Privacy policy

Greetfolk, based in Davao City, Philippines, runs greetfolk.com, the dashboard at app.greetfolk.com, the websites and booking pages we host for businesses, and the AI receptionist that answers their web chat and, when a business turns it on, Messenger. This policy explains what personal information we handle, why, who sees it, how long we keep it, and your rights under the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10173), its implementing rules and the rules of the National Privacy Commission (NPC).

Who we are, and our two roles

The law gives us one of two roles, depending on whose information it is.

• For the clients of a business, for example a clinic's patients or a salon's customers, the business decides how their information is used. It is the personal information controller. We process that information on its behalf and on its instructions, as its personal information processor, under our data processing agreement. The business's own privacy notice, shown on its website, covers you when you book or chat with it. This policy explains our part.
• For business owners and staff who use our dashboard, and for visitors to greetfolk.com, we decide how information is used. We are the controller.

What we collect

We collect only what the service needs. By source:

When you book on a business's website

• Your first name, last name and Philippine mobile number. Email is optional.
• The service, provider, branch, date and time you chose, and a booking reference.
• A record of the consent you gave: which version of the business's privacy notice you saw, when, and whether you booked on the website, in web chat or on Messenger.
• Bot checks: a limit on bookings from one internet address in a short time, and other checks that stop automated programs.

When you use a business's web chat

• Your email address. Before you chat, we send a 6-digit code to it and you enter the code, so nobody can chat in your name. The business's staff can see your email so they can reply to you.
• Your messages, the AI receptionist's replies, replies from staff, and when and why a chat was handed to staff.
• Your mobile number and booking reference, if you give them so the assistant can find, move or cancel your own booking. To stop guessing, we count wrong booking references against a one-way hash of the mobile number, which we can't turn back into the number.

When you message a business on Messenger

• The id Meta gives you for that Page, your messages and the replies. Meta's own terms and privacy policy also apply to Messenger.

Health information

Anything you tell a clinic in a booking or a chat about your health is sensitive personal information under the law. The AI receptionist never asks for your medical history. We handle health information only to give the service the clinic asked for, and the clinic's notice explains its own basis for keeping it.

Business accounts

• Your name, email address and password (stored as a one-way hash), the sign-in codes we email you, and your two-factor authentication records: the authenticator app you enrolled and your recovery codes. Owners must use two-factor authentication for owner actions.
• Your role (owner, staff or provider), invitations, and your sessions: the IP address, browser and last-active time of each, shown on the Devices page.
• The business profile you publish: name, address, branches, phones, hours, services and prices, providers (names, credentials, licence numbers for health businesses, bios and photos), policies, FAQs and photos.

Technical logs

The IP address, browser and time of each request to our servers, kept for security. We keep client details such as names, numbers and messages out of our logs.

We use no analytics or tracking today, on greetfolk.com or on the websites we host.

Why we use it, and the law that allows it

Section 12 of the Act sets out when personal information may be processed, and section 13 when sensitive personal information may be. Here is what we do and which rule allows it.

We never sell personal information and never use it for advertising. We don't send marketing to a business's clients.

The AI receptionist and automated processing

The AI receptionist is software that writes replies in a business's web chat and, where the business turns it on, Messenger.

• It says it is an AI assistant. It answers only from the details the business keeps in Greetfolk: services, price ranges, hours, providers, policies and FAQs.
• It can find open times, book, and look up, move or cancel your own booking, but only after you give the booking reference and the mobile number on it. Before you confirm a booking, it reads the details back and shows the business's privacy notice.
• It gives no diagnosis, treatment or medication advice. If you describe urgent symptoms, it gives the business's phone number and earliest open time and hands the chat to staff as urgent. It is not for emergencies.
• It hands the chat to staff when you ask, when it is unsure and after repeated failures. Staff can take over any chat at any time, and see the conversation and your email.
• No decision with a legal or similarly significant effect on you is made by the AI alone. It only books times the business has opened, staff can review, change or cancel anything it does, and you can always ask for a person: tap "Talk to staff" in the chat, or call the business.

The AI model that writes the replies is an open model run by Fireworks AI on servers in the United States. We send it the conversation and the business details it needs to answer. Under its terms, Fireworks AI keeps no prompts or replies for the model we use and does not train on them.

