Privacy notice
Last updated 17 October 2026
WalkIn is a WhatsApp sales and booking service for car dealerships, run by Nerdware (Pty) Ltd ("we", "us"), Johannesburg, South Africa. This notice explains what personal information WalkIn handles, why, and your rights under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).
1. Who is responsible
- If you're a customer messaging a dealership: the dealership is the responsible party for your information. We process it on the dealership's behalf, as its operator, under a written agreement.
- If you work at a dealership and use WalkIn: we are the responsible party for your account information, and the dealership is responsible for the work records you create.
2. Customers who message a dealership
What we keep
Your name and WhatsApp number, your messages, the cars you look at, save or compare, your budget, deposit and timeline if you share them, trade-in details and photos you send, bookings, and your consent choices. Finance documents are collected only through the dealership's secure upload page, and only its finance team can see them.
Why
To answer you, show you cars, work out illustrative monthly amounts, book test drives, services and finance meetings, and pass your enquiry to the dealership's team. Marketing messages, such as stock alerts, are sent only if you opt in. Reply STOP at any time to opt out.
The AI assistant
Replies are written by an AI assistant called Dan, working from the dealership's stock and rules. Your messages are processed by Google's AI service (Vertex AI) to write those replies. Google does not use this data to train its models. Dealership staff can see the chat and take over at any time.
3. Dealership staff using WalkIn
We keep your name, work email, phone number, role, branch, sign-in records and the actions you take in WalkIn, so you can do your job and the dealership has an audit trail.
4. Connecting your Google or Microsoft account
Dealership staff can choose to connect their own Google (Gmail and Google Calendar) or Microsoft (Outlook and Microsoft 365) account. This is optional. You sign in on Google's or Microsoft's own page, and WalkIn never sees your password.
| Permission | What WalkIn does with it |
|---|---|
| Your email address and name | Shows which account is connected. |
| See when you're busy (free/busy) | Reads only the start and end times of busy periods, so customers can't book you when you're unavailable. WalkIn does not read the title, attendees, location or details of your own events. |
| Create and change calendar events | Adds the test drives, services and F&I meetings booked with you, and updates or removes them if they change. WalkIn only changes events it created. |
| Send email as you | Sends the reports you schedule in WalkIn from your own mailbox, to the people you choose. WalkIn cannot read, search or delete your email. |
Google API Services: Limited Use
WalkIn's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. In particular:
- We use Google user data only to provide the calendar and email features described above, which you can see in WalkIn.
- We do not transfer it to anyone else, except as needed to provide those features, to comply with the law, or as part of a merger or sale with your notice.
- We do not use it for advertising, and we do not sell it.
- We do not use it to develop, improve or train AI or machine learning models.
- No person at Nerdware reads it, unless you ask us to for support, it's needed for security or abuse investigations, or the law requires it.
We apply the same rules to data from Microsoft accounts.
Storage and removal
The access keys Google or Microsoft give us are stored encrypted in South Africa. Busy times are held in memory for at most two minutes and never saved. Press Disconnect on your WalkIn account page at any time: we delete the keys immediately and tell Google to cancel our access. You can also remove WalkIn from your Google account permissions or your Microsoft apps page. Calendar events already created stay in your calendar unless you delete them.
5. Where information is kept, and for how long
WalkIn runs on Google Cloud in Johannesburg, South Africa. Information is encrypted in transit and at rest. AI processing of chat messages may take place outside South Africa under Google's data protection terms, which provide safeguards required by POPIA. We keep information only as long as the dealership needs it for your enquiry, sale or service and its legal obligations, then delete it.
6. Who we share it with
- The dealership you're dealing with, and its staff.
- Service providers that help run WalkIn: Google Cloud (hosting and AI), Meta (WhatsApp messaging), and Google or Microsoft for staff who connect their accounts.
- Authorities, where the law requires it.
We never sell personal information.
7. Your rights
You can ask what information is held about you, ask for it to be corrected or deleted, object to its use, or withdraw your consent. Message the dealership on WhatsApp, or email hello@nerdw.com. If you're unhappy with our answer, you can complain to the Information Regulator at inforegulator.org.za.
8. Changes
If we change this notice, we'll update the date at the top. Important changes are announced in WalkIn before they take effect.
9. Contact
Nerdware (Pty) Ltd, Johannesburg, South Africa. Email hello@nerdw.com.