Terms & Conditions of Use
This agreement governs your access to and use of the ASC Food Safety Training website (ascfoodsafetytraining.com) and the courses offered through it. By accessing or using the Site, you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions.
Acceptance of Terms
These Terms constitute a legally binding agreement between you (“you” or “User”) and ASC Food Safety Training regarding your use of the Website and Courses. You acknowledge that you have read and understood these Terms, and by accessing or using the Website or Courses, you agree to be bound by them. If you do not agree to these Terms, you may not access or use the Website or Courses.
Services
ASC Food Safety Training provides online training courses (“Courses”) through the Site. The Courses are offered subject to availability, and we reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Site or Courses at any time without prior notice.
User Accounts
To access certain features of the Website or Courses, you may be required to create an account. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account information, including your username and password. You are also responsible for all activities that occur under your account. Your account is personal to you and may not be shared, transferred or used by anyone else.
Course Access
ASC Food Safety Training grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited licence to access and complete the Courses you purchase for personal and educational purposes only. You may not share your Course access with any third party.
Intellectual Property
All content on the Site, including text, graphics, logos, images, audio clips, and software, is the property of ASC Food Safety Training or its licensors and is protected by intellectual property laws. You agree not to reproduce, distribute, modify, create derivative works of, or publicly display any content from the Website or Courses without ASC Food Safety Training’s prior written consent.
User Conduct
You agree not to use the Site for any unlawful purpose or in any way that violates these Terms and Conditions. You also agree not to:
- Post or transmit any content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, or otherwise objectionable.
- Impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or misrepresent your identity or your affiliation with a person or entity.
- Interfere with or disrupt the operation of the Site or servers or networks connected to the Site.
- Attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the Site.
Payment and Refunds
The fees for each Course will be clearly displayed on the Website. You agree to pay the fees for any Courses you purchase. Payment for Courses is due at the time of enrolment. We accept payment via credit card or other payment methods specified on the Site or as per prior arrangement. All Course fees are non-refundable. ASC Food Safety Training reserves the right to change the fees for Courses at any time, and will provide notice of any fee changes before you purchase a Course.
Additional fees may apply where an assessment must be re-taken — see Assessments, Examinations & Academic Integrity below.
Assessments, Examinations & Academic Integrity
Every ASC Food Safety Training course concludes with an assessment or examination that must be completed to earn your certificate. By enrolling you agree to complete all assessments honestly and independently, and to observe the assessment conditions displayed before each assessment. Proctored assessments are further governed by Online Proctoring, Recording & Identity Verification and Biometric Data, Privacy & POPIA.
Proctored examinations
Your session is recorded and checked against the assessment conditions, which include keeping your face within the camera frame, being alone, working in the assessment window only, and keeping secondary devices out of reach. Where a session cannot be verified against those conditions, the assessment is reset and a R290 reassessment fee applies.
All other courses
Assessments are screened for copy-and-paste and plagiarism. Where submitted work is not the candidate’s own, the assessment is reset and a R290 reassessment fee applies.
These fees cover re-invigilation and re-marking. They are cost recovery charges — they are not penalties and they are not a finding of dishonesty. Separately, and only where academic dishonesty is established through the review and appeal process set out in our Assessment Integrity Policy, ASC Food Safety Training may withhold or revoke a certificate; repeated established breaches may result in termination of course access without refund. Every fee decision may be appealed free of charge, and you are entitled to a copy of your own session recording.
Online Proctoring, Recording & Identity Verification
Selected assessments are video-proctored. Your camera and your screen activity are recorded for the full session and checked against the assessment conditions shown on screen before you begin, which you confirm before the first question is presented. By starting a proctored assessment you provide your informed consent to this monitoring, recording and identity verification, and you confirm that you are the enrolled learner completing the assessment yourself.
Keep these conditions for the whole assessment:
- Face visible. Keep your face within the camera frame throughout. Position your camera at head height before you start.
- Be alone. No other person may be in the room or visible in frame.
- Work in this window only. Do not switch tabs, open other applications, or use a second screen.
- No secondary devices. Keep phones, tablets and second computers out of reach and out of frame.
- Stay in frame. Remain seated and visible. If you must step away, end the session and restart it later.
- No copying. Do not copy, paste or cut, and do not use shortcuts such as Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V or Ctrl+X.
What a flag means
The platform records a flag when a session cannot be verified against the conditions above. It is a record that the session cannot be certified — not a finding that you cheated — and no ASC employee will describe it to you as such. What it does mean is that the assessment must be redone under conditions we can verify.
Most flags are never charged
The platform raises flags automatically and most are cleared at no cost. A R290 reassessment fee applies only where a reviewer confirms a chargeable flag. Sessions under sixty seconds, sessions with no footage, platform faults, and duplicate or aborted sessions are never charged.
Where a reviewer confirms a chargeable flag, you receive a single written notice telling you which session, which condition was not met, the timestamp and duration, the R290 fee and how to pay. You have two business days to reply with any context, and a reviewer may cancel the charge. Your session recording is available to you on request at any time, and you may appeal free of charge. Paying does not close your appeal.
