Pressed Into Pearl
Latest Reflections
Soft words for becoming, healing, and returning to yourself.
Privacy Policy
Last updated: June 2025
A word before the legal language
Your privacy matters to me — not as a compliance exercise, but as a basic human dignity.
When you share your name, your email, your story with me, you are extending trust. I do not take that lightly. I will never sell your information. I will never use it to harass you. I will never share it with anyone who does not genuinely need it to help me serve you.
What follows is the full, honest account of what information this website collects, why, and what your rights are. It is written to comply with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA) and the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 (ECTA).
If anything here is unclear, please ask. My email is at the bottom of this page.
— Marethe
1. Who We Are
The Responsible Party (the person legally accountable for your personal information) is:
Marethe Grobler Trading as: The Pearl Method Website: www.thepearlmethod.co.za Country: Republic of South Africa
When this policy says “we”, “us” or “our”, it means Marethe Grobler trading as The Pearl Method.
When it says “you” or “your”, it means you — the person visiting this website, submitting a form, or purchasing a programme.
2. What Personal Information We Collect
We collect only what we genuinely need. Nothing more.
Information you give us directly
When you fill in a form, purchase a programme, or contact us, we may collect:
- Your first and last name
- Your email address
- Your phone number
- The content of messages you send us
- Payment information (processed securely — see Section 7)
- Any other information you choose to share in your messages
Information collected automatically
When you visit this website, certain technical information is collected automatically by the website and its service providers:
- Your IP address
- Browser type and version
- Device type (mobile, desktop, tablet)
- Pages visited and time spent on each
- Referring website (how you found us)
- Date and time of your visit
- Cookie data (see Section 9)
Information about your health or personal circumstances
When you apply to work with Marethe, you may choose to share personal information about your health, lifestyle, emotional wellbeing or personal history. This is special personal information under POPIA and is treated with heightened care.
You are never required to share this information. You share only what you are comfortable sharing. It will never be disclosed to any third party without your explicit consent.
3. How We Collect It
We collect your personal information through:
- Contact and application forms on this website (powered by Forminator)
- Programme purchases through our payment gateway
- Email correspondence you initiate with us
- Cookies and analytics tools when you browse this website (see Section 9)
- Social media if you contact us through our social channels
We do not buy, rent or obtain personal information from third-party data brokers.
4. Why We Collect It — Our Lawful Basis
Under POPIA, we are required to have a lawful reason for processing your personal information. We rely on the following:
| Purpose | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| To respond to your enquiries and application | Your consent and our legitimate interest in communicating with people who contact us |
| To deliver your programme | Performance of a contract between you and us |
| To process your payment | Performance of a contract |
| To send you programme-related communications | Performance of a contract |
| To send you marketing emails (journal, updates) | Your explicit consent — you can withdraw this at any time |
| To improve our website and services | Our legitimate interest in running a functional, quality business |
| To comply with legal obligations | Legal obligation |
We will never process your personal information for a purpose that is incompatible with the reason you provided it.
5. How We Use Your Information
Specifically, your personal information may be used to:
- Respond to your enquiry or application
- Onboard you into your chosen programme
- Deliver coaching, check-ins and programme materials
- Process and confirm your payment
- Send you receipts, invoices and programme updates
- Provide community access where applicable
- Send you Pressed Into Pearl journal updates, if you subscribed
- Improve this website based on usage patterns
- Meet our legal and tax obligations
We do not use your personal information to make automated decisions about you.
6. How Long We Keep Your Information
We keep your personal information only for as long as we need it.
| Type of information | Retention period |
|---|---|
| Programme client records | 5 years after the programme ends (for tax and legal purposes) |
| Payment and invoice records | 5 years (as required by SARS) |
| Enquiry and contact form submissions | 2 years, or until you request deletion |
| Marketing email subscriptions | Until you unsubscribe or request deletion |
| Website analytics data | 26 months (Google Analytics default) |
| Special personal information (health, personal history) | Duration of programme + 1 year, then securely deleted |
When we no longer need your information, we delete it securely.
7. Who We Share Your Information With
Your personal information is never sold. It is never rented. It is shared only where strictly necessary, with the following categories of recipients:
Payment processors
Payments made through this website are processed by a third-party payment gateway. Your card details are never stored on our servers. The payment provider processes your payment data under their own privacy policy and security standards.
Website and technology providers
Our website is built on WordPress and hosted by [your hosting provider name]. These providers may have technical access to data stored on the server in the course of providing hosting and support services. They are bound by confidentiality obligations.
Email service providers
If you subscribe to our mailing list or receive programme communications, your name and email address are stored with our email service provider. This provider processes data on our behalf and is not permitted to use it for their own purposes.
