Privacy Policy

This policy explains how Hive Hosting ("we", "us") collects and uses personal information when you visit https://hivehosting.co.za, create an account, buy hosting, domains or other services, or contact us. We follow the Data Protection Act, 2024 of Malawi and, for customers in South Africa, the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).

1. Who is responsible for your information

Hive Hosting, Ayokar House, Upper Floor. For anything about your personal information, write to support@hivehosting.co.za.

2. What we collect

• Account details — your name, email address, phone number, and if you give them, company, address, city, country and ID or passport number (we ask for ID only where a domain registry or the law requires it).
• Order and billing records — what you bought, invoices, receipts, payment references, your account balance, and screenshots or proof of payment you upload when you pay manually.
• Payment details — when you pay online, PayChangu handles your card or mobile money details. We receive only the result, the amount, a reference and the mobile number used. We never see or store your full card number or PIN.
• Support and chat — messages, tickets, attachments and Bee Chat conversations.
• Technical and security data — your IP address, the pages you open, browser and device type, the approximate country of your IP address, sign-in attempts and blocked requests. We use this to keep the site safe (Site Guard) and to count visits.
• Hosting content — the files, emails and databases you put on your hosting account. They are yours; we only access them to provide the service, fix a problem you report, or when the law requires it.

3. Why we use it (and our legal reason)

• To provide what you ordered — set up and run hosting, register and renew domains, send invoices, receipts and service emails (performance of our contract with you).
• To take and check payments and to keep financial records the law requires (contract and legal obligation).
• To protect you and the site — fraud checks, blocking attacks, two-step sign-in codes (legitimate interest).
• To answer you when you contact us or open a ticket (contract and legitimate interest).
• To send optional emails such as early renewal reminders and news — only as long as you have not switched them off (consent or legitimate interest; you can say no at any time).

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for advertising profiles.

4. Who we share it with

• PayChangu — to process online payments.
• Domain registrars and registries (for example Namecheap and the registry of each extension) — to register and renew your domains. Registries may publish some contact details in the public WHOIS unless privacy protection is available and switched on.
• Our email delivery provider — to send you emails.
• Google — only if you choose to connect Google Drive for backups; we then send your backups to your own Drive.
• An IP-location service (country.is) — receives IP addresses that touched our security systems so we can show their country.
• Authorities — when the law requires it, or to protect our rights, our customers or the public.

Some of these providers keep data outside Malawi or South Africa. We use providers that protect personal information to a standard similar to the law here.

5. How long we keep it

• Account details — while you have an account, and up to 12 months after it closes.
• Invoices, receipts and payment records — as long as tax and accounting law requires (usually 7 years).
• Visit statistics — about 13 months. Security logs — about 4 months.
• Hosting content — deleted after the account is closed or removed, as explained in our Terms of Service.

6. How we protect it

We use encrypted connections (HTTPS), hashed passwords, encrypted storage for keys and secrets, two-step sign-in for staff, access limited to people who need it, and automated attack blocking. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your information we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

7. Your rights

You can ask us to: tell you what personal information we hold about you and give you a copy; correct it; delete it (unless we must keep it, for example invoices); stop or limit how we use it; and stop sending you optional emails. You can also object to processing based on our legitimate interest. Write to support@hivehosting.co.za. We answer within 30 days and may ask you to prove who you are first.

If you are not happy with our answer, you may complain to the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA), the data protection authority in Malawi, or, in South Africa, to the Information Regulator.

8. Cookies

See our Cookie Policy.

9. Children

Our services are for people aged 18 or over. We do not knowingly collect information from children.

10. Changes

We may update this policy. The date at the top shows when it last changed. For important changes we will also tell account holders by email or on their dashboard.