Privacy policy

This Little Light Of Mine is a family-led autism awareness and advocacy website (thislittlelightofmine.co.za). We are a family sharing our lived experience, not a clinical service or a company.

For the purposes of POPIA, we are the responsible party for the personal information collected through this website. You can contact us about anything in this policy at hello@thislittlelight.co.za.

We only collect information that you choose to give us, plus a small amount of technical information that every website needs to work.

• When you use our contact form: your name, your email address, the topic you choose and your message.
• When you email us or share a story: your email address and anything you include in your message, such as your experiences or a story you would like us to consider for publication.
• When you visit the website: basic technical information such as your IP address, browser type and the pages you visit. This is recorded by our website host for security and to keep the site running.

We do not ask for, and you do not need to give us, your identity number, your physical address or any financial information.

We use your information only for the reason you gave it to us:

• to read and reply to your message;
• to consider a resource you recommend or a story you would like to share, and to discuss editing and permissions with you before anything is published;
• to keep the website secure and working properly.

We rely on your consent when you send us a message, and on our legitimate interest in keeping the website safe. We will never sell your information, use it for advertising, or add you to a mailing list without asking you first.

Our website talks about autism, and we know that messages may touch on health, development or family life. Under POPIA, health information and information about children need extra care.

Please do not send us detailed medical information, or private details about another person (including a child), unless it is necessary and you have the right to share it.

We will never publish a story, name, photograph or any detail that could identify a child or another person without clear permission from that person, or from a parent or legal guardian in the case of a child. You can withdraw your permission at any time, and we will remove the content.

We do not sell, rent or trade personal information. We only share it with:

• Service providers who help us run the website and our email, such as our website host and email provider. They may only use your information to provide their service to us.
• Authorities, if the law requires us to.

Some of these providers may store information on servers outside South Africa. Where that happens, we choose providers that are bound by data-protection rules similar to POPIA.

We keep messages only for as long as we need them to reply and follow up, and normally for no longer than 12 months. If you share a story that we publish with your permission, we keep it for as long as it stays on the website. Website security logs are kept by our host for a limited period. You can ask us to delete your information sooner at any time.

We take reasonable steps to protect your information, including a secure (HTTPS) website, strong passwords, and limiting access to the family members who manage the website. No online service can be completely secure, so if we ever become aware of a breach that affects your information, we will let you and the Information Regulator know as POPIA requires.

Our website may use a small number of essential cookies so that it works properly and stays secure. We do not use advertising cookies. If we add a tool to count visitors in future, we will update this policy and, where needed, ask for your consent first.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. The website will still work, although some features may behave differently.

Our website links to Facebook, Instagram and other organisations' websites. When you visit them, their own privacy policies apply, and we are not responsible for how they use your information.

Under POPIA you have the right to:

• ask what personal information we hold about you;
• ask us to correct or update it;
• ask us to delete it;
• object to us using it, or withdraw your consent at any time;
• lay a complaint with the Information Regulator.

To use any of these rights, email us at hello@thislittlelight.co.za. We will reply within a reasonable time and will not charge you for a simple request.

If you have a question or concern about your privacy, please contact us first at hello@thislittlelight.co.za and we will do our best to help.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa): inforegulator.org.za, email POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za, or call 010 023 5200.

We may update this policy from time to time, for example if we add new features to the website. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last changed. This version was updated on 3 November 2026.