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Privacy Policy

Last Updated: 2026/09/29

1. Introduction

Welcome to Kholo. Kholo Technologies (Pty) Ltd ("we", "our", or "us") respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information. This privacy policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our platform, which facilitates WhatsApp order processing and ERP integrations.

We are committed to compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, No 4 of 2013 (POPIA) of South Africa, and other applicable data protection laws.

2. Our Role Under POPIA (Operator vs. Responsible Party)

It is critical to distinguish between data we collect for our own business purposes and data we process on your behalf:

  • As a Responsible Party: When you register for an account, we collect your business contact and billing details. For this data, Kholo is the "Responsible Party" (Controller) and decides how it is processed.
  • As an Operator: When you connect your WhatsApp and ERP to Kholo, you transmit your customers' data (phone numbers, names, order history) through our system. For this data, YOU are the Responsible Party and KHOLO is strictly an "Operator" (Processor). We process this data solely upon your instructions and to provide the Service to you. We do not use your customers' data for our own marketing. You bear the sole statutory responsibility to ensure you have a lawful basis (e.g., customer consent) to process their data via our third-party infrastructure.

3. Information We Collect

We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when registering for the platform, expressing an interest in obtaining information about us or our products and services, or otherwise contacting us.

  • Account Information: Name, email address, phone number, and password.
  • Business Information: Company name, registration details, VAT number, billing address, and ERP connection details.
  • Customer Data: WhatsApp phone numbers, chat transcripts, voice notes, and order details belonging to your customers.
  • Automatically Collected Information: IP address, browser and device characteristics, operating system, and usage metadata.

4. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect or receive for the following legitimate business purposes:

  • To facilitate account creation and logon processes.
  • To provide and manage the core services (transcribing and structuring WhatsApp orders).
  • To send administrative information to you (e.g., product updates, security alerts).
  • To bill you for our services and process payments.
  • To respond to user inquiries and offer support.
  • To ensure the security and integrity of our platform.

5. Sharing Your Information

We only share information with third parties in the following situations:

  • Service Providers: We may share data with third-party vendors, service providers, contractors, or agents (e.g., Meta for WhatsApp API, Supabase for database hosting) who perform services for us or on our behalf.
  • Artificial Intelligence Providers: To provide order extraction and voice transcription, we use enterprise APIs from third-party AI providers (such as Google Cloud and OpenAI). We strictly use their Enterprise/API tiers. Under our agreements with these providers, they are contractually prohibited from using your or your customers' data to train their foundation models. Data passed to these APIs is retained only for a short period (up to 30 days) strictly for abuse monitoring purposes before being permanently deleted.
  • Legal Obligations: We may disclose your information where we are legally required to do so in order to comply with applicable law, governmental requests, a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process.
  • Business Transfers: We may share or transfer your information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition.

6. Data Retention and Security

We keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this privacy policy unless otherwise required by law.

We have implemented appropriate technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process, including end-to-end encryption in transit and encryption at rest. However, no electronic transmission over the internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

7. Your Privacy Rights (POPIA)

Under POPIA, you have the right to:

  • Request access to the personal information we hold about you.
  • Request correction or deletion of your personal information.
  • Object to the processing of your personal information.
  • Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details provided below.

8. Cross-Border Data Transfers

While Kholo operates primarily in South Africa, some of our service providers may host data outside of South African borders. We ensure that such providers adhere to data protection standards equivalent to POPIA.

9. Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about this notice, you may email our Information Officer at:

legal@kholo.co.za

Kholo Technologies (Pty) Ltd.
124 Long Street, Cape Town, 8001
South Africa