Privacy policy
Who we are
BetterDesk is provided by Louise de Jonge, trading as Mission To Move, 10 Du Toit St, Oosterville, Upington, 8801, South Africa. BetterDesk is an online front desk for businesses such as healthcare practices, therapists, studios and gyms: bookings, client files, forms, invoices and messages to clients, and for practices also treatment records and medical aid claims. In this policy, “business” means the practice, gym or studio that uses BetterDesk, and “clients” means its patients or members. Contact us at louisedejonge1@gmail.com.
Our Information Officer under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) can be reached at louisedejonge1@gmail.com.
Our role
Each business that uses BetterDesk decides what information it keeps about its clients and why. The business is the responsible party under POPIA; BetterDesk is its operator and processes that information only on the business’s instructions, under an agreement with the business.
For the business’s own staff logins (name, email address, role, sign-in times), BetterDesk is the responsible party.
Clients who have questions about their information should contact the business first; we help the business answer them.
What information is processed
Staff accounts: name, email address, role, the business they work for, and records of sign-ins and of which client files they opened (kept for security, as POPIA requires).
Information a business enters or receives about its clients: contact details, date of birth, emergency contact, bookings and attendance, signed forms, invoices, payments and messages. Depending on the business, also health information: for practices, medical aid details, medical history, diagnoses, treatment notes, claims and session recordings (only with consent given before each recording); for gyms and studios, the health questions and waiver a member signs when joining, packages, and achievements earned.
Clients who book online have a login of their own: their email address, the codes sent to sign in, and when they signed in.
We don’t use advertising or tracking cookies, we don’t build profiles, and we never sell information. BetterDesk uses only the cookies needed to keep someone signed in.
WhatsApp and Meta
A business can connect its own WhatsApp Business account to BetterDesk through Meta. When it does, BetterDesk receives from Meta the account and phone number identifiers and an access key that lets it send messages on the business’s behalf.
BetterDesk then sends the business’s confirmations, reminders, form links and similar messages, only to clients who agreed to WhatsApp messages. It receives delivery statuses and clients’ replies (their WhatsApp number, the message and any button they tap), and, if the business keeps using the WhatsApp Business app on its phone, the recent one-to-one chat history that Meta shares so both stay in step.
This information is used only to show the business its messages and to act on replies such as “Confirm” or “Can’t make it”. It is not used for advertising, not shared with anyone except the business, and not used to train any artificial intelligence.
A business can disconnect WhatsApp at any time; see Deleting your data.
Who else handles it
BetterDesk uses a small number of service providers, each bound by an agreement to protect the information and use it only for us: Supabase (secure database and file storage), Vercel (web hosting), Resend (email delivery) and Meta (WhatsApp messages, only for businesses that connect WhatsApp).
For practices: medical aids, the Compensation Fund and claims switching houses receive what a claim needs, when the practice sends it.
Where it is stored
The database and files are stored in a secure data centre in the United Kingdom (London). Transfers outside South Africa are protected by agreements that give at least the protection POPIA requires (section 72).
How it is protected
Information is encrypted while it travels and while it is stored. Each business sees only its own information, and inside a business each role sees only what it needs; this is enforced by the database itself. Changes are recorded, every opening of a patient file is recorded, and signed forms and health records can’t be deleted by staff.
If there is a security compromise, we tell the affected businesses without delay so they can inform the Information Regulator and the people concerned, as POPIA requires.
How long it is kept
For as long as the business uses the system, and after that for the period the business must keep the records by law (for health records, usually several years). When a business leaves, it can download its information; we then delete it within 90 days, except what the law requires to be kept.
Your rights
You can ask to see the information held about you, to have it corrected, or to have it deleted where the law allows, and you can object to how it is used. Clients ask the business; staff and businesses ask us.
You may also complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa), www.inforegulator.org.za.
Changes
We will update this page when anything changes and tell businesses about important changes. Last updated 1 October 2026.