Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

EmployIQ ("EmployIQ", "we", "us") provides an AI receptionist platform that helps businesses in South Africa answer calls, respond on WhatsApp, book appointments, and manage invoicing. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why, and how it's handled, in line with South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).

2. Information we collect

We collect two categories of personal information:

Business account information

Name, email address, and a securely hashed password for the business owner and any team members they invite. We never store passwords in plain text.

End-customer information

When a business's customers contact them through EmployIQ (WhatsApp, phone, or the dashboard test chat), we store the customer's name, phone number, email (if provided), conversation history, appointment bookings, and invoice/payment records. This data belongs to the business we provide it to on behalf of — not to EmployIQ.

3. How we use this information

• To operate the AI receptionist service: answering messages, booking appointments, generating invoices, and sending payment follow-ups.
• To process subscription payments and invoice payments.
• To send transactional emails (welcome messages, password resets, invoice receipts, team invites).
• To maintain the security and reliability of the service.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use it for advertising.

4. Third parties we share data with

To provide the service, information passes through the following processors, each bound by their own data protection terms:

• Anthropic — processes conversation messages to generate AI responses.
• Meta (WhatsApp Business Platform) — delivers and receives WhatsApp messages.
• Twilio — handles inbound phone calls.
• Paystack — processes subscription and invoice payments. We never see or store full card details.
• Resend — delivers transactional emails.
• Vercel and Neon — host our application and database.

5. Data retention

We retain account and conversation data for as long as a business's account remains active, plus a reasonable period afterward for legal, accounting, and dispute resolution purposes. A business can request deletion of their account and associated data at any time by contacting us.

6. Your rights

Under POPIA, you have the right to access, correct, or request deletion of your personal information, and to object to how it's processed. To exercise these rights, contact the business you're a customer of, or reach us directly at privacy@employiq.app.

7. Security

We use industry-standard measures to protect personal information, including encrypted connections (HTTPS), hashed passwords, and access controls that keep each business's data isolated from every other business on the platform.

8. Cookies

We use a single essential cookie to keep you logged in securely. We don't use tracking or advertising cookies.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated to account owners by email.

10. Contact

Questions about this policy? Email privacy@employiq.app.