MyGenie

Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, how it is stored, and how you can exercise your rights.

Last Updated: 22 April 2026

Data Security
We use industry-standard encryption (TLS/SSL) for all data in transit and apply secure storage practices for data at rest where applicable.
AI Training
We do not use your private chat content or uploaded documents to train public AI models. Your data is used only to generate the responses you request.

1. Overview

MyGenie is a South Africa-based SaaS platform. This Privacy Policy describes our data practices for visitors and users. We are committed to complying with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA) and all applicable South African data protection legislation.

2. Information We Collect

We collect the following categories of information:

  • Account Information: name, email address, and subscription status.
  • Usage Data: log data, device/browser information, and product interaction events.
  • Content You Provide: chat prompts, uploaded documents, and responses you generate.
  • Payment Information: handled by payment processors; we do not store full card details.
  • Support Communications: messages you submit via support forms or email.

3. How We Use Information

We use information to:

  • Provide the service and authenticate users.
  • Deliver AI responses and generate outputs.
  • Improve functionality, performance, and security.
  • Communicate with you about your account and service updates.
  • Comply with legal obligations.

4. Data Storage, Security & Retention

  • Storage: data is stored on secure cloud infrastructure with access controls and audit logging.
  • Security: encryption in transit (TLS/SSL) and at rest where applicable.
  • Retention: data is retained while your account is active and as needed for legal or operational purposes. You can request deletion at any time.

5. Google User Data (Secretary Genie)

MyGenie's Secretary Genie feature lets you connect your Google account so the AI assistant can answer questions about your inbox and calendar on request (for example, "What's on my calendar tomorrow?" or "Summarise my unread emails from today"). This section explains, in plain language, exactly what Google user data we access, why, and how we handle it. MyGenie's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

5.1 Scopes we request

When you click "Connect Google Account" on the Settings page, MyGenie requests only the minimum read-only scopes needed for the feature to work:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.readonly
    What it allows: read-only access to your Gmail messages, labels, and metadata.
    Why we need it: so Secretary Genie can answer questions about recent emails (e.g., unread count, senders, subjects, snippets) when you ask it to.
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.readonly
    What it allows: read-only access to your Google Calendar events.
    Why we need it: so Secretary Genie can tell you what's on your calendar today, tomorrow, or for a date range you specify.

Both scopes are read-only. MyGenie cannot send emails, delete messages, create or modify calendar events, or take any action on your account. We request no write scopes of any kind.

5.2 How your Google data is used

  • Only on request. Google data is fetched only when you explicitly ask Secretary Genie a question that requires it. We do not background-poll, pre-fetch, or cache your inbox and calendar.
  • Only the results you see. The data returned by Google is passed to the AI model to produce the response you asked for, shown to you in the chat, and discarded from server memory once the response completes.
  • Used only to provide the feature. Google user data is never used for advertising, never sold or rented, never shared with third parties, and never used to train AI models (ours or anyone else's).
  • Minimum necessary. We request only the fields relevant to the question you asked (e.g., subject, sender, snippet, date - not full message bodies unless you specifically ask for a body).

5.3 How your Google data is stored

  • We do not store your emails or calendar events. Message content and event details are only held in volatile memory for the duration of a single request to generate your chat response, and then discarded. They are never written to our databases.
  • We store only a refresh token. When you connect your Google account, Google issues MyGenie a refresh token - a short string that lets our backend obtain temporary access tokens on your behalf. This refresh token is stored encrypted in Google Cloud Firestore, scoped to your user account.
  • The refresh token is the only Google-linked data we retain. It lets you keep using Secretary Genie without re-authenticating every hour. It contains no email or calendar content.

5.4 Revoking access and data deletion

  • From inside MyGenie: Settings → Google Account (Email Summary) → "Disconnect Google Account". This immediately deletes the refresh token from our database and calls Google to revoke it.
  • From Google directly: visit myaccount.google.com/permissions and remove MyGenie from the list. This also invalidates the refresh token we hold.
  • Account deletion: deleting your MyGenie account automatically deletes the refresh token along with all other account data.

5.5 Limited Use compliance

MyGenie's use of Gmail and Calendar data complies with the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Specifically, we affirm that Google user data obtained through the above scopes:

  • Is used only to provide or improve the user-facing Secretary Genie feature.
  • Is not transferred to third parties except as necessary to run the feature, for security, to comply with applicable law, or as part of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets with the user's explicit consent.
  • Is not used or transferred for serving ads, including retargeting, personalised or interest-based advertising.
  • Is not read by any human except: (a) with your affirmative agreement for a specific message, (b) when necessary for security purposes such as investigating abuse, (c) to comply with applicable law, or (d) where the data has been aggregated and is used for internal operations in accordance with applicable privacy requirements.
  • Is not used to develop, improve, or train generalised AI and/or ML models.

