Privacy Policy

This policy applies to:

• Business customers — retail stores and businesses that sign up to use Chat Close ("Stores").
• End users — customers of those Stores who send WhatsApp messages that are processed through our platform.

If you are an end user whose messages have been processed by Chat Close on behalf of a Store, you may contact the Store directly to exercise your rights, or contact us at the address below.

From Stores (business customers)

• Business name, country, and timezone (provided at signup)
• Email address and hashed password of the account owner and staff
• WhatsApp Business phone number linked to your Twilio account
• Store settings: opening hours, tone preferences, quick-reply templates
• Billing information (processed by Paddle — we do not store card numbers)

From end users (your customers via WhatsApp)

• WhatsApp phone number
• Display name (if provided by WhatsApp)
• The content of WhatsApp messages sent to the Store
• Media attachments (images, PDFs) sent via WhatsApp

We use data to:

• Deliver the Chat Close service — routing inbound messages to the correct Store inbox
• Generate AI-suggested replies and sales signals using Anthropic (see section 5)
• Display conversation metrics and reports to the Store
• Manage your subscription and billing
• Improve service reliability and debug issues

Lawful basis (POPIA): We process personal information on the basis of (a) performance of a contract — to deliver the service you have signed up for; (b) our legitimate interests — to improve service quality and prevent fraud; and, where applicable, (c) your consent.

• Messages and conversations — retained for the lifetime of the Store account, then deleted within 30 days of account closure.
• Account data — retained for the duration of the subscription plus 90 days to allow for reactivation, then permanently deleted.
• Billing records — retained for 7 years as required by South African company and tax law.

We share data with the following sub-processors to deliver the service. All are bound by data processing agreements.

Several of these processors are located outside South Africa. When personal information is transferred across borders, we rely on the conditions for lawful trans-border transfer under section 72 of POPIA, together with the contractual protections and privacy policies of those processors, to ensure an adequate level of protection.

Chat Close uses Anthropic's API (Claude) to analyse inbound WhatsApp messages and generate suggested replies for Store staff. This means customer message content is transmitted to Anthropic for processing.

Anthropic does not use data submitted through its API to train its models. Anthropic's commercial terms and privacy policy apply — see anthropic.com/legal/privacy.

Stores are responsible for informing their own customers that messages may be processed by an AI system as part of the reply-assistance service.

Under South Africa's POPIA, you have the right to:

• Access — request a copy of the personal information we hold about you
• Correction — request correction or updating of inaccurate information
• Deletion — request deletion or destruction of your personal information
• Objection — object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances
• Complaint — lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa)

Store owners can delete their account and all associated data from the Settings page at any time.

End users whose data is held by a Store should contact that Store directly. If you cannot resolve your request with the Store, contact us and we will assist within 30 days.

The Chat Close dashboard uses localStorage to store your session token on your device. We do not use third-party advertising cookies or tracking pixels on the dashboard. The marketing website (chatclose.app) does not use any analytics cookies.

We protect personal data using: TLS encryption in transit, bcrypt-hashed passwords, JWT-based authentication with 24-hour expiry, CORS origin restrictions, and Twilio webhook signature validation. We conduct regular security reviews.

You can reach us about any privacy-related request as follows:

• Store owners — manage, export or delete your account and all associated data directly from the Settings page inside the app.
• End users — contact the Store (business) you messaged on WhatsApp; they are the primary controller of your conversation data.

We are finalising the registration of Valour Group (PTY) Ltd in South Africa. Once complete, we will publish a dedicated privacy contact address and our Information Officer details (as required by POPIA) on this page. We aim to respond to all verified requests as soon as reasonably possible, and within 30 days where practicable.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa) — see inforegulator.org.za.