Privacy Policy
Introduction
This policy explains what personal information we collect from you, why we collect it, who else sees it, how long we keep it, and what you can require us to do about it. It is written to comply with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (“POPIA”).
It applies to everything we run, not only this website:
- this website, www.yusufbodiat.co.za, including the online shop;
- The Perspective, our newsletter;
- the Executive Session and any other diagnostic, assessment or interactive tool we publish, now or in future;
- books, audiobooks, reports and other publications we sell or distribute directly;
- consulting, advisory, speaking, facilitation and executive education engagements, and enquiries about them;
- events, talks, masterclasses and conference stands we host or exhibit at.
If we introduce something new that collects personal information in a way this policy does not already describe, we will update this policy before it goes live, and the version date at the end of this page will change.
This policy should be read together with our Terms and Conditions, our Disclaimer and our Cookie Policy. Where this policy and any of those documents disagree about how we handle your personal information, this policy applies.
Who is responsible for your information
Pragmatic Thinking (Pty) Ltd, registration number 2024/511266/07, trading as Yusuf Bodiat, is the responsible party for all personal information described in this policy. In this policy “we”, “us” and “our” mean Pragmatic Thinking (Pty) Ltd.
Information Officer: Yusuf Bodiat, hello@yusufbodiat.co.za
Address: Pragmatic Thinking (Pty) Ltd, 35 Fricker Road, Regus Business Centre, Ground Floor, Illovo, Sandton, Johannesburg, 2196, South Africa
Enquiries: hello@yusufbodiat.co.za
If you want to exercise any of the rights set out below, write to us at that email address. You do not need to use a particular form of words, and you do not need to give a reason.
What we collect, and when
We collect personal information only when you do something that needs it. We do not buy contact lists, and we do not collect personal information about you from third parties, other than the organisers of an event you have registered for, where that organiser shares delegate details with exhibitors.
When you | We collect | Required or optional |
|---|---|---|
Browse this website | Device and browser type, operating system, approximate location from your IP address, pages viewed, time and length of visit, and the site that referred you | Collected automatically; see Cookies below |
Buy a book, audiobook or report from our shop | Name and surname, email address, contact number, delivery address, billing address and your order details | Required to fulfil the order |
Pay for anything | Payment details, entered directly into our payment provider’s secure form | Required; we never see or store your full card number |
Subscribe to The Perspective | Email address, and your name if you give it | Email required, name optional |
Take the Executive Session or another diagnostic | Name and surname, email address, mobile number, industry, seniority level, your answers to each question, and the result they produce | Name, email and mobile required; industry and seniority optional |
Enquire about consulting, speaking, facilitation or executive education | Name and surname, email address, contact number, organisation, role, and whatever you tell us about the engagement | Required to respond to you |
Book a conversation through this website | Name and surname, email address, contact number and your chosen time | Required to make the booking |
Register for or attend an event, talk or masterclass we host | Name and surname, email address, organisation and role; dietary requirements where catering is provided | Required to register; dietary requirements optional |
Visit our stand at a conference | Whatever you choose to give us, usually a business card or the diagnostic form above | Entirely voluntary |
Email, message or call us | Your contact details and the content of your message | Required to reply |
Appear in event photography or recording | Your image, likeness or voice | See Events, photography and recording below |
We do not knowingly collect special personal information as POPIA defines it — your religious or philosophical beliefs, race or ethnic origin, trade union membership, political persuasion, health or sex life, biometric information, or criminal behaviour. Please do not send us any of this. If you do, we will delete it, unless you have asked us to act on it and the law allows us to.
The Executive Session and other diagnostics
This section applies to the Executive Session and to any other diagnostic, assessment or interactive tool we publish.
What happens when you take one. You answer a short set of questions. Your answers are scored, and the scoring produces a result — in the Executive Session, one of four archetypes. We need your name to address the result to you, your mobile number to send it to you on WhatsApp, and your email address to send you the fuller written report afterwards. Industry and seniority are optional, and the tool works without them.
