Who we are
Helpers Connect (Pty) Ltd runs helpersconnect.co.za and is responsible for your personal information. Post can be sent to us care of Unbreakable Solutions, Unit 136, Spaces Waterfall, 1st Floor, Gateway West, 22 Magwa Crescent, Waterfall City, Midrand, Gauteng, 2066. Contact our Information Officer at help@helpersconnect.co.za.
What we collect and why
| Information | What it includes | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Your account | Mobile number (verified with a one-time code), name, role, province and city. Email address and password if you sign in with email. | To create and secure your account and contact you about it. |
| Helper public profile | First name and surname initial, roles, city or suburb, years of experience, introduction, live-in or live-out preference, skills, and when you last confirmed you are available. | Shown in public search so households can find you. |
| Helper full profile | Full name, expected pay, languages, work history, work authorisation summary, and country of origin if you choose to add it. | Shown only to you and to households whose contact request you accept. Households can filter by their budget: your expected pay decides whether you appear in that search, but the amount is never shown. |
| Contact details | Mobile and WhatsApp number and email. | Shared only with a household after you say yes to their request, or straight away if you chose automatic sharing. |
| Work record and recommendations | Past jobs you add: employer name and WhatsApp number, role, area, dates, duties and why the job ended. Recommendations a former employer writes about you, with your name, mobile number and, if they give it, your email address, and their own number or email address. | To let former employers confirm your experience, and to ask you whether you want to keep a recommendation. Former employers' numbers and email addresses are never shown to anyone. |
| Households and jobs | Display name, area, household description, job adverts including pay, hours and workdays, contact requests and the notes you send helpers. | To advertise jobs, check pay against the minimum wage, and pass your request to a helper. |
| Hiring and contracts | Interview notes (visible only to the employer), offer terms, workplace and employer addresses, and the agreement both parties confirm. | To guide a hire and prepare the employment contract both of you receive. |
| Your WhatsApp number, whether you opted in, the messages and buttons we send, your answers, and messages you send us. | Weekly availability checks, contact requests, confirmations and reports, as described below. | |
| Voice answers | Short recordings you make while creating a profile. | Sent to our transcription provider to turn into text you can edit. We do not keep the recording. |
| Payments | Package, amount, status, the receipt email and the payment provider's reference. | To sell Profile Unlocks. Card and bank details go directly to Paystack; we never see them. |
| Reports and safety | Reports of people asking helpers for money, with any contact details you choose to give. | To investigate scams and protect helpers. |
| Technical | Sign-in session cookies, a scrambled (hashed) form of your internet address on public forms, and Google Analytics cookies that count visits and the pages viewed. | To keep you signed in, limit spam and see which pages people use. We do not use advertising cookies, and we never send Google your name, contact details or private links. |
We use this information to run the marketplace, keep it safe and meet our legal obligations. We do not sell personal information, and we do not ask for ID or passport numbers, copies of identity documents or exact home addresses on profiles.
Who can see your information
- Anyone: a helper's public profile, and published job adverts.
- A household a helper says yes to: that helper's full profile, confirmed work record and contact details.
- The two people in a hire: the offer and contract they both confirm.
- Our team: only when needed to support you, investigate reports or meet a legal requirement.
- Nobody else: former employers' numbers, employers' private interview notes, and payment details.
Once you share contact details with a household, they may keep them outside Helpers Connect. Changing your settings later cannot undo what they have already seen.
We message helpers on WhatsApp only after they turn it on in their dashboard, and only on the mobile number they verified. We send a weekly availability check and each household contact request, and we record the button you tap. Reply STOP at any time to stop these messages.
We never message former employers or families first. They start the chat by sending a prefilled message from their own phone, which confirms the number is theirs. When you message us, we keep the message reference and your number for up to 30 days to avoid processing it twice; reports you send stay with the report. WhatsApp is operated by Meta, whose own privacy policy also applies.
When a former employer recommends you
A family can recommend their helper on our Recommend your helper page. They must confirm that the helper agreed to be recommended, and verify their own WhatsApp number or email address first. Until they do, nobody is contacted and the recommendation is deleted after 30 days.
Once the family is verified, we send the helper one SMS (or one email if we can't send an SMS) saying who recommended them, with a link to a page that explains what we hold, where it came from and why. We send it only during permitted contact hours, never on a Sunday or public holiday. On that page the helper chooses:
- Keep it: we hold it for 90 days while they create a free profile with that number and add it. If they don't, we delete it.
- Delete it: we delete every recommendation for that number at once, and keep only a scrambled code of the number and email address so we never contact them about recommendations again.
- No answer: we delete it 30 days after the notice. We don't send reminders.
We never message the helper on WhatsApp about a recommendation, never send them marketing unless they say yes, and never show a family's number or email address to anyone.
Service providers
These providers process information for us under contract, only to provide their service:
- Supabase: Database, sign-in and private file storage
- Vercel: Website hosting
- Meta (WhatsApp Business Platform): WhatsApp messages and WhatsApp sign-in codes
- SMSPortal: SMS sign-in codes and recommendation notices
- Paystack: Card, Instant EFT and Capitec Pay payments
- OpenAI: Turning voice answers into text
- Resend: Emailing reports to our team mailbox, recommendation verification links and notices
- Google (Google Analytics): Counting visits and page views on the website
Some of them store or process information outside South Africa. We use providers that are bound by data protection terms giving protection comparable to POPIA.
Google Analytics sees the page addresses you visit (without any private links or search terms), your device and browser type, and your approximate location. You can block its cookies in your browser settings, or with Google's opt-out add-on.
How long we keep it
- Profiles, jobs and work records: while your account is open, or until you delete them.
- Payment and tax records: as long as the law requires, generally five years.
- Records of which channel delivered a sign-in code: one day. We never store the code itself.
- WhatsApp message references: 30 days. Work record confirmation links expire after 30 days.
- Recommendations nobody has added to a profile: 30 days without the family verifying or the helper answering, or 90 days after the helper says yes.
- Contact requests, contracts and audit records: for as long as needed to resolve disputes and meet legal obligations.
Keeping it safe
Access to protected information is enforced in our database, not only on screen. Contracts are stored privately and shared through short-lived links. Sign-in codes, confirmation codes and internet addresses are stored only as scrambled (hashed) values where we keep them at all. We will never ask you for your password or sign-in code.
Your rights
You may ask us to:
- tell you what personal information we hold about you and give you a copy;
- correct or update it (most of it you can edit yourself in your dashboard);
- delete it, or stop using it for a particular purpose;
- stop WhatsApp messages (reply STOP), hide entries in your work record, or pause your profile.
If you are unhappy with how we handle your information, please contact us first. You can also complain to the Information Regulator at inforegulator.org.za.
Deleting your information
Email help@helpersconnect.co.za with the subject "Delete my data", from the email address or with the mobile number on your account. We will confirm it is you and delete your account and profile within 30 days. We keep only what the law requires, such as payment records, and we will tell you what that is. You can remove individual work record entries yourself at any time.
Children
Helpers Connect is for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect information about children.
Changes
We will update this page when our practices change and show the date at the top. For significant changes we will also tell account holders.