Privacy Policy

Ancestry24 website terms of use

• Introduction
• These terms of use
• Important provisions pertaining to legal liability
• Legal age and capacity
• We may change aspects of this website
• Interpretation
• Definitions
• The Ancestry24.com service
• Profile information
• Registration
• Users’ code of conduct
• Licenses
• Our license to you
• Your license to us
• Your license to other users
• General issues you should be aware of
• Privacy policy
• Software and equipment
• Liability
• Disclaimers and limitation of liability
• Indemnity
• Rights infringment
• Dealings with 3rd parties
• Arbitration
• Governing law and jurisdiction
• Legal service of documents and notices
• We may monitor your communications.
• Severability
• Termination
• Disclosures required by the ECT Act

General terms

Introduction

These terms of use

This is version 1.0 of these terms of use.  These terms of use were implemented on 25 October 2009.

You may access this website on condition that you accept these terms of use as they are and without modifications.  These terms of use are a binding contract between you and us so it is very important that you read them carefully and ensure that you understand and accept them.

If you access this website, we will take that to mean you have read and understand these terms of use and agree to them. If you do not agree with any provision contained in these terms of use, please do not access this website in any way.

We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to, and you agree that we may, amend these terms of use at any time, in any way and from time to time.  We will publish the amended terms of use on this website.  These amendments shall come into effect immediately and automatically.

It is your responsibility to review these terms of use regularly and to ensure that you agree with any amendments to these terms of use.  If you do not agree with any amendments to these terms of use, you may no longer access this website.

Chapter VII of the ECT Act grants rights to any natural person (in other words, living human beings) who enters or intends entering into what is known as an “electronic transaction” with us on this website.  None of these terms of use are intended to limit the rights the ECT Act grants you.

Important provisions pertaining to legal liability

These terms of use contain provisions which limit our exposure to legal liability and even make you responsible for a variety of acts.  Some of these provisions do have the effect of limiting your rights in law and conferring obligations on you by virtue of your agreement to these terms of use.

It is therefore important that you familiarise yourself with these provisions before you access this website and that you not access the website if you do not agree to abide by those provisions.

Legal age and capacity

You may not access this website and may not accept these terms of use if you lack the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract with us; are a person barred from accessing this website under the laws of the Republic of South Africa or other countries including the country in which you are resident or from which you access this website.

By accessing this website and/or the content you represent and warrant that you are of full legal age, or are emancipated or have your guardian’s consent to enter into a contract being these terms of use.

We may change aspects of this website

We may add new features and modify or even discontinue existing features without notice to you and in our sole discretion.  You agree to this.

You are free to stop accessing this website at any time without notifying us.

Content accessible through this website may not be appropriate for all users and while we take steps to monitor and remove objectionable content, it remains solely your responsibility not to consume inappropriate content or prevent underage users from accessing this content where it is within your control to do so.

This website will contain content that we, you and other visitors to this website create.  Some of this content will be directed to or appear on this website using 3^rd party websites (which may include the providers).  Your use of those 3^rd party websites is subject to both these terms of use and the terms of use applicable to those 3^rd party websites (which may include the providers’ terms).  You agree that it remains your obligation to familiarise yourself with the 3^rd parties’ terms of use (including, where appropriate, the providers’ terms) and to comply with both them and these terms of use.  In the event there is a conflict between these terms of use and a 3^rd party’s terms of use (including, where appropriate, the providers’ terms), these terms of use shall prevail for the purposes of your access to this website.

Interpretation

These terms of use may contain a number of terms and phrases which have a specific meaning in this document.  In these terms of use, headings are for convenience and shall not be used in its interpretation.

Any reference in these terms of use to a party shall, if such party is liquidated or sequestrated (the meaning of which includes any analogous proceedings in any other jurisdiction), be applicable also to and binding upon that party’s liquidator or trustee, as the case may be.

Unless we indicate to the contrary in these terms of use, any references to any gender includes the other genders, a natural person includes an artificial person and vice versa, the singular includes the plural and vice versa.

