Privacy Notice
WRDO (PTY) LTD · trading as WRDO™ · Enterprise Number 2026/095904/07 · Effective 21 May 2026 · Last revised 11 August 2026
1. About this notice
This Privacy Notice tells you how WRDO (Pty) Ltd, trading as WRDO™ ("WRDO", "we", "us", "our") collects, uses, shares and protects your personal information. We publish it to comply with section 18 of the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 ("POPIA") and we treat your personal information in accordance with the eight conditions for lawful processing set out in POPIA. If you do not agree with how we handle your personal information described in this notice, please do not provide your personal information to us. If you have already done so and want us to stop or change anything, contact our Information Officer using the details in section 14.
2. Who we are
WRDO (Pty) Ltd is a private company incorporated in the Republic of South Africa with Enterprise Number 2026/095904/07, trading as WRDO™. WRDO operates a WhatsApp-based service that connects residents with independent local workers, together with the website at https://wrdo.co.za (together, “the Service”). WRDO is the responsible party for the personal information described in this notice, as that term is defined in POPIA. Our registered address is Val de Vie Estate, R301 Jan van Riebeeck Drive, Paarl, 7646, South Africa. Our statutory information is set out in our PAIA Manual, which is available on request from [email protected].
3. What personal information we collect
We may collect the following categories of personal information about you. The exact information collected depends on how you interact with us.
Identification and contact details — name, surname, email address, telephone/WhatsApp number, postal or physical address, ID or passport number, date of birth.
Residents (people requesting work through WRDO) — WhatsApp number and name, suburb or area, the content of job requests and chats with WRDO, booking history, ratings and feedback given to workers.
Workers — WhatsApp number and name, area of work, profile information (skills, services, rates, photos), vouches, ratings and feedback received, opt-in verification outcomes (criminal, background and business checks performed by verification partners), opt-in cover arrangements, and payout details where WRDO facilitates payment routing. Workers keep 100% of what they earn — WRDO takes no commission.
Corporate and professional — job title, employer, professional qualifications, role in your organisation. Financial — bank details, VAT number, tax number, where required to invoice or pay you. Communications — emails, messages, support tickets, voice notes you send us. Website usage — IP address, browser type, device, referring URL, pages visited, cookie identifiers, approximate geographic location. Marketing preferences — whether you have consented to receive marketing.
Sensitive ("special") personal information — we do not intentionally collect this. Criminal-record information forms part of worker verification only where the worker has expressly opted in and consented, as authorised by POPIA. Any other special personal information you provide will be processed only for the purpose for which you supplied it and only with your consent or as authorised by POPIA.
4. How we collect your personal information
We collect personal information: directly from you when you message WRDO on WhatsApp, contact us, fill in a form on our website, send us an email, sign a contract, or apply for a role; automatically through cookies and analytics when you visit our website (see section 8); from public sources such as CIPC, SARS and the Information Regulator where this is necessary for our regulatory or contractual purposes; and from third parties who provide screening, verification or background-check services, where you have opted in or the law or our agreement with you authorises us to do so.
5. Why we process your personal information
We process personal information for the following purposes and on the following legal bases under POPIA:
Running the WRDO Service — matching residents with workers, facilitating bookings, chats and payments, and communicating with users about their bookings and profiles — performance of a contract (s11(1)(b)). Worker verification — arranging criminal, background and business checks through verification partners — consent (s11(1)(a), opt-in). Worker cover — arranging optional cover through cover partners — consent or performance of a contract.
Complying with the law — Companies Act, Tax Administration Act, FICA, POPIA, PAIA, including record-keeping and reporting — legal obligation (s11(1)(c)). Engaging service providers — procuring software, professional services, banking, payment processing — performance of a contract. Managing investors and shareholders — holding records of beneficial owners and corresponding with them — legitimate interest (s11(1)(f)) and statutory record-keeping. Recruitment and employment — considering applicants, employing staff, paying salaries, complying with labour law — performance of a contract or legal obligation.
Marketing — sending you information about WRDO with your consent; you may opt out at any time — consent (s11(1)(a)). Website analytics and security — understanding visitor patterns, detecting abuse, securing the website — legitimate interest (s11(1)(f)). Responding to requests, complaints and legal claims — including PAIA requests, data-subject access requests and regulator queries — legitimate interest or legal obligation.
6. Whether you are required to provide your personal information
In most cases providing your personal information to us is voluntary. However, if you choose not to provide certain information we may not be able to enter into or perform a contract with you, respond to your enquiry, give you access to our services, or comply with a legal obligation that requires us to record certain information.
Where the law requires us to collect specific personal information (for example, for FICA, tax or labour-law purposes), that collection is not voluntary.
