Privacy Policy
Last updated: 6 November 2026
This policy explains how OptiVine (Pty) Ltd (Reg. 2024/620079/07), trading as The Vine Solutions ("we", "us"), collects and uses personal information through the Vinnie website (vinnie.the-vine-solutions.com), the Vinnie web app, our WhatsApp assistant, and when you contact us. We follow South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).
1. Contact us
- Email: vinnie@the-vine-solutions.com
- Phone: 065 834 8003
- WhatsApp: 068 475 7631
- Registered office: 130 3rd Avenue, Rietkol AH, Delmas, Mpumalanga, 2200, South Africa
- Information Officer: Richard Young (Director), vinnie@the-vine-solutions.com
2. The two roles we play
- For our own customers and website visitors, we decide how your information is used. In POPIA's terms we are the "responsible party".
- For the clients of a business that uses Vinnie, that business decides how its clients' information is used, and we process it on the business's behalf as its "operator". If you are a client of a Vinnie business, please contact that business first about your information.
3. Information we collect
Website visitors and enquiries
Your name, phone number, email address, business name and anything you tell us in the call-back form or a message to us.
Businesses and team members using Vinnie
- Account details: name, WhatsApp number, email address, role, business name, address, VAT number, logo and invoice layout, and a password (we store only a secure hash of it).
- What you send Vinnie on WhatsApp: text messages, voice notes (converted to text), and photos or PDFs such as receipts, slips and price lists.
- Business records you create: clients, quotes, invoices, payments, expenses, jobs, time logs, tasks, reminders, bookings and travel-logbook trips (places and distances).
- Services you choose to connect: your Google Calendar (only a calendar Vinnie creates for you) and Facebook sign-in. With Facebook sign-in we read your email address once, to match it to your Vinnie login, and store nothing from your Facebook account.
- Technical information: sign-in cookies, logs of requests and errors, and when messages were sent.
Clients of a Vinnie business
Entered by that business: name, phone number, email address, and the quotes, invoices, bookings, feedback and payments related to them.
Payments
Online payments are handled by PayFast. We never see or store card numbers.
4. Why we use it
- To provide Vinnie: understanding your messages, creating quotes and invoices, sending reminders, and keeping your calendar and records.
- To send the messages and emails you ask for, or that the service needs (for example booking reminders, invoices and password resets).
- To bill for the service and process payments.
- To answer enquiries and give support.
- To keep the service secure, prevent abuse and fix problems.
- To meet our legal and tax obligations.
We do not sell personal information, and we do not use it for third-party advertising.
5. Who we share it with
Only the service providers we need to run Vinnie. Each processes information for us under its own security and privacy terms:
- Meta Platforms (WhatsApp Business Platform): sending and receiving WhatsApp messages.
- Anthropic: the AI that understands messages and reads slips and documents.
- Groq: converting voice notes to text.
- Vercel: hosting the Vinnie website and app.
- Neon: database hosting, stored in Frankfurt, Germany.
- Google: sending email, and Google Calendar if you connect it.
- PayFast: online payments.
We may also share information when the law requires it, or to protect our rights or someone's safety.
6. Information sent outside South Africa
Some of these providers store or process information outside South Africa, for example in the European Union and the United States. We only use providers that protect personal information to a standard comparable to POPIA, as section 72 of POPIA requires.
7. How long we keep it
We keep a business's information while its account is active. When a business closes its account, we give it a full copy of its records on request (a download with its quotes, invoices, expenses, clients and files), and then permanently delete its information within 90 days of the account closing, except where the law requires us to keep it longer. Your business remains responsible for keeping its own records for as long as tax law requires, so please download them before you leave. Website enquiries that don't become customers are deleted when they are no longer needed.
8. Security
We use encrypted connections (HTTPS), hashed passwords, encrypted storage of payment settings, access controls, and signed requests between WhatsApp and our systems. No system is perfectly secure; if a security compromise affects your information, we will tell you and the Information Regulator.
9. Your rights
Under POPIA you may ask us to:
- confirm whether we hold information about you, and give you a copy;
- correct or delete it;
- stop using it, or object to how it is used.
To stop messages from Vinnie on WhatsApp, reply STOP. Reply START to receive them again.
You may also complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa): inforegulator.org.za, complaints.IR@inforegulator.org.za.
10. Deleting your data
- Facebook sign-in: we keep no information from your Facebook account. You can remove Vinnie under Settings → Apps and websites on Facebook. See our Facebook data deletion page.
- Everything else: email vinnie@the-vine-solutions.com from the address on your account, or ask your business owner. We confirm once your information has been deleted, except anything the law requires us to keep.
11. Cookies
The Vinnie app uses only the cookies it needs to keep you signed in and remember your settings. We don't use advertising or tracking cookies.
12. Children
Vinnie is a service for businesses and is not aimed at children under 18. We do not knowingly collect children's information.
13. Changes
We may update this policy. The date at the top shows when it last changed, and we will tell account holders about significant changes.
See also our Terms and Conditions and Accessibility Statement.