Definitions

The following expressions shall bear the meanings assigned to them below and related expressions shall bear corresponding meanings –

“3^rd party websites” means websites other than this website;

“access” when used in the context of -

a website (whether it be this website or a 3^rd party website), means to visit, use, load in a web browser, mobile phone or similar software application or device or otherwise engage with a website;

content, means to copy, download, view, modify, adapt, load in a web browser, mobile phone, software application or device or to otherwise engage with and/or manipulate such content;

“authentication service” means the RPX authentication gateway or service developed and maintained by JanRain;

“content” means all information (such as data files, written text, computer software, music, audio files or other sounds, photographs, videos or other images) which you may have access to as part of, or through your use of, this website;

“the ECT Act” means the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002;

“intellectual property” means, collectively, the patents, copyrights (and moral rights), trademarks, designs, models, brands, names, trade names, graphics, icons, hyperlinks, know-how, trade secrets and any other type of intellectual property (whether registered or unregistered including applications for and rights to obtain or use same) which we own, license, use and/or hold (whether or not currently) on this website;

“know-how” means all the ideas, designs, documents, diagrams, information, devices, technical and scientific data, secrets and other processes and methods we use in connection with this website, as well as, all available information regarding marketing and promotion of the products and services described in these terms of use, as well as all and any modifications or improvements to any of them;

“post” means to upload, publish, transmit, share or store;

“the providers” means the following providers, individually and/or collectively -

“Facebook” means Facebook Inc. as well as the social network located online at http://facebook.com, as the context dictates;

“Google” means Google Inc. and its various services which may be accessed through http://google.com and related website, as the context dictates;

“JanRain” means JanRain Inc. located online at http://janrain.com;

“OpenID” means the OpenID Foundation which is an international non-profit organisation of individuals and companies which enables, promotes and protects OpenID technologies as well as an open and decentralised authentication standard, as the context indicates, both of which you can learn more about at http://openid.net;

“Twitter” means Twitter Inc. as well as the social network and messaging platform tools accessible through http://twitter.com;

“the providers’ terms” means the terms and conditions governing access to the providers’ products and services, as amended from time to time;

“RIC Act” means the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication Related Information Act 70 of 2002;

“terms of use” means these terms and conditions of use, as amended from time to time;

“trademarks” means those trademarks we own (or which we are designated as beneficial owner of) and any other trademarks, designs, logos, style names, tag lines and slogans which we own or have the right to use or any derivative service offerings of, and applications for, any of same;

“this website” means the website located at http://ancestry24.co.za or http://ancestry24.com;

“you” means visitors to this website;

“us”, “we” and “Naspers” means Naspers Limited, a company with limited liability incorporated in accordance with the company laws of the Republic of South Africa;

“user/s” means, in the context of content or this website, anyone who accesses this website within the meaning of the term “access” above,

When any number of days is prescribed such number shall exclude the first day and include the last day unless the last day falls on a Saturday, Sunday or gazetted public holiday in the Republic of South Africa, in which case the last day shall be the next succeeding day which is not a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday in the Republic of South Africa;

All annexures, addenda and amendments to these terms of use form an integral part of these terms of use and, therefore, our contract with you.

The Ancestry24.com service

You can find out more about the Ancestry24.com service on this website.

Profile information

We incorporate a variety of public information into the databases that are available on this website.  This public information includes the Government Gazette and is made available to you and other users to facilitate richer and more complete profiles on this website.

We do not maintain this public information or have any control over its accuracy or completeness.  We refer you to our disclaimers below and recommend that you carefully consider public information made available on this website in light of our disclaimers.

Registration

There are three types of users who may access the website: unregistered users, registered users and paid subscriber users.  You are required to register on this website and/or become a paid subscriber if you wish to access certain sections of  this website.  If you choose to register, you may do so using a registration form available on this website or using the authentication service (whereby you grant permission to the providers to pass certain of your personal information to us to enable you to register on and participate in this website).  When you register with us using a registration method other than the authentication service, you will be asked to select a user name and password which you will use to secure your account.  Once registered you will be able to log into your account using your user name and your password or your relevant account information with your preferred authentication service.

In order to successfully complete the registration process, you are required to submit information about yourself and your preferences to us (“registration data”).  The use of your registration data is dealt with in our privacy policy below.

