Privacy Policy
Last updated 30 October 2026.
Who is responsible
EMBROIDERY TACTICS (PTY) LTD, registration number 2024/500150/07, trading as EMTAC Digitising, 36 Tierberg Street, Bothasig, Cape Town, 7441, South Africa, telephone +27 66 133 3938, info@emtacdigitising.com, emtacdigitising.com. Information Officer (POPIA): Len Nieuwoudt, info@emtacdigitising.com.
What we collect, and why
When you buy: your name, e-mail address and billing details, to process your order, send your licence key and keep the records the law requires. Payments are handled by Payfast; we do not receive your card details.
When you use the app (as section 8 of the EMTAC Digitising Licence Agreement says): to check your licence, the app sends your licence key, a coded identifier of your computer (a one-way code — it holds neither your name nor any of your files), the app’s version and whether the computer is a Mac or Windows. Our server also receives the internet address the check comes from, keeps the most recent one, and works out your approximate town and country from it on our own server. Unless you switch Usage statistics off (Settings), each check also says how long ago the app was last used — never what you did. When the app looks for updates, the service that hosts them receives your internet address. Your designs and files stay on your computer unless you choose to send one to us through 24/7 Live Support.
When you ask us for help: the messages, screen pictures and files (your designs, machine files and pictures) you choose to send through 24/7 Live Support, so that we can answer you. For each message we send you there, we also keep when your app received it and when you opened it. Nothing you read or type is sent for this. Photos you send from EMTAC Phone to your computer pass through our server with the hidden details in the file (such as where the photo was taken) removed, and are deleted as soon as your computer collects them (after 7 days if it never does).
When you apply to become an agent: your name, your business name and registration number if you give them, your e-mail address and mobile number, your town and an approximate location (to about a kilometre), what you do now and the areas and customers you would serve — so that we can assess your application and, if you are appointed, see which areas our agents serve. To save you typing, the application page fills in your country and town for you, worked out from your internet address on our own server; you can change them, and the internet address is not kept with your application. An appointed agent’s purchases and the invoices issued to the agent are kept as order records.
When you buy through one of our agents: the agent gives us your name and e-mail address (and your company and telephone number if you agree), so that your licence is issued in your name and delivered to you. The agent never receives your licence key or your support conversations.
On this website: the cookies the shop needs for your cart and account.
On our agents’ pages (hub.emtacdigitising.com/agent): when an agent enters a correct verification code, the agent’s browser keeps one cookie, the “agent pass”, for 180 days. It holds only the date it ends and a signature — no name and no address — so that a returning agent is not held back when our server limits code requests from browsers it has not seen before.
Who we share it with
Only those who help us run the shop and the app: Payfast (payments); xneelo, in South Africa, which hosts our website, our licence server and our e-mail; and GitHub, from which the app and its updates are downloaded. We never sell your information.
How long we keep it
Order and payment records: 7 years, as South African company and tax law requires. Your licence record (the key, its computers and their last check): for as long as the licence exists. 24/7 Live Support conversations: 12 months, then deleted. Files you send through 24/7 Live Support: 90 days after you send them, then deleted, or sooner if the conversation is deleted. They are kept privately on our server and are not in our backups. Messages sent through this website’s contact form: until we have dealt with them. The details an agent gives us for a Client (name, e-mail address, company and telephone number), when the agent does not go on to buy: 30 days after the agent’s purchase code ran out, then deleted. An agent application that is declined: 12 months after the decision, then deleted; one that is never decided: 12 months after it arrived, then deleted. An approved application is kept as part of the appointed agent’s details. An appointed agent’s details: while the appointment lasts (the agent’s purchases and invoices: 7 years, as order records).
Your rights
You may ask to see, correct or delete the personal information we hold about you, and object to its use, by e-mailing our Information Officer at info@emtacdigitising.com. You may also complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa).