Privacy policy

Cycad Central is a South African digital platform created for the cycad community. We provide a trusted environment for cycad enthusiasts, collectors, growers, experts, buyers and sellers to connect, share knowledge, identify plants, and participate in cycad sales and auctions.

Our platform also supports independent expert verification, plant records and provenance information to promote greater transparency and responsible cycad ownership.

Cycad Central is operated in South Africa and is committed to protecting the privacy and personal information of our users in accordance with applicable South African law, including the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).

Our Mission. To become the leading centralized platform for cycad information in South Africa.

Cycad Central
Company Registration No.: 2026/748563/07
Persons responsible: Pieter Visser / Glen van der Merwe
Email: support@cycadcentral.com

Account details: name, email address, telephone and WhatsApp numbers, physical and postal address, and — for sellers — company or person-liable details.

Listing information: species, form, photographs, condition, location, permits and supporting documents you upload.

Trading records: offers, bids, orders, invoices, ratings, disputes and messages sent through the app.

Technical information: device and browser type, approximate location derived from your connection, and pages visited. Automated traffic is filtered out of visitor counts.

Seller banking details are encrypted before storage and are never displayed in full again. They are used only to pay out proceeds of a completed sale. No card details are stored on our systems.

To create and secure your account, to publish listings you choose to publish, to run auctions and record bids, to settle payments, to issue Cycad Certificates, to meet permit and conservation record-keeping obligations, to prevent fraud and abuse, and to support you when something goes wrong.

Public: your listing content, seller display name, province, ratings and public questions and answers.

Counterparty only: contact details shared once you agree to trade, and private buyer–seller messages.

Experts: the listing information and photographs needed to assess a plant you submit for optional verification.

Administrators: records needed to resolve disputes, moderate abuse, meet legal obligations and keep the audit log complete. Bidder identities are masked from other bidders.

Photographs and identification information submitted for expert assessment may be used to improve our identification tools and in marketing material, as set out in clause 1.7 of the Terms of Use. Externally sourced reference photographs remain the property of their sources and are used under their licence terms.

Sale, order, permit, certificate and audit records are retained for as long as the law and conservation record-keeping require, even after a listing is removed or a plant is sold. Everything else is deleted or anonymised when your account is closed.

Access to data is restricted at database level per user, banking details are encrypted, downloads of permits and documents are access-controlled, and administrative actions are written to an audit log.

You may ask us for a copy of your information, correct it, object to marketing, or ask us to delete what we are not legally required to keep. Email support@cycadcentral.com and we will respond within a reasonable period. You may also complain to the Information Regulator.

We use browser storage to keep you signed in, remember dismissed notices, and count genuine visitors. We do not sell your data or run third-party advertising trackers.