You warrant that the registration data is accurate, current and complete (this includes registration data we may receive from the providers).  You will be denied access to this website should you breach this warranty or subsequently be found to have breached this warranty.

We will take steps to verify your registration data once you have completed the requisite registration process. You agree to this verification process and irrevocably consent to us gaining access to relevant information held by 3^rd parties (including, but not limited to the providers) which may be required to reasonably complete the verification process.  You acknowledge and agree that access to this website may be limited until such time as the verification process has been successfully completed.

Should you not agree to the verification process as contemplated above or withhold your consent, your access to this website, generally, may be suspended or terminated and you waive any claims you may have against us, our officers, directors, employees, servants, agents and/or contractors arising out of our denial of access to you to this website.

You agree that the security of your account is solely your own responsibility. You further agree that –

your access to this website may be limited by the providers should you access this website using the authentication service on this website without recourse to us for any reason whatsoever;

you are responsible for maintaining and promptly updating the registration data and any other information you provide us with, thereby keeping it accurate, current and complete;

if you believe that information or content posted to this website infringes on any person’s rights in any way, you will notify us immediately;

if you believe the security of your registration on this website has been compromised in any way, you will notify us immediately;

you shall be held fully responsible for any misuse or compromise to your account which we are not properly notified about; and

if any security violations are believed to have occurred in association with your account, we reserve the right to suspend access to your account pending an investigation and resolution.

Users’ code of conduct

You may not access the content or this website for or in conjunction with any illegal, unlawful or immoral purposes or as prohibited by these terms of use or, in the event you access this website using the providers, the terms and conditions governing your use of the providers’ services and/or products which may include the authentication service.

You may not frame this website in any way whatsoever except as permitted by our website’s functionality (details may be found on this website) or otherwise without our prior written permission.  Recognising the global nature of the Internet, you agree to comply with all local laws, rules and regulations regarding your conduct on this website as well as the providers’ terms.

You agree to adhere to generally acceptable Internet and e-mail etiquette. In this regard, without being limited to the examples listed below, you agree not to:

engage in any abuse of e-mail or spamming, including, without being limited to -

the posting or cross-posting of unsolicited content with the same or substantially the same message to recipients that did not request to receive such messages; and

inviting people who you may be connected to using 3^rd party services to access this website where those people may not wish to receive such invitations or similar communications (in other words, make sure your contacts on other services are receptive to receiving invitations to joining us and accessing this website or other communications you send them from us);

engage in any activity intended to entice, solicit or otherwise recruit website users to join an organisation except where we expressly authorise such activities in writing;

take any action aimed at deceiving or misleading any person, attempt to impersonate or misrepresent your affiliation to any person or forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of anything posted or transmitted through this website;

submit any person’s personal information to the website without that person’s informed consent to do so (for more information about our requirement for informed consent, see below);

use this website to post or transmit anything which is defamatory, discriminatory, obscene, offensive, threatening, abusive, harassing, harmful, hateful or which carries child pornography, religious or racial slurs or threatens or encourages bodily harm or the like or which may violate any person’s personality rights;

use this website to make fraudulent offers to sell or buy products, items or services or to offer or solicit for any type of financial scam such as “pyramid schemes” and “chain letters”;

use this website in a manner that may infringe the intellectual property rights (for example copyright or trade marks) or other proprietary rights of others;

use this website in any manner which could damage, impair, overburden or disable this website or interfere with any other party’s access to this website;

use this website to post anything which contains viruses or any other destructive features, regardless of whether or not damage is intended;

gather e-mail addresses and/or names for commercial, political, charity or like purposes or use the services to collect or attempt to collect personal information about third parties without their knowledge or consent;

violate the privacy of any person or attempt to gain unauthorised access to this website or any other network, including (without being limited to) through hacking, password mining or any other means;

conduct yourself in any way in violation of the providers’ terms should you access this website using your preferred authentication service; and/or

otherwise use this website to engage in any illegal or unlawful activity.

