Privacy Policy

Effective 15 October 2026

Vendwa is an AI assistant, operated by BestDid, that helps shops sell on WhatsApp. When you message a shop that uses Vendwa, you are chatting with an automated assistant acting on that shop's behalf. This policy explains what information we handle, why, and your choices.

Who is responsible for your data

The shop you are messaging (the “Vendor”) decides what to sell and uses Vendwa to answer you and take orders. BestDid operates the Vendwa service that processes the chat on the Vendor's behalf. For questions you can contact us at support@vendwa.com or ask the shop directly.

Information we handle

• Your WhatsApp number and profile name, as provided to us by WhatsApp when you message the shop.
• The messages you send and that the assistant sends back — the content of the conversation.
• Order details you provide — such as the item, size, quantity, your name, and a delivery address, when you place an order.

We do not ask for or store card numbers or banking PINs. Vendwa does not take payments (see “Payments” below).

Voice notes

If you send a shop a voice note, we send the audio to OpenAI to turn it into text. The assistant reads the text and replies in text. We keep the text with your conversation. We do not keep the audio. If the voice note cannot be turned into text, the assistant asks you to type instead.

If you send a voice note to Vendwa's own WhatsApp number (the number shop owners message to ask about Vendwa), we do not download it, listen to it or turn it into text. We only note that a voice note came in, and we ask you to type your message.

Instagram messages and comments

A shop can connect its Instagram professional account to Vendwa. When it does, Vendwa receives the direct messages you send that account and replies on the shop's behalf, the same way it does on WhatsApp. We receive your Instagram-scoped user id and username, the messages, and any post or story you share with the shop.

If the shop turns on comment replies, Vendwa also reads comments left on the shop's own posts. When a comment asks a buying question (for example “how much?” or “still available?”), Vendwa sends you one private reply with the answer and may post one short public reply under your comment saying a message was sent. For each comment it acts on, we keep the comment id, its text, your Instagram user id and username, and what we did (replied privately, replied publicly, or did nothing). Vendwa never deletes, hides or likes comments, never reads comments on other accounts' posts, and takes no action on comments that are not buying questions.

How we use it

• To answer your questions, show the shop's products and prices, and discuss them with you.
• To take and pass your order to the shop so it can be fulfilled.
• To let the shop's staff review the conversation and step in to help where needed.
• To operate, secure, and improve the service.

Our legal basis is your consent and the steps needed to respond to your request and complete a sale you ask for, consistent with Ghana's Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843). By messaging the shop, you consent to this handling.

Who we share it with

• The shop (Vendor) you are messaging — it receives your messages and orders.
• Service providers that make Vendwa work, namely: Meta Platforms (the WhatsApp Cloud API and Instagram Messaging API that deliver messages), Anthropic (the Claude AI service that generates the assistant's replies), OpenAI (the speech-to-text service that converts a voice note you send into text so the assistant can understand it — OpenAI states that data sent to its API is not used to train its models by default, and we have not opted in), Railway (secure cloud hosting and database), and Vercel (secure cloud hosting for the shop dashboard and sign-in system). These providers process data only to provide their service to us.

We do not sell your personal information.

Separately from customer chats, we ran a paid Voice Notes Project from 7 August 2026, in which participants recorded sample lines to help us test how Vendwa understands speech. It stopped taking voice notes on 17 September 2026 and closed fully on 13 October 2026. We no longer collect or pay for voice notes. Nothing recorded in it came from customer chats, and customer chats are not used to train AI models. What happened to the project's information, and how to ask about a past payment, is explained at vendwa.com/voice-terms.

Payments

Vendwa does not process payments and cannot see your payments. When you choose to buy, the assistant shares the shop's Mobile Money (MoMo) details so you can pay the shop directly. Any payment is between you and the shop.

How long we keep it

We keep conversations and orders for as long as needed to serve the shop and complete and record sales, and as required by law. Short-lived technical records used to avoid processing the same message twice are deleted automatically after about seven days. Records of Instagram comments that were not buying questions are deleted automatically after 30 days. Records of buying comments are kept with the conversation they started. You may ask us to delete your data (see “Deleting your data”).

Deleting your data

You can ask us to delete the personal information we hold about you at any time. Email support@vendwa.com from any address, tell us the shop you messaged and the WhatsApp number or Instagram username you used, and we will delete your conversations, orders and comment records from our systems within 30 days and confirm by reply. The shop may keep its own record of a completed sale where the law requires it.

When a shop disconnects its Instagram account from Vendwa, we delete the Instagram comment records we kept for that shop immediately and stop receiving anything from that account. Meta users can also remove Vendwa from their Instagram or Facebook settings under “Apps and websites”; email us to have the data we already hold deleted.

Your rights

Under Ghana's Data Protection Act, you may ask to access the personal information we hold about you, correct it if it is wrong, or request that we delete it (see “Deleting your data”). To make a request, email support@vendwa.com. You can also stop the conversation at any time by not replying or by blocking the number on WhatsApp.

Security

Conversations and orders are stored in a secured, access-controlled database, and access is limited to the shop and authorised BestDid staff. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable measures to protect your information.

Children

Vendwa is intended for adults shopping with the participating shops and is not directed at children.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The “Effective” date above shows when it last changed.

Contact

BestDid (Vendwa) — support@vendwa.com.