This Privacy Policy explains how AI Sorted collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal information when you use the AI Sorted WhatsApp quoting service (the "Service"): a service that turns a WhatsApp message describing a job into a professional quotation in your accounting system, sent back to you on WhatsApp. It is written to comply with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA). By using the Service you confirm that you have read and understood this Policy.
1.Who is responsible for your information
The responsible party (the party that decides why and how your personal information is processed) is AI Sorted (Pty) Ltd ("AI Sorted", "we", "us", "our"), registration number 2026/353444/07, registered and trading address 225 Willson Street, Fairland, Randburg, Gauteng, 2170, South Africa, email howzit@aisorted.co.za.
Information Officer: Dean Hodgskiss (Managing Director), reachable at howzit@aisorted.co.za. The Information Officer is responsible for our POPIA compliance and is your point of contact for any privacy question, request, or complaint. Where a business uses the Service and sends us an end customer's details to produce a quote, that business is the responsible party for its customer's information and AI Sorted acts as its operator (see clause 7).
2.What this Policy covers
This Policy covers personal information we process about the business that subscribes to the Service and the staff it authorises to send quote requests ("you"), and the end customers whose details a business includes when requesting a quote. It applies to the WhatsApp Service, our admin tools, and any related communication with us.
3.What personal information we collect
We aim to collect the minimum needed to run the Service.
From the business and its authorised users: business name and contact details; the names and WhatsApp numbers of the people authorised to request quotes; your rate card; and a secure connection to your accounting system (an authorisation token and your organisation identifier, used only to create quotes on your behalf). We do not receive or store your card or banking details.
In a quote request: the content of the WhatsApp message you send (typed text, or a voice note and its transcription), which may include an end customer's name, contact details, address, and a description of the work; and the quotation produced from it.
Automatically, as the Service runs: basic technical and delivery information such as timestamps, message identifiers, and delivery status, used to operate and secure the Service.
4.How we collect it
We collect information directly from you when you are onboarded, when you connect your accounting system, and each time you send a quote request on WhatsApp. We collect technical and delivery information automatically as the Service runs. We are not required by law to collect this information, but without the account details and the message content we cannot provide the Service.
5.Why we process it, and our legal basis
We process personal information to set up and run your account and your authorised-user list (basis: performance of our contract with you); to read your message and create the quotation in your accounting system (basis: contract); to deliver the quotation and any covering message back to you on WhatsApp (basis: contract); to keep the Service secure, working, and improving (basis: our legitimate interest); and to meet our legal and regulatory obligations, such as keeping records (basis: legal obligation). We will not use your information for a new, unrelated purpose without telling you and, where required, getting your consent.
6.Automated processing by AI
To turn your message into a quotation, the text of your request is processed by an automated language model provided by Google (the Gemini API). Only the message text needed to read the request is sent, and it is used solely to extract the quote details, such as items, quantities, and rates. The quotation itself is created in your own accounting system. Please do not send special personal information (for example health, religious, or biometric data) in a quote request.
7.End customers' information, and our role as operator
When you send an end customer's details so we can produce a quote, you are the responsible party for that information and AI Sorted processes it as your operator under POPIA, only to create and deliver the quotation on your behalf and to keep a record of it. You are responsible for having a lawful basis to share your customer's information with us for this purpose. We do not use end customers' information for our own marketing.
8.Cookies and analytics
Our public website and admin tools use only the cookies needed to function and to keep them secure. We do not use advertising cookies. You can control cookies through your browser settings; blocking essential cookies may stop parts of the tools from working.
9.Who we share your information with
We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with parties that help us run the Service ("operators"), and only as far as they need it, under confidentiality and data-protection terms:
- Meta Platforms (WhatsApp): delivers the messages to and from you.
- Google (Gemini API): interprets the text of your request, as described in clause 6.
- Xero, and any other accounting provider you connect: where your quotation is created, in your own organisation.
- Our hosting provider: which runs the Service and stores its data.
We may also disclose information where the law requires it, to protect our rights, or to prevent fraud or harm.
10.Storage and cross-border processing
We store the Service's data with reputable hosting providers. Some of our operators, including Meta, Google, and Xero, process information outside South Africa. Where information is processed outside South Africa, we take reasonable steps to ensure it is protected by laws, binding rules, or contracts that offer protection comparable to POPIA, as required by section 72 of POPIA.
11.How we keep your information secure
We take reasonable and appropriate technical and organisational steps to protect personal information against loss, unauthorised access, and misuse, including secure hosting, access controls, restricted handling of your accounting authorisation tokens, and encryption of data in transit (the Service uses SSL/https). No system is completely secure, but we work to keep risks low and to act quickly if a problem arises. If a security compromise affects your personal information, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as POPIA requires.
12.How long we keep it
We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purposes in this Policy, or as long as the law requires. In practice, we keep your account details and the quotations produced while your account is active, and for a reasonable period afterwards. We keep records for as long as tax and company law require. Your accounting connection is kept until you disconnect it or close your account. When information is no longer needed, we delete or de-identify it.
13.Your rights
Under POPIA you have the right to be told what personal information we hold about you and to ask for a copy; to ask us to correct or update information that is wrong or incomplete; to ask us to delete or destroy information we no longer have a lawful reason to keep; to object to processing in certain circumstances, including marketing; to withdraw consent you have given, without affecting processing already done; and to complain to us and to the Information Regulator. To exercise any of these rights, email howzit@aisorted.co.za. We may need to confirm your identity first, and we will respond within a reasonable time and as POPIA requires.
14.How to complain
Please contact us first at howzit@aisorted.co.za so we can try to resolve your concern. You also have the right to complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa):
JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001
Complaints: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
Enquiries: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za
inforegulator.org.za
15.Changes to this Policy
We may update this Policy from time to time, for example when the Service or the law changes. The current version is always available on our website, with the "Last updated" date at the top. Material changes take effect when posted, and your continued use of the Service after that means you accept the updated Policy.
16.Contact us
For any privacy question or request: AI Sorted (Pty) Ltd, attention: Information Officer, email howzit@aisorted.co.za, address 225 Willson Street, Fairland, Randburg, Gauteng, 2170, South Africa.