Should you engage in any one or more of the above practices, which shall be determined in our sole discretion (and which decision shall be final), then we shall be entitled, without prejudice to any other rights we may have, to:

without notice, suspend or terminate your access to this website;

hold you liable for any costs we incur as a result of your misconduct; and/or

notwithstanding our privacy policy referred to below, disclose any information relating to you, whether public or personal, to all persons affected by your actions.

Licenses- Our license to you

We grant you a personal, revocable, worldwide, royalty-free, non-commercial, non-transferrable and non-exclusive licence to access our content on this website.  This licence is for the sole purpose of enabling you to access this website, in the manner permitted by these terms of use.  In the event we revoke this license, you may no longer access this website.

You may not (and you may not permit anyone else to) copy, modify, create an adaptation of, reverse engineer, decompile or otherwise attempt to extract the source code of this website or any part thereof, unless this is expressly permitted or required by law, or unless we have specifically told you that you may do so, in writing.

Unless we have given you specific written permission to do so, you may not transfer, through an assignment of rights, sub-licence or otherwise, your rights to use this website or otherwise transfer any part of your rights to use this website.

To the extent that any copying, reproduction, distribution, transmission, display, broadcasting or publishing of any content is expressly permitted (such permission to be interpreted in its most restrictive sense) you may do so, provided that all trademarks, trade names and all copyright, ownership, proprietary and confidentiality notices as are included on the original content are retained and displayed without alteration or modification and not in any manner obscured or removed.

You acknowledge that you do not acquire any ownership rights or rights of use in or to any content by copying, reproducing, distributing, transmitting, displaying, broadcasting or publishing that content except where explicitly permitted to do so.

Caching of this website shall only be permitted if:

the purpose of caching is to make the onward transmission of the content from this website more efficient;

the cached content is not modified in any manner whatsoever;

the cached content is updated at least every 12 (twelve) hours; and

the cached content is removed or updated when we so require.

Please note that brands associated with the providers are trade marks owned and/or registered by the providers concerned.  We recommend you review the providers’ guidelines concerning making use of their trade marks prior to doing so.

Your license to us

We do not claim any ownership rights in the content that you post to this website, except to the extent we reach specific agreement with you on any acquisition of your rights in and to your content. You retain any rights that you may already have in your content when you post your content to or otherwise access this website, subject to the limited license you grant to us.

By posting any content on or through this website, you grant us a non-exclusive, fully-paid, royalty free, transferrable and worldwide license to moderate, use, modify, delete from, add to, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce or distribute such content solely on or through this website including without limitation, distributing part or all of this website or content in any media formats and through any media channels and make use of the content in our advertising campaigns.

We will cease distribution of your content as soon as reasonably practicable after you remove your content from this website.  At that point, the license you grant us will terminate.

The license you grant to us means that -

you are free to license your content to anyone else in addition to us;

we are not required to pay you for the use of the content you post to this website;

we are able to use our affiliates, sub-contractors and other partners (such as Internet content delivery networks and wireless carriers) to grant access to this website; and

the license extends to anywhere in the world because of the global nature of the Internet and the the fact that our users can access the content from anywhere in the world.

Your license to other users

You agree to license your content which remains protected by copyright to other users under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 South Africa license.  You can find out more about this license and how it permits other users to access your content by visiting the license’s summary page on the Creative Commons website.

General issues you should be aware of

Because you can only lawfully license content you have certain rights in, you represent and warrant that:

you own the content you posted on or through this website or otherwise have the right to grant the license set forth in this section, and

posting your content on or through this website does not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, copyright, contractual rights or any other rights of any person or entity.

You also agree to pay for all royalties, fees, and any other monies owing to any person or entity by reason of any content you post on or through this website.

Privacy policy

We shall take reasonable steps to protect personal information you submit to the website.  For the purposes of this clause “personal information” shall be defined as detailed in the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000.

By submitting personal information pertaining to anyone other than yourself, you warrant to us that that person or those people have given you their informed consent to submit that person’s or those people’s personal information to the website and have given us their informed consent to collect and process their personal information for use on the website.

That person or those people can only be said to have given their informed consent as contemplated above if that person or those people are familiar with how the website works and these terms of use.

