Hala Bot

Privacy Policy

What Hala Bot collects, why we collect it, who we share it with, and how to have it deleted.

Last updated: 29 August 2026

1. Who this policy covers

Hala Bot is a service that connects to a merchant's Instagram, Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp account, replies to messages from that account's customers on the merchant's behalf, records the resulting orders, and shows them in a dashboard.

That means two different groups of people appear in this policy, and they are treated differently:

Merchants
Businesses that create a Hala Bot account and subscribe to a plan. For merchant account data we are the data controller — we decide what is collected and why.
Customers
People who send a message to a merchant's connected account. We process their messages on that merchant's instructions, as a processor. The merchant is responsible for telling their customers that an automated assistant handles their messages.

2. Information we collect from merchants

When you create an account and set up your shop, we collect:

  • Your full name and email address.
  • Your password — stored only as a bcrypt hash. We never store, log or transmit your password in readable form, and we cannot recover it for you.
  • Your business name, phone number and logo.
  • Your subscription plan, its status and its renewal dates.
  • The shop data you enter yourself: products, variants, prices, delivery zones and fees, and your bot's settings and personality.
  • If you turn on browser notifications: your browser's push endpoint and keys, plus its user-agent string, so you can tell one device from another when removing them.
  • If you link the Telegram alerts bot: your Telegram chat ID.

3. What we receive from Meta when you connect a channel

Connecting an Instagram or Facebook account sends you to Meta to log in and approve access. We never see your Instagram or Facebook password. Meta returns to us:

  • The account or Page ID and its display name, so you can see which account is connected.
  • An access token, which we store encrypted with AES using a key held only on our server. It is used solely to receive messages sent to that account and to send the replies.

We request only the permissions the service needs to work:

instagram_business_basic
Identify the Instagram professional account being connected and show its name in your dashboard.
instagram_business_manage_messages
Receive direct messages sent to that account and send the assistant's replies.
pages_show_list
Show you the list of Facebook Pages you manage so you can choose which one to connect.
pages_messaging
Receive and reply to Messenger conversations for the Page you connected.
pages_manage_metadata
Subscribe that Page to message webhooks so Meta notifies us when a new message arrives.

WhatsApp is connected differently. There is no one-click login available for it yet, so you paste your Phone Number ID and a permanent access token from Meta's WhatsApp API Setup screen. We store that token encrypted in the same way, and none of the Instagram or Facebook permissions above are involved.

4. Information about customers who message a merchant

When a customer messages a connected account, we process:

  • The platform's own identifier for that customer, and the display name the platform provides. On Instagram and Messenger this identifier is an internal, account-scoped ID, and we receive no email address, phone number or profile beyond it. On WhatsApp the identifier is the customer's own phone number, because that is how WhatsApp addresses a conversation.
  • The text of their messages, and the replies the assistant sends. These are kept as a transcript so the assistant remembers what was already said and does not ask the same question twice.
  • Voice notes and images: these are relayed for interpretation at the moment they arrive and are not stored. The transcript keeps only a placeholder noting that a voice note or image was sent.
  • Delivery details a customer provides in order to place an order: address, governorate, phone number and any note they add.
  • The order itself: items, quantities, delivery fee, total and status.

5. How we use this information

  • To generate the assistant's replies and keep track of where a conversation has reached.
  • To build orders from those conversations and show them in the merchant's dashboard.
  • To alert the merchant — by browser notification or Telegram — when an order arrives or a customer asks for a human.
  • To show merchants their own sales and conversation statistics.
  • To operate, secure, debug and support the service, and to enforce plan limits.
  • To contact merchants about their account, billing or service changes.

We do not sell personal data. We do not use it for advertising, and we do not build profiles of customers across merchants.

6. AI processing

Replies are generated by Google's Gemini API. To produce a reply, the customer's message text — along with any image or voice note they sent, the recent conversation history, and the merchant's product catalogue and bot settings — is transmitted to Google.

This is the core of how the service works: without it there is no assistant. Google processes this data under its own terms and privacy policy. We do not send this content to any other AI provider.

7. Who else we share data with

We share data only with the providers needed to run the service:

Google LLC
Gemini API — generating the assistant's replies, as described above.
Meta Platforms, Inc.
Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp — receiving and delivering the messages themselves.
Telegram FZ-LLC
Delivering alerts to the merchant's own Telegram account. Customer conversations never pass through Telegram.
Hetzner Online GmbH
Hosting our servers and database, in Germany.
Browser push services
Google, Mozilla or Apple, depending on your browser, to deliver dashboard notifications. Payloads are encrypted so the push service cannot read them.

We may also disclose data where we are legally required to, or where it is necessary to investigate abuse or protect the safety of users.

8. Where data is stored

Our servers and database are hosted in Germany. Because the service depends on Google, Meta and Telegram, data passing through those providers may be processed in other countries, including outside Iraq and the European Union.

9. How long we keep data

  • Merchant account and shop data: for as long as the account is open, and for up to 90 days after cancellation, after which it is deleted.
  • Conversations and orders: kept while the merchant's account is open, so the merchant retains a record of their sales. Deleted with the account.
  • Voice notes and images: never stored.
  • Incoming message fragments held briefly to group a burst of messages: deleted within seconds, as soon as the group has been handled.
  • Data we are required to retain by law: kept for the period the law requires.
  • Deletion requests: completed within 30 days of a verified request.

10. Security

  • All traffic to our site and API is encrypted with TLS.
  • Passwords are stored as bcrypt hashes and are never recoverable.
  • Channel access tokens are encrypted at rest with AES.
  • Each merchant's data is isolated by tenant, and every request is checked against the tenant it belongs to.
  • Access to production systems is limited to the people who operate the service.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your data, we will notify affected merchants without undue delay.

11. Your choices and rights

Merchants can, at any time:

  • View and correct account and shop details in the dashboard.
  • Disconnect a channel from Channels → Disconnect. This immediately stops us receiving or replying to messages on that account, and the stored access token is removed.
  • Revoke our access directly from Meta, under Settings → Business integrations on Instagram or Facebook.
  • Request a copy of your data, or its deletion — see the Data Deletion page.
  • Close your account by contacting us.

If you are a customer who messaged a shop and you want your messages or order details removed, contact the shop you messaged, or write to us and we will pass the request to that merchant. You can also ask the assistant to hand you over to a human at any point in a conversation.

12. Children

Hala Bot is a business tool and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 13. If you believe a child's data has reached us, contact us and we will delete it.

13. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of this page, and we will notify merchants by email before any change that materially affects how their data or their customers' data is handled.

14. Contact us

Questions about this policy, or about your data: