Privacy policy

1. Who we are and the scope of this policy

This privacy policy sets out how Pullin processes "personal information" as defined in section 1 of the South African Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA).

This policy applies to:

Hosts

People who create, manage or co-host events on Pullin.

Guests

Friends, colleagues and invitees who receive a Pullin link, RSVP on WhatsApp or the web, claim bring-list items, arrange lifts or upload photos.

Visitors

Anyone browsing the marketing website at pullin.co.za.

The responsible party is Pullin (pullin.co.za). For anything in this policy, including access, correction and deletion requests, contact hello@pullin.co.za.

2. Information we collect

We hold to the POPIA principle of minimality (section 10): we collect only the personal information needed to coordinate the specific gathering you are attending or organising. Everything in this table comes from you directly: a host cannot add you, or your details, to a guest list on your behalf.

We never collect identity numbers, your card or banking details, device identifiers, or continuous background location.

Visitors to the website leave us nothing that identifies them. We keep cookieless, aggregated usage statistics, and your IP address for up to 24 hours so that the RSVP form, the sign-in page and the bot cannot be abused.

3. How we use WhatsApp and phone numbers

In South Africa WhatsApp is where the braai, the birthday and the club fixture actually get organised. We treat your number with that in mind.

Consent first, inbound only

Pullin never cold-messages a number. A conversation starts when you tap an invite link, which opens WhatsApp with a message like RSVP PULL-8F3K ready to send, or when you type your number into an event page yourself.

No group spanning

Pullin does not join your WhatsApp groups and does not read or import your contacts. The bot only ever talks to you in a one-on-one chat.

One-word opt-out

Reply STOP to the Pullin WhatsApp line and nothing further is sent to your number, for every event and not just the one you replied to. Reply START if you change your mind. To keep an opt-out honoured we hold on to the fact that your number said stop, even after the rest of your information is deleted.

Email follows the same rules

If you RSVP on the web, the email address you give is used only for that event: a confirmation of your RSVP, reminders before it starts, a note if the details change or it is cancelled, and, if the host turns it on, one thank-you after the event with a link to add your photos. The reminders, updates and thank-you are sent when the host has upgraded the event or is on Pullin Pro, and the same messages go to WhatsApp guests. If you connect WhatsApp, the messages go there instead and the emails stop, so you are never told the same thing twice. Every email carries an unsubscribe link that stops emails about that event straight away.

AI reads a message only when the bot is stuck

On upgraded events, if you send the bot something it does not understand, the text of that one message is sent to an AI model in the European Union to work out what you meant. Your number, your name and the rest of the conversation are never sent with it, and the AI never changes anything: it can only offer you buttons that run the bot’s ordinary commands. On free events the bot simply tells you which words it knows.

No secondary advertising

We never sell, rent or repurpose your number or your email address. No marketing lists, no loan offers, no insurance calls.

4. What hosts and co-hosts see

When you RSVP to a Pullin gathering you are sharing information with the host who created the invitation. That is the point of the thing, so here is exactly what reaches them.

• Your name, your RSVP status, how many people you are bringing, your dietary note and your note to the host, along with anything you volunteered to bring on the bring list.
• Your phone number, if you gave one. It is not shown on the host’s screen, but it is part of the guest list their browser loads and it is a column in the guest list they can export as a spreadsheet. Treat a number you share with a host as something the host has.
• Your email address, if you gave one. It is not shown on the host’s screen and their browser does not load it, but it is a column in the guest list they can export as a spreadsheet. Treat an email address you share with a host as something the host has.
• Whether you are reachable on WhatsApp or by email, shown as a small tag next to your name. Hosts do not see delivery or read receipts for the individual messages we send you.
• Every photo you upload, before anyone else does: the host approves each one before it appears on the event page, and can remove it at any time.
• Co-hosts see the guest list exactly as the host does, phone numbers and email addresses included, because co-hosting means sharing the work. Only the host who created the event can publish or cancel it, pay for it, or add and remove co-hosts.

5. Lift sharing and contact visibility

One of Pullin’s better tools is the lift coordinator, the "who is driving?" question every group chat eventually asks. Because it pairs guests who may not know each other, contact details move carefully.

• A driver offers the number of seats they have and the area they are leaving from. A passenger asks for a lift from their area. That is all either side submits.
• The host pairs a passenger with a driver. Until both of you have agreed to share, each of you sees only the other’s name and the area they are coming from. No number is shown to either side.
• Once both of you agree, and only then, each of you gets the other’s WhatsApp number so you can sort out the pickup directly. On WhatsApp the same thing happens when you both reply CONNECT. Nobody else is copied in.
• If the host changes the pairing, both agreements reset and the numbers stop being shared again.
• Other guests browsing the event page never see your number. The public page shows first names only, of the people who said yes, and only if the host chose to show the guest list at all.

