Privacy Policy

The Roll (Pty) Ltd ("The Roll", "we", "us") is the responsible party for the personal information processed through theroll.co.za and our mobile web application (the "Platform"). We are committed to protecting your personal information and processing it lawfully in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 ("POPIA").

By using the Platform, you consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information as described in this Policy. This Policy forms part of our Terms of Use.

1. Who we are

Responsible party: The Roll (Pty) Ltd, registration number 2026/450723/07, of 96 Circle Road, Table View, Cape Town, Western Cape, 7441.
Information Officer: Jacques Rossouw, support@theroll.co.za.
Contact: support@theroll.co.za

2. Personal information we collect

When you register and use The Roll, we collect:

• Identity: your legal full name, preferred first name, and surname.
• Professional details: practitioner type (attorney or advocate), LPC number, and province.
• Contact details: email address and mobile number.
• Appearance data you enter: the court, date, and time of your appearances, and (optionally) a matter reference and private note.
• Account and visibility settings: verification status, your tier (Free or Pro) and subscription status, and your Find Cover visibility preferences.
• Payment information (Pro only): if you upgrade to Pro, your card payment is processed by PayFast (Payfast (Pty) Ltd), our South African payment gateway. Your card details are entered on PayFast's secure pages — we never see or store your card number. We hold only a PayFast subscription token (an identifier for your recurring subscription) and your subscription status (for example active or cancelled, and the date Pro is paid up to). A Free account provides no payment information.
• Referral and gifting data: if you invite a colleague, or join via an invitation, we record the link between the inviting and joining member and whether a gifted month of Pro was granted — to operate the referral feature and prevent abuse.
• Verification records: the outcome of checking your practitioner details (LPC number and name) against the Legal Practice Council's public register — including whether a match was found, the practising status returned, and the date of the check — kept as a record that your verification was carried out.
• Technical and usage data: device and session information, login activity, and analytics events (for example, that a Find Cover search or a WhatsApp contact occurred). We do not record the content of any WhatsApp message.

3. How and why we use your information

We process your personal information to: create and manage your account; verify your practitioner status by checking your LPC details against the Legal Practice Council's public register of legal practitioners (with manual review where the automated check is inconclusive); operate the Find Cover feature; enable you to contact other members to arrange cover; manage your Free or Pro tier, process Pro subscription payments, and operate referrals and gifted Pro; send you appearance reminders and service and transactional emails; provide support; and protect the Platform and its members against misuse, fraud, and abuse.

Lawful basis (POPIA): we process your information on the basis of your consent, the performance of our contract with you (the Terms of Use), our legitimate interests in operating and securing a verified professional network, and compliance with our legal obligations.

4. What other members can — and cannot — see

4.1 The Roll is built to keep your information private by default. The following are never shown to other members: your phone number, email address, province, firm or chambers, matter references, and private notes.

4.2 In Find Cover, another verified member searching the same court and date can see only: your display name, whether you are an attorney or advocate, your verification status, and the time of your appearance — and only for appearances you have chosen to make visible. You can switch off Find Cover visibility globally in your profile or per appearance.

4.3 Phone numbers and WhatsApp. Your phone number is never displayed anywhere in the Platform. It is used only to open a WhatsApp conversation at the moment another member actively chooses to contact you; at that point, as is inherent to WhatsApp, the member contacting you will have your mobile number and you will have theirs. This exchange happens only when a member actively chooses to make contact, and you consent to it when you use or are contacted through the contact feature. We log that a contact occurred (for safety and abuse-prevention), but not the content of the conversation.

4.4 Matter references. Your matter reference for an appearance is shown to another member only if that member accepts your request to hold brief for that appearance — so that they can attend on your behalf. It is not shown to anyone else.

5. Who we share information with (operators)

We use trusted third-party service providers ("operators" under POPIA) to run the Platform. They process personal information on our behalf, under contract, only as needed to provide their service:

• Supabase — secure database, authentication, and application hosting.
• PayFast (Payfast (Pty) Ltd, South Africa) — card payment processing and recurring billing for Pro subscriptions.
• Twilio — sending the one-time PIN (OTP) to verify your mobile number.
• OneSignal — delivering push-notification reminders (if enabled).
• Resend — sending account and service emails (for example welcome, verification, payment receipts, and password resets).

We do not sell or rent your personal information. We may disclose information where required by law, to a competent authority acting on a lawful request, or to detect, prevent, or address fraud, abuse, or security issues. Where we report a member to the Legal Practice Council under our Terms, we do so on the basis of our legitimate interest in maintaining a verified professional network and protecting members, and/or to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation. If ownership of The Roll is transferred, personal information may transfer to the new owner under this Policy.

6. Cross-border processing

Some operators may process or store information on servers outside South Africa — for example Supabase, Twilio, OneSignal and Resend may process data in the European Union, the United States, or elsewhere, while PayFast processes payments within South Africa. Where information is transferred outside South Africa, we take reasonable steps to ensure the transfer complies with POPIA — relying on an adequate level of protection in the recipient country, contractual safeguards in our operator agreements, or your consent.

7. Retention

We keep your personal information only as long as necessary for the purposes in this Policy or as required by law. Specifically, past and deleted appearances are retained for 90 days, after which the personal and matter details are purged or anonymised, and only aggregate, non-identifying analytics are retained. Account information is kept while your membership is active and for any period we are legally required or entitled to retain it after closure.

8. Security

We apply appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including database-level access controls (so that information is only ever returned to those entitled to see it), encryption in transit, and a design in which phone numbers are never displayed in the Platform and are used only to open WhatsApp at the moment a member chooses to make contact. No system is completely secure; we will notify the Information Regulator and affected members of a reportable breach as required by POPIA.

9. Your rights

Under POPIA you have the right to: access the personal information we hold about you; request that we correct or delete it; object to its processing; and lodge a complaint. You can review and update most of your information in your profile, and you can request account deletion from Profile. To exercise any right, contact our Information Officer at support@theroll.co.za.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa), JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za · enquiries@inforegulator.org.za · inforegulator.org.za.

10. Cookies and analytics

We use only the cookies and similar technologies necessary to keep you logged in, operate the Platform, and understand basic usage so we can improve the service. We do not use advertising cookies.

11. Children

The Platform is intended only for admitted legal practitioners and is not directed at, and may not be used by, anyone under 18.

12. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. Material changes will be posted here and, where appropriate, notified by email or in-app. Please review it periodically.

13. Contact

The Roll (Pty) Ltd · Registration number 2026/450723/07 · 96 Circle Road, Table View, Cape Town, Western Cape, 7441 · Information Officer: Jacques Rossouw · support@theroll.co.za