Privacy Policy

Last updated 7 September 2026

1. Who is responsible for your information

AuPairMatch is the responsible party for the personal information described here, as that term is used in the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA). You can reach us through the contact form.

2. What we collect

Au pairs. First name and surname initial, date of birth, gender, email address, phone numbers and messaging handles, the suburb and city you live in, the days and hours you are available, the ages of children you will look after, expected rates, languages, driving and childcare experience, first aid and qualifications, education, what you write about yourself, a photograph if you upload one, and the reference details you choose to give us.

Families. Title, first names and surname initial, email address, phone numbers, the suburb and city you live in, the hours you need, the ages and genders of your children, what you are looking for in an au pair, approximate salary, and a photograph if you upload one.

Everyone. Your password, held only as a cryptographic hash that cannot be read back. Anything you type into the contact form or the chat assistant.

3. Information that needs your explicit permission

Some of the fields above are what POPIA calls special personal information, which may only be processed with your explicit consent. On this site that means:

• Religion or spiritual practice. Optional. It exists because some families and au pairs prefer a shared background. Leave it blank and nothing is affected.
• Your photograph and, for au pairs, your date of birth. A photograph can reveal things about you that you have not written down. Your age is shown on your public profile.

Filling one of these fields in is your consent to publish it under the rules in this policy. You can remove any of them at any time by editing your profile or asking us.

Families may state a preferred gender for an au pair. We allow it because it is what families ask for, but you should know that a hiring preference of that kind can amount to unfair discrimination under the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, and the decision to use it is the family’s.

4. Why we use it, and on what basis

• To show your listing to the people it is meant for. Without it there is no service — this is necessary to perform our agreement with you.
• To let members contact each other once a family has paid to unlock contact details.
• To run the site — signing you in, keeping your draft while you fill in the form, answering your questions, and keeping the place secure. This is our legitimate interest in operating a working service.
• Because we have to — some records must be kept for tax and legal reasons.

We do not use your information to advertise to you, and we do not sell it.

5. Who can see what

Your profile — first name, surname initial, age, area, availability and what you have written about yourself — can be seen by anyone browsing the site, though signed-out visitors only see a sample and a shortened version of your written answers.

Your contact details are different. Email address, phone numbers and messaging handles are held apart from the rest of your profile and are hidden until a family holds a paid Connect membership. This is enforced in the database itself, not merely hidden in the page. Every time contact details are revealed, we record who viewed whose and when.

We never publish your full surname. Reference contact details are shown only to a family with a paid membership.

6. Who else processes it

We use a small number of service providers, each of which only does what we ask:

• Supabase — database, accounts and file storage. Hosted in Ireland.
• Vercel — website hosting and delivery.
• Amazon Web Services (SES) — sending email such as sign-up confirmation. Hosted in Sweden.
• DeepSeek — the chat assistant. What you type into the chat is sent to DeepSeek to produce a reply. Do not put personal details into the chat; it is there to answer questions about how AuPairMatch works, and the assistant will tell you the same thing if you try.
• A payment provider, when paid memberships are processed. Card details go to them and never reach us.

7. Your information leaves South Africa

Our database is in Ireland and our email is sent from Sweden. That is a cross-border transfer under section 72 of POPIA. Both countries are subject to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which provides protection substantially similar to POPIA, so the transfer is permitted on that basis. Some providers are companies based elsewhere, including the United States and China, and may access data to run their service.

8. How long we keep it

Your profile stays while your account is open. Close your account and we remove your listing and contact details. Part-completed sign-up forms are discarded shortly after they are abandoned. Records of payments are kept for five years because tax law requires it. Logs of who viewed whose contact details are kept while your account is open, so that we can answer you if you ask who has seen your number.

9. Your rights

Under POPIA you may:

• ask what we hold about you, and get a copy
• have anything wrong corrected
• have your information deleted, and your account closed
• withdraw a consent you gave, such as for religion
• object to how we are using your information

Ask through the contact form and we will respond within a reasonable time. If you are not satisfied, you may complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa at inforegulator.org.za.

10. Security, honestly stated

Passwords are hashed, traffic is encrypted, and access to contact details is enforced by the database rather than by the website. No system is perfect. If personal information is ever compromised, we will tell the people affected and the Information Regulator, as POPIA requires.

11. Children

You must be 18 or older to register. Families describe their children’s ages and genders so that an au pair knows what the job involves. Do not give us a child’s name, photograph, school or anything else identifying — it is not needed and we do not want it.

12. Cookies

We use cookies only to keep you signed in and to hold your place in the sign-up form while you complete it. There is no advertising or third-party tracking on this site.

13. Changes

If we change this policy in a way that affects you, we will say so on the site before it takes effect.