Privacy policy

Who we are

PackChain Systems, 11B Eastle Flats, Ruware Park, Marondera, Zimbabwe ("PackChain", "we", "us"), runs the website packchain.co.zw and the PackChain workspace, a packhouse and farm-operations system used by produce businesses ("customers").

Privacy questions and requests: support@packchain.co.zw (subject "Privacy") or +263 78 749 9475.

Our two roles

For customer workspace data we act for the customer. When a company uses PackChain, the records it enters (its employees, harvest, receiving, quality checks, packing, dispatch, payroll, attendance and so on) belong to that company. The company decides what is recorded and why; it is the data controller and we process that data on its instructions to provide the service. Questions about those records, including requests from a customer's employees, should go first to that company. We help our customers answer them.

For our own records we decide. We are the controller for information about our website visitors, people who contact us, customer account contacts and users' sign-in and usage of the service, and for billing records.

What we collect

Website visitors. The pages you request and technical details our host records in standard server logs (such as IP address, browser type and time). The website sets no cookies; see our cookie notice. When you use the contact form it opens your own email program; we then hold the email you send us.

Workspace users. Your name, username, role, the farms and pages you can use, your sign-in email if you sign in with one, and your sign-in activity. Your PIN is stored only in a scrambled (hashed) form we cannot read. To stop PINs being guessed, each sign-in attempt is recorded with the internet (IP) address it came from. Admins and owners also confirm sign-in with a code from an authenticator app; the app's secret key is stored by our sign-in provider. If you link a Google or Microsoft account, we receive its email address and account ID. If you turn on Face ID or fingerprint sign-in, the fingerprint or face scan never leaves your device; your device only confirms to the app that it is you.

Use of the service. To keep the service working we record errors, failed saves, slow pages and the reason someone was signed out (with the page, your username, farm and device type), when you are active in the app (so colleagues can see who is online in Chat), and changes to records (who changed what and when). When PackChain staff open a customer's workspace to give support, that visit is logged, and so is every full export of an organisation's data.

Customer workspace data. Whatever the customer chooses to enter, which can include personal information about its staff and others: names, ID and employee numbers, dates of birth, contact details, next of kin, departments, pay, bank and payroll details, clock-in and attendance times, leave, chat messages, signatures captured in visitor and compliance forms, and photographs (for example quality-control photos). Some of it is sensitive: if a customer uses face clock-in, a face template (a set of numbers describing the face, not a photo) is stored for each employee; sick-leave records relate to health; and union-dues deductions show trade-union membership. Customers decide whether to use these features.

Billing. For our customers: contact names, email, phone, address, VAT number, quotes, invoices, payments and receipts.

Why we use it, and on what basis

We use personal information to provide and secure the service (sign-in, keeping each company's data separate, backups, fixing faults), to support customers, to bill for the service, to answer enquiries and demo requests, and to meet our legal obligations. Our bases are the contract with our customer, our legitimate interest in running a secure and reliable service, our legal obligations, and, where the law requires it, consent. We do not sell personal information and we do not use it for advertising.

Who we share it with

Only with the service providers that run PackChain for us, under agreements that require them to protect it:

• Supabase (database, sign-in and file storage). Our database is hosted in the European Union (Stockholm, Sweden).
• Vercel (hosting of the website and app files, delivered from data centres worldwide).
• Sentry (error monitoring, in the European Union, Germany): reports of app errors with the page, username, farm and device type.
• Zoho (our email, including emails the service sends, such as leave notices and payslips).
• Render (hosts a read-only reporting tool used by PackChain staff only).
• Google and Microsoft, only for users who choose to sign in with those accounts.
• Google Fonts and public code libraries (jsDelivr, cdnjs, unpkg), which deliver fonts and program files to your browser and so see your IP address.

We may also disclose information when Zimbabwean law requires it, to protect the service or people's safety, or to a buyer if the business is sold (who must keep this policy).

Information leaving Zimbabwe

Because our database and hosting are outside Zimbabwe, information you or your company enter is transferred to and stored in the European Union and other countries where our providers operate. We rely on providers that offer adequate protection for personal information and we transfer only what is needed to run the service.

How long we keep it

• Customer workspace data: while the customer's account is active. Earlier versions of edited records are kept for 90 days, and deleted records, settings changes and pallet history for 2 years, so mistakes can be undone and produce can be traced.
• Backups: copies of workspace data are taken every hour and kept for up to 30 days; the database is also backed up daily and kept for 7 days.
• When a customer leaves, it can download all its data itself; we then delete the workspace within 90 days, except backups, which expire on their normal cycle, and anything we must keep by law.
• Error, slow-page and sign-out reports: 60 days. Sign-in attempts and their IP addresses: 1 day. Staff-portal sign-ins: 30 days. Emails the service has sent: 30 days. "Online now" status: overwritten within minutes.
• Logs of PackChain support visits and of organisation exports: 2 years. A record that someone's personal data was erased (with no personal details): kept as proof.
• Billing records: as long as tax and company law require (normally 6 years).
• Enquiry and demo emails: as long as needed to answer you and follow up.

How we protect it

Every request to the database is checked against the signed-in user's company, farms and role, so one company cannot see another's data. Connections are encrypted (HTTPS), PINs are hashed, repeated wrong PINs lock the account for a while, admins and owners sign in with a second step (a code from an authenticator app), photos and receipts are kept in private storage, and important records are locked once saved and keep a history of changes. You help by keeping your PIN private and signing out of shared tablets. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your personal information we will tell the affected customer and, where required, the Data Protection Authority (POTRAZ).

Your rights

Under the Cyber and Data Protection Act you can ask to see the personal information held about you, have it corrected, have it deleted or its use restricted, and object to its use. For information held in a company's workspace, ask that company first: its HR team can download everything PackChain holds about you, and erase your personal data once you have left (pay totals the law requires them to keep stay, without your name). For anything we hold for ourselves, contact us. We answer within 30 days. You can also complain to the Data Protection Authority, the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ).

Children

PackChain is a business service and is not meant for children. Customers must not enter information about children unless the law allows them to.

Changes to this policy

We will update this page when our practice changes and show the new date at the top. We will tell customers about significant changes before they take effect.