Effective from: 15 September 2026

1. Who we are

This website is operated by Hyperclear Management Services (Pty) Ltd, trading as The Bottom Line ("The Bottom Line", "we", "us", "our"). We are part of the Hyperclear Group.

Questions about this notice, and requests about your personal information, go to our Information Officer at hello@thebottomline.global.

2. What this notice covers

This notice explains what personal information we collect when you use this website, why we collect it, who we share it with, how long we keep it and what rights you have. It applies whenever you browse the site, complete the AI Readiness Assessment or contact us.

We process personal information in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA).

This site is intended for people aged 18 and over.

3. What we collect and why

3.1 The AI Readiness Assessment

When you complete the assessment we collect your name, your email address, your answers to the six questions, your result, and a record of the consent you gave. If you tick the optional marketing box, we also record that.

We use this to show you your result, email you a copy and follow up if your answers suggest we can help. Our lawful basis is your consent, given by ticking the required box before you see your result.

You can complete the assessment and get your result without agreeing to marketing. The two tick boxes are separate.

3.2 When you contact us

If you email us, we collect your name, your email address and whatever you choose to tell us. We use it to answer you. Our lawful basis is your request and our legitimate interest in responding to enquiries.

3.3 When you become a client

If we work together, we collect what we need to run the engagement and invoice you: contact details for you and your team, company and VAT details, and the business information we need to do the work. Our lawful basis is the performance of our contract with you and our legal obligations under tax and company law.

Where an engagement gives us access to your systems or data, that access is governed by our agreement with you, not by this notice.

3.4 When you attend a course

If you book onto one of our courses, we collect your name, contact details, the organisation you work for, payment confirmation and any feedback you give us. We use this to run the course and improve the next one.

3.5 When you visit the site

Our web host and analytics tools record technical information such as your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you visit, how long you stay and the site you came from. On its own this is broad and statistical. Combined with information you give us it may identify you, so we treat it as personal information.

4. Cookies

A cookie is a small file a website stores on your device. We use:

• Strictly necessary cookies: which make the site work, including remembering where you are in the assessment.
• Analytics cookies: from Google Analytics, which show us how the site is used so we can improve it. These only load if you accept them in the cookie banner.

You can change your choice at any time through the cookie banner, and you can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Google's opt-out tool is at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

5. Who we share it with

We share personal information only with:

• Service providers who process it for us: Microsoft (email and file storage), Microsoft Azure managed within the Hyperclear Group (website hosting), Brevo (sending your results and, if you opted in, our emails), Google Analytics (site statistics) and Notion (managing client work). Each may use the information only to provide its service to us.
• Other Hyperclear Group companies: where a group function such as IT or finance needs it.
• Professional advisers: such as our accountants and lawyers, where they need it to advise us.
• Authorities: where the law requires it.

We don't sell your personal information, and we don't share it with anyone for their own marketing.

6. Information stored outside South Africa

Some of the providers above store information outside South Africa, including in the European Union and the United States. We only use providers that protect personal information to a standard comparable to POPIA, as section 72 of POPIA requires.

7. How long we keep it

After these periods we delete the information or make it anonymous.

8. How we use AI

AI is what we work with, so we're clear about how it touches your information.

• Your result in the assessment is worked out by a fixed scoring rule on the page. No AI service sees your answers.
• No decision that affects you legally or significantly is made automatically. A person reads every enquiry before we respond.
• We use AI tools in our own work, and we don't put a client's confidential information into an AI tool without that client's agreement.

9. Direct marketing

If you tick the optional box, we'll send you occasional practical content about AI and operations, plus news about our courses and services.

Every email has an unsubscribe link. You can also reply and ask us to stop, or email hello@thebottomline.global. We'll act on it straight away, at no cost to you.

If you're already a client, we may tell you about similar services of ours, and you can opt out of those at any time too.

10. How we protect it

We keep personal information on access-controlled systems and limit access to the people who need it. Our security is managed within the Hyperclear Group.

No system is completely secure, and we can't guarantee information is safe in transit over the internet, but we take its protection seriously.

11. Your rights

You have the right to:

• ask whether we hold personal information about you, free of charge
• see what we hold
• correct anything that's wrong or incomplete
• have it deleted, where we have no continuing reason or legal duty to keep it
• object to direct marketing, and to processing based on our legitimate interests, at any time
• withdraw your consent at any time, which doesn't affect what we did before you withdrew it
• complain to us, and then to the Information Regulator

Email hello@thebottomline.global and we'll respond within 30 days.

12. Complaints

Please come to us first at hello@thebottomline.global. We'd rather fix it than have you escalate it.

13. Changes to this notice

We may update this notice. The current version always sits at this address with its effective date at the top. If a change materially affects information you've already given us, we'll tell you by email.