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Privacy

Privacy notice

How we handle your personal information, files and designs when you use this website.

Draft notice — not yet published. Statements without a marker match how the website actually works. Highlighted items need the business owner's confirmation first:
  • Exact registered company name as on the CIPC record (registration number 2026/007833/07 is taken from your invoices).
  • Information Officer's name, and that they are registered with the Information Regulator.
  • Website hosting provider and where its servers are (the site isn't deployed yet).
  • AI assistant provider: the code uses Anthropic; you mentioned OpenAI. Confirm which, and that Meshy stays, after reading their terms.
  • The retention periods in “How long we keep it” (per type of record).
  • Which courier you use, and the WhatsApp number quotes are sent from.
  • The date this notice takes effect.
  • Every question in PRIVACY_OWNER_CHECKLIST.md, and review by a South African privacy professional.

This notice has not been reviewed by a legal professional.

Effective date: 20 October 2026 [to confirm]

In short

  • We use your details and files to answer your enquiry, prepare a quote and make your order.
  • Your files are stored privately on our system and are never published.
  • The optional AI features send your image or description to AI services outside South Africa. You can skip them.
  • Every quote is checked by a person before it reaches you.
  • No advertising, no analytics, no selling of your information.

1. Who we are

This website is operated by 3D Printing Cape Town (Pty) Ltd [to confirm], registration number 2026/007833/07 (“3DCT”, “we”, “us”), 1 Chenin Blanc Street, Oude Westhof, Bellville, Cape Town, Western Cape 7530, South Africa. We are the responsible party for your personal information under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).

Our Information Officer is name [to confirm]. They can be reached at print@3dct.co.za or 067 893 9689.

2. What we collect

We collect only what you give us, plus a small amount of technical information:

Information you give us

  • Contact details: your name and email address (required), and, if you provide them, your mobile/WhatsApp number and company name.
  • Project details: what you need made or designed, quantity, material, colour, sizes (including any scaling you choose), intended use, turnaround, whether you'll collect or want courier delivery, notes and any file links you share.
  • Billing details: only if you ask for the quote and invoice in your company's name: company name, registration and VAT numbers, billing address and accounts email.
  • Delivery address: only if you choose courier delivery.
  • Files: 3D models (STL, OBJ, 3MF), drawings and documents (PDF, STEP, DWG) and photos or sketches (PNG, JPEG, WebP).
  • Design conversations: messages you exchange with our AI design assistant, and the design brief it builds from them.
  • If you bring us a physical part: our inspection notes and measurements.

Information we create

  • AI-generated concept images and 3D models, and the prompts used to make them.
  • Checks of your 3D files (size, units, repairs) and print estimates from our slicing software.
  • Quotes, their versions and PDFs, records of when and how they were sent to you, and a log of actions on your request.

Technical information

  • Your IP address is used briefly to limit repeated or abusive use. We store only a scrambled (one-way hashed) version with your request, not the address itself.
  • Our hosting provider may record IP addresses and pages requested in its server logs. Hosting provider and its log retention [to confirm].

We don't take payments on this website and don't collect card or bank details. You pay by EFT or SnapScan after accepting a quote; your bank and SnapScan process those payments under their own terms. When you pay, we record the payment method, amount, date and any reference against your quote and issue an invoice. You don't need an account, and we don't ask for ID numbers or other special personal information.

Is it compulsory? Your name, email address and a description of your project are needed for us to prepare a quote. Without them we can't respond through the website, but you're welcome to email or WhatsApp us instead. Everything else is optional, though more detail helps us quote accurately.

3. Why we use it

  • To prepare and send your quote, and to design, print and deliver your order. This includes checking your files, estimating print time and material, estimating design time, contacting you by email or WhatsApp, and keeping a record of the quote. POPIA allows this because it is needed for steps you asked us to take before a contract, and for the contract itself.
  • To run the optional AI features when you choose to use them (see section 5). You decide whether to use them, and you can skip them.
  • To keep the website secure and prevent spam and abuse, and to fix problems. This is in our legitimate interest, and yours, in a working, safe service.
  • To keep business records we are required to keep, such as records for tax.

Quotes are calculated automatically as a draft, but a person always reviews and approves them before they are sent. No decision about you is made by automated means alone. We don't sell your information, don't use it for advertising, and don't send marketing messages without your permission.

4. Your files and designs

We understand that designs can be confidential. This is what happens to the files you send through the website:

  • They are stored privately on our system, outside the public part of the website, together with your request. They are never published or listed publicly.
  • Only our team can open them, after signing in to our secure admin area. You can view your own project through the private link we give you. Please keep that link to yourself, because anyone who has it can open your project.
  • Your quote is shared through a private link that doesn't currently expire. The quote page and PDF show your name, email address, phone number and, if you gave them, your delivery or billing details. Keep the link private.
  • When we approve a quote, and again when an order is paid, a copy of the quote, any invoice and the related model files is saved in our business folders on our own computer, so we can find the job later.
  • 3D files are checked and measured, and may be repaired or re-scaled, by software on our own system. Repairs create a new version and keep your original. We slice files with Creality Print, which runs on our own computer, to estimate printing. Your files are not sent to an outside service for this.
  • When you submit a request, we get an email notification with your contact and project details and a list of your file names. Files are not attached to that email. When we send you a quote by email, the quote PDF is attached.
  • Your files are sent to an outside AI service only if you choose an AI feature (see section 5).

