Yip © — Participation and privacy
Last updated: 18 October 2026. Registration notice version: 2026-10-18-minimal.
Who is responsible for your information
Platinum Publishers (Pty) Ltd, trading as Platinum Weekly, is responsible for your Yip personal information. Our office is at 221 Joubert Street, Rustenburg, 0299, South Africa. Contact us about privacy at news@platinumweekly.co.za or 014 592 9686.
Who can participate
You must be 18 or older, register and verify your email before commenting, replying or reacting. You may use a pseudonym. Do not impersonate another person or misrepresent yourself as a member of our staff.
What other readers see
Your chosen display name, uploaded profile photo, comments, replies and reaction totals are public. A profile photo can identify you even if your display name is a pseudonym. Only upload an image you have permission to use. Comments may be shared through links on WhatsApp, email, Facebook and X.
Your private information
We collect your full name, email address, cellphone number, chosen display name and profile photo directly from you to create, verify, administer and protect your Yip account, support readers and manage participation. Your registration name, email and cellphone number are not published in comments or public sharing links. Registration is your choice, but these fields are required to participate; without them, you can still read the articles but cannot comment, reply or react. This is a service requirement, not a legal requirement to provide those details.
We do not sell your registration details or share them for marketing. Access is limited to authorised personnel and hosting, email and technical service providers supporting Yip. We may also disclose information where legally required. Registration alone does not subscribe you to advertising messages or newsletters. If you choose the separate optional email consent box and verify your email, Platinum Weekly may send local news, competition invitations and occasional promotions by email. This choice does not authorise SMS or WhatsApp marketing, or emails from other publications. You can change it in your reader account, use the unsubscribe link in these emails without signing in, or contact us. Essential sign-in and account messages are separate. A competition invitation is not an entry; each competition has its own entry process, terms and privacy information. Your chosen name, photo and contributions are public as explained above.
Where your registration details are kept
The website account retains your allocated registration number, public nickname, encrypted email address, profile-photo reference and the consent, verification and security records needed to run Yip. Your full registration name and cellphone number are not stored in the account table. They are included with your other submitted details in an encrypted registration attachment emailed to our authorised publisher for an offline record. Only the publisher-held private key can unlock that saved attachment.
An encrypted attachment may be held temporarily in a delivery queue. Its content is cleared from that queue when the mail service accepts it; failed deliveries remain encrypted for retry or investigation. Mailboxes and backups may still retain encrypted copies. Encryption of saved records does not eliminate the possibility of interception by someone who controls the registration server while information is being submitted. Reader sign-in emails still require the website to process your email address.
Email consent records
We retain your email choice, consent wording version, time and source, linked to your registration number. Withdrawal stops future optional messages and does not close your account. We retain a limited consent and suppression record to demonstrate your choice and prevent accidental resubscription.
Security and retention
Account contact details are encrypted in storage. We keep hashed network identifiers and limited activity records to prevent abuse. A necessary session cookie keeps you signed in. Profile photos are resized and re-encoded before display. We keep account data while your account is active and as needed for moderation, security and legal obligations. Expired sign-in tokens and rate-limit records are cleared regularly.
Conversation rules
Disagreement is welcome. Threats, harassment, hateful abuse, impersonation, spam, unlawful material and disclosure of other people’s private information are not. Do not post allegations you cannot substantiate. We may hide contributions or suspend accounts. Replies to a hidden comment may remain visible. You retain your rights in your contribution and give us permission to display it as part of this conversation.
Comment safeguards and editorial alerts
Comments and replies are limited to 300 words and displayed as plain text. Detected email addresses, telephone numbers and website addresses are replaced with XXX. Detection is not perfect: never include private information in a comment. The original message containing detected contact details is encrypted and sent to Platinum Weekly’s designated editorial review inbox for confidential review. After an alert has been reviewed and accepted by the mail service, its separately stored original is cleared after 90 days; mailbox retention is handled by the publisher.
Editable keyword lists flag possible profanity, hate, crime-related wording and other newspaper references. A match is a request for human review, not proof of misconduct. Word lists can miss slang, context and disguised wording, and can flag innocent discussion. Staff may hide or restore comments. Posting limits, duplicate detection and session protections reduce abuse.
English translations
When automatic translation is enabled, the public text with detected contact details removed is sent to Google Cloud Translation to identify its language and produce English. Private registration details and the unredacted moderation copy are not sent for translation. The original public comment remains, with an English version labelled Translated below it. Machine translations can be inaccurate, especially for slang or mixed-language text. Translation is not yet connected during the initial pilot.
Your choices
You can update your public display name and photo from your account. To request access, correction or deletion, object to processing, withdraw consent or raise a concern, email news@platinumweekly.co.za from your registered address. We may need to verify ownership before acting. You may withdraw consent at any time; this does not undo earlier lawful processing. If we can no longer process information needed for your account, participation may end. Information may still be kept or processed where the law permits or requires it.
You may complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa): complaints and services portal, enquiries@inforegulator.org.za, telephone 010 023 5200.