Terms of Use & Privacy Policy

Last updated: 20 August 2026 · Applies to the Tjop Tjop web app at tjoptjopapp.co.za

01Who we are

Tjop Tjop is operated by Vaughn Kent-Brown ("we", "us", "Tjop Tjop"), currently operating in an individual capacity, based at Bloemhof, Bellville, Western Cape, South Africa. Under POPIA, we are the Responsible Party for the personal information described in this policy.

Contact for anything privacy-related: Vaughn@tjoptjopapp.co.za.

02What we collect

What we deliberately don't keep: the photo of your receipt. It is sent once to an AI provider to read the text off it (see §6), and the image is discarded immediately after — we never write it to our database. We only keep the resulting text: restaurant name, items, prices.

What we never collect: your card number, bank details, ID number, or any other financial credential. Card details go straight to Paystack and are never seen or stored by us (see §15a).

03Your location

The Find feature suggests places to eat near you. To do that it needs to know roughly where "near you" is. This is entirely your choice, and it works like this:

• Your browser asks your permission before sharing any location. If you decline, Find still works — you just type in an area instead.
• If you allow it, your GPS coordinates are sent to our servers so we can (a) turn them into a suburb name, and (b) find restaurants near that point and work out how far each one is from you.
• Your coordinates are stored on your own device only (in your browser's local storage), so the app doesn't have to ask again every time. They are not saved to our database.
• The resulting area name — e.g. "Sea Point, Cape Town" — is saved to your account, so we can use it for your daily pick if you've turned notifications on.
• We do not track your movements, keep a location history, or use your location for anything other than answering the search in front of you.

Your coordinates are shared with the providers in §6 that make Find work — Google (restaurant search) and BigDataCloud or OpenStreetMap (turning coordinates into a suburb name). You can revoke location access at any time in your browser or device settings.

04Why we collect it

• To create and secure your account, and remember you're signed in.
• To read your bill photo and turn it into line items you and your table can split.
• To build your personal dining journal and track spend against your budget.
• To find and rank restaurants near you, and show you how far away they are.
• To enforce the free-tier scan limit, and to run your Tjop Tjop+ subscription if you have one.
• To send you notifications — only ones you've explicitly opted into (see §11).
• To let you send your own share of a bill to a person you've deliberately linked as a squad member (see §7), so it can appear in their journal.
• To find out when the app breaks, so we can fix it.

What we do not currently do: sell your information, share it with restaurants or advertisers, or use it to target you with offers. If we ever build features like personalised merchant offers, they will be opt-in and this policy will be updated before that happens — not after.

05Our legal basis

Under POPIA, we process your information because: (a) it's necessary to provide you the service you signed up for — splitting bills, tracking spend, finding places to eat; (b) where it isn't strictly necessary — push notifications, location, Squad Share, venue sharing — we ask for your explicit consent first, which you can withdraw at any time; and (c) for keeping the service secure and working, we rely on our legitimate interest in running it properly.

06Who we share it with

We use a small number of infrastructure providers to run Tjop Tjop. They process data on our behalf under their own security and privacy commitments — we don't sell or rent your information to anyone.

The AI providers above receive the bill image to read it, and Find sends them restaurant names and descriptions — not your account details, journal, or budget. Google Places receives an area name or coordinates, not your identity.

07Squad Share & venue sharing

Both are opt-in. Nothing is shared with another person unless you choose to.

Linking with someone

• You link with another Tjop Tjop user by scanning their QR code, or by sending and accepting a squad request — a deliberate action by both of you. Linking makes each of you a "squad member" of the other.
• You can remove a squad member at any time, which stops any future sharing between you.

What other users can see

• Any signed-in Tjop Tjop user can read your display name (first name) and your device's notification token. This small public profile is what makes delivering a share possible at all. It contains nothing else — no email, no cell number, no journal, no budget, no bills. If you have never turned notifications on, there is no token to read.
• Only people you have linked with can send you a bill share, or be sent one by you. There is no way to push data to a stranger.

Sending a bill share

• When you send someone their share of a bill, we place in their inbox only their portion — the restaurant name, their items, their amount, and your first name. We never send them the rest of the table's shares.

Venue sharing (off by default)

• There is a separate venue sharing setting, off unless you switch it on. With it on, your linked squad members can see which venues you've been to, what you spent there, and when — so Find can tell you "3 of your squad have been here". Turning it off stops this.
• This applies only to people you have deliberately linked with. It is never public.

08Sending data outside South Africa

All of the providers in §6 are based outside South Africa and process or store information on servers outside South Africa — principally in the United States, and in Moonshot AI's case in China. POPIA requires us to tell you this, and to make sure your information stays protected when it crosses a border. Each provider is bound by its own data-processing and security terms. By creating an account, you consent to this transfer — if you're not comfortable with that, please don't create an account.

