Privacy Policy
1. Who we are
VetDesk is a messaging assistant for veterinary clinics. When you send a WhatsApp message to a clinic that uses VetDesk, VetDesk reads the message, sorts it by urgency, writes a short summary for clinic staff, and can send you an automatic reply, such as a booking link or an instruction to phone the clinic.
VetDesk is operated by Senap Tech (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2026/914108/07), South Africa. Contact for privacy questions: vetdesk.za@gmail.com
2. Our role and the clinic's role
The veterinary clinic you message is the responsible party for your personal information under POPIA. VetDesk is an operator: we process your information only on the clinic's behalf and on its instructions, under a written agreement with the clinic.
The clinic's own privacy notice also applies to you. You can ask the clinic, or us, about how your information is handled.
3. What we collect
- From pet owners who message a clinic: your WhatsApp phone number and profile name, the content of your messages (text, photos and voice notes), details you share about your pet (name, species, breed, age, symptoms), how far away you are when you are travelling to the clinic, and the date and time of each message.
- From clinic staff: names, login details and the phone numbers of vets who receive emergency alerts.
- Technical records: basic logs needed to run and secure the service, such as message delivery status and error reports.
We do not ask for, and you should not send, ID numbers or bank or card details through VetDesk.
4. How we use it
- To sort messages by urgency so emergencies reach a vet first.
- To write summaries for clinic staff and ask you follow-up questions the vet needs, such as your pet's age or how long symptoms have lasted.
- To send automatic replies, booking links and repeat-prescription links on the clinic's behalf.
- To alert the clinic's on-call vet about emergencies, by WhatsApp and, if needed, by phone call.
- To keep the service working, secure and reliable.
We do not sell your information, use it for advertising, or share it with anyone other than the clinic and the service providers listed below.
5. No medical advice
VetDesk does not diagnose or give veterinary advice. Automatic replies are holding messages only. A vet decides on treatment and approves every prescription. In an emergency, always phone the clinic directly.
6. Service providers
We use these providers to run VetDesk. Each processes information only to provide its service to us, under its business terms.
| Provider | What they do |
|---|---|
| Meta (WhatsApp Business Platform) | Delivers WhatsApp messages between you and the clinic |
| Anthropic (Claude API) | The AI that reads, sorts and summarises messages. Under its commercial terms, it does not use our customers' messages to train its models. |
| Cloud hosting provider | Runs the VetDesk application and stores the clinic inbox, in South Africa where available |
| Twilio (optional) | Places automated phone calls to on-call vets when a WhatsApp alert is not answered |
Some of these providers process information outside South Africa. Where that happens, we rely on providers that are bound by data protection terms giving protection comparable to POPIA, as section 72 of POPIA requires.
7. How long we keep it
We keep messages and case records for up to 12 months after the last message in a conversation, and then delete them automatically, unless the clinic needs a record kept longer by law. Clinics may keep their own records in their practice systems under their own policies.
8. Security
We protect information with encrypted connections, secure hosting, access limited to authorised clinic staff by login, and secret keys that are kept out of our code. If a security breach affects your information, we will tell the clinic and the Information Regulator as POPIA requires.
9. Your rights
Under POPIA you may:
- ask whether we hold information about you, and for a copy of it;
- ask us to correct or delete it;
- object to how it is processed;
- complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa at inforegulator.org.za.
10. Deleting your data
To have your messages and case records deleted:
- Email vetdesk.za@gmail.com with the subject "Delete my data", or ask the clinic you messaged.
- Include the WhatsApp number you messaged from and the name of the clinic.
- We confirm your request and delete your information within 30 days, unless the clinic must keep a record by law. We will tell you if that applies.
Deleting your data from VetDesk does not delete messages that remain on your own phone or in the clinic's WhatsApp app.
11. Children
VetDesk is meant for pet owners who are adults. If a child has messaged a clinic through VetDesk, a parent or guardian can ask us to delete that information using the steps above.
12. Changes and contact
We will update this policy when the service changes and show the new date at the top. For any privacy question, email vetdesk.za@gmail.com.