Effective Date: 1 February 2026 | Jurisdiction: Republic of South Africa | Governing Legislation: Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA) and the POPIA Regulations (GN R1383 of 2018); Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA)
This document explains how to exercise your right to deletion of personal data, your right to withdraw consent, and your right to object to processing under POPIA. These rights vest in you by operation of law — they are not a platform courtesy — and HeadsUp is legally obliged to give effect to them. This document should be read alongside our Privacy Policy, which explains how your personal information is collected, processed, and shared, and our Terms of Service, which governs acceptable use of the platform.
POPIA (Protection of Personal Information Act) grants data subjects specific rights that are often confused with one another. The three distinct rights, often misunderstood or used interchangeably, are:
Right to Access Information (Section 23) — The right to ask HeadsUp to confirm, free of charge, whether it holds personal information about you. What it includes: requesting a record or description of the personal information held, including details of all third parties who have or had access to it. Common confusion: This right is not limited to obtaining a copy of the data — it also includes verifying whether the information exists and who has seen it.
Right to Request Correction, Destruction, or Deletion (Section 24) — The right to request that HeadsUp correct, delete, or destroy personal information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading, or obtained unlawfully, including records that HeadsUp is no longer authorised to retain. What it includes: correction of factual inaccuracies; deletion or destruction of data no longer necessary for the original purpose; and, where applicable, notification to any third parties to whom your information was previously disclosed. Common confusion: This is not an absolute right to be forgotten. Under POPIA, it is more specifically a right to request deletion when the information is no longer necessary for its original purpose or has been unlawfully processed.
Right to Object to Processing (Section 11(3)) — The right to object, on reasonable grounds relating to your particular situation, to the processing of your personal information. What it includes: the right to object at any time to processing for direct marketing purposes (in which case HeadsUp must comply immediately and at no cost to you); and the right to withdraw consent previously given for processing. Common confusion: This right is distinct from the right under Section 24 to correct or delete data. Objecting to processing stops future processing — it does not automatically correct or delete existing data records. A separate request under Section 24 is required to address those records.
These are distinct requests with different legal outcomes. Section 2 covers deletion and correction requests under Section 24. Section 3 covers consent withdrawal and objection to processing under Section 11(3). Section 4A covers the formal procedure for objecting to processing on legitimate interest grounds. Use the procedure that corresponds to the right you wish to exercise.
Email info@headsup.community with:
To protect you against unauthorised deletion requests, we may ask you to confirm your registered phone number or email address before processing your request. We will not action a deletion request we cannot verify.