Data Deletion Instructions

Two different groups of people ask us to delete data, and the route is different for each.

• You are a Relay66 customer, or work for one. You have a login for the Hub. You can delete channels, your own user profile, or the entire organisation yourself. See section 2.
• You messaged a business on WhatsApp and that business uses Relay66. You have no Relay66 account and never signed up with us. See section 3.

All three options are self-service in the Hub. You do not need to contact support, and we do not charge for deletion.

Delete a single channel

1. Sign in to the Hub
2. Go to Channels and open the channel you want to remove
3. Open the General tab and choose Delete channel
4. Confirm when prompted

For a WhatsApp channel we first unsubscribe your WhatsApp Business Account from our application at Meta, so no further messages reach us, and then schedule the channel and its data for removal. If the unsubscribe fails because Meta is unreachable, the channel still proceeds to deletion and you can retry the unsubscribe from the Connection tab.

Delete your own user profile

1. Sign in to the Hub
2. Go to Settings, then Profile
3. Choose to delete your profile and confirm

If you are the last remaining owner of an organisation we will block this, because it would leave the account with nobody able to administer it. Transfer ownership to someone else first, or delete the whole organisation instead.

Delete the entire organisation

1. Sign in to the Hub as an account owner
2. Go to Settings, then Account
3. Choose Delete organisation and confirm

Only account owners can do this. It covers every channel, user, conversation and media file belonging to the organisation.

The recovery period

Deletion is not immediate. Whatever you delete enters a 14 day recovery period, during which you can cancel from the same screen in the Hub and everything is restored. This exists so that an accidental deletion, or one made by a departing employee, can be undone.

Once the recovery period passes, removal proceeds automatically and cannot be reversed.

Relay66 is the infrastructure that carried your conversation. We did not choose to contact you and we hold your information on behalf of the business you messaged, as their operator under POPIA.

Ask the business first

The business you messaged is the responsible party for your information. They control what was collected and why, they can delete it directly, and going to them is usually faster. Reply to the WhatsApp conversation, or use the contact details they publish.

Or ask us directly

If you cannot reach them, or you would rather deal with us, email [email protected] with the subject line Data deletion request and include:

• The WhatsApp phone number you messaged from, including country code
• The name of the business you were messaging, or the number you messaged
• Roughly when the conversation took place, if you remember

We will use those details only to locate your records and to confirm the request is genuinely yours. We may ask one follow-up question to verify it before acting, because deleting the wrong person’s messages is not recoverable.

We will identify the business concerned, act on their authorisation as their operator, remove your information and confirm the outcome to you. We do this without undue delay, and within the period applicable law requires.

There is no charge, and you do not need a Relay66 account to make this request.

Removed

• Inbound and outbound message records, including their content
• Media attachments sent or received, deleted from storage
• Records of webhook deliveries made to the customer’s systems, including request and response bodies
• Usage statistics for the channel or account
• Stored provider credentials for the channel

Kept

• Invoices, payment records and accounting data. South African company and tax legislation obliges us to retain these for a set period, so they survive deletion of the account. They identify the business, not the people it messaged.
• A deactivated account and channel record. We keep a marker showing that the account or channel existed and when it was closed, so that identifiers are not reissued and so we can answer questions about the closure. The conversations and personal information attached to it are removed.

If you believe we are holding something we should not, tell our Information Officer at [email protected] and we will look into it.

Deleting your data from Relay66 does not delete it everywhere. Two copies are outside our reach:

• Meta and WhatsApp. Meta operates the WhatsApp Business Platform and holds its own records of message traffic under its own privacy policy. We cannot delete those. Requests about them go to Meta.
• Your own device. The conversation in your WhatsApp app is stored on your phone and is under your control. Delete the chat in WhatsApp to remove it.

The business you messaged may also have copied information into its own systems, such as a CRM or helpdesk. That is theirs to delete, not ours.

Deletion requests and any question about them go to our Information Officer at [email protected].

For how we handle personal information generally, see our Privacy Policy. If you are not satisfied with our response you may complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa) at inforegulator.org.za.