09How long we keep it

• Your account and journal: for as long as your account is active.
• Receipt photos: not kept at all — discarded the moment the text is read.
• Error reports: kept while we investigate, and cleared out periodically.
• Deletion: if you ask us to delete your account (see §17), we'll delete your personal information within 30 days, except where we're required to keep something for legal reasons — for example, payment records we must retain for tax and financial record-keeping.

10Your rights

Under POPIA, you have the right to:

• Know what information we hold about you and why.
• Access a copy of it.
• Correct it if it's wrong or out of date.
• Ask us to delete it, subject to any legal reason we may need to keep it.
• Object to how we're processing it.
• Withdraw consent at any time — turn off notifications, revoke location access, switch off venue sharing, remove a squad member — without affecting anything that happened before you withdrew it.
• Complain to the Information Regulator if you think we've gotten this wrong (details in §17).

To use any of these rights, just email us — see §17. We'll respond within a reasonable time and at no charge.

11Notifications & marketing

POPIA treats direct marketing by electronic means as something you must actively opt into. That's exactly how we've built it: notifications are off by default, and only turn on when you tap "Turn on notifications" yourself.

If you do turn them on, we may send you: a daily restaurant suggestion based on the area saved to your account, an alert when you're close to your monthly budget, and a notification when a squad member sends you a bill share. You can turn them off again at any time in the same place, or by changing your browser/device notification permissions.

12Keeping it safe

• All traffic between your device and Tjop Tjop is encrypted (HTTPS).
• Passwords are handled entirely by Google Firebase Authentication — we never see or store your actual password, only a securely hashed version Firebase manages.
• Database rules enforce that you can only read or write your own data. Your journal, budget, bills, and account details are yours alone. The deliberate exceptions are the three described in §7: your public profile (display name + notification token, readable by any signed-in user), bill shares between linked squad members, and venue sharing when you switch it on.
• No system is perfectly secure. If a breach ever affects your personal information, POPIA requires us to notify you and the Information Regulator — and we will.

13Children

Tjop Tjop isn't intended for anyone under 18. We don't knowingly collect information from children. If you believe a child has created an account, please contact us and we'll remove it.

14Cookies & local storage

We use your browser's local storage for basic app function — keeping you signed in, remembering your chosen area and coordinates, and remembering which tips you've dismissed. We don't use third-party advertising or tracking cookies. Clearing your browser storage signs you out and clears these preferences.

15Terms of use

• Tjop Tjop is provided as-is. Bill totals are read by AI and may occasionally be wrong — always double-check the total against your printed bill before paying.
• Restaurant information in Find — opening hours, ratings, prices — comes from third parties and may be out of date or incorrect. Check with the venue before relying on it.
• Tjop Tjop never processes or touches the money you owe your table. You settle up with each other, or pay the merchant, the same way you always would (card machine, cash, EFT). We are not a payment service and never ask for your card details for a bill. The one payment we do take is your own Tjop Tjop+ subscription, handled by Paystack (§15a).
• The free plan includes 3 bill scans. Continued scanning beyond that requires upgrading to Tjop Tjop+.
• A bill-share sent to a squad member is informational only — a record of what someone worked out at the table. It is not an invoice, a debt, or a demand for payment, and Tjop Tjop plays no part in whether or how anyone actually pays.
• Only link with, and share bills with, people you know and trust. Don't use Squad Share to send unwanted or repeated messages to anyone.
• Don't use Tjop Tjop for anything unlawful, or try to abuse, reverse-engineer, or overload the service.
• We may suspend or close accounts that abuse the free tier, the service, or other users.
• These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa.

15aTjop Tjop+ billing, cancellation & refunds

• Billing. Tjop Tjop+ is R59/month, billed automatically to your card every month via Paystack until you cancel. We never see or store your card details — Paystack handles that.
• How to cancel. Cancel any time, in-app, under Settings → Manage membership. No email, call, or form required.
• What happens when you cancel. Cancelling stops future billing straight away and starts a one-week wind-down: you keep full Tjop Tjop+ access — unlimited scans, Find, Track and Journal — for seven days from the moment you cancel. This is a flat week from cancellation, not from your renewal date, so it applies the same way whether you cancel the day after being billed or the day before your next charge would have landed.
• After that week. Your account reverts automatically to the Free plan. No action needed, and no further charge is made.
• Refunds. We don't offer refunds — for a renewal charge already made, or for any part of a paid period beyond the one-week wind-down above.
• Changed your mind? You can undo a cancellation any time within that week — tap Resume membership in the same place you cancelled. Billing continues normally with no gap in access.
• Failed payments. If a renewal charge fails (e.g. an expired or declined card), Tjop Tjop+ access is suspended until it's resolved. Update your card with Paystack and resubscribe to restore it.

16Changes to this policy

If we materially change how we handle your information (for example, before introducing merchant offers), we'll update this page and let existing account holders know before the change takes effect. The "last updated" date at the top always reflects the current version.

17Contact & complaints