Stubie reads business messages to draft quotes. That means personal information passes through it — names, phone numbers, email addresses, and whatever a customer happens to type into a WhatsApp message. This page sets out what happens to that information, in the plainest terms we can manage.
1. Who is responsible for what
Stubie is operated by LinxAI (Pty) Ltd, a South African company. Two different relationships run at the same time:
For information about your business — the person who signed up, billing details, support conversations — LinxAI is the responsible party under POPIA. This policy describes what we do with it.
For information about your customers — the enquiries Stubie reads, the quotes it drafts, the payment references it chases — your business is the responsible party and LinxAI is your operator. We process that data on your written instruction and for no purpose of our own.
2. What we collect
- Account details. Business name, trading address, the name and contact details of the people who use the desk, and the bank account quotes are paid into.
- Message content. The WhatsApp messages, emails, voice notes, photographs and documents sent to the numbers and addresses you connect to Stubie.
- Quote and order records. Line items, prices, references, statuses, payment confirmations and the timestamps around them.
- Usage and security logs. Sign-in times, IP addresses, device and browser information, and a record of approvals — who approved which quote, and when.
We do not collect special personal information or children’s information deliberately. If it arrives inside a customer message, it is handled the same way as the rest of that message and deleted on the same schedule.
3. Why we process it
To run the service you are paying for: reading enquiries, pricing them against your list, drafting quotes, hosting quote pages, issuing payment references and sending the reminders you have approved.
To bill you, support you, and keep records the Companies Act and the Tax Administration Act require us to keep.
To keep the service secure and working — detecting abuse, investigating faults, and restoring data after an incident.
We do not sell personal information, and we do not use your customers’ messages to advertise anything to them or to you.
4. Your customers' data
Your customers are contacting your business. Quotes go out under your name, from your number, and Stubie appears only as a “Powered by Stubie” line on the quote page. Nothing is sent to a customer until someone at your business approves it.
You are responsible for telling your customers that you use a service to handle quoting, and for having a lawful basis to process their information. We will support you with whatever detail you need to do that.
6. Where it is stored
Stubie is hosted and supported in South Africa. Some processors — messaging and language-model providers in particular — process data outside the country. Where that happens, section 72 of POPIA applies and we rely on contractual terms that hold the recipient to a standard equivalent to POPIA.
7. How long we keep it
Message content and drafts: for as long as your desk is active, then deleted 90 days after your account closes.
Quotes, orders and payment records: five years, because tax law requires it.
Security logs: twelve months. Backups roll over on a 35-day cycle, so deleted data can persist in a backup for up to 35 days after deletion.
8. Your rights
Under POPIA you may ask what we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, object to processing, and complain. Write to support@stubie.co.za and we will answer within 30 days.
If one of your customers asks us for their data, we will refer them to you, because the record belongs to your business. You can export or delete any customer’s records from your desk.
You may also complain directly to the Information Regulator of South Africa.
9. Automated processing
Stubie uses automated processing to read enquiries and draft quotes. It does not make a decision that produces a legal consequence for anyone on its own: every quote, every price and every message to a customer waits for a person at your business to approve it.
Where a line cannot be priced from your list, Stubie says so and queues it. It does not invent a price.
10. Contact us
Information officer, LinxAI (Pty) Ltd — support@stubie.co.za