1. Who we are

Homebird is owned and operated by Paynter & Co, a registered business in South Africa ("Homebird", "we", "us"). For any privacy question, or to exercise any of the rights described below, contact our Information Officer at richard@homebirdhr.com.

2. What information we collect

Homebird is a payroll and HR tool for South African households and small teams. To provide the service we collect:

Account and profile data: email address, name, role (employer or employee), phone number, ID number, home address, and banking details (bank name, account number, account type, branch code) where needed to produce payslips.
Employment and payroll data: staff role, employment type, annual leave and sick leave balances, salary records and rate history, and whether UIF applies.
Operational data: leave requests, overtime requests, and attendance records (dates and hours worked — we do not collect location or GPS data).
Free-text notes: notes that an employer or employee adds within the app about a staff member or shift.

3. Why we collect it

We use this information to deliver the service you sign up for: producing payslips, tracking leave and attendance, managing schedules, supporting UIF compliance, and communicating with you about your account, including by email and WhatsApp.

4. WhatsApp onboarding

If you message our WhatsApp number to set up your Homebird account, we process the phone number you message from and the content of the messages you send us in order to create or update your account and schedule. Standard WhatsApp Cloud API data handling, operated by Meta, applies to the transport of these messages — see Meta's own privacy policy for how Meta handles message delivery.

5. Who we share it with

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use advertising or analytics trackers. We share data only with service providers that help us run Homebird, strictly as needed to provide the service:

Resend — sends transactional emails (e.g. account confirmation, password reset).
Neon — hosts our PostgreSQL database.
Railway — hosts the Homebird application.
Meta (WhatsApp Cloud API) — delivers and receives WhatsApp messages, if you use WhatsApp onboarding.
OpenAI — used only if an optional AI feature is enabled on your account.

6. International data transfers

Some of our infrastructure providers may process data outside South Africa. We are reviewing our processors to confirm the safeguards that apply to any such transfers, and will update this policy with specifics as that review completes.

7. How long we keep it

We retain payroll, salary, and UIF-related records for as long as South African statutory retention requirements apply. Schedule and payroll history is kept as an append-only audit trail — records are superseded by later entries rather than overwritten, which allows an accurate history of pay and hours worked over time.

8. Your rights under POPIA

Subject to the retention obligations described above, you have the right to access the personal information we hold about you, request that it be corrected, request that it be deleted (see our Data Deletion page), and object to certain processing. You may also lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa if you believe your information has been mishandled.

9. Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including hashing passwords and restricting access to data that is scoped to your account. No system is completely secure, and we continue to improve our practices as Homebird grows.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as Homebird evolves. We'll update the effective date above when we do.

11. Contact

Questions about this policy, or requests relating to your personal information, can be sent to our Information Officer at richard@homebirdhr.com.

Privacy Policy