Ironfang Ltd (C/O Burton Varley Ltd, The Counting House, 24 Richmond Road, Bowdon, Altrincham, WA14 2TT, England, company number 12764014, ICO registration ZB444797) provides Ironfang Agent, a service businesses use to follow up enquiries over WhatsApp.
Who is responsible for your data
- If you made an enquiry with a business that uses Ironfang Agent, that business decides how your data is used and is the controller. Ironfang processes your data on its behalf, under a written agreement. Contact the business first; you can also contact us and we will pass your request on.
- If you use the Ironfang portal as a member of a business's staff, Ironfang is the controller of your account data.
What we process
For people who made an enquiry:
- your name and phone number, and that you agreed to WhatsApp contact;
- the messages you exchange with the business's assistant or staff;
- details you give for your enquiry (for example date of birth, address, amounts);
- documents you choose to send when asked;
- records of consents you give or refuse, and of checks the business runs.
For portal users: name, email address, sign-in records and actions taken.
Why
To run the enquiry you started: contact you, collect what the business needs, answer your questions, and pass your enquiry to the business's staff. For portal users: to provide and secure the service.
Automated messages
Replies are written by an automated assistant within limits the business sets, using an AI model that runs on Ironfang's own servers in the UK. The assistant does not make decisions about you: it collects information and hands it to the business's staff, who decide. It tells you that it is automated, and you can ask for a person at any time.
Who receives your data
- the business you made the enquiry with;
- Meta Platforms, which runs WhatsApp, to deliver messages;
- our hosting and storage providers.
No third-party AI provider receives your messages. We do not sell personal data, use it for advertising or use it to train AI models.
Meta may process messages outside the UK under its WhatsApp Business terms. Our encrypted backups are stored in the UK and in Germany, which the UK recognises as giving personal data adequate protection.
How long we keep it
As long as the business needs it for your enquiry and its legal obligations: each business sets how long an enquiry is kept after its last activity (one year unless it chooses otherwise), then the enquiry, its messages, details, documents and files are deleted automatically. Raw delivery records from WhatsApp are deleted after 30 days. Encrypted backups can hold deleted data until they are replaced; they are used only to restore the service.
Your rights
You can ask for a copy of your data, for corrections, for deletion, or to object or restrict its use. When deletion is agreed, your enquiry and everything about it is deleted from the service for good; we keep only a record that it was deleted, without your details. Reply STOP on WhatsApp to end contact at any time. See how to delete your data, or use our contact form. You can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
Security
Data is encrypted in transit and at rest; each business's data is kept separate; access is limited and logged.
Contact
Use our contact form, or write to Ironfang Ltd, C/O Burton Varley Ltd, The Counting House, 24 Richmond Road, Bowdon, Altrincham, WA14 2TT, England.