Your result is not a professional opinion. The archetype is generated automatically from your answers. It is a conversation starter and a thinking tool. It is not an assessment of your competence, it is not advice, and it is not a substitute for professional judgement. We do not make any decision about you on the strength of it, and nobody else receives it in order to make a decision about you.
How your answers are used for research. We analyse answers to understand patterns across industries, roles and seniority levels, and we publish what we find — in articles, talks, books and reports. Before any answer enters that analysis it is separated from your name, email address, mobile number and anything else that could identify you. What we publish is always aggregate: for example, “38% of finance leaders in financial services scored as Fixers”. No individual is ever identified, we do not publish anything that could single you out, and we do not attempt to re-identify de-identified data.
Your consents are separate, and each is optional. When you complete the form you are asked separately whether you want:
- your result sent to you by WhatsApp;
- the written report sent to you by email after the event;
- to be contacted about bringing this work into your own organisation, by email or telephone;
- to receive The Perspective.
You may agree to any one of these without agreeing to the others, and declining all of them does not stop you taking the diagnostic. If you decline the WhatsApp message and the email, we have no way to send you your result, so you will see it on screen only. Each consent is recorded against your submission, so we can show what you agreed to and when.
What we never do with your answers. We do not sell them. We do not share your individual answers or your result with anyone outside the service providers listed below, who process information on our behalf — not with event organisers, not with sponsors or partners, not with your employer, and not with other delegates. If you took the diagnostic at an event, the organiser does not receive your answers or your result from us.
Children. Our diagnostics are intended for working professionals and are not directed at anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you are a parent or guardian and believe a child has given us their information, email us and we will delete it. Where we run a session for students or young people, we collect their information only with the consent of a parent, guardian or other competent person.
Why we use your information, and on what basis
POPIA requires us to have a lawful ground for every purpose we process your information for. We rely on four: your consent, performance of a contract with you, our legal obligations, and our legitimate interests. Which one applies depends on the purpose.
Purpose | Information used | Lawful ground |
|---|---|---|
Fulfilling an order and delivering what you bought | Name, contact details, delivery address, order details | Performance of our contract with you |
Responding to an enquiry or booking a conversation | Name, contact details, the content of your enquiry | Steps towards a contract at your request |
Delivering an engagement we have been appointed for | Name, contact details, organisation, role | Performance of our contract with you or your organisation |
Giving you your diagnostic result by WhatsApp | Name, mobile number, result | Your consent |
Sending you the written report after an event | Name, email address, result | Your consent |
Contacting you about bringing this work into your organisation | Name, contact details, organisation, role | Your consent |
Sending you The Perspective | Name, email address | Your consent |
Research, aggregate analysis and publication | De-identified answers only | Our legitimate interest in research and publication, on information that no longer identifies you |
Keeping this website and our tools working and secure | Technical and usage information | Our legitimate interest in a functioning, secure service |
Keeping accounting records and issuing tax invoices | Order and payment records | Our legal obligations under tax and companies legislation |
Dealing with a complaint, dispute or legal claim | Whatever is relevant to the matter | Our legitimate interest in establishing or defending our rights |
Where we rely on your consent, you may withdraw it at any time: click unsubscribe at the foot of any email, reply STOP to any WhatsApp message, or email hello@yusufbodiat.co.za. Withdrawing a consent takes effect as soon as we action it. It does not make unlawful anything we sent or did before that, and it does not affect processing that rests on a different ground — we will still keep the accounting records for an order you placed, for example.
Where we rely on our legitimate interests, you may object to the processing, and we will stop unless the law requires us to continue.
Direct marketing. We send marketing by email or WhatsApp only to people who have asked to receive it, or who are our existing customers in respect of similar products. Every marketing message identifies us and gives you a free way to stop receiving them. If you ask us to stop, we will, and we will keep a minimal record of your name and contact details for the sole purpose of making sure we do not contact you again.
