Privacy policy
You come to us after somebody has already taken your money. Handing over more information at that point takes trust, so this sets out plainly what we collect, why, who else sees it, and how to have it deleted.
1. Who we are
The app is operated by Putin Hot Seat, South Africa. In this policy that is "we" and "us".
We are the responsible party for your personal information under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).
| Privacy questions and requests | hotseatchair@gmail.com 072 021 6423 |
|---|---|
| Information Officer | Thabani Hlatshwayo |
2. What we collect, and why
Your account
Your email address and your name. The address is how you sign in — we send a one-time code to it — and how we reach you about your case. There is no password, so we never see or store one.
Details a bank or the police need
Your WhatsApp number, your ID or passport number, and your physical address.
A bank will not discuss an account without an identity number, and formal correspondence about a case has to go to a real address. We ask for these as a separate step after your account exists, and you can leave them until later — your report and your evidence are saved either way.
They are used to build your case and to correspond with you about it. Nothing more. They are never shown to anyone outside your case, and they are deleted with your account.
Identity verification
A photograph of your identity document (both sides, for a card) and a selfie. A person at Putin Hot Seat compares them by eye. This is not automated, and there is no face-recognition or biometric matching involved.
We ask before you pay anything, for two reasons: a case that may end up with a bank or the police has to be traceable to a real person, and it stops somebody filing a case in your name.
Those photographs are erased as soon as they are reviewed
They are encrypted while stored. The moment a reviewer approves or rejects your verification, the image files are securely overwritten and deleted, and the record of where they were is cleared.
What remains is the decision, the date, and who made it — not the documents. While they do exist, each time a reviewer opens one it is logged with who they were and when.
Your case
What happened, when, where, how much was taken, how you were first contacted, and any reference numbers your bank or the police have already given you — plus everything you write to your caseworker in the app.
Information about other people
A fraud report is largely information about somebody else: the name, phone number, email address, bank account, address or workplace of whoever you say took your money, and sometimes other people who appear in your evidence. You are giving us information about identifiable third parties who have not agreed to it and may not know of it.
We process it to investigate a suspected offence and to build a record that can be handed to a bank, the police or a prosecutor. We do not publish it, sell it, or use it for anything else. If you are named in a report and want to know what we hold, see section 7 — though we may withhold information where releasing it would prejudice an investigation, which POPIA permits.
Evidence you upload
Bank statements, screenshots, invoices, photographs, recordings and documents, along with each file's name, size, type and the time we sealed it. A sha256 fingerprint is calculated the moment a file arrives, which is what later lets us show it has not been altered.
Files often carry their own embedded data, including when and where a photograph was taken. That is frequently the point — location data is part of what makes evidence corroborable — but you should know that attaching a photo can disclose where you were.
Payment
The case fee is paid by EFT directly into our bank account. We do not accept card payments and never see card details. We hold the amount, the date, the method, and any proof of payment you upload. Your bank's own terms apply to the transfer itself.
Email updates
If you leave email updates on, we email you when your case moves and send the full written record when it closes — so you have a dated copy you can forward to a bank or an attorney without asking us for it. You can turn this off in the app under Account. Sign-in codes are sent either way, because without them you cannot get in.
Notifications
If you allow notifications, Google issues your device an anonymous token, which we store so we can tell your phone when your case moves. It identifies a device, not you, and it is deleted when you sign out.
If you open evidence someone shared with you
A share link lets one named person — a bank investigator, an attorney — view a single piece of evidence. When someone opens one we record the email address they verify with, the name they give, their IP address, their browser's user-agent string, the time, and whether the check passed. Failed attempts are recorded as well as successful ones.
That log is shown to the person who shared the evidence. It is the point of the feature: they are entitled to know who has looked at it.
Technical information
Our server records the IP address of requests to the public evidence-viewing pages so it can rate-limit them, which is what stops anyone sitting there guessing link codes. We use no advertising identifiers, we do not track you across other apps or websites, and the app contains no analytics or advertising software.
3. Why we may lawfully use it
| Your account, case and messages | Performing our agreement with you. |
|---|---|
| Identity verification | Our legitimate interest, and yours, in a case that will stand up with a bank or a prosecutor. |
| Information about a suspected fraudster | Our legitimate interest and the public interest in investigating a suspected offence. |
| Fee and payment records | Legal obligations to keep accounting records. |
4. Who else handles it
This list is short on purpose, and it is complete.
| Google (Firebase) | Sends your sign-in code and delivers notifications. Google sees your mobile number and your device token. It does not see your case or your evidence. |
|---|---|
| Our hosting provider | Runs the servers holding the database and your files. |
| Banks, the police, prosecutors | Only where you have asked us to pursue recovery, or where the law requires it of us. |
We do not sell your personal information and we do not share it for advertising. Nobody outside the people working your case sees your evidence unless you create a link for them, or the law compels us.
Google's infrastructure means some processing happens outside South Africa. POPIA permits this where the receiving party is bound to comparable protection, which Google's terms provide.
5. How long we keep it
| Identity document and selfie | Erased as soon as the verification is decided. |
|---|---|
| The verification decision | While you have an account, as proof the check was done. |
| Your case, evidence and messages | While the case is open, and afterwards for as long as it may be needed for a bank, a prosecution or a dispute. |
| Fee and payment records | At least five years, which South African tax and financial record-keeping law requires. |
| WhatsApp number, ID number, address | While you have an account. Deleted when it is. |
| Notification tokens | Deleted when you sign out, or when the device stops responding. |
| Rate-limiting records | Minutes. |
6. How it is protected
- Everything between the app and our servers travels over HTTPS.
- Identity documents are encrypted before they are written to disk.
- Evidence files are stored outside the public web directory and served only to the case owner and assigned staff — never from a guessable URL.
- Every file carries a sha256 fingerprint taken on arrival, so tampering is detectable rather than invisible.
- Staff access is controlled by role, and actions on a case are written to an audit trail.
No system is perfectly secure. If personal information is compromised in a way that could harm you, we will tell you and the Information Regulator, as POPIA requires.
7. Your rights, and deleting your data
Under POPIA you may ask us to:
- tell you what we hold about you, and give you a copy;
- correct anything that is wrong;
- delete information we no longer have a reason to keep;
- stop using it for a particular purpose.
Deleting your account and your data
Email hotseatchair@gmail.com from the number or address on your account, or ask your caseworker in the app. Say you want your account deleted. We will confirm within 30 days. Full instructions, and exactly what is deleted, are here.
We will delete your account, your verification record, your messages and your evidence — except what we are legally required to keep, which is financial records of fees paid, and any case material already handed to a bank, the police or a prosecutor. We will tell you exactly what was kept and why.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa: inforegulator.org.za.
8. Children
The app is for adults. We do not knowingly open accounts for anyone under 18. Where a case concerns a child, an adult must file it and remains responsible for it. If we learn a child has created an account, we delete it.
9. Changes
If we change how we handle your information we will update this page and the date at the top. Where a change materially affects you, we will tell you in the app.