We respect your privacy. This policy explains what personal information Grid3D Community (community.grid3d.co.za) collects, why we collect it, who can see it, and your rights. We aim to follow the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA) of South Africa.
Who is responsible
Grid3D, Aggeneys, Northern Cape, South Africa, is the responsible party for this site. The site owner acts as information officer. Contact: jacques@grid3d.co.za.
What we collect
- Account details (required): username, email address, password (stored securely, never in plain text), a display name, and your agreement to the Rules, Terms and this policy. Without these we cannot create your account.
- Profile information (optional): photo, cover image, location, printers, software, bio, links to your profiles on other 3D printing sites (such as Creality Cloud, MakerWorld or Printables) and similar. You choose what to add, and you control who sees each field in your profile settings. Leaving them empty does not affect your account.
- Your content: forum topics, replies, photos and activity updates. These are public unless a forum is private.
- Private messages, friend connections and group memberships: private messages are not public, but they are stored on our server, and the site administrator can read them if that is needed to investigate abuse or a complaint.
- Photos: photos added to activity updates are resized and their hidden camera data (such as GPS location) is removed. Photos attached to forum posts may still contain this hidden data, so turn off location tagging on your camera or remove it before posting if you do not want to share it.
- Technical data: IP address, browser details and login activity, used for security and spam protection.
- Cookies: we use only essential cookies. These keep you logged in, remember simple choices such as which activity filter you picked, and support security features such as login protection. They last until you log out, or for a limited time (up to about a year). We do not use advertising, analytics or tracking cookies. You can block or delete cookies in your browser, but you may not be able to log in if you do.
- Profile pictures from Gravatar: if you have not uploaded a photo, the site may show the picture linked to your email address on Gravatar (a service run by Automattic in the United States). Loading it shares your IP address and a scrambled version of your email address with Gravatar.
Why we use it
- To run your account and the community.
- To send notification and account emails, such as replies to your posts, messages, friend requests and password resets.
- To keep the site safe, stop spam and investigate abuse.
- To improve the site.
We use your information only for these purposes. We do not send marketing emails. If we ever start a newsletter or similar, we will ask for your permission first, you can say no, and every message will have an unsubscribe link. You can switch off notification emails in your notification settings, and each email has an unsubscribe link.
Who sees it
Public content is visible to anyone, including search engines, and may be copied by others. Deleting it from the site may not remove copies held elsewhere. Private messages are visible only to the people in the conversation, and to the administrator as described above. We do not sell your information. We share it only with service providers needed to run the site, or when the law requires it:
- our web hosting provider and email delivery;
- Dropbox (United States), which stores our site backups, and these contain member data;
- Wordfence (Defiant, United States), a security service that protects the site;
- Gravatar (United States), for profile pictures as described above.
Transfers outside South Africa
Some of the providers above store or process information outside South Africa. We choose providers that publish privacy and security commitments. By creating an account you consent to these transfers, which POPIA section 72 allows.
How long we keep it
We keep your account while it is active. If you delete your account we remove your personal details. Your username may remain on past posts unless we are asked to anonymise them. Website backups are kept for about four weeks and database backups for about 14 days, then deleted automatically, so removed information can remain in backups until then. Security logs are kept for a limited period.
Your rights
You can see, correct or delete your information from your profile settings, or ask us to do it by emailing jacques@grid3d.co.za. You can withdraw your consent, and you may object to how we use your information. We aim to reply within 30 days. If you are unhappy, you can complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za, telephone 010 023 5200, Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191 (inforegulator.org.za).
Our PAIA Manual explains how to ask for access to records we hold.
Security
We use a firewall, malware scanning, spam protection and regular backups. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a strong, unique password. If we find that your personal information has been accessed by someone who should not have it, we will tell the Information Regulator and you, by email or on this site, as soon as reasonably possible.
Children
POPIA treats anyone under 18 as a child. This site is for people aged 18 and over only, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. Creating an account confirms that you are 18 or older. If we find or are told that an account belongs to someone under 18, we will suspend or remove it and delete the information we hold for it. If you believe a child has joined, please email jacques@grid3d.co.za.
Changes
We may update this policy and will show the date below.
Last updated 31 October 2026. This is a plain-language starting point and should be reviewed by a legal professional.