Autopilot Agency

Legal

Privacy Policy — Autopilot Agency

Last updated: 25 October 2026

DRAFT v1, 26 Sep 2026. Plain-language draft, not legal advice. Have an attorney review before launch.

Items in [BRACKETS] still need the owner's details.

1. Who we are

Autopilot Agency ("we", "us") is a sole proprietorship owned by Tshiamo Black (not registered with CIPC). We are building AI assistants and automation for small businesses.

This policy explains how we handle personal information under South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).

2. What we collect

  • Enquiry form: your name, email, business name, the service you're interested in, your message, and whether you ticked "Send me occasional tips and offers".
  • Chat assistant: what you type in the chat and any details you give us.
  • Consent records: the exact notice you saw, its version, and the date and time you submitted.
  • Technical data: when you use the form or chat, our hosting and form providers may process your IP address to deliver your message and block spam. Where we keep it ourselves, we keep only a scrambled (hashed) version, not your raw IP address.
  • Bookings (planned): if we add a booking tool, your name, email and chosen time.

We do not knowingly collect information from children under 18.

3. Why we use it

  • To reply to your enquiry and follow up about it (up to two follow-ups).
  • To send occasional tips and offers, only if you ticked the box.
  • To arrange a call with you if we agree one.
  • To keep the site secure and prevent spam.
  • To meet legal obligations.

4. Our AI assistant

Our website chat assistant is an AI, not a person. It tells you so at the start. Chats may be recorded. This chat doesn't keep what you type unless you ask us to pass it on. If you do, your recent questions (not the assistant's answers) are sent to us by email through FormSubmit and kept so we can reply to you. Once our chat server is live, chats will also be saved there. The assistant does not make decisions about you that have legal or similar effects. Anything it can't answer is passed to a person.

5. Messages from us

After you contact us, we reply to you by email and may follow up once or twice about your enquiry. If you don't want to hear from us, reply STOP or email autopilotagency731@gmail.com and the owner will stop contacting you about this enquiry within one working day. The owner will note your request so it is not forgotten.

6. Who we share it with

We don't sell your information. We share it only with service providers that help us run the business (operators), under written terms that require them to take reasonable steps to protect it.

Will be in use from launch (when this website goes live):

  • Website enquiry form: Our enquiry form is handled by FormSubmit, a third-party service that processes the details you enter outside South Africa. We use them only to reply to you. The provider is FormSubmit (United States). It delivers every enquiry and chat hand-off to us by email.
  • Website hosting: Cloudflare (United States and the European Economic Area, and other countries where Cloudflare operates)
  • Our business mailbox, where enquiries, chat hand-offs and emails to autopilotagency731@gmail.com arrive and from which we reply: Google (Gmail). It holds your name, email address, the details in your enquiry or chat hand-off and our emails with you, and may process them outside South Africa [location to confirm]
  • Email forwarding: Cloudflare Email Routing (United States and the European Economic Area, and other countries where Cloudflare operates). It forwards emails sent to autopilotagency731@gmail.com to our business mailbox and does not send email for us (receive only). It handles the sender's email address, the message and any attachments while forwarding them, and may process them outside South Africa.

Planned, not in use yet:

  • Booking tool: Cal.com [location to confirm], planned
  • Text messages: SMSPortal (South Africa), planned
  • Phone numbers: Twilio (United States, or Ireland where we choose it), planned
  • AI voice assistant: Retell (United States), planned
  • AI model for the website chat: [PROVIDER, location to confirm], planned

Providers marked planned are not in use yet. They will only be used once we start working with a client, and we will update this policy when that happens.

Providers listed under "Will be in use from launch" are not in use yet either. We will start using them when this website goes live, our domain autopilotagency.co.za is registered and email forwarding for autopilotagency731@gmail.com is set up.

7. Information sent outside South Africa

Some providers above keep or process data in the United States, the European Economic Area or other countries outside South Africa. Under POPIA section 72 we only send personal information outside South Africa when:

  • the provider is bound by law, binding rules or an agreement that gives protection substantially similar to POPIA (the EU's GDPR counts; for US providers we rely on their data-processing terms with us), or
  • you consented, or the transfer is needed to carry out your request or our agreement with you.

Once the AI receptionist is available, calls to a client's AI receptionist will be processed by Retell and Twilio in the US/Ireland. Each client's operator agreement will list this so the client can tell callers.

8. How long we keep it

  • Enquiries and chats that don't lead to working together: the details that identify you are removed after 6 months. If you asked us to stop contacting you, we keep your email address or number on a do-not-contact list so that we keep honouring your request. We may also keep a minimal record of what happened, as described below.
  • Client records: kept for the length of our agreement and afterwards as long as the law requires (for example, tax records for 5 years).
  • Opt-out records: kept so we can honour your request; see the first bullet above.
  • A minimal record: we keep a log of actions taken on our systems; the parts that identify you, such as your name or email address, are removed after [12 months - attorney to confirm]. What remains (the type of event, the month and the outcome) is kept for [period - attorney to confirm].

9. Security

We use encrypted connections (HTTPS) and access controls to protect your information. Where our own systems keep IP addresses, we keep only hashed versions, and we log access and key actions on those systems. If a breach puts your information at risk, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as POPIA requires. Once our chat server is live, its activity log is designed to be protected against changes after the fact, apart from removing identifying details as described in section 8. That is why we keep a record of what happened instead of deleting it.

10. Your rights

You can ask us to:

  • tell you what information we hold about you and give you a copy;
  • correct it, or ask us to remove the details that identify you. We remove them, and keep only the minimal record and do-not-contact entry described in section 8.
  • stop using it for marketing, or object to how we use it.

Email autopilotagency731@gmail.com. We'll respond within a reasonable time and won't charge you for a simple request.

If you're unhappy with how we handled your information, you can complain to the Information Regulator: https://inforegulator.org.za, POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za.

11. Cookies

We currently don't use tracking or advertising cookies. If that changes, we'll update this policy and ask for your consent where required.

12. Changes

We'll post any changes here and update the date at the top.