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Early access

Early Access Privacy Notice

Last updated 26 August 2026

This notice explains how My Winkel (Pty) Ltd (“My Winkel”, “we”, “us”) handles personal information while creating and hosting storefronts through WhatsApp in South Africa. During early access, an AI agent helps turn a business owner’s instructions and uploads into a storefront for review.

1. Who is responsible

My Winkel is the responsible party for business-owner contact, onboarding, support, and service-usage information that we collect for our own purposes. If a published storefront later processes shopper information, the business is the responsible party for that information and My Winkel acts as its contracted operator.

2. Information we handle

3. Information not to send in WhatsApp

Do not send identity documents, ID numbers, banking details, proof of address, passwords, or liveness material in WhatsApp chat. These details are not needed to create the storefront described in this early-access service.

4. Why we use information

We use information to create, revise, preview, publish, support, and delete storefronts; reply in your chosen language; maintain security and limited audit trails; meet legal duties; and prevent misuse. We use only the information reasonably needed for these purposes.

5. WhatsApp and AI processing

Meta delivers your WhatsApp messages to My Winkel. We use AI services from OpenRouter and its upstream model providers to interpret your instructions, draft content, generate eligible images, and modify storefront code. AI can make mistakes, so you review a private preview and must explicitly approve publication. OpenRouter prompt logging is disabled by My Winkel, but upstream providers may retain or use submitted content under their own data policies. Do not send information that is unnecessary for building your storefront.

6. Service providers and international processing

Cloudflare hosts the service, private media, database, build environments, and published storefronts. Meta provides WhatsApp messaging. OpenRouter and selected upstream model providers provide AI processing. GitHub stores private storefront source-code repositories and their audit history. These providers may process information outside South Africa. We limit what we send, use access controls and contractual or organisational safeguards, and disclose information where the law requires it.

7. Uploads and storefront integrations

You must have the right to use images and other content you upload. The AI agent may suggest a third-party font, script, embed, or other runtime service for a storefront. Before publication, the preview summary identifies those services and you decide whether to approve them. An approved service may receive a visitor’s device and usage information under its own privacy terms. Customer-supplied and approved AI-generated images are the only images My Winkel publishes with a storefront.

8. Retention

We retain full messages and temporary media while a company is active and for up to 30 days after its storefront is published or closed. Unpublished companies are automatically closed after 30 days without activity. Content-free audit records are retained for up to 90 days. A legal duty, dispute, or security investigation may require limited information to be kept longer. We then delete or de-identify information when it is no longer needed for that purpose.

9. Your choices and deletion

You can use the My Winkel WhatsApp conversation to switch language, close or delete one company, or begin deletion of all your data. Full deletion uses a two-step confirmation, stops active work, revokes the company’s AI access, and removes its private repository, storefront, media, messages, and build environment. We retain only the minimum record required for legal compliance, security, or suppression of unwanted contact. You may also ask to access or correct your information by contacting My Winkel support.

10. WhatsApp messages

We reply to messages needed to provide the service. If WhatsApp’s customer-service window has closed, we hold a pending update until you message us again unless you have separately agreed to receive an approved message template. You can choose Stop during onboarding or request deletion later.

11. Website analytics

This My Winkel marketing website uses Google Analytics to count page views and understand basic website usage. Advertising personalisation and Google Signals are disabled. Google may process limited device and usage information outside South Africa under its own terms and safeguards. This disclosure is separate from any third-party integration that a business approves for its own storefront.

12. Contact and complaints

Contact My Winkel support with a privacy request or complaint. You may also lodge a complaint with South Africa’s Information Regulator.