Privacy policy

Pata is a personal shopper on WhatsApp and a website that helps people find shops and service providers who sell on WhatsApp. This policy explains what personal data Pata handles when you message Pata, use this website, or when your business is listed.

When you message Pata on WhatsApp: your WhatsApp number and display name, the messages and voice notes you send, and the replies Pata sends back.

When you use the website: what you search for. Your IP address is used briefly to prevent abuse and to guess your country for relevant results; it is not stored with your searches.

When your business is listed: information your business already publishes on its WhatsApp Business profile — name, description, address and location, hours, website, email, categories, photos and catalog products with prices.

When you claim a shop: the WhatsApp number used to verify ownership and a one-time code.

Activity: which shops appeared for a search and when someone taps through to a shop on WhatsApp, so we can measure what's useful.

• Understand what you're asking for and suggest shops that fit.
• Remember the recent conversation so follow-ups like “the second one” work.
• Connect you with a shop on WhatsApp and tell the shop you came from Pata.
• Let business owners verify and manage their listing.
• Keep Pata safe and working, and understand which searches go unanswered so we can list more shops.

Pata uses AI language models to understand messages, transcribe voice notes, organise shop catalogs and write replies. Replies are generated only from shops listed on Pata, but they can contain mistakes — always confirm details with the shop. Pata does not make decisions with legal or similarly significant effects about you.

We don't sell personal data. We use trusted providers to run Pata, who process data on our instructions:

• Database and file storage hosting.
• Website hosting.
• AI model providers, reached through an AI routing service, for the processing described above.
• WhatsApp (Meta), which carries the messages between you and Pata under its own terms and privacy policy.

When you tap through to a shop, the shop receives your WhatsApp message like any other chat. We may disclose data if the law requires it.

• Conversation memory: 24 hours after your last message. Send “reset” to Pata to clear it at any time.
• Shop-claim codes: expire after 10 minutes.
• Search and activity records: kept while needed to run and improve Pata. Ask us and we'll delete records linked to your number.
• Business listings: until the business asks to be removed or stops being available on WhatsApp.

Depending on where you live, data-protection law gives you the right to access your data, correct it, delete it, object to or restrict its use, and receive a copy. You can also complain to your data-protection authority. To use any of these rights, contact us (below) from the WhatsApp number concerned so we can confirm it's you.

Business owners can claim their listing on the shop owner page or ask us to remove it.

Data is encrypted in transit, access is limited to people who need it, and secrets are never shown to users. Our providers may process data in other countries; where that happens we rely on their contractual and security safeguards.

The public website uses no advertising or analytics cookies. A short-lived cookie keeps a shop-claim verification step together, and staff sign-in uses a session cookie. Both are strictly necessary.

Pata isn't intended for children under 16, and we don't knowingly collect their data.

We'll update this page when our practices change and show the new effective date above.

• Email: kore0labs@gmail.com
• WhatsApp: +237 6 76 57 93 70