What we collect from businesses (our customers)
- Account details: your name, email address, and sign-in method (Google, GitHub, or email/password via Google Firebase Authentication). We never see or store your password.
- Bot configuration: the settings, knowledge, links, and website content you provide or ask us to scan so your chatbot can answer questions about your business.
- Team members: names, email addresses, and optional phone numbers of employees you add, used for sign-in, alerts, and (if configured) SMS notifications.
- Billing: payments are processed by Stripe. We store your plan and subscription status, but your card details never touch our servers.
- Visits to botdesk.studio: without cookies, we record the pages viewed, your IP address, approximate location, device and browser type, and how you arrived (a search engine, a referring site, or a campaign tag). When you create an account, we match it to how you first arrived so we know which channels bring customers.
What we process for visitors of our customers' websites
- Chat messages: conversations with a business's chatbot are stored so the business can read them, receive transcripts, and follow up. We process this data on behalf of the business you were chatting with; contact that business for requests about your conversation.
- Contact details you choose to share: if you submit your name, phone number, or email through a chat (for a callback, booking, or quote), it is delivered to that business.
- Technical and location data: your IP address, the approximate country and city it resolves to, your device type and browser family, and how you arrived at the site (for example a search engine or a referring link). The business that runs the widget can see this alongside your conversation, and uses it to recognise returning visitors, to route and answer enquiries, and to exclude its own staff's visits from its statistics.
- Order status, when a business has connected its store: if you ask "where is my order?", we ask you for the order number and the email address on the order, and use them to look that single order up in the business's own store (Shopify or WooCommerce). We do this live and we do not store any of the order data, including the email you give us. The email is used once, to check it matches the order, so that we never reveal someone else's order to you.
- Account details, when you are signed in to the business's website: if the business has set this up, its website sends us a signed note with the account details it chooses to share with you (for example your last order number or next appointment). We use them only to answer you in that chat, and they are sent to OpenAI as part of the conversation. By default we do not keep them: the chat history and emails the business receives show only that you were signed in and your name, with the details hidden. The business can choose to keep them.
- Chat messages are sent to OpenAI to generate the AI's responses. They are not used by us to train AI models.
We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising. We do not use it to build advertising profiles or to make automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.
Calendars and bookings
- Bookings: when a business turns on booking, we store each booking (the visitor’s name, email and phone number, the time they chose, the service, and any answers they give to the business’s questions). We use it to create the booking and to email the business and the visitor.
- Calendar links (iCal / ICS): when a business connects a calendar, for example Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple iCloud, we read only the busy times (a start and an end) from the private calendar link the business gives us. We never read event titles or descriptions. We store that link encrypted, and the business can remove it at any time.
- Cal.com and Calendly: when a business connects one of these, we read that account’s open times and create the booking there with the visitor’s name, email and phone number. Cal.com or Calendly then emails the visitor.
- Google Calendar (one-click connection): when a business connects its Google account, we ask Google for two calendar permissions and the account’s email address. We read only the busy times (a start and an end) of that account’s main (primary) calendar, through Google’s free/busy service, so the chatbot never offers a time the business is busy. We never read event titles, descriptions, guests or other calendars. We write only the events for bookings made through BotDesk: one event per confirmed booking on the primary calendar, holding the service, the time and the visitor’s name, phone number, email and answers, and we delete that event when the booking is cancelled. We do not add the visitor as a Google guest, so Google sends them nothing. We use the email address only to show the business which account is connected. Google’s access and refresh tokens are stored encrypted; the business can disconnect at any time, and we then revoke our access with Google and delete the tokens.
- Google API data and Limited Use: BotDesk’s use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements (and, for Google Workspace data, the Google Workspace API User Data and Developer Policy). In plain words: we use Google Calendar data only to show the business’s open times and to keep its calendar up to date with its bookings. We do not sell it, use it for advertising, or use it to train AI models, and no person at BotDesk reads it unless the business asks us to for support, it is needed for security, or the law requires it.
