Privacy notice

Last updated 18 October 2026.

Draft for review. This notice explains how The Reneal Effect handles personal information in Business Bestie AI under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA). It will be reviewed by an attorney before general release.

Who we are

Business Bestie AI is a service of The Reneal Effect, Cape Town. Information officer: Reneal Davids, reneal.davids@therenealeffect.co.za.

Two kinds of information

• Our clients' information (business owners and their staff): names, email addresses, phone numbers and business details, used to set up and run the service, bill for it and support it. For this we are the responsible party.
• Our clients' customers' information: the WhatsApp messages customers send to a client's number, their WhatsApp number and profile name, and details they share such as names, email addresses and booking requests. Each client is the responsible party for its own customers' information; we process it on the client's behalf, as an operator, only to provide the assistant.

What we do with chat messages

Messages are used to write replies, to show the chat to the business in its inbox, and to record leads and requests for the business. We do not sell personal information, use it for advertising, or use one business's chats for another business.

Service providers

We use these providers to run the service. Some are outside South Africa, so information may be transferred across borders under agreements that protect it (POPIA section 72):

• Meta Platforms (WhatsApp Business Platform), which carries the messages.
• Anthropic (Claude), which writes the assistant's replies. Messages are sent to it to produce each reply.
• Supabase (database, hosted in the European Union) and Vercel (web hosting).
• Our email provider, for alerts to business owners.

Keeping information safe

• Each business sees only its own chats. Passwords are stored as one-way hashes, and WhatsApp access tokens are encrypted.
• Card numbers sent in chat are masked before they are stored, and the assistant tells customers never to share card details, PINs or passwords.
• Chat messages are deleted automatically after the period each business chooses (12 months unless set otherwise).

Customers' choices

Customers can type STOP to turn automatic replies off and HUMAN to reach a person. To see, correct or delete their information, customers should contact the business they chatted to; we help the business respond.

Your rights

You may ask for access to, correction of or deletion of your personal information, and object to its processing, by emailing reneal.davids@therenealeffect.co.za. You may also complain to the Information Regulator (inforegulator.org.za).

Website forms and the demo

The set-up form collects the details you type so we can contact you. Demo chats are stored for up to 30 days and are not linked to you; please do not share personal details in the demo. We keep a one-way code of your internet address to limit misuse, never the address itself.