PAIA Manual
Prepared under section 51 of the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (as amended). Compiled: October 17, 2026. Revised: October 17, 2026.
Alarmcast is a podcast alarm clock app for Android, made by Bessie Operations, a sole proprietorship in South Africa. This manual tells you who to contact for information we hold, what records we keep, how to ask for them, and how we process personal information.
1. Abbreviations
- IO: Information Officer
- PAIA: Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (as amended)
- POPIA: Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013
- Regulator: the Information Regulator (South Africa)
2. What this manual is for
It helps you to see which records are available without a formal request, to know what other records we hold and how to ask for them, to contact our Information Officer, to find the Regulator's Guide to PAIA, and to understand how we process personal information: why, about whom, who receives it, whether it leaves South Africa, and how it is protected.
3. Contact details
- Head of the business and Information Officer: the sole proprietor of Bessie Operations, contacted at help@alarmcast.app
- Deputy Information Officer: none appointed
- Email for requests: help@alarmcast.app
- Telephone, postal and street address: on request, from help@alarmcast.app
- Website: alarmcast.app
4. The Regulator's Guide to PAIA
The Regulator has published a Guide on how to use PAIA and POPIA, in every official language and in braille. It explains the purpose of both Acts, how to request records from a public or private body, the help available from the Regulator, your remedies (including a complaint to the Regulator or an application to court), and the fees. You can get it from the Regulator's website, inforegulator.org.za, or ask our Information Officer for a copy.
5. Records available without a request
| Record | Where |
|---|---|
| Privacy policy | alarmcast.app/privacy |
| Terms of Use | alarmcast.app/terms |
| Gift code terms | alarmcast.app/gift |
| This manual | alarmcast.app/paia |
| Information about the app, its features and prices | alarmcast.app and the Google Play listing |
6. Records kept under other laws
| Records | Law |
|---|---|
| Tax records: income, expenses and returns | Income Tax Act 58 of 1962; Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011 |
| Records of personal information processed | POPIA |
| This manual and requests made under it | PAIA |
7. Subjects and categories of records we hold
| Subject | Categories of records |
|---|---|
| The app | Source code, release records, crash and error reports, app settings and product documents |
| Gift codes | Codes issued, how many times each was used, and redemption records (a scrambled phone ID, the redemption time and the end of the free year) |
| Podcasters we contact | Names and published email addresses, show details, emails sent and received, codes sent, and a do-not-contact list |
| Support | Emails from users and our replies |
| Finance | Google Play and advertising earnings reports, invoices, receipts and tax records |
| Suppliers | Accounts and agreements with service providers (hosting, email, app store, advertising) |
8. Processing of personal information
Purpose. To run the app and its features, keep alarms working, show ads in the free version, give out and check gift codes, offer podcasters a collaboration and answer them, answer support emails, and keep the financial and tax records the law requires. The privacy policy has the detail.
| Data subjects | Personal information |
|---|---|
| App users | Crash and error reports with device details and IP address; the advertising ID used by Google's ads; for a redeemed gift code, a scrambled phone ID with the redemption and end dates; podcast search terms sent to the search services |
| Podcasters we contact | Name, published email address, show details, emails and replies, codes sent |
| People who email us | Name, email address, and what they write |
| Suppliers | Contact and account details |
| Recipients | Information |
|---|---|
| Google (Firebase Crashlytics, AdMob, Google Play, Google Cloud) | Crash reports, advertising data, purchase status, gift code records |
| Apple and Podcast Index | Podcast search terms |
| Our email provider, and the software services we use to run and write our email | Emails with podcasters and users |
| The South African Revenue Service and others, when a law requires it | Financial and tax records |
Information sent outside South Africa. Yes. Google's services, our gift code server and our email services store data mainly in the United States. We send it only to established service providers whose terms bind them to keep it confidential and secure (POPIA section 72).
Security. All data travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS and TLS). Phone IDs from gift codes are stored only in scrambled, one-way form. Access to the data is limited to the people who run Alarmcast, and service passwords are kept in the operating system's secure keychain.
9. How to ask for a record
Send a request to the Information Officer at help@alarmcast.app on Form 2 of the PAIA Regulations (Request for Access to Record), available from the Regulator's website. Say which record you want, how you would like to receive it, and, if you are asking on someone else's behalf, in what capacity. Fees, where they apply, are those set by the PAIA Regulations. We answer within 30 days, as PAIA requires. A request for your own personal information under POPIA is free.
10. Where to find this manual
On this website, at alarmcast.app/paia; by email from the Information Officer on request; and to the Regulator when it asks.
11. Updates
The Information Officer reviews this manual when anything in it changes, and at least once a year.
Issued by the Information Officer, Bessie Operations.