We may electronically collect, store and use personal information with your consent (if you don’t consent to this, please do not register on the website).  This personal information includes, but is not limited to, the following:

name and surname;

contact details;

gender;

birthday;

hometown and current location;

family information including, but not limited to -

family members’ names;

family members’ birth dates; and

family relationships,

the services you may use on the Internet;

employment information;

personal preferences;

non-personal browsing habits and click patterns;

email address; and

IP address.

We collect, store and use the personal information described in order to (but not limited to the following) –

enable you to create personal profile on this website and thereby access this website;

enable you to make use of this website in the manner described on this website, from time to time;

communicate requested information to you, for example through user alerts;

communicate information to you regularly, for example through  newsletters;

compile and maintain the website and member database;

register and/or authenticate users of and/or visitors to the website;

identify and take reasonable measures to prevent fraudulent uses of or access to the website;

compile non-personal statistical information about browsing habits, click patterns and access to the website;

attract advertisers by showing anonymised information about the database, for example demographics;

track database size and growth; and

track compliance of registrants and third parties with these terms of use.

The personal information is collected either electronically (for example, through the use of cookies) or is provided voluntarily by users of and/or visitors to the website.  You may determine cookie use independently through your web browser settings.

You may request details of your personal information which we collect, store and use.  The process you should follow is detailed in our Promotion of Access to Information manual, details of which are set out below.

Personal information collected from you may be deleted from the website and member databases when your account on the website is terminated for any reason.

We may collect, maintain, save, compile, share, disclose and sell the information subject to the following:

We shall not disclose personal information unless the person from whom the personal information is collected, consents thereto;

We shall disclose the information without your consent only where we are compelled to do so by law; and

We may compile, use and share any of the information that does not relate to a specific individual.

In the event that your personal information is inaccurately or incompletely reflected on the website, you agree that it is your responsibility to notify us of this fact and to supply us with the accurate or complete information to enable us to address your concerns.

Software and equipment

It is your responsibility to acquire and maintain, at your own expense, the computer hardware, software, communications infrastructure and access accounts required to access this website.

Liability

Disclaimers and limitation of liability

Your use of and reliance on this website is entirely at your own risk. This website is provided “as is”.

Although we take steps to verify information presented on or through this website, we do not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement, or other information contained in, displayed on, linked to or distributed through this website or the content other users may publish to this website.  You acknowledge that any reliance upon any such opinion, advice, statement or information shall be at your sole risk.  We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to correct any errors or omissions on this website without notice to you.

Information, ideas and opinions expressed on or through this website should not be regarded as professional advice or our official opinion and you are strongly advised to seek professional advice before acting on such information.

To the fullest extent permissible by law, we disclaim all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including without limitation to the implied warranties that the content published to this website (or this website itself, for that matter) is fit for any purpose.

Whilst we take reasonable precautions in our operation of this website, neither we or our agents or representatives will assume any responsibility and neither we or our agents or representatives (in whose favour this constitutes a stipulatio alteri or stipulation for another) shall be liable for any damages to or for viruses that may infect your computer equipment or software or other property on account of your access to, use of or browsing of this website or the content or your downloading of any content.  Any content you access through the use of this website or the content is done at your own discretion and risk and you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from accessing any such content.

We will use reasonable endeavours to make this website available to you, and keep this website available to you at all times.  However, you agree that we shall not be liable in respect of any loss or damage caused by or arising from the unavailability of, any interruption in or your access to this website (either in part or as a whole) for any reason whatever.

You further agree that –

under no circumstances whatsoever, including as a result of our negligent acts or omissions or those of our servants, agents or contractors or other persons for whom in law we may be liable, shall we or our servants, agents or contractors or other persons for whom in law we may be liable (in whose favour this constitutes a stipulatio alteri or stipulation for another), be liable for any direct, indirect, extrinsic, special, penal, punitive, exemplary or consequential loss, damage or damages of any kind whatsoever or howsoever caused (whether arising under contract, delict or otherwise and whether the loss was actually foreseen or reasonably foreseeable), including but not limited to any loss of profits, loss of revenue, loss of operation time, corruption or loss of information, content or data and/or loss of contracts sustained by you, your directors, servants, dealers or customers, resulting from your use of or inability to use this website;

you waive and may not bring any claims or legal action arising out of, or related to, the use of this website, the content or these terms of use more than 1 (one) year after the cause of action relating to such claim or legal action arose.

