Delete your account
You can ask us to delete your Putin Hot Seat account and the personal information attached to it. This page explains how to ask, what is deleted, and the little that we are required by law to keep.
How to request deletion
Email us from the address on your account, so we know the request is really yours:
Or, if you prefer:
- Phone or WhatsApp 072 021 6423.
- Ask your caseworker in the app chat.
Tell us the email address on the account and say you want it deleted. You do not have to give a reason.
We will check it is you before we delete anything. A case file holds bank statements and identity details, so we confirm the request against the address on the account. If we cannot reach you on it, we will ask you something only the account holder would know rather than delete on an unverified request.
How long it takes
We confirm within 30 days of receiving the request, and normally sooner. You will get a written confirmation saying what was deleted and, if anything was kept, exactly what and why.
What is deleted
- Your account, your name and your email address.
- Your WhatsApp number, ID or passport number, and physical address.
- Your identity verification record.
- Your cases, and everything you wrote in them.
- All evidence you uploaded — statements, screenshots, photographs, documents.
- Every message between you and your caseworker.
- Any share links you created, and the record of who opened them.
- The notification token for your phone.
Your identity document photograph and selfie are already gone long before this. They are erased as soon as a reviewer approves or rejects your verification — we do not keep them while your account is open. See the privacy policy.
What we have to keep, and for how long
Two things survive a deletion request, and only these:
| Records of fees paid | The amount, the date and the payment reference — kept at least five years, which South African tax and financial record-keeping law requires of us. Not your evidence, not your case, not your messages. |
|---|---|
| Anything already handed to a bank, the police or a prosecutor | Once material has been submitted to an investigation it is out of our hands and deleting our copy would not withdraw it. We will tell you what was submitted and to whom, so you can approach them directly. |
Nothing else is retained. We do not keep a shadow copy, and we do not sell or share your information with anyone for their own purposes.
If your case is still open
Deleting your account ends the work on your case. If money is in the process of being recovered, tell us before you ask for deletion — we cannot pursue a recovery for someone whose case we have destroyed, and the case fee is not refunded on a case we were part-way through.
Questions
| hotseatchair@gmail.com | |
| Phone | 072 021 6423 |
| Information Officer | Thabani Hlatshwayo |
| Full detail on your data | Privacy policy |