Version 1.0 · effective 2026-09-22
Privacy Policy
This explains what personal information FarmBind holds, why, and what you can ask us to do about it. It is written to meet the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA).
1. Who is responsible
FarmBind operates from South Africa and decides how the platform handles your information, so we are the responsible party for your account details.
For the farm records you capture, you are the responsible party and we are your operator — we hold and process them on your instruction. That relationship is set out in the Data Processing Agreement.
2. What we collect
Because you gave it to us: your name, email address, phone number, farm name and location, and your banking or card details if you pay us (card details are held by our payment provider, not by us).
Because you use FarmBind: the records you capture — birds, animals, crops, feed, medicines, weights, money — plus photographs you send us and messages you send Bindy on WhatsApp or in the app.
Automatically: your IP address, device and browser, which pages you open and when, and error reports when something breaks.
3. Why we hold it
- To run FarmBind for you and show you your own records. - To support you when you ask, and to investigate a problem you report. - To bill you and keep the tax records the law requires. - To send you service messages — reminders you switched on, trial and payment notices, and notices when we change something that changes your numbers. - To keep the platform working, secure and honest.
We do not sell your information, and we do not use your farm records to advertise to you.
4. Bindy, WhatsApp and photographs
Bindy reads what you send it so it can file your capture. To do that, the text of your message — and any photograph you send — is sent to our AI provider (Anthropic) for reading. It is used to answer that message, not to train anyone's model.
We keep a log of Bindy conversations so we can show you what was captured and fix it when it goes wrong. It is a record of what you told us, and it is yours.
A phone number alone is never treated as proof of who you are. You link your number from your account page with a one-time code.
5. Who can see your data
- You, and anyone you have added to your account. - Your leader or adviser, if you have one — the consultant or organisation who set your account up or who you asked us to give access to. They can see everything on your account, including your costs and prices. You can see exactly who they are under Account ▸ People ▸ Who else can see this farm. - Us. Through the app we see your account and billing, not your daily registers. As the people who run the platform we can reach your data directly when we need to fix something you have reported, and we do that only for that reason. - Our suppliers, listed below, who hold or process data on our behalf. - Anyone you ask us to give access to, and nobody else.
6. Our suppliers
| Who | What they do | Where | |---|---|---| | Supabase | Holds the database and logins | Ireland (EU) | | Vercel | Runs the web app | Global edge, EU region | | Railway | Runs the WhatsApp service | Global | | Anthropic | Reads your Bindy messages and photographs | United States | | Resend | Sends our email | United States | | Meta (WhatsApp) | Carries WhatsApp messages | Global | | PayFast | Takes card payments | South Africa |
Some of these are outside South Africa. POPIA allows this where the receiving country or the supplier's contract gives comparable protection, and each of these suppliers is bound by terms that require it.
7. How long we keep it
While your account is open, and afterwards for as long as we must:
- Farm and compliance records — while your account is open, and after it closes for as long as you may need them for an audit. Ask us to delete them and we will, unless the law says otherwise. - An account that was never paid for and never used — if an account is created, never subscribed to, and never used to capture anything, we may close it and delete what it holds after 90 days without activity. We contact you first, and you can ask us to keep it, or to send you an export, before anything is removed. Nothing is deleted automatically and nothing is deleted without a person deciding.
This does not apply to an account that holds real records. If you captured anything and then stopped — because the season ended, the cycle finished, or a payment failed — your records stay, and you keep the right to a copy. - Invoices and payment records — five years, as tax law requires. - Bindy conversation logs and error logs — kept so we can explain and fix what happened; these are not deleted on request where they are the only record of a capture you made.
8. Your rights
You may ask us to:
- show you what we hold about you;
- correct anything that is wrong;
- delete what we no longer need to keep;
- give you a copy of your records in a usable format;
- stop sending you anything that is not a service message.
Email us and we will do it. If you think we have handled your information badly, tell us first — and you may complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa.
9. Keeping it safe
Access is scoped so one farm's login cannot reach another farm's data, and that boundary is enforced in the database layer, not by hiding buttons. Traffic is encrypted. Passwords are hashed by our authentication provider and we never see them.
No system is perfect. If your personal information is breached in a way that creates a real risk to you, we will tell you and the Information Regulator, as POPIA requires.
10. Children
FarmBind is for farm businesses. It is not for children, and we do not knowingly collect a child's information.
11. Changes
We may update this policy. If a change is material we will tell you and ask you to accept it. Every version stays published with its date.
12. Contact
Email us at the address on our website. We answer privacy requests ourselves — there is no ticket queue.