OceanHub Africa (OHA) is committed to the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA, Act 4 of 2013). This is the short notice for the alumni platform; it summarises OHA's Protection of Personal Information Policy (October 2025), which is the authoritative document and is available from OHA on request.
To run the alumni network and evaluate and support organisations and individuals taking part in OHA initiatives and programmes, and to notify you of OHA's services and offerings.
Personal contact and identification details; the profile information you provide (name, venture, sectors, skills, location); the needs, support requests, connections and messages you create on the platform; photographs; and documents you upload (for example to the investor room). Some information may also be obtained from third parties or public sources as part of OHA selection and evaluation processes.
We also record how the platform itself is used — the pages you open, how long you spend on them, and what you search for. We use this for four things, and only these four: to run and improve the platform; to connect you with members, resources and funders relevant to what you are looking for; to evaluate and report on our programmes, including to our funders, in aggregate and de-identified form only; and for research and statistics, again never published in a form that identifies you or your venture. This is measured by OHA directly, never by advertising or third-party tracking services, is visible only to the OHA team, and the detailed records are automatically deleted after 180 days.
Decisions that materially affect you — such as whether you are included in a shortlist put to funders — are always made by a person, never automatically from this data alone. You can ask us how any such decision was reached and make representations about it.
Your profile and posted needs are visible to other signed-in OHA alumni. Your 1:1 messages are visible only to you and the recipient. The OHA team can view platform activity to support the network. Beyond the platform, OHA shares personal information only with its affiliates, co-delivery partners, funders and investment entities as required to conduct its business affairs.
We process personal data by manual and automated means — including AI-assisted matching and screening — for the purposes above, and maintain administrative, technical and physical safeguards to protect it against unauthorised access, loss or disclosure. Data stored electronically outside South Africa is kept only in countries with comparable privacy laws or under contracts imposing no lesser protection than POPIA. Specifically, platform data — including the usage records described above — is hosted in the European Union, which is subject to the General Data Protection Regulation, and is held under contract terms extending POPIA-level protection to both individuals and ventures and restricting any onward transfer.
No longer than necessary for the purposes above, per OHA's Retention Schedule. Information that is no longer required is deleted or de-identified in line with section 14 of POPIA.
You may ask what data we hold about you and why, access it, correct errors, opt out of ongoing communications, and request erasure. You can edit or remove your profile information on the platform at any time. In the event of a data breach compromising your personal information, OHA will notify the Information Regulator and affected members in accordance with section 22 of POPIA.
For questions, complaints, objections or requests to exercise your rights — including withdrawing consent — you may reach OHA's Information Officer by email, SMS or WhatsApp, or any other convenient means, as well as in writing via the support page or through the OHA team. When we act on a request to correct or delete your information, we will tell you once it is done.