7. Who we share your personal information with
We share personal information only where there is a lawful basis to do so. Categories of recipients include: residents and workers matched with each other through the Service (a worker sees the resident’s name, area and job details; a resident sees the worker’s profile, vouches and verification status); verification partners and cover partners, only for workers who opt in; our service providers (“operators” in POPIA terms) — cloud, IT, hosting, communications and analytics providers bound by written processing agreements; tools you choose to connect (such as Google, Microsoft, Xero or Sage), to which we send booking, payment and invoice data on your instruction; our external auditors, accountants, tax advisors and legal counsel; government and regulatory bodies (SARS, CIPC, the Information Regulator, courts, the South African Police Service) where required by law or in the exercise or protection of a right; banks, payment service providers and FICA-accountable institutions where necessary to receive or make payments; any party to whom we sell or transfer parts of our business, limited to what is reasonably needed; and any other party to whom you have given us consent to disclose your personal information.
We do not sell your personal information.
8. Cookies, WhatsApp and similar technologies
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to make the site work, to remember your preferences, and to understand how visitors use the site. You can control cookies through your browser settings — disabling some cookies may affect how the site works. Where required by law we will obtain your consent for non-essential cookies the first time you visit the website. Our Cookie Policy is available on request from [email protected].
The WRDO Service runs on WhatsApp. When you chat with WRDO, your messages are also processed by WhatsApp/Meta under their own terms and privacy policy, including on servers outside South Africa. We do not control WhatsApp's own processing.
9. Cross-border transfers
Some of the cloud and IT service providers we rely on (including WhatsApp/Meta) operate data centres outside the Republic of South Africa. A current list of these providers and the countries in which they store personal information is available on request from our Information Officer (see section 14). Where your personal information is transferred outside South Africa, we will only do so where one of the conditions in section 72 of POPIA is met, which generally means that the recipient is subject to a law, binding corporate rules or a binding agreement providing an adequate level of protection.
10. How we keep your personal information secure
We have implemented reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against loss, unauthorised access or unlawful processing. These include: strong passwords and multi-factor authentication on administrative accounts; encryption of personal information in transit (TLS) and at rest where technically feasible; role-based access controls and the principle of least privilege; anti-virus, anti-malware and endpoint protection; regular backups and a documented restore procedure; written processing agreements with operators; and an internal incident-response procedure aligned with section 22 of POPIA.
No system is 100% secure, but we work to maintain a level of protection appropriate to the risk.
11. How long we keep your personal information
We keep personal information only for as long as we have a lawful purpose to do so. Specific retention periods include: Companies Act records (MOI, registers, AFS, minutes) — 7 years; tax records — 5 years from submission, longer where SARS has issued a query; FICA records — 5 years from the end of the business relationship; contracts and supporting correspondence — duration of the contract plus 5 years; booking, chat and profile records — while your profile or engagement with the Service is active, plus a reasonable period afterwards for dispute resolution; employee records (when applicable) — duration of employment plus 3 years, longer for SARS payroll records; website analytics and log files — up to 24 months unless required for security investigations; marketing data — until you opt out, plus a reasonable suppression period; PAIA request and data-subject request records — 5 years.
When the retention period ends and we are not otherwise required to retain the information, we will delete or de-identify it.
12. Your rights
Under POPIA you have the right: to be notified that we are collecting personal information about you; to request access to your personal information (section 23); to request correction or deletion of personal information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete or unlawfully obtained (section 24); to object, on reasonable grounds, to the processing of your personal information (section 11(3)); to object at any time, free of charge, to processing for direct marketing purposes — on receipt of your objection we will stop immediately (sections 11(3) and 69(3)); to withdraw consent for direct marketing by unsolicited electronic communications at any time (section 69); to not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing that has legal effect on you (section 71); and to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (see section 13).
To exercise any of these rights, contact our Information Officer (section 14) or simply message WRDO on WhatsApp. We will respond to access and correction requests within 30 days, as required by PAIA and POPIA. The first access request in a given period may attract a prescribed fee.
13. Complaints
If you believe we have not handled your personal information in line with POPIA, please first contact our Information Officer so that we can try to resolve the issue. If you are not satisfied, you can also lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa): Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191 · PO Box 31533, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2017 · Telephone +27 10 023 5200 · Toll free 0800 017 160 · POPIA complaints: [email protected] · General enquiries: [email protected] · https://inforegulator.org.za
14. Contact our Information Officer
Information Officer: registered with the Information Regulator. Email: [email protected] — every request, correction, deletion or complaint is handled through that address. Postal address: Val de Vie Estate, R301 Jan van Riebeeck Drive, Paarl, 7646, South Africa.
15. Changes to this notice
We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time. The latest version is always available at wrdo.co.za/privacy. The effective date at the top of the notice tells you when it was last revised. Material changes will be communicated to you where reasonable to do so.
Issued by WRDO (Pty) Ltd. WRDO™, World Ready Digital Operator™, “As you are”™, echo™ and the WRDO spiral mark are trade marks of WRDO (Pty) Ltd, used pending registration with CIPC under the Trade Marks Act 194 of 1993.