6. Your rights under POPIA

As a data subject in South Africa you have real, enforceable rights over your personal information. Using them costs nothing and you do not need a reason.

Access (section 23)

Ask whether we hold personal information about you, and ask for a copy of it. Email hello@pullin.co.za and we will send it.

Correction (section 24)

Fix anything that is wrong or out of date. Your personal RSVP link lets you change your name, your email address, your number, your dietary note and your note to the host yourself. On WhatsApp the bot can change your RSVP, but not the rest, so use the link for that.

Objection (section 11(3))

Object, on reasonable grounds, to us processing your information. Where we rely on your consent you can simply withdraw it.

Complaint

If you believe your POPIA rights have been infringed you may complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa. You do not have to raise it with us first, though we would rather you did so we can put it right.

7. How long we keep things, and how to delete them

Social gatherings are temporary. Your details should not outlive them on a server somewhere.

Guest details are anonymised after twelve months

Twelve months (360 days) after an event’s start date, the guests on it are anonymised in place: the name becomes "Past guest" and the phone number, email address, dietary note and note to the host are erased. The event and its headcounts survive, so a host keeps their history without keeping you in it. Anything you claimed on a bring list, and any lift arrangement, stays attached to that anonymised record.

WhatsApp message text is erased after 90 days

The words of your chat with the bot are wiped 90 days after they are sent. The delivery and cost record of each message stays, because we are billed for it.

Photos stay with the event

Photos uploaded to an event wall stay until you delete your details, the host removes them, or the host deletes their account. There is no automatic expiry on them. The wall takes new photos for 30 days after the event (a host can reopen it once for another 30 days); approved photos are visible to anyone with the event link for as long as the event exists. Because approved photos are cached by our content delivery network, a removed photo can take up to a day to disappear everywhere.

You do not have to wait for any of that. You can delete your own information whenever you like:

• On the web. Your personal RSVP link has Delete my data from this event at the bottom. It removes you from that event for good, photos included, and you disappear from the host’s guest list. Keep the link: it expires 90 days after it is issued, or 60 days after the event, whichever is later.
• On WhatsApp. Reply DELETE to the bot. It tells you how many events it holds data for and asks you to confirm, then removes everything tied to your number across all of them at once.
• Hosts. Your account page has Delete account. It happens immediately, with no grace period and no undo: your events, their guest lists, the photos and your payment records all go with it.

One thing deliberately survives deletion: if you replied STOP, we keep the fact that your number opted out, so that the opt-out keeps being honoured.

8. Who else touches your data, and where it lives

Pullin runs on a small set of specialist providers. Each one is an operator under POPIA: they process only what their job needs, under their own security obligations, and none of them may use your information for their own purposes.

We are not hiding who these providers are. If you want the current list by name, email hello@pullin.co.za and we will send it to you.

Requests from the police, courts or regulators. We disclose personal information to a public authority only on a lawful, specific request: we check its legal basis first, challenge requests that appear unlawful, disclose only the minimum the request requires, and record what was asked and what we did. The process is set out in our PAIA manual.

Traffic between you and Pullin is encrypted in transit, and both our application host and our database encrypt what they store at rest. Access to production systems is limited to our Information Officer, every read and write is authorised against the event it belongs to, and administrative actions are logged. If there is ever reasonable grounds to believe your personal information has been accessed by someone unauthorised, we notify the Information Regulator and you, as section 22 of POPIA requires, as soon as reasonably possible.

Where your data lives (section 72). Our servers and database are in the European Union, in Germany, and the AI models in the Netherlands. The EU’s GDPR offers protection substantially similar to POPIA, which is the basis on which section 72(1)(a) permits the transfer. Sign-in, error monitoring and part of email delivery run in the United States under those providers’ contractual data protection terms. We plan to move hosting to Johannesburg as we scale. WhatsApp messages are processed by Meta on their own global infrastructure.

9. Cookies and your browser

Pullin uses no advertising or tracking cookies, and no cookie banner is needed because nothing we set needs your consent.

• Hosts get the strictly necessary cookies that keep you signed in, set by our sign-in provider, plus a short-lived cookie during sign-in and sign-out that remembers where to send you back to. They expire when the session does.
• Guests get no cookies at all. On your personal photo page, your browser keeps your personal link in its own storage so the page can show your photos next time; that stays on your device and never reaches us or the host.
• Usage statistics are collected without cookies, using a random identifier that is not linked to your name, number, email address or any message.

10. Children

You must be 18 or older to create a host account. Guests are often families, and a parent or guardian RSVPs for their children as part of their own headcount: we hold nothing about a child beyond that number. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has given us their details without a parent or guardian’s consent, email hello@pullin.co.za and we will delete them.