Indemnity

You hereby indemnify us and our officers, directors, employees, servants, agents and/or contractors and/or other persons for whom in law we may be liable (in whose favour this constitutes a stipulatio alteri or stipulation for another) from any loss, damage, damages, liability, claim or demand due to or arising out of your use of this website or your breach of these terms of use.

We are not responsible for files and data residing on your account. You agree to take full responsibility for files and data transferred and to maintain all appropriate backup of files and data stored on our servers.

Rights infringment

If you are of the view that your rights have been infringed through the unlawful use of this website by registrants or third parties, you may address a complaint to us which satisfies the following requirements and/or contains the following information:

the full names and address of the complainant;

the written or electronic signature of the complainant;

identification of the right that has allegedly been infringed;

identification of the material or activity that is claimed to be the subject of unlawful activity;

the remedial action required to be taken by the service provider in respect of the complaint;

telephonic and electronic contact details, if any, of the complainant;

a statement that the complainant is acting in good faith;

a statement by the complainant that the information in the take-down notification is to his or her knowledge true and correct.

Please address your notifications to:

The Channel Manager
Email: [email protected]

We will investigate the complaint on receipt of a complete and properly formulated complaint notice and will take appropriate action where necessary.  Such action may include, but is not limited to, removing the offending content from this website and/or suspension or termination of the offending registrant or third party.

Dealings with 3^rd parties

Links to and from this website from and to other websites belonging to or operated by 3^rd parties (“linked websites”) do not constitute our endorsement of such linked websites or their contents nor do we necessarily associate ourselves with their owners or operators.  You are solely responsible for identifying and familiarising yourself with any terms of use which will govern your relationship with such third party.

We have no control over linked websites and you agree that we are not responsible or liable for any content, information, goods or services available on or through any such linked websites or for any damage, damages or any other loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with your use of or reliance on any such content, information, goods or services available on or through any such linked websites. You agree that where you access linked websites, you do so entirely at your own risk.

Your interaction, correspondence or business dealings with 3^rd parties which are referred to or linked from or to this website is similarly entirely at your own risk and are solely between you and such 3^rd party including the acquisition, disposal, payment and delivery of any goods or services, and any terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with such interaction, correspondence or business dealings.

Arbitration

If any dispute arises between us regarding any provision of these terms of use, or its application or termination, then we agree that we will attempt to resolve our dispute informally by means of joint co-operation or discussion between the parties directly involved in the dispute within 5 days after that dispute arises or such extended time period as we may agree to.

In the event we are unable to informally resolve our dispute, that dispute shall be finally resolved in accordance with the Rules of the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa by an arbitrator appointed by the Foundation.  Arbitration proceedings shall take place in Cape Town.

This clause shall constitute your irrevocable consent to the arbitration proceedings, and you shall not be entitled to withdraw your consent or to claim that you are not bound by this clause.  We may, at our discretion, waive this clause and permit our dispute to be resolved using an alternate dispute resolution process.

Any award that may be made by the arbitrator -

shall be final and binding;

will be carried into effect; and

may be made an order of any court to whose jurisdiction the parties to the dispute are subject.

Notwithstanding the aforegoing, nothing in this clause shall be construed as precluding either party from applying to court for a temporary interdict or other relief of an urgent nature, pending the decision of the award of the arbitrator in terms of this clause.

This clause is severable from the rest of this agreement and shall therefore remain of full force and effect even if this agreement is terminated or cancelled for any reason at any time.

Governing law and jurisdiction

This website is controlled and maintained from our facilities in the Western Cape province of the Republic of South Africa. You irrevocably agree that the law of the Republic of South Africa shall govern this website and these terms of use.

You consent to the jurisdiction of the Western Cape High Court, Cape Town, South Africa in respect of disputes which may arise out of your access to this website and these terms of use.

You also irrevocably and unconditionally consent to the jurisdiction of the Magistrates Court even though the value of a claim which we may have against you may exceed the ordinary monetary jurisdiction of the Magistrates Court.

