What we collect, why, and what you can do about it — in plain words.
OwnerPilot is a website and Command Centre platform for owner-run businesses in South Africa — guesthouses, restaurants, lodges and the like. It is operated by Billy Bell, Sandton, South Africa. Questions about this notice, or about anything we hold about you, go to billy@ownerpilot.co.za or +27 82 888 3218.
This page says what we collect, why, and what you can do about it. It is written to be read, not filed.
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT
Two kinds of information pass through OwnerPilot, and the law (the Protection of Personal Information Act, POPIA) treats them differently.
Information about you as a user of OwnerPilot — your account, your sign-in, the businesses you operate — is ours to look after. OwnerPilot is the Responsible Party for it.
Information a business keeps about its own guests, diners, members and enquirers inside its Command Centre belongs to that business. The business is the Responsible Party; OwnerPilot processes it only on the business's instructions, as its Operator. If you are a guest of a business that uses OwnerPilot and you want your details corrected or removed, ask that business — or write to us and we will pass it on the same day.
WHAT WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU, AND WHY
Your Command Centre account: your name, email address and mobile number. We use them to sign you in (a one-time code by SMS or a link by email), to tell you when something needs you, and to send you the documents you ask us to prepare. Nothing else.
Your Google Search Console data, only if you connect it. When you press "Connect Search Console" in Get Found, Google asks you to allow OwnerPilot read-only access to the Search Console properties on your Google account. You choose the one property that matches your website. From then on we read that property's search performance — the terms people searched, your position, clicks and impressions — and show it in your Command Centre and in your Search-Fit reports. We store the token Google gives us so that we can keep reading on your behalf; we never write to Search Console, never read any other Google data, and never share what we read with anyone but you and the members of your own business. You can withdraw the access at any time in Get Found, or at myaccount.google.com/permissions; either way we stop reading immediately.
OwnerPilot's use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Your website's visitors. On the websites we host we count visits and page views and record which pages led to an enquiry or a booking, so that you can see whether the site is working. We do not identify visitors across other websites and we do not sell or share visitor data with advertisers.
Enquiries and bookings. When a visitor fills in a form on a business's website — name, email, phone, message, dates — that goes to the business it was meant for. If the form is on ownerpilot.co.za itself, it comes to us, so that we can reply.
WHO ELSE SEES IT
The companies that run the machinery for us, each under contract and each only as far as its job requires: hosting (Vercel), the database (Supabase), email delivery (Resend) and SMS delivery. Google, where you have connected a Google service, under Google's own terms. Nobody else, and never for money.
HOW LONG WE KEEP IT
For as long as your business uses OwnerPilot, and for a short period afterwards so that a mistaken cancellation can be undone. Ask, and we delete sooner. Trading figures a business has chosen to seal are encrypted with a key only that business holds; we cannot read them.
YOUR RIGHTS
Under POPIA you may ask what we hold about you, have it corrected, and have it deleted. Write to billy@ownerpilot.co.za. If you are not satisfied with how we respond, you may complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa (inforegulator.org.za).
CHANGES
When this notice changes, the date below changes with it, and anything material is announced in your Command Centre.
Last updated 17 September 2026.