We don't share your designs outside 3DCT except as described in this notice, where needed to complete your order, or where the law requires it. If you need confidentiality, we will sign your non-disclosure agreement on request. We don't have a standard NDA of our own, and an NDA only applies once both of us have signed it.

5. AI features

The AI Design Studio offers optional AI tools. They only run when you start them, and you can always skip them and let our designer work from your files directly. If a design is confidential, we recommend skipping the AI steps.

  • Design assistant (“I have an idea”): your chat messages are sent to Anthropic [to confirm], which provides the AI model. Anthropic's published terms say API data is not used to train its models without permission, and is normally deleted within 30 days. Content flagged by its safety systems can be kept for up to 2 years. Please don't include personal or confidential information in your messages.
  • Concept images and photo-to-3D: your description, or the photo or concept image you choose, is sent to Meshy [to confirm], which creates the image or 3D model. Meshy's privacy policy says it may use a limited selection of customer inputs and outputs to evaluate and test its models. It also says it keeps information for as long as it considers necessary, and may process it anywhere in the world.

We send these services only what the feature needs: the image or text. Your name, email address and phone number are not sent. The results (concept images and 3D models) are saved privately with your request. AI results are a starting point, and our designer checks and finalises dimensions.

6. Who we share it with

We use these service providers. Each receives only what it needs:

  • Website hosting: provider [to confirm] runs the website, the database and the private file storage, so it holds the information described in this notice.
  • Email delivery: Resend (Plus Five Five, Inc., USA) delivers our emails: request notifications to us, your confirmation, and quotes to you.
  • Email inbox: GoDaddy hosts our mailbox (print@3dct.co.za), where those emails are kept.
  • AI services: Anthropic [to confirm] and Meshy, only when you use an AI feature (see section 5).
  • WhatsApp: if you prefer, we send your quote by WhatsApp from our business phone. This uses WhatsApp's service under its own terms. We don't connect the website to WhatsApp automatically: we open the chat ourselves and send the message.
  • Couriers: if you choose courier delivery, we give our courier [to confirm] your name, phone number and the delivery address you entered.

We may also disclose information where the law requires it.

7. Processing outside South Africa

Resend, Anthropic and Meshy process information in other countries, mainly the United States, and our hosting provider may too. POPIA allows this when it is needed for the quote or contract you asked for, or when you agree to it. Starting an AI feature means you agree to your image or description being sent abroad for that purpose. These countries may not have data-protection laws identical to POPIA. We rely on the providers' contractual terms and published policies, and we only send what each service needs.

8. Cookies and tracking

The website sets only two cookies, both strictly necessary:

  • Design Studio session (3dct_studio): remembers your project on your device for up to 30 days so you can continue where you left off.
  • Admin session (3dct_admin): keeps our staff signed in to the admin area for up to 12 hours.

There are no analytics, advertising or social-media tracking cookies or scripts. Our fonts are served from our own website, not loaded from Google. Links to Google Maps, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and WhatsApp take you to those services, which have their own privacy policies.

9. How long we keep it

  • Studio projects you start but never submit are deleted automatically after 30 days [to confirm] without activity.
  • Quote requests that don't become an order: up to 24 months after our last contact [to confirm], then deleted.
  • Orders: files and design records up to 24 months after completion [to confirm], in case of repeat orders, unless you ask us to delete them sooner. Invoices, payment records and other accounting records are kept as long as company and tax law requires (generally five to seven years) [to confirm].
  • Emails in our inbox: on the same schedule as the request they relate to [to confirm].
  • AI services keep data under their own terms (see section 5).

We may keep information longer if it is needed for an active order, a dispute or a legal obligation. Deleting a request from our system does not automatically remove copies that are already in our email inbox, with the email-delivery provider, with an AI service, or in backups. We delete those where we can, and backups are overwritten over time.

10. How we protect it

  • Your files are stored outside the public website and only opened through authorised, signed-in or secret-link access.
  • The admin area is password-protected. Passwords are stored only as secure hashes, and sign-ins expire automatically.
  • Uploaded files are checked by content, not just by name, before we accept them.
  • Limits on repeated submissions help prevent abuse.
  • Deleted records are overwritten in our database rather than just hidden.
  • The website is served over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection. [to confirm]

No system is perfectly secure. If a security breach affects your personal information, we will tell you and the Information Regulator as POPIA requires.

11. Your rights

Under POPIA you may:

  • ask whether we hold personal information about you, and for a copy of it;
  • ask us to correct, update or delete it;
  • object to our processing of it, and withdraw your agreement to optional processing such as the AI features;
  • ask us not to send you marketing (we don't send any without permission).

Email print@3dct.co.za with your request and your quote reference if you have one. We may need to confirm your identity before acting. We will reply within a reasonable time. We may keep information we are legally required to keep, and if so we will tell you.

If you are unhappy with how we handled your information, you can complain to the Information Regulator:

We'd appreciate the chance to sort out your concern first, so please contact us at print@3dct.co.za.

12. Changes to this notice

We will update this notice when our services or providers change, for example if we start using a new AI service. The current version, with its effective date, is always on this page.