6. Microsoft User Data (Secretary Genie)

If you sign in with Microsoft or connect your Microsoft account, Secretary Genie can answer questions about your Outlook inbox, calendar, Teams chats, and OneDrive / SharePoint files on request (for example, "What's in my Outlook today?", "Summarise last week's Teams chat with Thandi", or "Draft a reply to the latest proposal email"). This section explains, in plain language, exactly what Microsoft data we access, why, and how we handle it.

6.1 Scopes we request

When you connect your Microsoft account, MyGenie requests the minimum Microsoft Graph delegated scopes needed for Secretary Genie's features. These fall into five groups:

  • Outlook mail - read your messages, folders, and attachments, and send / reply / flagmail on your behalf. Write actions (send, reply, flag) are never automatic: Secretary Genie always confirms subject, body, and recipients with you before sending, and sends are only triggered when you explicitly ask. Shared mailboxes you have access to are included.
  • Calendar - read your primary and shared calendar events so Secretary Genie can tell you what's scheduled. We do not request write access to calendars; Secretary Genie cannot create, modify, or delete calendar events.
  • Teams chats & meetings - read your 1:1 and group chat messages, create new 1:1 chats, send messages on your behalf, and read Teams online-meeting metadata and transcripts (where your tenant has transcripts enabled). As with mail, Secretary Genie always confirms before sending.
  • OneDrive & SharePoint files - read files you have access to, so Secretary Genie can search your documents and open them for summarisation (DOCX, PDF, XLSX). This requires your tenant administrator to grant the Files.Read scope; until they do, file features return a clear "ask your admin to grant Files.Read" message.
  • Sign-in - basic profile fields (name, email, tenant) and an offline-access refresh token so you don't need to re-authenticate every hour.

We do not request Teams channel posting, contact write, or anything else beyond the list above.

6.2 How your Microsoft data is used

  • Only on request. Microsoft data is fetched only when you explicitly ask Secretary Genie a question that requires it. We do not background-poll, pre-fetch, or cache your inbox, calendar, chats, or files.
  • Writes need your go-ahead. Anything that sends mail, sends a Teams message, or creates a chat requires a confirmation turn in-chat before it executes. You can cancel at any point.
  • Only the results you see. The data returned by Microsoft is passed to the AI model to produce the response you asked for, shown to you in the chat, and discarded from server memory once the response completes.
  • Used only to provide the feature. Microsoft user data is never used for advertising, never sold or rented, never shared with third parties, and never used to train AI models (ours or anyone else's).
  • Minimum necessary. We request only the fields relevant to the question you asked.

6.3 How your Microsoft data is stored

  • We do not store your emails, calendar events, chats, or files. Their contents are only held in volatile memory for the duration of a single request to generate your chat response, and then discarded. They are never written to our databases.
  • We store only a refresh token. When you connect your Microsoft account, Microsoft issues MyGenie a refresh token - a short string that lets our backend obtain temporary access tokens on your behalf. This refresh token is stored encrypted in Google Cloud Firestore, scoped to your user account.
  • The refresh token is the only Microsoft-linked data we retain. It lets you keep using Secretary Genie without re-authenticating every hour. It contains no mail, calendar, chat, or file content.

6.4 Revoking access and data deletion

  • From inside MyGenie: Settings → Channels → Microsoft → "Disconnect". This immediately deletes the refresh token from our database.
  • From Microsoft directly: visit myaccount.microsoft.com/consent and remove MyGenie from the list. Your tenant administrator can also revoke the app for the whole organisation via the Entra admin centre.
  • Account deletion: deleting your MyGenie account automatically deletes the refresh token along with all other account data.

6.5 Compliance

MyGenie's use of Microsoft Graph data complies with the Microsoft APIs Terms of Use and the Microsoft Graph authorization model. Specifically, we affirm that Microsoft user data obtained through the scopes above:

  • Is used only to provide or improve the user-facing Secretary Genie feature.
  • Is not transferred to third parties except as necessary to run the feature, for security, to comply with applicable law, or as part of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets with the user's explicit consent.
  • Is not used or transferred for serving ads, including retargeting, personalised or interest-based advertising.
  • Is not read by any human except: (a) with your affirmative agreement for a specific message, (b) when necessary for security purposes such as investigating abuse, (c) to comply with applicable law, or (d) where the data has been aggregated and used for internal operations in accordance with applicable privacy requirements.
  • Is not used to develop, improve, or train generalised AI and/or ML models.