Reviews and appeals. You may challenge any charged flag at no cost. A free internal review is decided within five working days by someone who had no part in the original decision; if it succeeds, every fee you have paid is refunded in full within five working days and the flag is removed from your record. If you remain dissatisfied, you may refer the matter to an independent reviewer who is not connected with ASC — an optional stage that carries a fee capped at the amount in dispute, refunded to you if you succeed. Nothing here limits your rights under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008, or your right to approach the National Consumer Commission or the relevant accreditation body at no cost. To lodge an appeal, reply to your notice or write to appeals@ascfoodsafety.com. The full process is set out in our Assessment Integrity Policy.
Completing the assessment yourself. Only you, the enrolled learner, may complete your assessment. Where it is established, through the review and appeal process above, that a different person completed an assessment, or that one identity was used across more than one learner account, ASC may withhold or revoke the affected certificate and, in serious cases, suspend or terminate the account(s) concerned.
Biometric Data, Privacy & POPIA
Our proctoring system verifies that the enrolled learner is the person completing the assessment. To do this it processes personal information, including special personal information in the form of biometric data. This section explains, as required by the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA), what we collect, why, who sees it, how long we keep it, and your rights.
Responsible party. ASC Food Safety Training is the responsible party for this processing. Our Information Officer can be reached at privacy@ascfoodsafety.com.
What we collect
- The photograph of your official identity document that you upload for verification.
- Live images and video of your face from your camera, and audio from your microphone, for the duration of the assessment.
- A biometric face template — a numerical descriptor derived from your face — used to match your live image to your ID and to confirm that the same person writes throughout. This template cannot be used to reconstruct a photograph of you.
- A recording of your on-screen activity during the assessment, and technical data such as your device, browser, IP address and timestamps.
Why we process it, and your consent
- Purpose. Solely to verify your identity, prevent impersonation, and confirm the integrity of the assessment behind the certificate we issue. Our SAATCA, HPCSA, FoodBev SETA and ISO 9001 obligations require us to be able to verify every certificate.
- Special personal information and consent. Biometric data is special personal information under POPIA. We process it on the basis of your explicit consent, which you give by accepting the pre-assessment conditions before you begin. Providing this information is voluntary, but it is a condition of sitting a proctored assessment: if you do not consent, you cannot take the proctored examination, though you may contact us to discuss alternatives.
- No unrelated use. We never sell your information, never use it for marketing, and never process it for any purpose other than those stated here.
Who sees it, security and retention
- Access. Only authorised ASC administrators may access your recordings and template. Where you lodge an appeal, an independent reviewer may receive your recording, with your consent, solely to decide that appeal.
- Not shared. We do not disclose your recordings, images or template to your employer or any third party unless you consent in writing or the law requires it.
- Security. Your information is held securely, with access controls appropriate to its sensitivity, and is processed within the ASC platform.
- Retention. We keep this information only for as long as necessary for assessment integrity, dispute resolution, and our legal and accreditation obligations, and then delete it in line with our retention schedule.
Your rights under POPIA
- Access. You are entitled to a copy of your session recording and to know what personal information we hold about you. Request it from privacy@ascfoodsafety.com and we will respond within seven working days once we have verified your identity.
- Correction and deletion. You may ask us to correct or delete your personal information, subject to our reasonable need to retain records while an integrity matter is under review or as required by law.
- Objection and withdrawal. You may object to the processing or withdraw your consent, on the understanding that we cannot proctor an assessment without it.
- Automated flags are reviewed by a person. Our platform flags sessions automatically, but no decision that affects you — such as a reassessment fee or a withheld certificate — is made by the system alone. Every such decision is reviewed by a person and may be appealed free of charge.
- Complaints. If you are not satisfied with how we handle your information, you may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa) at POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za or via inforegulator.org.za.
Where these Terms conflict with any separate ASC privacy notice, the privacy notice governs the handling of your personal information.
Disclaimer of Warranties
The Site and Courses are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, without any warranties of any kind, either express or implied. The Courses are provided for informational and educational purposes and are not intended to be a substitute for professional advice. ASC Food Safety Training makes no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of any content on the Site or the results that may be obtained from using the Site.
Termination & Suspension
ASC Food Safety Training may suspend or terminate your access to the Website or Courses in accordance with these Terms. In relation to assessments, an account is suspended or terminated only where serious or repeated academic dishonesty — including established impersonation or identity fraud — is established through the review and appeal process set out in Section 9 and our Assessment Integrity Policy, and any affected certificate may be withheld or revoked. A proctoring flag on its own is not a ground for suspension. You may also terminate your account at any time.
Limitation of Liability
In no event shall ASC Food Safety Training be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising out of or in any way connected with your use of the Site or Courses, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.
Indemnification
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless ASC Food Safety Training and its officers, directors, employees, agents, and affiliates from any and all claims, liabilities, damages, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising out of or in any way related to your use of the Site or violation of these Terms and Conditions.
Governing Law
These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms and Conditions or the use of the Site shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Republic of South Africa.
Changes to Terms and Conditions
ASC Food Safety Training reserves the right to modify these Terms at any time. We will post any changes to the Terms on the Website. By continuing to access or use the Website or Courses after we revise the Terms, you agree to be bound by the revised Terms.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns about these Terms and Conditions, please contact us here, or email info@asc-consultants.co.za.