Legal service of documents and notices

We choose the addresses below for all communication purposes under these terms of use, whether in respect of court process, notices or other documents or communications of whatsoever nature.

We may monitor your communications

Subject to the provisions of the RIC Act, you agree to permit us to intercept, block, filter, read, delete, disclose and use all communications you send or post to or using this website and/or to our staff and/or employees.

You agree and acknowledge that the consent you provide above satisfies the “writing” requirement specified in the ECT Act and in the RIC Act.

Severability

Any provision in these terms of use which is or may become illegal, invalid or unenforceable shall be ineffective to the extent of such prohibition or unenforceability and shall be treated pro non scripto (as if it were not written) and severed from these terms of use, without invalidating the remaining provisions of these terms of use.

Termination

If you breach any of these terms of use, we may immediately, automatically and without notice to you, terminate your use of and access to our website, and/or prohibit your future access to use of our website, and/or take appropriate legal action against you (including without limitation, applying for urgent and/or interim relief or claiming damages), without incurring any liability to you of any nature whatsoever and howsoever arising, and all of our rights in this regard are expressly reserved. We do not refund money for subscriptions cancelled, subject to the clause below.

Refunds:

A subscription can be cancelled within 7 calendar days to qualify for a refund. This 7-day period is calculated from the first day of subscribing and gaining access to the premium content, irrespective of the time of day that said subscription is activated. Refunds can only be granted if the transaction was made using a credit card. No refunds are given for sale of books, CDs or downloads.

To claim a refund, send a written request to [email protected], stating your name, username and the email address used to register. Please give a reason for terminating your subscription to allow us to improve our service. This notice must reach Ancestry24 by 17h00 SA Time on the 7th day after activating the subscription, as defined above.

Disclosures required by the ECT Act

Access to the content on or through this website and this website itself are classified as “electronic transactions” in terms of the ECT Act and therefore you have the rights detailed in Chapter VII of the ECT Act and we have the duty to the disclose the following information:

Our full name and legal status:		Naspers Limited. Public company incorporated under the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Registration number:  1925/001431/06
Street address:		20th Floor, Naspers Building, 40 Heerengracht, Cape Town, 8000
Postal address:		20th Floor, Naspers Building, 40 Heerengracht, Cape Town, 8000
Physical address for receipt of legal service:		20th Floor, Naspers Building, 40 Heerengracht, Cape Town, 8000
Main business:		Naspers is a multinational media company with principal operations in electronic media and print media.
Website address:		http://www.naspers.com
Official email address:		[email protected]
Membership of self-regulatory or accreditation bodies:		None
Codes of conduct to which we subscribe:
Governing terms of use:		These terms of use.
Manual in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000:		Our Promotion of Access to Information Act manual can be found here.
Management:		Details of our management team can be found here.
Costs associated with the access to and use of this website:		Costs are detailed on this website.
Dispute resolution:		See above.
Cooling off period:		Not applicable.
Complaints process:		See clause above.

General terms

You agree that:

you are bound by these terms of use;

this agreement shall be deemed to have been concluded in Cape Town at the time you access this website for the first time;

data messages addressed by you to us shall be deemed to have been –

received if and when responded to;

sent by you within the geographical boundaries of the Republic of South Africa;

you shall be deemed to have been received data messages we address to you as detailed in section 23(b) of the ECT Act;

electronic signatures, encryption and/or authentication are not required for valid electronic communications between you and us;

as well as warrant that data messages that you send to us from a computer, IP address or mobile device normally used by you, was sent and/or authorised by you personally.

These terms of use constitute the whole agreement between you and us relating to your access to and use of this website.

No indulgence, extension of time, waiver or relaxation of any of the provisions or terms of these terms of use which we may show, grant or allow you shall operate as an estoppel against us in respect of its rights under these terms of use nor shall it constitute a waiver by us of any of our rights and we shall not thereby be prejudiced or stopped from exercising any of its rights against you which may have arisen in the past or which might arise in the future.

Nothing in this agreement shall create any relationship of agency, partnership or joint venture between you and Naspers and you shall not hold itself out as the agent or partner of Naspers or as being in a joint venture with Naspers.