Who else processes your information
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with anyone for their own marketing purposes.
We do use service providers who process information on our behalf, under instruction, only for the purpose we appoint them for, and under a duty of confidentiality. POPIA calls them operators. They fall into these categories:
Category | What they do with your information |
|---|---|
Website and database hosting | Store this website, the shop and the data our tools capture |
Online form and diagnostic platform | Host our diagnostics, present the questions and store the answers you submit |
Diagnostic development and support | Build and maintain our diagnostics; may see data when fixing a fault |
Email delivery and newsletter platform | Send the reports, order confirmations and The Perspective |
WhatsApp (Meta Platforms) | Carry the diagnostic result message to your mobile number |
Payment processing | Take payment for orders; they hold the card details, we do not |
Courier and postal delivery | Deliver physical orders to your address |
Audiobook and ebook distribution platforms | Fulfil digital orders placed through them, under their own privacy policies |
Accounting and professional advisers | Keep our records and advise us |
Website and link analytics | Tell us, in aggregate, how the site is used and which links were clicked |
Information sent outside South Africa. Several of these providers store or process information on servers outside South Africa, including in the United States and the European Union. Where that happens we rely on section 72 of POPIA: either the recipient is subject to a law or binding agreement that protects your information on a standard comparable to POPIA, or the transfer is necessary to perform a contract with you, or you have consented. If you would like to know where a particular category of information is held, ask us.
Disclosures the law requires. We may disclose your information without notifying you first where we are required or permitted to by law, a court order or a lawful request from an authority; where it is necessary to establish, exercise or defend a legal right; or where it is necessary to protect someone’s safety in an emergency.
If our business changes hands. If we sell or restructure the business, your information may transfer to the acquirer, who will remain bound by this policy until they lawfully adopt their own.
How long we keep your information
We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purpose we collected it for, or as long as the law requires, and then we delete or de-identify it.
What | How long | Why |
|---|---|---|
Diagnostic contact details (name, email, mobile) | 24 months from the date you take the diagnostic | Long enough to send your report and follow up once; then no longer needed |
Your industry, seniority and individual answers in identifiable form | 24 months, then permanently de-identified | The research use does not need your identity |
De-identified answer data | Indefinitely | Once de-identified it is no longer personal information and cannot be traced back to you |
Newsletter subscriber details | For as long as you are subscribed, then deleted within 30 days of unsubscribing | Consent-based, so it ends when consent ends |
Order, invoice and payment records | Five years from the end of the relevant tax year, or longer if a dispute is running | Required by tax and companies legislation |
Enquiries that did not become engagements | 18 months | Enquiries often come back; after that the context is stale |
Engagement and client records | Seven years after the engagement ends | Professional record-keeping and potential claims |
Event registration and attendance records | 12 months after the event | Follow-up and reconciliation with the organiser |
Event photography and recordings | Indefinitely, as part of our archive and marketing library | Ongoing promotional use; you may object, as set out below |
Correspondence with us | Three years from the last message | Continuity, and resolving anything that arises |
Record of people who asked not to be contacted | Indefinitely | The only way to honour your request is to remember it |
Website analytics and server logs | 14 months | Security and trend analysis |
If a period above is longer than you would like, you can ask us to delete your information sooner, and we will, unless the law requires us to keep it.
Keeping your information safe
We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to keep your information secure. These include encrypted connections to this website and our tools, access controls so that only people who need the information can reach it, reputable hosting and payment providers, and keeping identifiable diagnostic data separate from the de-identified research set.
No system is perfectly secure, and no transmission over the internet can be guaranteed. We do not claim otherwise.
If there is a breach. If we have reasonable grounds to believe your personal information has been accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person, we will notify the Information Regulator and we will notify you, as soon as reasonably possible after discovering it, unless a public body tells us that notifying you would impede a criminal investigation. Our notification will tell you what happened, what information was involved, what we are doing about it, and what you can do to protect yourself.
