Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Melitta Solutions is a sole-proprietor beekeeping, bee rescue and pollination business operated by Ulrich Cupido ("we", "us", "our"). For the purposes of South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA), Ulrich Cupido is the responsible party for personal information collected through this website.

Information Officer / contact for privacy matters: Ulrich Cupido — ulrich.cupido@gmail.com — 081 717 7470.

2. What we collect

We only collect personal information you choose to give us. That happens in a few places on this site:

• Contact / service enquiry forms (Contact, Services): your name, email address, phone number, the category of enquiry you select, and whatever you write in the message field.
• Report a Swarm wizard (report-swarm.html): your answers to a short set of safety questions (e.g. whether there's immediate danger, how long the bees have been there, location height/type), which are packaged into a message before you choose to send it via WhatsApp or email — nothing is submitted to us until you tap "send."
• WhatsApp and phone links: clicking a WhatsApp or "tel:" link on this site hands you off to WhatsApp or your phone's dialler directly — we only receive whatever you then choose to send us there.
• Site usage data: aggregated, non-identifying visit statistics via Cloudflare Web Analytics (see section 5).

We do not knowingly collect any special personal information (e.g. health, biometric or financial data) through this site. If a message you send us happens to include such detail (for example, describing an allergic reaction near a swarm), we only use it to respond safely to your enquiry.

3. How we use your information

We use the information you submit to: respond to your enquiry or booking request; arrange and carry out a rescue, pollination contract, education session or wax order; and keep a basic record of past jobs (see the rescue log on Projects & Programs, which lists dates and general locations only — no personal contact details are published there).

We do not sell, rent, or use your information for unrelated marketing, and we do not build advertising profiles from it.

4. Our legal basis for processing (POPIA)

We process your personal information on the basis of: consent (you choose to submit a form or send a message), and legitimate interest in operating a small service business and responding to enquiries you've initiated.

5. Where your information is stored

Enquiries submitted through the contact/service forms are saved to a Cloudflare D1 database associated with this website, and — only if we've configured it — may also be emailed to us via the transactional email provider Resend. If the database isn't connected yet, the form falls back to opening your own email app so your message goes straight to our inbox instead.

This site is hosted on Cloudflare's global network. As a result, data may be processed on servers outside South Africa. Cloudflare is contractually bound by its own data processing terms and maintains recognised international security certifications; where information is transferred outside South Africa we rely on the safeguards required under POPIA section 72 (i.e. the recipient is subject to a law, binding agreement, or code of conduct that upholds similar data protection principles).

6. Cookies and tracking

This website does not set any first-party tracking or advertising cookies, and does not use any social-media or ad-tracking pixels. The only visit-measurement tool in use is Cloudflare Web Analytics, which is cookie-free by design — it does not use any client-side identifiers or persistent cookies to track visitors, and does not sell or share data with advertisers. It reports only aggregated statistics such as page views, referrers and approximate location by country.

Fonts used on this site are served from Google Fonts' content delivery network. Loading a webpage causes your browser to request those font files directly from Google, which may log the request (including your IP address) under Google's own privacy policy — we do not control or receive that data ourselves.

7. Third parties we rely on

• Cloudflare — website hosting, security (firewall/CDN), the contact-form backend (D1 database) and web analytics.
• WhatsApp (Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd) — once you tap a WhatsApp link, your conversation is governed by WhatsApp's own privacy policy, not this one.
• Resend — optional email-delivery provider used only if we've configured email notifications for new enquiries.
• Google Fonts — serves the typefaces used across this site.

We do not use any other third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking services on this site.

8. How long we keep it

We keep enquiry records for as long as reasonably needed to respond to you, deliver the service you asked about, and maintain basic business records — and no longer than necessary for those purposes. You can ask us to delete your information at any time (see section 9).

9. Your rights

Under POPIA, you have the right to: ask us what personal information we hold about you; ask us to correct or update it; ask us to delete it; object to how we're using it; and lodge a complaint with South Africa's Information Regulator if you believe we've mishandled your information. To exercise any of these rights, contact Ulrich Cupido using the details in section 1 — we'll respond within a reasonable time.

10. Children's privacy

This site is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from minors online. Education sessions booked for schools or youth groups are arranged through a responsible adult (teacher, parent or organiser), not directly with children through this site.

11. Security

This site is served entirely over HTTPS, with security headers (including a strict Content-Security-Policy and HSTS) applied to every response, and no plaintext credential storage of any kind on the front end. Where we've published certificates on Certifications, personal ID numbers have been redacted before publishing. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, but we take reasonable technical and organisational measures appropriate to a small local business.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time as the site or our tools change. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision. Material changes will be reflected here — we encourage you to check back periodically.

13. Contact us

Questions about this policy or your information? Contact Ulrich Cupido at ulrich.cupido@gmail.com or 081 717 7470, or see the Contact page for more options.