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 Stripe — 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 OpenAI (see section 5)
• Display conversation metrics and reports to the Store
• Manage your subscription and billing
• Improve service reliability and debug issues

Legal basis (PDPL): Processing is carried out on the basis of (a) contractual necessity — to deliver the service you have signed up for; and (b) legitimate interests — to improve service quality and prevent fraud.

• 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 UAE commercial law.

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

When data is transferred outside the UAE, we rely on standard contractual clauses and the privacy policies of those processors to ensure adequate protection.

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

We do not use this data to train OpenAI models. OpenAI's API data usage policy applies — see openai.com/policies/api-data-usage-policies.

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 the UAE PDPL, you have the right to:

• Access — request a copy of your personal data
• Correction — request correction of inaccurate data
• Deletion — request deletion of your personal data
• Objection — object to processing in certain circumstances
• Portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format

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.

For any privacy-related requests or questions:

• Email: privacy@chatclose.com
• General: hello@chatclose.com

We will respond to all requests within 30 days as required by the UAE PDPL.