Privacy & data

How we handle your data

Econ3x3 is a non-commercial research publication. We collect as little data as we can, never sell it, and never put up a cookie wall. This page explains what we do collect, why, and how you can opt out.

Who we are

Econ3x3 is published by theSouthern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU)at theUniversity of Cape Town. Econ3x3 is not a separate organisation — SALDRU is a research unit inside the university — so in POPIA's terms theresponsible party for personal information collected through this site is the University of Cape Town:

University of Cape Town
Private Bag X3
Rondebosch 7701
South Africa

For anything to do with this site — an article, the newsletter, or data we hold about you — emailgro.3x3noce@rotide. That reaches the editorial team directly and is usually the quickest route. You can also go straight to the university's Information Officer at popia@uct.ac.za, who is responsible for POPIA across UCT. The university publishes its ownPOPIA information and privacy noticesand aPAIA manual, which names the officer and sets out how to make a formal request.

What we collect

  • Site usage (analytics). When you read the site we collect anonymous, aggregated usage data — pages viewed, approximate location (country level), device type, the site that referred you, and which parts of a page readers interact with (how far down an article they scroll, which links and buttons they click, and any search terms they type into our site search) — to understand what readers find useful. We do not collect your name, and we do not use this data to identify you.
  • Newsletter. If you sign up for the newsletter we store the email address you give us, solely to send you the newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any issue.
  • Messages you send us. If you email us, we keep your message and address so we can reply.

We do not sell or rent your data, run advertising, or build advertising profiles of you.

Analytics & third parties

We currently use Google Analytics 4 to measure site usage while we transition our analytics setup. Google processes this data on our behalf, which can involve storing and processing it outside South Africa. We have switched off Google's cross-site "Signals" / advertising features, so the data is used only to produce aggregate audience statistics for us — not to target ads.

The site is hosted on Cloudflare, which also provides privacy-friendly, cookie-free aggregate traffic statistics. Our newsletter is delivered through Mailchimp, which stores the email address you provide for that purpose on servers in the United States.

All three are based outside South Africa, so using them means your data crosses a border. Each one handles it for us under a binding data-processing agreement written to meet the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — a standard at least as strict as POPIA's — and may use it only for the purpose we gave it to them for.

Your choices & how to opt out

We deliberately do not use a cookie-consent pop-up. Instead you can opt out of analytics in ways that stay in effect across the whole site:

  • Browser privacy signal. If your browser sends aGlobal Privacy Control (GPC)or "Do Not Track" signal, we detect it and do not load analytics for you at all. Many privacy-focused browsers and extensions can send this automatically.
  • Google's opt-out add-on. You can install Google'sAnalytics Opt-out Browser Add-onto stop Google Analytics on this and every other site.
  • Your browser controls. You can block or clear cookies and storage for this site in your browser settings.

Your rights under POPIA

South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) gives you the right to ask what personal information we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, and to object to our processing it. To exercise any of these rights, emailgro.3x3noce@rotide, or the university's Information Officer atpopia@uct.ac.za. UCT asks for up to 21 days to respond, because there is a procedure to follow, and may ask you to confirm who you are first.

If you believe your data has not been handled properly, you can complain to theInformation Regulator of South Africa:

Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive
Woodmead, Johannesburg 2191
Telephone 010 023 5200 · Toll-free 0800 017 160
POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za

Changes to this page

We will update this page if our data practices change — for example when we finish moving to cookie-free analytics. Last updated: July 2026.