Operator Agreement

This Operator Agreement ("Agreement") is the written contract required by POPIA Sections 20 and 21, governing PropChat's processing of personal information on behalf of the Agency. It forms part of the Terms of Service and is incorporated by reference into your subscription contract. The Agency accepts this Agreement on signup; existing tenants accept it on next sign-in after a version bump.

1. Roles under POPIA

With respect to end-customer (homeowner) personal information processed through the PropChat service:

• The Agency is the Responsible Party as defined in POPIA Section 1.
• PropChat is the Operator as defined in POPIA Section 1.

The Agency determines the purpose and means of processing, subject to the constraints of the PropChat software. PropChat processes only on the Agency's documented instructions, expressed through the Agency's ordinary use of the service.

With respect to Agency-facing data (agent accounts, billing, subscription records, support communications), PropChat is the Responsible Party. See the Privacy Policy for that treatment.

2. Subject matter and duration

• Subject matter: WhatsApp messaging delivery, contact management, campaign delivery, the unified inbox, the rule-based chatbot flow engine, audit logging, and related SaaS functionality on the Agency's behalf.
• Duration: the term of the Agency's subscription, plus the 90-day post-cancellation deletion window described in Section 11 below.

3. Nature and purpose of processing

Delivery of WhatsApp messages, receipt and storage of replies, logging of delivery and read status, storage of contact lists and opt-in / opt-out / repermission records, aggregation of analytics, enforcement of platform-level safeguards described in the Acceptable Use Policy, and automated rule-based chatbot flows for lead qualification.

4. Types of personal information

• Phone numbers (E.164) of end-customers
• Names and surnames of end-customers
• South African ID numbers (where supplied via Loom imports)
• Physical addresses, suburbs, property attributes (erf, title deed, transaction history) — sourced from the Agency's CRM exports or from Lightstone / Loom data feeds the Agency licenses directly
• Email addresses (optional, where supplied)
• WhatsApp profile display names (Meta-supplied at message time)
• Message content (inbound and outbound)
• Message timestamps, delivery and read receipts, error codes
• Opt-in, opt-out, and repermission event records (POPIA evidence trail)
• Campaign interaction metadata
• Lawful-basis attestation records — which agent attested, when, and on which import

5. Categories of data subjects

• End-customers of the Agency, primarily property owners and prospective sellers / buyers in the Agency's operating areas
• Other contacts the Agency has lawfully obtained for direct marketing purposes

6. PropChat's obligations as Operator (POPIA s20–21)

PropChat will:

• Process personal information only with the knowledge or authorisation of the Agency, and only on the Agency's documented instructions, except as required by law.
• Implement and maintain appropriate, reasonable technical and organisational security measures as required by POPIA Section 19. Specific safeguards: encryption-at-rest for sensitive credentials (Fernet-symmetric encryption of WABA access tokens and 2FA PINs), HTTPS-only public surfaces, signed webhooks (HMAC-SHA256 with strict-mode rejection of unsigned or bad-signature payloads), per-tenant isolation of contact and message data, audit logging of administrative actions.
• Treat personal information as confidential and ensure that any personnel authorised to process it are bound by confidentiality obligations.
• Notify the Agency without undue delay on becoming aware of any security compromise affecting the Agency's data, so the Agency can fulfil its own obligations under POPIA Section 22.
• Assist the Agency, on reasonable request and at the Agency's cost where non-trivial work is required, in responding to data subject requests, regulator investigations, and breach notifications.
• Make available information reasonably necessary for the Agency to demonstrate compliance with its own POPIA obligations.
• Not engage a subprocessor for the processing of end-customer personal information without the Agency's general prior authorisation, which is hereby given for the subprocessors listed in Section 8 below. We will notify Agencies at least 30 days before adding or replacing a material subprocessor; the Agency may object by cancelling its subscription before the change takes effect.
• On termination, return or delete end-customer personal information per Section 11 below.

7. Agency's obligations as Responsible Party

The Agency warrants that:

• It has a valid lawful basis under POPIA Section 11 for every piece of personal information it imports, generates, or processes through PropChat — typically consent under s11(1)(a), contract under s11(1)(b), or legitimate interest under s11(1)(f) read with s69(3) for direct marketing where there is a documented relationship.
• It maintains verifiable records of that lawful basis for at least 3 (three) years, in a form sufficient to satisfy a request from the Information Regulator. This is the consent / lawful-basis record-of-decision that an audit will ask for.
• It has informed its end-customers in a POPIA-compliant privacy notice of the processing carried out through PropChat, including the fact that PropChat acts as Operator.
• It will respond to end-customer data subject requests under POPIA s23–s25 within the timeframes set by POPIA, in its capacity as Responsible Party. PropChat will assist as described in Section 6 but does not directly answer such requests.
• It will not instruct PropChat to process personal information in a manner that would breach POPIA, the WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy, or any other applicable law. Instructions that would do so are deemed null and not part of the Agency's "documented instructions" under Section 1.
• Lawful-basis attestations submitted at import time are true and complete to the best of the attesting agent's knowledge.

8. Authorised subprocessors

The following subprocessors are authorised by the Agency under Section 6 above. PropChat engages each only to the extent necessary for the service:

9. Cross-border transfers

The Agency acknowledges and authorises that end-customer personal information will be transferred to Meta Platforms Ireland Limited and to its affiliates (including Meta Platforms, Inc. in the United States) as part of the WhatsApp Business Platform delivery infrastructure. The transfer is performed under Meta's Standard Contractual Clauses and is justified under POPIA Section 72(1)(a) (recipient is bound by binding corporate rules / binding agreements that provide adequate protection) and s72(1)(c) (consent of the data subject — captured by the Agency at its first-touch send via the in-message opt-out and embedded privacy notice, where relied on).

10. Assistance with data subject requests

If an end-customer contacts PropChat directly to exercise a right under POPIA s23–s25, we will:

• Identify the Agency that processes the data;
• Forward the request to the Agency without undue delay;
• Confirm receipt to the data subject;
• Where the Agency does not respond to the data subject within a reasonable period, follow up with the Agency.

PropChat does not itself answer the substantive request — that is the Agency's role as Responsible Party.

11. Return or deletion at end of service

On termination or expiry of the Agency's subscription, and subject to the Agency's election:

• Export: the Agency may request a CSV export of its contact lists, message history, and audit trail within 30 days of cancellation. Export is provided at no charge for the first request.
• Deletion: PropChat will delete all end-customer personal information processed as Operator within 90 days of cancellation, except where we are required by law to retain it (notably tax records under SARS retention rules — see Privacy Policy Section 8).

On deletion, the Do Not Contact list is retained indefinitely at the phone-number level (no PII beyond the number) so that opt-outs are honoured across future subscriptions by any agency using PropChat. This is treated as a privacy-preserving measure: the cost is keeping a list of numbers; the benefit is that an opt-out is permanent.

12. Audit rights

The Agency may, on at least 30 days' written notice and no more than once per calendar year, request a written summary of PropChat's technical and organisational measures. For agencies under regulator investigation, additional audit access may be agreed in writing on a per-case basis. The Agency bears its own costs.

13. Notice of changes

PropChat may update this Agreement from time to time. Material changes will be notified by email at least 30 days before taking effect, with a banner on the Agency's PropChat dashboard, and a re-acceptance gate at next sign-in. If you do not agree with a change, you may cancel your subscription before it takes effect; the existing terms govern the cancellation.

14. Effective date

This Agreement is effective as of 2026-05-06, version 2026-05-06-cold-outreach-draft.

15. Contact