter for which the search was run;
• use results for direct marketing, or in any way that would contravene section 69 of POPIA;
• build, populate or enrich your own database, mailing list or marketing product from results;
• run bulk, automated, scripted or systematic searches, or attempt to extract the underlying data set;
• use the service to trace, locate, monitor or contact any person for harassment, intimidation, stalking, or any unlawful purpose;
• use the service to make a decision about a person that requires a registered credit bureau or registered credit provider, unless you hold that registration yourself;
• search on your own behalf in a personal capacity, or for curiosity, or on any person where you have no lawful basis;
• reverse engineer, probe, or interfere with the service or its security controls; or
• misrepresent your identity, your business or your purpose at any time.

7. Credits, pricing and payment

• One credit buys one Contact Trace. Prices are published on our website and exclude VAT at 15%.
• No trace, no fee. A search that returns no result does not consume a credit.
• Subscription plans include 500 credits per user per month. Included credits reset on the 1st, do not roll over, and cannot be transferred between users.
• Billing runs on the 1st. Your first charge is taken on activation and covers you to the next 1st, with the full monthly credit allocation issued regardless of join date. Activation on or after the 25th is charged for the remainder of that month and the month following.
• Pre-paid credits expire 30 days after purchase and are consumed before included credits.
• Moving to five or more users re-rates every seat to the lower price immediately. Dropping below five reverts at the next billing date.
• Pre-paid credits assigned to a user cannot be reassigned, and are forfeited if that user leaves the account or the subscription is cancelled.
• You may cancel at any time from the billing screen. Access continues to the end of the paid month. We do not refund part-months or unused credits.

We may change our prices at any time. A change does not affect the month you have already paid for — the new price applies from your next billing date, and current rates are always published on our website.

Payment is taken by the method you nominate on activation. If a payment fails we will tell you, and we may suspend access until it is settled.

8. Accuracy of results

We source data from suppliers we are authorised to use, and we return what those sources hold at the time of the search. Contact details change, and records can be incomplete or out of date.

We therefore do not warrant that any result is accurate, current or complete. Results are information to act on with judgement, not a guarantee of fact, and you remain responsible for verifying anything material before you rely on it. A returned result is not an endorsement of any person and is not a credit assessment.

9. Your obligations under POPIA

When you receive results, you decide what to do with them. In respect of that processing you act as a responsible party in your own right, with your own obligations under POPIA. In particular you must:

• hold a lawful basis under section 11 for processing the information you receive;
• use it only for the purpose for which you obtained it;
• secure it appropriately under section 19 and not retain it longer than necessary;
• honour data subject requests for access, correction or objection that relate to your own processing; and
• report any security compromise affecting the information to the Information Regulator and affected data subjects as section 22 requires.

How we handle personal information is set out in our Privacy and POPIA notice.

10. Audit and monitoring

Every search is logged against a user, a timestamp and a stated purpose. We monitor usage patterns to detect misuse, and we may audit your use of the service where we reasonably suspect a breach or where a data subject, regulator or supplier requires it.

You must cooperate with a reasonable audit and, if asked, explain the lawful basis for a specific search. Principals may export their team's log at any time.

11. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate access immediately, without refund, if:

• you breach these Terms, and materially so in the case of clause 5 or 6;
• we reasonably suspect misuse, credential sharing or unlawful searching;
• your professional registration or eligibility lapses;
• payment fails and is not remedied; or
• a supplier, regulator or court requires it.

You may close your account at any time. On termination your access ends, unused credits are forfeited, and we retain your search logs for as long as we are required to — see the retention section of our privacy notice.

12. Liability

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or under the Consumer Protection Act where it applies.

Subject to that, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, loss of business or reputational harm, and our total liability arising from the service in any twelve-month period is limited to the total fees paid by you in the twelve months before the claim arose.

You indemnify us against any claim, penalty or loss arising from your use of results outside your Registered Purpose, or in breach of clause 6 or of POPIA.

13. Intellectual property

The service, the interface, our branding and the compilation of data behind it remain ours or our licensors'. You get a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the service and the results for your Registered Purpose, and nothing more. You may not use our name or marks without written permission.

14. Changes to these terms

We may change these Terms. We will publish the updated version here with a new version number and effective date, and give 30 days' notice of any material change by email to the account's registered address. Continuing to use the service after the effective date means you accept the change.

15. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa. You consent, in terms of section 45 of the Magistrates' Courts Act 32 of 1944, to the jurisdiction of the Magistrate's Court for the district of Cape Town for any dispute, even where the amount claimed exceeds that court's ordinary jurisdiction.

Before litigating, both parties will attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute by negotiation between senior representatives.

16. Notices

Formal notices to us must go to:

Notices to you go to the email address on your account. It is your responsibility to keep it current.