1.About these terms
1.1 These terms are between you and Pactum Holdings (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2025/975930/07, 4 Belmont Road, Rondebosch, Cape Town), which runs HandShake (“HandShake”, “we”, “us”).
1.2 You accept them by tapping Accept and continue when you first sign in. HandShake is how the event organiser runs networking for the event. The terms cover your use of HandShake, not the event itself.
1.3 Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle your personal information. It forms part of these terms.
2.Who can use HandShake
2.1 You must be 18 or older. You use HandShake as a business professional, at an event you were invited to or registered for.
2.2 Your account is personal to you. Keep access to your email (and your sign-in links) secure. You are responsible for what happens on your account.
3.What HandShake does, and why we need your information
3.1 HandShake lets you:
- build a profile other attendees can see, according to the event’s settings and your own share settings;
- get suggested matches: people our matching thinks you should meet;
- connect, message, and book meetings;
- use the event agenda, documents, FAQ and, where the organiser has switched it on, the event assistant.
3.2 Matching is how the service works. To suggest people for you to meet, we analyse your profile and send its text to an AI provider in the United States. We also use how you use the app to improve your matches. The Privacy Policy explains this. This processing is necessary to provide the service you are signing up for. If you don’t accept these terms, you can’t use HandShake. The organiser keeps your registration, and you can still attend the event.
3.3 Suggestions, not decisions. Matches and assistant answers are suggestions. You always decide whether to connect, message or meet. Nothing is decided for you automatically.
4.Your profile and content
4.1 Keep your profile accurate and professional. You are responsible for what you put in it and what you send.
4.2 You keep ownership of your content. You give HandShake a licence to store it, show it to the people the event’s settings allow, and process it to provide the service, including matching.
4.3 Don’t include sensitive information in your profile or messages: health, religion, political views, or anything similar. If you choose to include it anyway, it will be shown and processed like the rest of your profile.
5.How to behave
You agree not to:
- harass, threaten, or discriminate against anyone, or send unwanted sexual or offensive content;
- spam people, or use HandShake for mass marketing or selling that the event doesn’t allow;
- pretend to be someone else or misrepresent who you work for;
- scrape, copy or bulk-download other attendees’ information;
- use other attendees’ contact details for anything other than professional follow-up about the event. Direct-marketing law (POPIA section 69) applies to you too;
- try to get into accounts, data or events you don’t have access to, or disrupt the service.
You can block or report anyone. Organisers and HandShake may warn, restrict, suspend or remove accounts that break these rules. Reports and safety records are kept even if an account is erased, so that a case can’t be wiped by the person it’s about.
6.The event assistant (where available)
The assistant uses AI to answer questions about the event and suggest people and sessions. It can be wrong. Check anything important with the event team. It only shows you information you could already see in the app. It can’t act for you: any button it offers needs your tap.
7.Messages we send
We send service messages about your account, connections and meetings. We also send occasional intro digests suggesting people to meet. You can unsubscribe from digests and other non-essential email with one click. WhatsApp messages are sent only if you opted in. Reply STOP to end them.
8.The organiser’s role
The event, its programme, and who is invited are the organiser’s responsibility. The organiser and their team can see their event’s attendee information and activity. Their own privacy notice covers what they do with it.
9.Ending your use
9.1 You can stop using HandShake at any time. You can export your data and request erasure in the app (Profile → Your data & privacy).
9.2 We may suspend or deactivate your account if you break these terms, if the event organiser removes you, or to protect other users or the service.
10.Our responsibility to you
10.1 We work hard to keep HandShake available and accurate, but provide it “as is”. We don’t guarantee that matches will lead to meetings or any business result.
10.2 To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss. Nothing in these terms limits rights you have under the Consumer Protection Act, 2008, or any other law that can’t be excluded.
11.Changes
We may update these terms. For a material change we’ll ask you to accept the new version in the app before you continue. Other changes take effect when published, and the date at the top will change.
12.General
South African law governs these terms. Accepting in the app is a valid electronic agreement under the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002. Questions: privacy@handshake-app.co.za.