Privacy policy

1. Who We Are

Herentals College Private Limited operates educational institutions and related services under The Herentals Group. This policy covers our use of the WhatsApp Business Platform (provided by Meta) to communicate with parents, guardians, students, and other contacts.

WhatsApp Business number: +263 77 810 7999

2. Information We Collect

When you communicate with us via WhatsApp, we may collect and process:

• Your phone number, as registered with WhatsApp.
• Your name, as provided to us or on file in our records (used to personalise messages).
• Message content, including messages you send to us and messages we send to you (e.g., payment confirmations, fee statement requests, general inquiries).
• Student and account information, where you are linked to a student record (e.g., student number, campus/centre, fee balance status, payment history) — used only to respond to your specific requests (such as sending a receipt or statement) or to answer account-related questions.
• Communication preferences, including whether you have subscribed to or opted out of specific categories of messages (see Section 5).

We do not collect this information through any means other than your direct interaction with our WhatsApp number, or through your existing relationship with us as a parent/guardian, student, or affiliated contact.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information above to:

• Send transactional notifications you are entitled to receive as a matter of your account, such as payment receipts and fee statements.
• Respond to inquiries you send us, including balance checks, general questions, and requests for documents (e.g., a copy of a receipt).
• Send service and general updates relevant to your campus or student (e.g., operational notices), which you may opt out of at any time.
• Send marketing or promotional updates (e.g., event notices), but only if you have opted in to receive them.
• Improve and troubleshoot our messaging service.

4. How Our Automated Assistant Works

Some replies you receive may be generated by an automated assistant rather than a staff member. Our automated assistant is designed with strict limits:

• It does not perform financial calculations, estimate balances, or negotiate payment arrangements. Any financial figures you receive are pulled directly, and only, from our verified administrative records.
• It does not answer questions using general knowledge — it only uses information we have explicitly provided it (such as published policies) or your verified account records.
• If your request cannot be answered this way, the assistant will direct you to contact your campus front office directly, or a staff member will follow up with you.
• When a request is escalated, authorised staff may review the WhatsApp thread to help you.

5. Your Communication Choices

We categorise the messages we send into:

• Critical and transactional messages (e.g., payment receipts, statements you have requested) — these are necessary for the service and are not offered as an optional marketing stream.
• General updates — you are included by default but may opt out at any time.
• Marketing and promotional updates (e.g., event notices) — you will only receive these if you have explicitly opted in.

To stop receiving general or marketing updates: reply STOP to any message from us. Critical and transactional messages related to your account may still be sent as part of the service.

To resume receiving updates you previously stopped: reply START or SUBSCRIBE.

6. How We Share Your Information

We share information only as necessary to operate this service:

• Meta Platforms, Inc. — as the provider of the WhatsApp Business Platform, Meta processes messages in transit in accordance with its own WhatsApp Business Terms and Meta Privacy Policy.
• Google LLC — we use Google's Gemini AI service to help interpret inbound messages and generate responses for our automated assistant. Message text may be processed by this service for that purpose.

Message handling may involve processing outside Zimbabwe by Meta and Google as described above.

We do not sell your information, and we do not share it with third parties for their own marketing purposes.

7. Data Retention

We retain WhatsApp message logs and contact records for as long as necessary to provide this service, maintain accurate financial and administrative records, and meet our legal and accounting obligations. You may request deletion of your data as described in our Data Deletion Instructions, subject to the limitations described there.

8. Data Security

We use industry-standard safeguards to protect your information, including encrypted transmission of messages, restricted internal access controls, and secure storage of records. Documents such as receipts and statements are transmitted directly and privately to your WhatsApp account and are not hosted on any publicly accessible web page.

9. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the right to access, correct, or request deletion of your personal information. To exercise these rights, contact us using the details in Section 11, or see our Data Deletion Instructions.

10. Children's Information

Our WhatsApp service is intended for communication with parents, guardians, and adult contacts — not directly with children. Where student information is referenced in a message (e.g., a fee statement), it is sent only to the verified parent or guardian, or campus contact, associated with that student's account.

11. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how your information is handled, contact us at:

Herentals College Private Limited

Trading as The Herentals Group

WhatsApp: +263 77 810 7999

Phone: 0785 605 192

Address: 78 Robert Mugabe Way, Harare, Zimbabwe

12. Where We Operate

These WhatsApp Services are operated from Zimbabwe. Where applicable, we handle personal information in line with Zimbabwe data-protection requirements.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by updating the "Effective date" above.