Privacy Policy.

Bigmouth Studios (Pty) Ltd operates this website and provides audio production and voiceover services. Andrew Sutherland Voiceover is a brand of Bigmouth Studios (Pty) Ltd.

This policy explains how we handle personal information when you visit our website, contact us or work with us. We process personal information in accordance with South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013, commonly known as POPIA.

Our privacy contact is:

Information Officer: Andrew Sutherland
Email: info@bigmouthstudios.co.za
Address: 22 Buckingham Avenue, Craighall Park, Randburg, South Africa

When you contact us or commission work, we receive the information you choose to provide. Depending on the enquiry or project, this can include:

• Your name, email address, telephone number and business details.
• Project briefs, scripts, instructions and correspondence.
• Audio recordings and other production material.
• Information needed to quote, arrange, deliver and administer the work.

We generally receive this information directly from you. We can also receive relevant project information from a client, supplier, voice artist or agent involved in a commissioned project.

Please only send information that’s relevant to the work. If you supply someone else’s personal information, you must have an appropriate lawful basis to provide it.

Providing information for an enquiry is voluntary. If you don’t provide the details needed to respond, prepare a quote or perform the work, we might be unable to assist.

Our website’s email links open your own email application. You decide whether to send the message.

Clicking an email link doesn’t automatically send an enquiry to us. Once you send an email, your message, contact details and any attachments pass through your email provider and our business email service, Google Workspace.

We use the information to respond and deal with the enquiry or requested work. The website doesn’t submit enquiry information to a website database. Emails received by us are generally retained in our email archive, as explained in section 9.

We process relevant information to answer enquiries, prepare quotations, arrange sessions, communicate with people involved in a project and deliver the agreed services. We also process information where necessary to administer the business, protect our systems, resolve disputes or meet legal obligations.

Depending on the circumstances, our lawful basis is taking steps towards or performing a contract, complying with a legal obligation, pursuing a legitimate interest permitted by POPIA, or obtaining consent where it’s required.

Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it. Withdrawal doesn’t affect processing that was lawful before you withdrew consent.

Andrew Sutherland handles enquiries and client information.

Where a particular job requires it, relevant production information or material can be provided to suppliers, voice artists or their agents engaged for that job. Disclosure must be limited to what they need to perform their part of the work.

We also use:

• Google Workspace for business email.
• Xneelo for website hosting.

These providers process information necessary to deliver their services. Providers processing personal information on our behalf must protect its confidentiality and security and comply with applicable processing requirements.

We don’t sell personal information or make our private contact lists available to third parties for their own marketing.

We can disclose information where disclosure is required by law or otherwise lawfully necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal rights.

Google Workspace can process information in countries where Google or its service providers operate. Its published data processing terms include commitments concerning security, confidentiality and the use of subcontractors.

Any transfer of personal information outside South Africa must meet POPIA’s requirements. Depending on the circumstances, these require adequate protection through applicable law or binding contractual safeguards, or another permitted basis for the transfer.

You can contact our Information Officer for information about the arrangements relevant to your personal information.

We don’t use Google Analytics, advertising pixels or behavioural advertising tools on this website.

The website uses temporary browser session storage to manage navigation between the Bigmouth Studios and Andrew Sutherland Voiceover sections. That function doesn’t store your enquiry details.

Some pages load fonts from Google Fonts. Your browser connects to Google’s servers to obtain those fonts, which involves sending technical connection information, including your IP address.

Our hosting infrastructure also processes technical information needed to deliver website pages and audio files and protect the service. Hosting records can include connection and access logs. These are separate from information you send in an enquiry.

If you follow a link to another website or use an external messaging service, that provider’s privacy terms apply to its handling of your information.

Sending us an enquiry doesn’t automatically subscribe you to marketing communications.

Any direct marketing must comply with POPIA, including its requirements for consent where applicable and the right to object to further marketing. You can ask us to stop using your contact details for marketing at any time.

An objection to marketing doesn’t prevent communications needed to respond to your enquiry or carry out work you’ve requested.

Email correspondence

Emails sent to us are generally retained in our Google Workspace email archive. Archived correspondence can contain personal information and attachments.

Retention must remain necessary for a lawful purpose. Relevant purposes can include dealing with enquiries, maintaining records of project instructions and approvals, managing an ongoing client relationship, meeting legal obligations or resolving disputes.

We don’t apply the two-year production backup period automatically to all email correspondence. However, emails and attachments must be deleted or de-identified once there’s no longer a lawful reason to retain them. Keeping material in an email archive doesn’t remove this requirement.

Completed client work

Completed client work is backed up and retained for two years. At the end of that period, personal information in the production archive must be deleted or de-identified unless further retention is lawfully required or justified.

Legally required records

The two-year production backup period doesn’t replace retention requirements for tax, accounting or other legally required business records. Those records must be kept for the applicable statutory period.

Provider backups and technical records

Email, hosting logs and provider backups have their own deletion processes. Deleting information from an active system doesn’t necessarily remove every backup copy immediately. Information remaining in backups remains subject to applicable confidentiality, security and retention requirements.

We generally deal with a parent or guardian where a project involves someone under 18, and we limit the information collected to what’s necessary for that project.

A recording that identifies a child can itself be personal information. Where we need to process a child’s personal information, we require the necessary authorisation from a legally competent parent or guardian, unless another lawful authorisation applies.

We don’t submit client scripts or recordings to AI transcription, AI audio processing, voice cloning or model-training services.

We’re responsible for taking reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against loss, unauthorised access, disclosure and unlawful processing.

Access must be limited to people and service providers who need it for an authorised purpose.

If we become aware of a security compromise involving personal information, we’ll investigate and take the steps required by POPIA, including notifying the Information Regulator and affected people where required.

Subject to POPIA’s requirements and exceptions, you can:

• Ask whether we hold personal information about you and request access to it.
• Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Request deletion of information we’re no longer authorised to retain.
• Object to processing on the grounds allowed by POPIA.
• Withdraw consent where consent is the basis for processing.
• Object to the use of your information for direct marketing.
• Complain to the Information Regulator.

Contact info@bigmouthstudios.co.za to make a request. We’ll assist with the applicable process and explain any lawful reason that prevents us from fulfilling a request.

We can ask for information reasonably necessary to verify your identity before providing access or making changes.

You can raise a privacy concern with our Information Officer. You also have the right to complain directly to the Information Regulator.

Information Regulator, South Africa
Website: inforegulator.org.za
Complaints portal: eservices.inforegulator.org.za
POPIA complaints email: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
Telephone: 010 023 5200

The Regulator publishes its current complaint procedures on its website.

We’ll update this policy when our practices or applicable requirements change. The date above identifies the latest revision.

If we intend to use personal information for a materially different purpose, we’ll provide any further notice and obtain any consent required by law.