Your rights, and how to use them
POPIA gives you the following rights in respect of the personal information we hold about you. They do not depend on where you live, and exercising them is free.
- To be told what we hold. You may ask us to confirm whether we hold personal information about you, and to give you a copy or a description of it, together with the identity of anyone who has had access to it.
- To have it corrected. You may ask us to correct or complete anything that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading or obtained unlawfully.
- To have it deleted. You may ask us to delete or destroy your information. We will, unless the law requires us to keep it — and where we must keep something, we will tell you what and why.
- To withdraw a consent. At any time, by any of the routes set out above.
- To object. Where we process your information on the ground of legitimate interests, you may object, and we will stop unless the law requires otherwise.
- To opt out of direct marketing. At any time, free of charge.
- Not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing that has legal consequences for you. We do not make any such decision.
- To complain. To us first, and to the Information Regulator if we do not resolve it.
How to exercise them. Email hello@yusufbodiat.co.za, or write to the address above. Say what you want; the word DELETE is enough for a deletion request. You may use Form 2 prescribed under POPIA if you prefer, but we do not require it. We may ask you to confirm your identity before we act, so that we do not disclose or delete someone else’s information on a stranger’s instruction.
What we will do. We will acknowledge your request and action it as soon as reasonably possible, and in any event within 30 days, and confirm in writing what we have done. If we cannot do what you have asked, we will tell you why. If your answers have already been de-identified and absorbed into aggregate research, we cannot extract your individual record from that aggregate — it no longer exists as yours — but we will delete every identifiable record we hold of you.
If you are not satisfied. Tell us, and we will try to put it right. You are also entitled to complain directly to the Information Regulator (South Africa), Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191, POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za, inforegulator.org.za.
Cookies
We use cookies and similar technologies on this website. Some are strictly necessary — they keep the shop working, remember what is in your cart and keep your session secure. Others are analytics cookies, which tell us in aggregate how the site is used so that we can improve it.
You can accept or decline cookies, and you can block or delete them through your browser settings. Most browsers accept cookies by default. Blocking or deleting them may affect how parts of this site work, although it will not stop you browsing or buying.
Our Cookie Policy sets out the specific cookies we use, what each one does and how long it lasts.
Events, photography and recording
We photograph and record our events, talks and masterclasses, and we use that material to promote our work — on this website, on social media, in publications and in future presentations. Where a third party hosts an event we appear at, they may do their own filming under their own policy.
We rely on our legitimate interest in documenting and promoting our work, on the basis that general audience footage at a professional event is what attendees reasonably expect. We give notice before and at each event that filming is taking place.
You can object, and we will accommodate you. Tell us in advance at hello@yusufbodiat.co.za, or tell the event organiser or our team on the day, and we will take reasonable steps to keep you out of shot. If you appear in material we have already published and would rather not, email us and we will remove it from our own channels within a reasonable time, although we cannot always remove material that others have reposted.
We do not use event footage to identify individual attendees, and we do not tag you by name without your agreement.
Other websites
This website and our messages sometimes link to sites we do not control — a bookseller, an audiobook platform, an event organiser, a publication. We are not responsible for their content or their privacy practices, and we encourage you to read the privacy policy of any site that collects your information.
Changes to this policy
We update this policy when our practices, our products or the law change. The current version always appears on this page, with the version date below. Where a change materially affects how we use information we already hold, we will tell subscribers and recent customers by email rather than relying on you to notice.
Continuing to use this website after a change means the updated policy applies to your use of it. It does not create consent for anything we need your consent for — we will ask you again for that.
Contact us
Questions, requests and complaints about this policy or about your information:
Email: hello@yusufbodiat.co.za
Post: Pragmatic Thinking (Pty) Ltd, 35 Fricker Road, Regus Business Centre, Ground Floor, Illovo, Sandton, Johannesburg, 2196
Pragmatic Thinking (Pty) Ltd · Registration number 2024/511266/07
Version 2.0 · Last updated 17 October 2026
