Privacy policy
Your data stays yours.
Last updated 17 October 2026
1. Who is responsible
Phil Town Production (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2017/036275/07), trading as Buka, Cape Town, South Africa, is the responsible party under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA) for the personal information described here. Our Information Officer is Philip Townsend, philip@watchbuka.com.
2. The short version
- You can watch without telling us who you are. There are no accounts.
- We count what happens on the site (which episodes are played, how far, which gate was accepted) against a random session id, not against a name.
- If you give us an email address or a WhatsApp number, we keep it, with your first name if you give one. Every message we send about new episodes has a way to stop them.
- If you pay, Payfast handles your card. We never see it. We keep a record of the purchase and, if you give us one when you pay or add one afterwards, your email address, so you can get back in.
- Facebook's Pixel, TikTok's Pixel and Google Analytics load only if you tap Accept on the banner. Tap Reject and they never load. Video still plays.
- We do not sell personal information. Ever.
3. What we collect
Measurement, with no name attached
When you use the site we record events such as arriving, tapping an episode, starting playback, reaching 10, 25, 50, 75 and 95 percent of an episode, seeing a gate and accepting or declining it. Each event carries a random session id from a cookie, the page it happened on, the series and episode, a rough classification of your browser (for example "TikTok in-app browser" or "Safari"), the campaign link that brought you here if there was one, and the time. It does not carry your name, your email address, your phone number or your card details, and it is never joined to them. The first event we record when a page opens, the one that says you arrived, also carries the first 200 characters of your browser's user agent (the line that names your browser, app and phone model). We use it to check the rough browser classification above, and we keep it even if you tap Reject. Every page you watch on also carries an encrypted visit code, which we read only when your browser does not send its cookies, so the visit and the episodes you start still count; it holds the session number in encrypted form (an online identifier), with the same campaign and version settings as the cookies in section 7 and the time the code was made, and nothing else.
Contact details, only if you give them
Some gates ask for an email address, and some ask for a WhatsApp number. Both are optional: you can always choose a different way through, or none. If you give one, we store it with the date, the fact that you ticked the consent box, the page you were on, the ad link that brought you here, which version of the gate you saw, and a private unsubscribe token. We do not store your session id with it, and we never match it to what you watched. The email sign-up forms also ask for your first name, which is optional. If you give it, we store it with your contact details.
Episodes you unlock by signing up
Some gates unlock episodes when you sign up. When that happens we record the show, which episodes were unlocked, the version of the gate and the date. That record holds no name, email address, phone number or session id, and it is never joined to your contact details. Your browser keeps a signed reference to it in the bgrant cookie, so those episodes stay open on this device. On another device, sign up again to unlock what the sign-up offers then.
Purchases
If you pay, Payfast sends us a confirmation containing its payment reference, the amount, the fees, and the email address you gave us before paying, if you gave one. We store that with the series or episode you bought and the session that bought it, so that the unlock works and so that we can restore it for you on another device. An email address you add after paying, on the page you land on or by writing to us, is stored with your purchase records for the same reason. Payfast's own page may ask you for an email address or phone number for its own receipt, and Payfast keeps it. If Payfast passes an email address to us with its confirmation, we keep it with your purchase like one you gave us. Payfast's confirmation can also carry the name on the payment, and we keep the whole confirmation with your purchase. If you write to us, we may look your payment up in our Payfast account, where Payfast's records may show that email address or phone number, so that we can send you your unlock link. We do not collect or store your card number, expiry or security code. Card payments happen entirely on Payfast's systems.
If you messaged us on WhatsApp
If you sent a message to Buka's WhatsApp Business number, we may hold your number. We keep it with the date we added it, the fact that it came from a WhatsApp chat, a note that you have not agreed to hear from us, and a private unsubscribe token. We ask only once, in a single WhatsApp message, whether you want to hear when new episodes drop. Reply YES and you join the list for new episodes. Reply STOP and we will not message that number again, unless you write to us first. If you do not reply, we do not ask again.
Technical
Our hosting provider records the usual server logs (IP address, request, time) for security and to keep the site running. We do not use those logs to identify viewers.
4. Why, and on what basis
- To play the video and remember your unlock. Session and unlock cookies are needed for the site to work at all (legitimate interest, and performance of the purchase).
- To understand whether the series work, in aggregate, on the phones and networks our viewers actually use (legitimate interest; the data carries no name).
