Terms of Service & Data Processing
Lucere operates as a Data Processor under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) on behalf of the estate agencies and accountable institutions that use it. This page sets out that role, how client data is protected, and the commercial terms of the Lucere Firm and Lucere Multi-Branch plans.
1. Data Processing Agreement (DPA)
1.1 Role Definitions: Under the framework of the South African Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), the Client acts exclusively as the Data Controller (the party determining the purpose of processing), while Lucere acts exclusively as the Data Processor (the party executing the API routing on behalf of the Controller).
1.2 Cryptographic Security & Sovereignty: Lucere enforces application-level AES-256-GCM encryption at rest for all client-submitted registration records. To enable exact-match lookups without exposing cleartext PII, we index search query fields using deterministic SHA-256 cryptographic hashes. All lookups routed to the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) operate under a strict zero-persistence policy, ensuring biographic details retrieved are never stored on our servers. All transit traffic is secured using TLS 1.3 and HSTS, and access is monitored via secure masked audit logs.
1.3 Data Breach Protocols: In the event of a security compromise, Lucere enforces a strict 24-hour breach notification protocol to all affected Controllers, ensuring clients can satisfy their regulatory reporting requirements to the Information Regulator.
2. Service Availability
Third-party dependency
Lucere sits in front of external registries: the Department of Home Affairs, sanctions and PEP watchlists, and CIPC. We cannot be held liable for latency, timeouts, or unfulfilled verification requests caused by downtime or errors at those primary sources, outside our control.
2.1 Current service level: We do not yet publish a formal uptime or response-time SLA. We operate on reasonable efforts and will tell you directly about any planned maintenance or known issue. A formal SLA will be published as the platform matures.
3. Commercial Billing
3.1 Plans: Lucere Firm (single branch) and Lucere Multi-Branch (2+ branches) are flat monthly subscriptions, each with a monthly allocation of identity, sanctions/PEP screening, and company registry checks included. Additional checks beyond that allocation bill at flat, disclosed per-check rates, shown in full on our pricing page and in your dashboard's Billing & Usage screen before you ever run a check. There is no markup hidden in these rates.
3.2 Setup fee: A once-off setup fee applies at signup, covering the review of your firm and the provisioning of every admin, agent, and compliance officer account on your roster. The amount depends on your branch and team account counts and is shown in full before you submit your setup request.
3.3 Launch pricing: The first 10 firms to sign up receive 25% off their platform fee for their first 3 months. This discount applies to the platform fee only — the setup fee and per-check rates are unaffected.
3.4 Record of usage: Every verification run is recorded against the client file it belongs to at the moment it happens, and is visible to you in your dashboard. That record, not a reconstruction after the fact, is the source of truth for any billing question.
4. PAIA Manual Access
In accordance with Section 51 of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA), Lucere maintains a comprehensive PAIA manual detailing the records held by the company and the procedures to request access to such records.
To request access to our formal PAIA manual, or to contact our appointed Information Officer, please get in touch via our contact page.