Yada Yada helps you turn busy WhatsApp group chats from schools, clubs and communities into a short list of what matters to you: dates, payments, deadlines and things to bring. This policy explains what personal information we process, why, where, for how long, and your rights under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).
1. Who we are
The responsible party is YadaYada Internet (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2026/774497/07), 27 Kalsedoon Street, Bonanne, Vanderbijlpark, 1911, Gauteng, South Africa.
Our Information Officer is Vuyisile Khoba. You can reach them at vuyisile@yadayada.net.za. We are registered with the Information Regulator under registration number 2026-068435.
2. Who can use Yada Yada
Yada Yada is for adults aged 18 and over. You confirm your age when you sign up. We don't knowingly provide the service to anyone younger.
3. What we collect, and why
| Information | Why we need it | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Your first name and email address (and your Google or Apple sign-in, if you choose it) | To create and secure your account and to contact you about it | Contract; consent |
| Your settings: the categories you care about, notification choices, your own categories and watch list | To personalise your digests | Consent |
| Your children's first names, grades and classes, only if you separately agree | To show who each notice is for | Consent of a competent person (you, as parent or guardian), POPIA section 35 |
| WhatsApp chat exports you choose to share, including photos and PDFs in them | To find the items that matter to you | Consent |
| Photos of paper notices you choose to snap (Yada Plus) | To find the dates and payments in them; kept privately with the items they produced | Consent |
| The items we find (title, date, amount, a short quote of at most 280 characters with sender names shortened and phone numbers removed) | To show you your digest, calendar and reminders | Consent |
| Calendar entries and reminders you create | To remind you | Consent |
| Your digest language choice (English, Afrikaans or isiZulu) | To write your items in that language | Consent |
| Device notification token | To send the notifications you ask for | Consent |
| Usage counts (how many imports and questions this month) and technical error reports (with personal details removed) | To apply plan limits, keep costs fair and fix problems | Legitimate interest |
We don't collect phone numbers, contacts, your location, voice notes or videos. We don't read any chat unless you choose to share it with us.
If you turn on app lock, your phone checks your Face ID, fingerprint or passcode. That check happens entirely on your phone; we never receive or store any biometric information. The camera is only used when you choose to snap a notice.
4. How a chat is processed
- Your phone opens the export and keeps voice notes and videos on the phone. Only the chat text, and up to 30 photos or PDFs, are uploaded.
- The upload is stored privately in Cape Town, South Africa (Amazon Web Services).
- Before any text leaves our servers for analysis, we replace sender names with labels (P1, P2…) and remove phone numbers and email addresses.
- The text and the photos and PDFs are analysed by an AI service (Anthropic) to find the items that matter.
- The uploaded files are deleted as soon as processing finishes, usually within minutes and always within 24 hours.
5. Who processes information for us
We use carefully chosen operators who process information only on our instructions. Some are outside South Africa. These cross-border transfers happen with your consent (POPIA section 72) and under binding agreements that require adequate protection.
| Operator | Purpose | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Web Services | Temporary storage of uploaded chats | South Africa (Cape Town) |
| Neon (on AWS) | Our main database | United States (Ohio) |
| Anthropic (Claude) | Reading chats to find items; answering Ask Yada questions | United States |
| Clerk | Sign-in and account security | United States |
| ImageKit | Private copies of flyer photos linked to items | South Africa (Cape Town) |
| Inngest | Running the background reading jobs | United States |
| RevenueCat | Managing Yada Plus subscriptions bought through the App Store or Google Play (we receive your subscription status, never your card details) | United States |
| Expo (EAS) | Hosting our server and delivering app updates and notifications | United States |
| Sentry | Error reports, with personal details removed | United States |
Anthropic doesn't use information sent through its business API to train its models.
6. How long we keep it
| Information | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Uploaded chat files (text, photos, PDFs) | Deleted after processing, always within 24 hours |
| Items, digests, flyer and notice photos | 12 months, then deleted automatically |
| Calendar entries, reminders, settings | Until you delete them or your account |
| Account | Until you delete it |
| Database backups | Up to 6 hours after deletion |
| Record that you consented, exported or deleted (no content) | As long as required to show we complied with the law |
7. Your rights
You can, at any time:
- See your information. In the app, go to *Profile → Privacy & data → Export my data*.
- Correct it. Change your name, settings, children and watch list in *Profile*.
- Delete it.
- *Forget this group* deletes one group.
- *Delete my data* deletes everything read from your chats.
- *Delete my account* deletes everything.
- Withdraw consent. For example, switch off children's details (they're deleted at once), or stop using the service.
- Object to processing, by contacting our Information Officer.
- Complain to the Information Regulator at inforegulator.org.za, complaints.IR@justice.gov.za.
8. Security
- Information is encrypted in transit and at rest.
- Uploads use one-time links that expire after 15 minutes.
- Photos are only shown through links that expire.
- Access is limited to what each service needs.
- Error reports have emails, phone numbers and chat content removed before they're sent.
If a breach affects you, we'll notify you and the Information Regulator as POPIA requires.
Family sharing (Yada Plus)
If you start or join a family, the other adults in it can see your items (title, date, amount, child's first name, the short quote and which group it came from) and who marked an item done. They never see your chats, your calendar entries, your reminders or your settings. Anyone can leave a family at any time, and the owner can remove members; sharing stops immediately. Invite codes work once and expire after 7 days.
9. Group members' information
Chats contain messages from other people in your groups. We use them only to find items for you. We shorten names (for example "Mrs N.") and never store phone numbers. Please only share chats you're allowed to share.
10. Changes
If this policy changes in a way that affects how we use your information, we'll ask for your consent again in the app before continuing.
11. Contact
For questions or requests: vuyisile@yadayada.net.za.