7. Third Parties & Sub-Processors

We use trusted third-party services ("sub-processors") to operate and secure the platform. Each category below is engaged only for the purpose described, under contract, and receives only the data required to perform its service. Cross-border transfers are protected under Standard Contractual Clauses or equivalent safeguards.

We currently engage sub-processors in the following categories:

  • Cloud infrastructure - application hosting, database, file storage, authentication (primary region: multi-region, governed by DPA with Standard Contractual Clauses).
  • AI inference - large-language-model providers that generate responses in the product. Configured with zero-retention / no-training commitments so your prompts are not used to train their public models.
  • Identity and productivity integrations - when you explicitly connect Google or Microsoft (Secretary Genie), we access only the scopes you approve, via OAuth, and only on your request.
  • SMS and messaging - WhatsApp Business API and SMS delivery for channel integrations.
  • Email delivery - transactional email (verification, receipts, admin notices) and lifecycle product emails.
  • Payment processing - ZAR subscription billing via a PCI DSS Level 1 South African payment service provider. Card details never touch MyGenie servers.
  • Identity verification (KYC) - for brands that require verified identity onboarding; images and ID data are handled by the KYC sub-processor under a Responsible Party agreement.
  • Analytics and advertising - aggregate usage analytics and conversion tracking. These are optional cookies governed by Section 11 below and only fire after you accept them in the cookie banner.

For the current vendor-level list (sub-processor names, regions, certifications, and specific safeguards), contact us at admin@mygenie.co.za or via the Contact Us page. We will provide the detailed list on request to customers and auditors.

8. Your Data Rights (POPIA Sections 23–25)

Under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), you have the right to:

  • Access (Section 23): Request confirmation of whether we hold your personal information and obtain a copy of it.
  • Correction (Section 24): Request correction or deletion of personal information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, or misleading.
  • Deletion (Section 24): Request destruction of your personal information if we are no longer authorised to retain it.
  • Object to processing (Section 11(3)): Object to the processing of your personal information for direct marketing or where processing is not necessary for the purpose for which it was collected.
  • Data portability: Request export of your personal information in a commonly used electronic format, where applicable.
  • Complaint: Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa) if you believe your personal information has been processed in violation of POPIA.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at admin@mygenie.co.za or use the contact form. We will respond within a reasonable time and no later than the timeframes prescribed by POPIA.

9. International Transfers

If data is processed outside South Africa, we ensure it is protected using appropriate safeguards.

10. Responsible Party & Information Officer

For the purposes of POPIA, the responsible party and Information Officer for this Privacy Policy are:

Responsible Party: MyGenie
Information Officer contact: admin@mygenie.co.za
Postal / contact form: Contact Us

Use these contacts to exercise any of the rights listed in Section 8, to raise a privacy concern, or to request more detail on how we process your personal information. If we cannot resolve your concern, you may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa) at inforegulator.org.za.

11. Cookies

MyGenie uses cookies and similar technologies to operate the service and (optionally) to measure usage. Under POPIA §11 we disclose the cookies we set and ask for your consent to set anything beyond what is strictly necessary.

11.1 Essential cookies (always on)

These are required for the service to function. You cannot disable them because without them you could not sign in or keep a session.

  • Session cookie (session) - authenticates your signed-in session. First-party, HttpOnly, Secure, SameSite=Lax. Expires when your session expires.
  • Consent record (mg_cookie_consent) - stores your choice from the cookie banner so we don't ask again on every page. 1-year TTL.
  • Brand preference (mg_brand) - remembers which brand (MyGenie / MAIO / BMG) surface you prefer, where applicable.
  • Application state - small first-party cookies or localStorage entries scoped to your account used to preserve unsent drafts, cockpit state, and UI preferences so your work is not lost between visits.

11.2 Optional cookies (your choice)

These only fire if you click "Accept all" on the cookie banner. Click "Essential only" (or ignore the banner) and they will not be set.

  • Analytics (Google Analytics 4) - aggregate page-view and interaction metrics used to improve the product. IP anonymisation is enabled.
  • Advertising / remarketing (Google Ads) - conversion tracking and remarketing on paid marketing campaigns. Not used for any kind of profile-building beyond campaign performance measurement.

11.3 How to change your choice

You can revoke consent at any time by clearing the mg_cookie_consent cookie in your browser, which will cause the banner to reappear on your next visit. You can also disable cookies in your browser settings; essential cookies will be re-set on your next sign-in because they are required for the service.

12. Contact Us

For privacy questions or requests, email admin@mygenie.co.za or use the contact form.