Privacy Policy

GoLedger ("GoLedger", "we", "us", "our") is operated by GoLedger (Pty) Ltd, a South African company. We are the responsible party (for the purposes of the Protection of Personal Information Act, 4 of 2013, "POPIA") and the data controller (for the purposes of the EU General Data Protection Regulation, "GDPR") for the personal information described in this policy.

Information Officer: privacy@goledger.co.za
General contact: hello@goledger.co.za
Website: https://goledger.co.za

This policy explains what personal information we collect when you use the GoLedger web app at goledger.co.za, the GoLedger iOS app, and any related services (together, the "Service"); how we use it; who we share it with; how long we keep it; and the rights you have. By using the Service, you confirm that you have read and understood this policy.

We collect only what we need to run the Service. Specifically:

3.1 Account and identity information

• Email address, display name, hashed password (or a Google OAuth identifier if you sign in with Google; Sign in with Apple is added for the iOS app).
• Time-based one-time password (TOTP) secret for two-factor authentication.

Why: to create and secure your account.Legal basis: performance of our contract with you (POPIA s11(1)(b); GDPR Art. 6(1)(b)).

3.2 Financial data you create or import

• Accounts, transactions, budgets, goals, invoices, contacts, rules, companies, and documents you upload.
• Settings such as your base currency, locale, and AI preferences.

Why: this is the core product, your personal ledger.Legal basis: performance of our contract with you.

We do not connect to your bank using screen-scraping credentials. We do not have access to your online banking password.

3.3 AI chat content

• Messages you send to the AI assistant, the responses returned, and any actions you approve or reject.

Why: to provide AI-powered insights and to maintain conversation context. Legal basis: performance of our contract.

Chat content is sent to our AI processors (see s5). It is neverused to train those models, sold, or shared for advertising.

3.4 Voice input (optional)

• If you use push-to-talk, your speech is transcribed on-device on iOS, or by your browser's native Web Speech API on the web. We only ever receive the transcribed text, never the audio recording.

Legal basis: your consent, given by tapping the microphone.

3.5 Technical and diagnostic data

• IP address, user-agent, app version, device model, OS version.
• Error reports and minimal server logs needed to keep the Service running.

Why: security monitoring, abuse prevention, debugging.Legal basis: our legitimate interest in running a secure service (POPIA s11(1)(f); GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)).

3.6 What we do NOT collect

• We do not collect your contacts, photos, or location.
• We do not ship third-party advertising, attribution, or cross-app tracking SDKs.
• We do not use the Apple AdID / IDFA. We do not request App Tracking Transparency permission.
• We do not sell or rent your personal information to anyone, for any reason, ever.

• Active account data: for as long as your account is open.
• After account deletion: we remove your personal information from our production systems immediately and from encrypted backups within thirty (30) days.
• Diagnostic logs: kept for up to ninety (90) days, then deleted automatically.
• Records we must keep by law (for example, financial transaction history relating to amounts you have paid us, retained under the Financial Intelligence Centre Act and tax legislation): kept for the legally required period (typically five years), even after account deletion.

We use a small number of trusted service providers ("operators" under POPIA, "processors" under GDPR) to run the Service. Each one is bound by a data processing agreement and may only act on our instructions.

We may also disclose information if compelled by a valid South African court order, subpoena, or regulator request, or where necessary to prevent serious harm, fraud, or a security threat. Where the law allows, we will notify you first.

Some of our processors are based outside South Africa. Where we transfer personal information across borders we rely on one or more of the following safeguards permitted under POPIA s72 and GDPR Chapter V:

• Standard Contractual Clauses or equivalent contractual protections.
• Adequacy decisions where these apply.
• Your informed consent, where required.

• Two-factor authentication is mandatory on every account.
• All data in transit is encrypted with TLS 1.2 or higher.
• Data at rest is encrypted by our database provider.
• PostgreSQL row-level security guarantees no other user can read your rows, even in the event of an application-level bug.
• We follow the principle of least privilege internally. Access to production data is restricted, logged, and reviewed.
• We do not store payment card numbers ourselves.

No system is perfectly secure. If we ever experience a personal information breach that creates a real risk of harm, we will notify the Information Regulator and affected users in accordance with POPIA s22 and any other applicable law.

You have the following rights in respect of your personal information. To exercise any of them, write to privacy@goledger.co.za. We will respond within 30 days.

• Access: request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Correction: ask us to correct information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, or misleading. Most of this you can do yourself from inside the app.
• Deletion: permanently delete your account and personal information. Open Settings → Account → Delete account inside the app. The action wipes your data from our production systems immediately.
• Object: object to processing based on our legitimate interests.
• Restrict / withdraw consent: for processing based on your consent (such as voice input), you may withdraw at any time without affecting earlier processing.
• Portability: export your data as CSV or JSON from Settings → Data & integrations → Export data.
• Lodge a complaint: with the Information Regulator (South Africa) at inforegulator.org.za, or with your local supervisory authority if you are in the EU / UK.

The AI assistant produces suggestions, summaries, draft messages, and categorisations. It does not take any final action on your money without your explicit approval. You may decline any suggestion, undo destructive actions for at least five seconds after they occur, and disable AI features in Settings.

AI output can be wrong. It is for your information only and is not financial, tax, accounting, or legal advice. See our Terms of Service for the full disclaimer.

On the web we use first-party local storage to keep you signed in and to cache your data for offline use. We do not use third-party advertising cookies, analytics cookies, or marketing pixels.

The Service is not directed to children under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If you become aware that a child has provided us with personal information, please email privacy@goledger.co.za and we will delete it.

If we materially change this policy we will notify you inside the app and by email before the change takes effect. Continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the change.

For any privacy question or request, email privacy@goledger.co.za. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa at inforegulator.org.zaor to your local data protection authority.