- To tell you when new episodes drop, if you asked us to (consent, which you can withdraw at any time).
- To ask you once whether you want to hear about new episodes, if you messaged us on WhatsApp (legitimate interest).
- To send you the link that restores your unlock (performance of the purchase).
- To show Buka to people like you on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and to measure that advertising, only if you accepted the banner (consent).
- To read and answer comments and messages on our social accounts (legitimate interest).
- To meet our legal obligations, such as keeping tax records of sales.
8. The consent banner
The first time you visit you will see a banner with two choices, in a bar at the bottom of the screen. It does not block the page: you can start watching before you choose, and until you choose, neither Facebook's Pixel, TikTok's Pixel nor Google Analytics loads. Accept loads them. Reject means they never load. Either way, the site works and the video plays. You can change your mind by clearing the bconsent cookie in your browser, after which the banner appears again.
Our own first-party measurement, described in section 3, runs either way. It carries no name and exists so that we can tell whether the series work on real phones. Cloudflare's Web Analytics also runs either way (section 5).
9. How long we keep it
- Measurement events are kept, with no name attached, for as long as the series are on Buka.
- Contact details are kept until you ask us to delete them, and then we delete them. When you unsubscribe, we keep your details, marked as unsubscribed, so that we never send that address or number new-episode messages again.
- Purchase records are kept for as long as tax law requires, currently five years, and for as long as your unlock is active.
- Sign-up unlock records are kept for as long as the series are on Buka. They hold no personal details.
- The words of comments and messages on our social accounts, and our system's short note on each, are cleared from our database after 90 days. The rest of the record stays, including the name or username shown with them (see section 6).
- Server logs are kept by our hosting provider for a short period for security.
10. Your rights under POPIA
You have the right to:
- ask what personal information we hold about you, and get a copy;
- ask us to correct or delete it;
- object to processing, or withdraw a consent you gave, at any time. Every email we send about new episodes has an unsubscribe link. Emails about a purchase, such as your unlock link, do not have one: we send those only because you paid or asked. For WhatsApp, reply STOP. For the banner, clear the
bconsentcookie; - complain to the Information Regulator if you believe we have handled your information unlawfully.
To use any of these rights, email the Information Officer at philip@watchbuka.com. We will respond within five working days and will not charge you.
11. Complaints
The Information Regulator (South Africa): JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001. enquiries@inforegulator.org.za for enquiries and POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za for complaints.
12. Security
The site is served over HTTPS. Contact details are stored separately from the measurement events, and we never match them to what you watched. A purchase record does carry the session that bought it (see above), so that your unlock works and so that we can count which pages and ads lead to a sale. The unlock cookie is signed so it cannot be forged. Card details never reach us. No system is perfectly secure, and if we ever learn of a breach that affects you we will tell you and the Regulator as the law requires.
13. Children
The site is not aimed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you think a child has given us their details, tell us and we will delete them.
14. Changes
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top and, for a material change, tell the people on our list directly. We will never quietly reduce your protection.
15. Contact the Information Officer
Philip Townsend, Information Officer, Phil Town Production (Pty) Ltd trading as Buka, Cape Town. Email philip@watchbuka.com.
6. Comments and messages on our social accounts
Buka has accounts on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. When you comment on one of our posts or ads there, or send our Facebook Page or Instagram account a private message, we keep a copy so that we can read it and reply. We keep the words, when you wrote them, the post or conversation they belong to, and the name or username shown with them. We also keep a scrambled code made from your account, so that we can tell when two comments come from the same account, and what our system made of each message, such as its language, what it asks about and a short note on it.
To help us read them and write our replies, we use Anthropic, an AI company in the United States. We send Anthropic the words, with a few earlier messages from the same post or private conversation, so that the reply makes sense. On a post, those earlier comments can be other people's. We do not send the name or username shown with them, but a name written in the words themselves, such as a tag, goes with the words. Anthropic processes the words outside South Africa.
Our system may post a reply without a person checking it first, and may hide a comment it reads as spam. If a comment or message needs a person, for example about a payment, we send its first 100 characters to our own team by WhatsApp or email.
We clear the words, and our system's short note on each message, from our database after 90 days. The name or username, the scrambled code and the rest of what our system made of each message stay with our record of the conversation. So do the replies we post or draft, with no time limit. The alert copy stays in our team's email or WhatsApp. Backup copies of our database can hold the words for longer: our hosting provider keeps 30 days of history, and we keep copies on our own computer.