Data Deletion

Under Section 24 of the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA), you have the right to request that we delete or de-identify your personal information. This page explains exactly how to do that on INK.D, and what happens afterward.

1. Delete Your Own Account (Self-Service)

The fastest way to delete your data is directly in your account settings:

2. Request Deletion Without Self-Service Access

If you cannot access your account (e.g. you've lost access to your email, or you interacted with us without creating an account), email our Information Officer directly:

• —Email: dpo@inkdeposit.com — please include the email address or phone number associated with your data so we can locate it
• —Verification: We will verify your identity before actioning the request, to prevent someone else from deleting your data
• —Response time: We will confirm receipt within 5 business days and complete the deletion within 30 days, as required by POPIA

3. What We Cannot Delete Immediately (Legal Retention Exceptions)

POPIA allows — and in some cases South African law requires — certain records to be retained even after you request deletion. This matches our Privacy Policy, Section 4 (Data Retention):

• —Booking records: Retained for 5 years for financial compliance and dispute resolution, even after account deletion
• —Payment and payout records: Retained for 7 years as required by the Tax Administration Act — these are anonymised from your profile but the transaction record itself is kept
• —Audit logs: Retained for 3 years for security and fraud-investigation purposes
• —Legal holds: Any data subject to an active legal dispute, investigation, or court order is retained until that matter is resolved

Everything else — your profile, bio, portfolio images, saved preferences, and login credentials — is deleted immediately upon confirmed request.

4. What Happens to Data Shared With Others

• —Contact details shared with an artist/client for a specific completed booking are not retroactively removed from their own records — this mirrors how the information was legitimately shared with them at the time
• —Reviews you have left remain unless they also identify you personally, in which case we will anonymise the review rather than delete it entirely (to preserve the integrity of the record for the artist)
• —Design images uploaded to InkScan are already deleted automatically within 24 hours of analysis — see Privacy Policy Section 8

5. Third-Party Data

Deleting your INK.D account does not automatically delete data held by third-party processors we use (PayFast, OpenAI, Resend, Supabase, Google Maps Platform). Where we are the controller of that data, we will instruct deletion on your behalf where technically possible. For services where you have a direct relationship (e.g. your own PayFast wallet), you will need to contact that provider separately.

6. Confirmation

Once deletion is complete, we will send a confirmation email to the address on file (or the one you provided in your request) confirming what was deleted and what, if anything, was retained under Section 3 above.

7. Complaints

If you are unsatisfied with how we handled your deletion request, you may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa: inforeg@justice.gov.za, 012 406 4818.