Privacy policy

This policy explains what personal information Wink collects, why, who we share it with and the rights you have. It covers this website (winkhq.com), the Wink app (app.winkhq.com) and the brand tracking surveys we run. We follow South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA). Where the UK or EU GDPR applies to you, we follow it too.

Who we are

Wink is the responsible party for the personal information described here. Survey respondents’ names and contact details are held by our survey panels, not by Wink. Wink is the trading name of Wink Labs (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2026/740929/07), a private company registered in South Africa, at 252 Church Road, Walmer, Port Elizabeth, 6065, South Africa.

Our Information Officer is Mike Metelerkamp. You can reach them at hello@winkhq.com.

Information we collect

When you visit the website. The pages you view, the site that sent you, your browser and device type, and your approximate location worked out from your IP address. When you load the demo form, Cloudflare Turnstile checks that you are a person, which involves your IP address and signals from your browser.

When you book a demo. Your name, work email and company. Your phone number and a message if you choose to give them. We also record the page you sent the form from and any campaign tags in the link you followed.

When you use the Wink app. Your name, work email and company, your login details, the brands and competitors you track, the questions you ask Wink and the notes and decisions you save, and a log of how you use the app (for example, sign-ins and pages viewed). If you manage your company’s account, also your billing contact details.

When you answer one of our surveys. Your answers, including anything you write in your own words, and the demographic details we use to check the sample (such as age band, gender and region). Our panel partners, Dynata and PureSpectrum, recruit and reward respondents. We receive an anonymous respondent ID and these demographic details, never a name, email address or anything else we can link to a person.

Why we use it

Each use, with its legal basis under POPIA:

• Replying to your demo request and preparing for the call. Your request, and our legitimate interest in answering it.
• Providing the app, supporting your account and billing for it. Our contract with you or your employer.
• Producing brand tracking results from survey answers. The respondent’s consent, given to the panel before each survey.
• Measuring how the website and app are used, and improving them. Our legitimate interest in running a useful service.
• Keeping the site, app and form secure and free of spam. Our legitimate interest in protecting the service.
• Keeping records the law requires, such as invoices. A legal obligation.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use it for advertising.

Clients see survey results as figures for groups of respondents. We may also show clients short answers that respondents wrote in their own words, with nothing that identifies who wrote them. We report no figures for a group too small to protect the people in it.

Do you have to give it to us

No. Name, work email and company are needed to book a demo or open an app account, because we can’t reply to you or set up your account without them. Everything else on the demo form is optional. Survey questions can be skipped, and you can stop a survey at any time.

Analytics and cookies

We use PostHog to see how the website is used. It runs without setting tracking cookies. The app uses session cookies to keep you signed in. If we ever add cookies that are not strictly necessary, we will ask first where the law requires it.

You can turn off analytics for this browser at any time.Opt out of analytics

Who we share it with

We share personal information only with service providers who help us run Wink. They act on our instructions and must keep it secure and confidential:

• Cloudflare: hosting for the website, the app and its database, the demo form and spam protection (Turnstile).
• Resend: delivers demo requests from the website to our inbox.
• PostHog: website analytics.
• Google Workspace: our email.
• Anthropic: the AI model behind Ask Wink in the app. It receives the questions you ask and the results needed to answer them.
• Dynata and PureSpectrum: survey panels. They recruit respondents and run consent, and send us anonymous answers.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to a buyer of the business, who would be bound by this policy.

Sending information outside South Africa

Some of these providers store or process information outside South Africa, for example in the United States or the European Union. POPIA allows this only where the recipient is bound by law, binding company rules or a contract that gives your information protection substantially similar to POPIA, or where another lawful ground applies. We rely on our providers’ data processing terms to meet that standard. Ask us if you want to know where a particular provider stores your information.

How long we keep it

• Demo requests: up to 24 months, unless you become a client.
• App accounts: for as long as the account is open. When it closes, we delete your account information, except records we must keep by law (such as invoices).
• Website analytics: up to 12 months.
• Survey answers: they contain nothing that identifies a respondent, so we keep them as part of each client’s tracking history.

When we no longer need information, we delete it or remove anything that identifies you.

How we protect it

We encrypt information in transit and at rest, and use access controls and providers with recognised security practices. Only the people who need information to do their job can see it. If we believe your personal information has been accessed without authorisation, we will tell you and the Information Regulator as soon as reasonably possible, as POPIA requires.

Your rights

You can ask us:

• whether we hold personal information about you, and for a copy of it
• to correct or delete information that is wrong, out of date, incomplete or held unlawfully
• to stop using your information where we rely on our legitimate interests (you can object at any time)
• to stop sending you direct marketing
• to withdraw consent you have given, without affecting anything we did before

Email hello@winkhq.com. We may need to confirm your identity first. We will reply within 30 days.

Complaints

Please tell us first, so we can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa):

• Website: inforegulator.org.za/complaints
• Email: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za
• Phone: 010 023 5200

If you are in the UK, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. In the EU, you can complain to your local data protection authority.

Children

Wink is a business service. The website and app are not meant for anyone under 18, and our surveys only accept respondents aged 18 or over.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we update the date at the top of this page. If a change materially affects how we use your information, we will tell app users by email before it takes effect.

Contact us

Email hello@winkhq.com, or write to our Information Officer, Mike Metelerkamp, at Wink Labs (Pty) Ltd, 252 Church Road, Walmer, Port Elizabeth, 6065, South Africa.