Privacy Policy

Effective Date: September 1, 2026

1. Scope and roles

This policy explains how Zel Assist Technologies ("Zel Assist", "we") handles information when a business ("vendor", "you") uses Zel Assist, and when that vendor's own customers message the vendor's WhatsApp number. For account and business configuration data, Zel Assist is the data controller. For messages and details a vendor's customers send through WhatsApp, the vendor is the data controller of their own customer relationships, and Zel Assist processes that data on the vendor's behalf to operate the service — a customer with a question about how their data is used should generally start with the business (vendor) they messaged, who we'll assist in responding.

2. What we collect

Account information (from vendors): business name, owner name, phone number, optional email, and a hashed password.
WhatsApp connection details: your WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) ID and Phone Number ID, obtained via Meta's Embedded Signup or entered manually.
Business configuration data you provide: product catalog (names, prices, descriptions, stock, images), delivery zones and fees, business hours, payment methods, return policy, and shop address.
Customer data (your customers, via WhatsApp): phone number and message content. Zel Assist does not collect or store structured order details (name, delivery address, quantity) — when a customer tries to buy something, we forward their phone number, the product we understood them to mean, and their raw message to you as a notification, and you complete the sale by continuing the conversation with them directly on WhatsApp, outside Zel Assist.
Conversation logs: message content, detected intent, and the reply sent, used to power your own dashboard analytics and let you correct the bot ("Teach Mode").
Billing information: your subscription plan, payment status, and payment references from Paystack. We do not receive or store your card details.
Anonymized training data — only if you opt in (off by default): your customers' phone numbers are one-way hashed with a secret salt before storage, so they can't be reversed back to a reachable number, alongside message content, detected intent, and whether the message was handed off to you. Order details, customer names, and delivery addresses are never included in this dataset. Note: if a customer types their own personal information into a free-text message, that text isn't automatically scrubbed of it.

3. How we use it

To operate your WhatsApp assistant — reading customer messages and generating replies grounded in your product and business data, using a third-party AI provider (see Section 4).
To show you analytics about your own business (message volume, response rates, popular products).
To process payments for paid plans via Paystack, and to manage referral rewards.
To operate the opt-in/opt-out cross-vendor discovery network described in our Terms of Service.
If you've opted in, to build an anonymized dataset used only to improve Zel Assist's own product — this data is not shared with our AI provider or any other AI provider for that provider's own model training (see Section 4).
To provide support, and to review accounts flagged for suspected abuse or policy violations.

4. Who we share it with

We don't sell personal data. We share information with the following categories of service providers, only as needed to run Zel Assist:

Meta / WhatsApp — required to send and receive your business's WhatsApp messages at all; governed by Meta's and WhatsApp's own policies.
Our AI provider — receives message content and relevant product/business data in order to generate a reply. Under our agreement with them, they may not use this data to develop, train, or improve their own AI models — it's used only to generate your reply.
Our media hosting provider — stores product images and other media you upload.
Paystack — processes payments for paid plans.
Our application hosting and database providers — run the servers and database that store the information described above.

We don't share one vendor's customer conversations with another vendor, except the limited business-availability information involved in a discovery-network match itself.

5. International data transfers

Some of the providers listed above may process or store information outside Nigeria as part of delivering their service to us. By using Zel Assist, you acknowledge this transfer, which we limit to what's necessary to operate the service.

6. Data retention

We retain conversation logs and account data for as long as your account is active, plus a reasonable period afterward for legal and operational purposes. Zel Assist does not currently offer automated, self-service account or data deletion — to request deletion, contact us using the details in Section 10, and we'll action it manually.

7. Security

Passwords are stored hashed, not in plain text. Account access uses signed authentication tokens. Traffic between your browser, our servers, and WhatsApp is encrypted in transit. No system is completely secure, and we can't guarantee absolute security.

8. Your rights

Under the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023, and other applicable law, you may have rights to access, correct, or request deletion of your personal data, object to or restrict certain processing, request a copy of your data, and lodge a complaint with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC). To exercise any of these, contact us using the details below.

9. Children

Zel Assist is intended for use by businesses and adults acting on their behalf. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

10. Cookies and contact

Zel Assist doesn't use tracking or advertising cookies; sign-in uses a token stored in your browser rather than a cookie. We load web fonts from Google Fonts as a technical part of rendering the page.

Questions about this policy or a data request: support@zelassist.tech