Privacy Policy · Merchconvo

merchconvo is a chat-commerce platform that helps merchants run their business across WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and email from a single inbox, with AI agents that answer customers, take orders, and run marketing campaigns. This policy explains what data we handle, why, and the rights you have over it.

1. Who this policy applies to

Two groups of people interact with merchconvo, and we treat their data differently:

Merchants— businesses and their teams who create an account on merchconvo to manage their customer conversations. The merchant's admin signs our Terms and is the data controllerfor their customers' data.
End customers— the people who message a merchant through WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, or email. For this data, merchconvo acts as a data processor on behalf of the merchant.

2. What we collect

From merchants (account data)

Full name, email address, password (hashed), workspace name.
Phone numbers and identifiers needed to connect channels (e.g. WhatsApp Business Account ID, Phone Number ID, Page IDs).
Integration credentials (Meta access tokens, OpenAI API keys, ERP tokens). Stored encrypted at rest.
Billing details — handled entirely by Paddle, our merchant of record. Card numbers never reach our servers. We store which plan you are on, when it renews, and the billing email.
Usage analytics (pages visited, actions taken, errors).

From end customers (on behalf of the merchant)

Messages exchanged with the merchant, including text, media (images, audio, video, documents), and metadata (timestamps, delivery status).
Identifiers the customer's messaging app shares with the merchant: phone number (WhatsApp), profile name, profile picture URL, channel-specific user ID.
Contact details the customer voluntarily provides (e.g. delivery address, email, notes).
Order history, cart contents, payment status, and any interactions with shared catalog items or appointment bookings.

3. How we use the data

Operating the Service.Delivering inbound messages to the merchant's inbox; delivering outbound replies to the channel; matching messages to existing conversations and contacts; running the AI agent the merchant configured.
AI assistance.Messages may be sent to third-party large-language-model providers (OpenAI, Anthropic) on the merchant's behalf so the agent can draft replies, classify sentiment, transcribe voice notes, or look up products. We do not allow these providers to use the data to train their own models.
Improving the Service. Aggregated, anonymized usage data helps us prioritize features and find bugs.
Security & abuse prevention. Logs are retained to detect fraud, spam, and unauthorized access.
Communications.Service notifications (account, billing, security) sent to the merchant's admin email. We send marketing emails only with explicit opt-in.

4. Third parties we share data with

We only share what each provider strictly needs to deliver the contracted service. Current sub-processors:

Meta Platforms— WhatsApp Cloud API, Messenger Platform, Instagram Graph API for message delivery.Meta's Privacy Policy.
OpenAI— AI chat completions, embeddings, voice transcription, vision matching. Data is processed under their Business terms: no training on customer data, 30-day retention for abuse monitoring.
Anthropic— alternative AI provider for Claude-based agents. Commercial terms.
Paddle— merchant of record for merchconvo subscriptions and wallet top-ups. Paddle sells our plans to you, takes the payment, and handles sales tax and VAT. Your card details go to Paddle, never to us — we only ever see which plan you are on and when it renews.
Contabo— cloud hosting (Germany / EU); holds the application database and uploaded files.
Cloudflare— edge proxy, TLS termination, and DDoS protection in front of our API.

We do not sell or rent personal data to anyone, and we do not share message content with advertisers.

5. WhatsApp data — specific handling

When a merchant connects their WhatsApp Business Account to merchconvo, the following happens:

We receive inbound messages from Meta via webhook to api.merchconvo.com.
We store the message, sender phone number, message timestamp, and any media reference, in the merchant's workspace database.
We send outbound replies (typed by the merchant's team or generated by their AI agent) back through the Meta Graph API using the merchant's System User access token.
We do not forward WhatsApp content to any party other than the providers listed in section 4. Meta's message-routing role is solely as a transport between the customer and the merchant.

6. Where the data lives

Production data is stored in Germany (Contabo cloud region). For merchants whose end customers reside in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom, or Lebanon, data does not leave that jurisdiction unless explicitly required to deliver the service (e.g. forwarding to an AI provider in the United States). Cross-border transfers rely on the recipient's contractual guarantees and applicable Standard Contractual Clauses.

7. Retention

Conversations and contacts:retained for as long as the merchant's workspace is active. On account cancellation, the merchant has 30 days to export data; after that the workspace is permanently deleted.
Logs and audit trails: 12 months.
Billing records: retained as required by Lebanese and applicable tax law (typically 5 years).

End customers can ask the merchant to delete their record from the workspace at any time; the merchant has tooling to do so within merchconvo. If the merchant doesn't respond, the customer can contact us directly at the email below.

8. Your rights

Subject to the law that applies in your country (GDPR, UK GDPR, Lebanese data protection law, or other local rules), you have the right to:

access the personal data we hold about you;
request correction of inaccurate data;
request deletion (“right to be forgotten”);
object to or restrict processing in certain circumstances;
data portability (export your data in a machine-readable format);
lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

To exercise any of these rights, email [email protected]. We respond within 30 days.

9. Security

We protect data with TLS in transit, encryption at rest, hashed passwords (bcrypt), per-workspace data isolation, and least-privilege access controls for our staff. Backups are encrypted and stored in the same region as the production database. We test these controls regularly and review them annually.

10. Children

merchconvo is built for businesses; it is not directed at children under 16. We don't knowingly collect data from minors. If a merchant's end-customer interactions involve minors, the merchant is responsible for obtaining the parent or guardian's consent under applicable law.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as our service evolves. We'll post the new version here and update the effective date at the top. Material changes are also announced by email to all merchant admins at least 30 days before they take effect.

12. Contact

Questions about this policy, requests under section 8, or any other privacy concern: [email protected].

Postal address: merchconvo, Beirut, Lebanon.