- Square Appointments (one-click connection): when a business connects Square, we read its locations, its bookable services and the open times Square shows, and we create bookings there. To do that we look up or add the visitor as a Square customer (name, phone number and email) and send the booking with the visitor’s note. We cancel a booking in Square when it is cancelled in BotDesk. Square’s tokens are stored encrypted, and we revoke them when the business disconnects.
- Jobber (one-click connection): when a business connects Jobber, each new booking or booking request is sent to that Jobber account: we look up the client by email or phone, add the client if there is none (name, email and phone number), and add a request with a note holding the time, the service and the visitor’s answers. We read only the account name and those client matches. Jobber’s tokens are stored encrypted, and we remove our access when the business disconnects.
- Calendar options today: the BotDesk built-in calendar, calendar links (iCal / ICS), Cal.com and Calendly, and the one-click connections above as each one is switched on.
Chats with the assistant on botdesk.studio
When you chat with our own assistant on botdesk.studio, or try the sample chat on our homepage, we keep that conversation, with the same technical and location data listed above, so our team can read it and follow up. These chats are emailed to us when they finish. Demos you build of your own website are not kept as chats with us.
Service providers we rely on
| Provider | What it does or receives |
|---|---|
| Cloudflare | Hosting, storage, and content delivery |
| Stripe | Payment processing |
| OpenAI | Generating chatbot responses |
| Google Firebase | Authentication |
| Google Analytics | Website usage statistics on botdesk.studio (loaded only after cookie consent) |
| Resend | Transactional and notification email |
| GoHighLevel | Sends a business’s chat leads to its own GoHighLevel account, only when the business connects one |
| A business’s own webhook or API connections | When a business adds a webhook address (for example Zapier, Make, Slack or Discord) or uses its BotDesk API key, the leads its chatbot collects are sent to the services that business chose. Those services are the business’s choice, not ours. |
| YouTube (install guides only) | Some install guides show a how-to video. The preview picture is loaded from YouTube’s image server (i.ytimg.com) as you scroll to it, so YouTube can see your IP address and browser details at that point. The video player itself loads only after you press play, and then comes from youtube-nocookie.com, YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode. The short BotDesk install video at the top of the install guides page is different: it is served from botdesk.studio itself, so playing it involves no third party. |
| Cal.com and Calendly | Receive a booking’s visitor name, email and phone number, only when a business connects that service |
| Google Calendar, Square and Jobber | Receive a booking’s visitor name, email and phone number (and the visitor’s note and answers), only when a business connects that service, as described under Calendars and bookings |
| PromoteKit | Affiliate referral tracking: records which partner link, if any, referred a signup, so the partner can be credited |
| Referral code (first-party) | If you arrive through a partner's link, we store that link's code and the time you clicked it in a cookie and your browser's local storage for 60 days, so the partner is credited if you sign up later. Nothing else is stored with it. If you create an account or subscribe, the code is saved with your account so the partner keeps getting credit. |
Retention & deletion
Account and bot data is kept while your subscription is active. Beyond that we apply specific limits rather than keeping things indefinitely:
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Conversations | The most recent 100 per chatbot, up to 120 messages each, and in any case no longer than 12 months after the last message. Older conversations are removed automatically. |
| Leads | The most recent 500 per chatbot. A note or status a business adds to a lead is kept for up to 400 days after it was last changed. |
| After you cancel | Conversations and leads are deleted 90 days later. |
| Backups | A nightly encrypted backup is kept for 30 days on a rolling basis. |
| Connected store data | Never stored at all, as described above. If a business uninstalls our Shopify app, the stored access token and cached product catalogue are deleted. |
To delete your account and its data, email hello@botdesk.studio and we'll complete the deletion within 30 days.
Email preferences
Marketing emails include an unsubscribe link and stop immediately when used. Operational email (receipts, alerts you configured, security notices) is sent as part of the service.
Your rights
You can request a copy, correction, or deletion of your personal data at any time by emailing hello@botdesk.studio. If you chatted with a business's widget, direct requests to that business, and we'll assist them in fulfilling it.
Changes
We'll update this page when our practices change and revise the date above. Material changes are announced to account holders by email.