GDPR Compliance Information

Learn how Helpwise helps its customers to become GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) Compliant.

At Helpwise, we have always taken care of your data with the seriousness it deserves and to make ourselves & our customers General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant, we have revised our internal processes, security and terms & privacy documents accordingly.

Policy Updates

  • Terms of Service: Updated to reflect GDPR requirements & compliance.
  • Privacy Policy: Updated to reflect the data that we collect & how we use it.
  • Cookie Policy: a banner to visitors the use of cookies 
  • Data Processing Addendum is available upon request (for Enterprise Plan Customers)

Operational Updates

  • Access to information is restricted to what’s strictly required for troubleshooting and customer support.
  • Our partners and suppliers are also compliant with the new regulations.
  • Our whole team is being trained to understand the requirements and implications of the GDPR. 

Privacy By Design – Data Protection Compliance 

Our engineering team has added a lot of new tools & features in your Helpwise account to allow you to control your data better. We have prepared a guide on all the available tools/features that help you comply with GDPR & address your users requests. Guide will be published online soon and link will be shared here.

List of Sub-Processors 

We work with the best in the market to ensure complete compliance, data safety and peace of mind.

  1. Amazon Web Services
    Hosting services in the US
  2. Intercom
    Support Chat, Sales Chat and transactional email automation
  3. Stripe
    Payment gateway (PCI compliant)
  4. Pipedrive
    Sales CRM tool
  5. Hubspot
    CRM for customer success & marketing
  6. Mailgun
    Email API Provider
  7. Sendgrid
    Email API Provider
  8. Google (Gmail)
    To allow customers to send emails via Gmail
  9. Google (Google Analytics)
    Business Analytics
  10. Twilio
    2FA Authentication

Privacy and Data Handling Tools and Processes

Right to object (opt-out)

You can easily add a contact to Opt Out list to stop any outbound emails and SMS to the mentioned contact. Your customer can even text you Stop to opt-out of any future text messages.

Right to be forgotten

With Helpwise, deleting a contact will permanently delete all data related to that individual. You can delete any contact from your Helpwise Contacts.
If your customer (data subject) wishes to exercise his/her Right To Be Forgotten under GDPR, you can done so by 

  1. Deleting his/her contact information on Helpwise
  2. Delete all emails related to his/her contact
  3. Add the contact to Opt Out list (so that no one from your team can ever contact that person again either via email or SMS)

And, for double confirmation & any help, you can write to our support team at help@helpwise.io

Right to rectification

You can access and update your Helpwise account settings at any time to correct or complete your account information from your account settings page. You may also contact Helpwise at any time to access, correct, amend or delete information that we hold about you.

Right of access

All of the data collected on a contact is easily accessible within the platform. Helpwise has an extensive privacy policy that describes what data Helpwise collects. If your customer (data subject) asks for any information related to his/her data (under GDPR), write to us at help@helpwise.io

Right of portability

You can export out all the messages (emails, sms, whatsapp) Helpwise account. You can always contact our chat support if you need any help with exporting this data. To raise an export requeat, you can write to help@helpwise.io and our support team will help you with your query within 24 hours. In case of historical data (1 month old and more), it may take up to 7 days to generate the export file.

Breach Notification

Quoting from GDPR website

Under the GDPR, breach notification will become mandatory in all member states where a data breach is likely to “result in a risk for the rights and freedoms of individuals”. This must be done within 72 hours of first having become aware of the breach. Data processors will also be required to notify their customers, the controllers, “without undue delay” after first becoming aware of a data breach.

We thoroughly reviewed our data security, made sure that we have complete data encryption for both in-motion and at-rest data. And, also created a policy around Breach notification to inform our customers within 72 hours of first having become aware of the breach.

Data Transfer

We may transfer, process and store Personal Data we collect through the Services in centralized databases and with service providers located in the US. The US may not have the same data protection framework as the country from which you may be using the Services. When we transfer Personal Data to the US, we will protect it as described in this Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

The Service is hosted in the United States. Regardless of the database being hosted in the European Union, if you choose to use the Service from the EU or other regions of the world with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from US law, then please note that you may be transferring your Client Data and Personal Data outside of those regions to the United States for storage and processing by our service providers listed in the our Terms of Service. We will comply with GDPR requirements providing adequate protection for the transfer of personal information from Europe to the US. Also, we may transfer your data to the US, the EEA, or other countries or regions deemed by the European Commission to provide adequate protection of personal data in connection with storage and processing of data, fulfilling your requests, and operating the Service.

Data Controller and Data Processor

Helpwise does not own, control or direct the use of any of the Client Data stored or processed by a Client or User via the Service. Only the Client or Users are entitled to access, retrieve and direct the use of such Client Data. Helpwise is largely unaware of what Client Data is actually being stored or made available by a Client or User to the Service and does not directly access such Client Data except as authorized by the Client, or as necessary to provide Services to the Client and its Users.

Because Helpwise does not collect or determine the use of any Personal Data contained in the Client Data and because it does not determine the purposes for which such Personal Data is collected, the means of collecting such Personal Data, or the uses of such Personal Data, Helpwise is not acting in the capacity of data controller in terms of the European-Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679, “GDPR”) and does not have the associated responsibilities under the GDPR. Helpwise should be considered only as a processor on behalf of its Clients and Users as to any Client Data containing Personal Data that is subject to the requirements of the GDPR. Except as provided in this Privacy Policy, Helpwise does not independently cause Client Data containing Personal Data stored in connection with the Services to be transferred or otherwise made available to third parties, except to third party subcontractors who may process such data on behalf of Helpwise in connection with Helpwise’s provision of Services to Clients. Such actions are performed or authorized only by the applicable Client or User.

The Client or the User is the data controller under the Regulation for any Client Data containing Personal Data, meaning that such party controls the manner such Personal Data is collected and used as well as the determination of the purposes and means of the processing of such Personal Data.

Helpwise is not responsible for the content of the Personal Data contained in the Client Data or other information stored on its servers (or its subcontractors’ servers) at the discretion of the Client or User nor is Helpwise responsible for the manner in which the Client or User collects, handles disclosure, distributes or otherwise processes such information.

Data Retention

We only retain the Personal Data collected from a User for as long as the User’s account is active or otherwise for a limited period of time as long as we need it to fulfill the purposes for which we have initially collected it, unless otherwise required by law. We will retain and use information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements as follows:

  • the contents of closed accounts are deleted within 6 months of the date of closure.
  • backups are kept for 12 months.
  • information on legal transactions between Client and Helpwise is retained for a period of 10 years.

We hope this makes your use of Helpwise and the transition to GDPR much easier. As always, please contact us if you have any questions: help@helpwise.io