Who we share it with

• The business you booked with or messaged. Its staff see your booking and your chats.
• Service providers that process information for us, only as far as the service needs:
  • OVHcloud (hosting, database, file storage and backups, in Singapore).
  • Cloudflare (network, security, DNS and caching, on its global network).
  • Fireworks AI (writing the AI receptionist's replies, in the United States).
  • Meta Platforms (delivering Messenger messages, only when a business connects its Facebook Page).
  • Google (the map on a business's website, only after you tap "Show map").
  • Amazon Web Services (sending sign-in codes, chat codes and notices to staff).
  • Planned, not yet in use: Semaphore (text message reminders, in the Philippines) and Sentry (error reports, with personal data scrubbed out). We update this list before they start.
• Authorities, when the law requires it.

Information that leaves the Philippines

Some of these providers are outside the Philippines: OVHcloud and Amazon Web Services in Singapore, Fireworks AI in the United States, and Cloudflare and Meta on global networks. Under section 21 of the Act we stay responsible for personal information we hand to a provider, wherever it is. We use each one only under a contract that protects your information, and only for the purpose named above.

Cookies

We use only the cookies the service needs. None are for advertising or tracking, so we show no cookie banner. The business-site cookies are httpOnly and SameSite=Lax, so scripts and other websites can't read them.

Google Maps on a business's website loads only after you tap "Show map". Google may then set its own cookies under its own policy.

How long we keep it

• Bookings, messages and consent records: for as long as the business uses Greetfolk, following its instructions. Where the law makes a business keep records, such as a clinic's patient records, the business decides how long, and we keep them on its instruction.
• After a business leaves: the business can ask for a copy of its data for 30 days. We then delete the data within 30 days. Backups roll off within 30 days after that, because we keep nightly encrypted backups for 30 days.
• Empty web chats: deleted after 12 hours without activity.
• Bookings and chats on a private preview of a website that isn't published yet: deleted every night, and when the site is published.
• Security counts of chat steps, which contain no personal data: 400 days.
• Dashboard sessions: end after 12 hours without activity, and expired sessions are cleared every night.
• Technical logs: up to 90 days.

How we protect it

• Everything travels encrypted (TLS) between your browser, our servers and our providers.
• Each business's data is walled off from every other business's by row-level security in the database, and every query is scoped to one business.
• The database sits on a private network, not on the public internet.
• We take encrypted backups every night and keep them for 30 days.
• Owners must use two-factor authentication. Roles limit what staff and providers can see and do. Sessions end when idle.
• Rate limits and bot checks protect booking, chat and sign-in.
• We keep client data out of our logs.
• Only the people who need access to run the service have it.

No system is perfectly secure, so we also plan for breaches.

If there is a breach

If personal information is lost, stolen or exposed, we act at once. Where the information belongs to a business's clients, we tell the business without undue delay and within 24 hours of confirming the breach, so it can notify the NPC and the people affected within 72 hours, as NPC Circular 16-03 requires, and we help it do so. Where we are the controller, for business accounts and greetfolk.com visitors, we notify the NPC and the people affected within 72 hours ourselves.

Your rights

Under the Act you have the right:

1. to be informed that your information is being processed, and how, which this policy and each business's notice do;
2. to object to processing, including for direct marketing or automated processing, and to withdraw a consent you gave;
3. to access your information and learn where it came from, who it was shared with and why;
4. to correct anything wrong or incomplete;
5. to have it erased or blocked when it is incomplete, outdated, unlawfully obtained or no longer needed;
6. to damages if inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, false, unlawfully obtained or unauthorised use of your information harmed you;
7. to data portability: a copy of the information you gave, in an electronic format you can use; and
8. to complain to the National Privacy Commission.

Your lawful heirs or assigns may use these rights after your death or if you cannot act for yourself.

How to use them. If you booked or chatted with a business, ask the business first: it decides what happens with your information, and we help it answer. You can also write to our data protection officer at hello@greetfolk.com with the business, your name, the mobile number or email you used, and what you want. We check that the request is yours, answer within 30 days, and tell you if the business must keep some records by law and for how long. See our data deletion instructions for deletion requests. A reasonable request is free.

Children

Bookings for a child should be made by a parent or guardian, who gives the consent for them. If you believe a child gave us information without that consent, tell us and we delete it.

Changes to this policy

We post every change here with a new date. We email businesses at least 30 days before a change that affects how their clients' information is used, so they can update their own notices.

Contact our data protection officer

Greetfolk's data protection officer, Davao City, Philippines. Email: hello@greetfolk.com.

Complaints

If you are not happy with how we or a business handled your request, you can complain to the National Privacy Commission at privacy.gov.ph. We would like the chance to put it right first, so please write to us as well.