Analytics providers
We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use this website. Google may process your IP address and browsing behaviour. You can opt out of Google Analytics at: tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Legal and regulatory authorities
We may disclose your personal information if required to do so by law, court order, or where we believe disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, your safety, or the safety of others.
No one else
We do not share your personal information with any other third party, including coaches, marketers, advertisers, or data aggregators.
8. Cross-Border Data Transfers
Some of the service providers we use (including Google and certain email platforms) may process or store data outside the Republic of South Africa. Where this occurs, we take reasonable steps to ensure your information is protected to a standard equivalent to POPIA, including through contractual agreements with those providers.
If you have concerns about cross-border processing, please contact us before submitting your information.
9. Cookies
Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website. They help the website remember your preferences and understand how you use it.
What cookies we use
| Cookie type | Purpose | Can you opt out? |
|---|---|---|
| Essential cookies | Required for the website to function (login sessions, form security) | No — these are necessary |
| Analytics cookies | Help us understand which pages are visited and how (Google Analytics) | Yes — see below |
| Preference cookies | Remember your settings and preferences | Yes |
| Marketing cookies | Track activity for advertising purposes | Yes — we do not currently run paid advertising |
How to manage cookies
You can control and delete cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to:
- View which cookies are stored
- Delete some or all cookies
- Block cookies from specific websites
- Block all third-party cookies
Please note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of this website.
For more information on managing cookies, visit: www.allaboutcookies.org
10. Your Rights Under POPIA
As a data subject under the Protection of Personal Information Act, you have the following rights:
The right to know
You have the right to know what personal information we hold about you.
The right to access
You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you at any time.
The right to correction
If any information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right to ask us to correct it.
The right to deletion
In certain circumstances, you have the right to request that we delete your personal information. We will honour this request unless we are legally required to retain it (for example, financial records required by SARS).
The right to object
You have the right to object to us processing your personal information where we rely on our legitimate interests as our lawful basis. You also have the unconditional right to unsubscribe from any marketing communications at any time.
The right to withdraw consent
Where processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal.
The right to lodge a complaint
If you believe your personal information has been processed in violation of POPIA, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa:
The Information Regulator (South Africa) JD House, 27 Stiemens Street Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001 Website: www.inforegulator.org.za Email: inforeg@justice.gov.za
How to exercise your rights
To exercise any of the rights above, please contact us in writing:
Reach out to us here: https://www.thepearlmethod.co.za/lets-begin/
We will respond within 30 days of receiving your request. In complex cases we may extend this by a further 30 days, in which case we will notify you.
We may need to verify your identity before processing your request.
11. Children’s Privacy
This website and The Pearl Method programmes are intended for adults aged 18 and over.
We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of 18. If you believe a minor has submitted personal information through this website, please contact us immediately at [hello@thepearlmethod.co.za] and we will delete it promptly.
12. Security
We take the security of your personal information seriously.
We implement reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration or destruction. These include:
- SSL encryption on all pages of this website (the padlock in your browser)
- Secure password practices for all administrative accounts
- Limited access to personal information — only those who need it to perform their role
- Regular updates to website software and security plugins
No method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. While we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee absolute security. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, please notify us immediately.
In the event of a data breach that is likely to affect you, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as required by law.
13. Links to Other Websites
This website may contain links to third-party websites — for example, social media profiles or recommended resources.
We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those websites. Once you leave thepearlmethod.co.za, this privacy policy no longer applies. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of any website you visit.
14. Changes to This Policy
We may update this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology or legal requirements.
When we make significant changes, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. For material changes, we will notify active clients by email.
Your continued use of this website after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.
We encourage you to review this page periodically.
15. Contact Us
If you have any questions, concerns or requests regarding this privacy policy or the way we handle your personal information, please get in touch:
Marethe Grobler — The Pearl Method Email: [hello@thepearlmethod.co.za] Website: www.thepearlmethod.co.za
I read every message personally.
— Marethe 🦪
This privacy policy is governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa, including the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA) and the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 (ECTA).
Before you publish — four things to do:
Legal review — have a South African attorney familiar with POPIA confirm this covers Marethe’s specific business structure before it goes live. The Information Officer registration with the Information Regulator should also be in place if not already done
Fill in the blanks — replace every [hello@thepearlmethod.co.za] with the real email address, and fill in [your hosting provider name] with whoever hosts the site (SiteGround, Cloudflare, etc.)
Add your payment gateway name — in Section 7, name the actual payment processor being used (PayFast, Stripe, PayGate etc.) and link to their privacy policy
Add your email marketing provider — in Section 7, name the platform used for the mailing list (Mailchimp, ConvertKit etc.) and link to their privacy policy
