Terms of service and operator agreement

Version 2026-10-03 · Effective 3 October 2026

These terms apply between MJ Tech Solutions ("we") and the company that uses PatrolBot ("the customer"). A person accepts them for the customer in the PatrolBot console before first use, and again when they change. That acceptance is an electronic agreement under the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002, and binds the customer. A signed proposal or order may add pricing and service details; if it conflicts with these terms, the signed document wins.

Important: PatrolBot is not an emergency service. SOS messages, alerts and reminders travel over WhatsApp, mobile networks, phones and the internet, which can be slow, fail or be unavailable. PatrolBot can't guarantee that any message is delivered, read or acted on. The customer must keep its own emergency procedures (for example radios, panic buttons, a control room, armed response and calling 112 or 10111) and must not rely on PatrolBot alone to keep people safe.

Part A: Terms of service

1. The service

PatrolBot is a software tool that helps the customer record, check and report guard patrols over WhatsApp: checkpoint tags, shift and check-in records, evidence checks, alerts, escalation, reports and a web console. We may improve the service over time and won't remove a core feature during a paid term without notice.

PatrolBot does not provide security services, guarding, armed response, monitoring by people, or emergency response. Patrol checks, pattern analysis and "verified/flagged" results are aids for the customer's own judgement, not findings of fact about any person.

2. Not an emergency service; no guarantee of delivery

Alerts, SOS messages, reminders and safety checks depend on things outside our control: Meta's WhatsApp service, mobile networks, signal, electricity, phones, their settings and batteries, and the internet. Messages can be delayed, arrive out of order, or not arrive at all.
PatrolBot tells a guard how many people its SOS reached, gives them numbers to phone, and re-sends an SOS nobody acknowledges. These safeguards reduce risk; they do not remove it.
The customer is responsible for having people available and on duty to receive and act on alerts, keeping their numbers up to date, and responding to emergencies.

3. The customer's responsibilities

Keep its own emergency and incident procedures, and train its guards to use them, including phoning for help when in danger.
Keep logins, PINs and links confidential; give console access only to people who need it, and remove it when they leave.
Add only people it may lawfully add, and tell staff and clients how PatrolBot is used (see the privacy policy).
Check the information in PatrolBot before acting on it, especially before any disciplinary step against a guard.
Use PatrolBot lawfully, and not to track people outside their work.
Tell us promptly about any fault it notices, especially with alerts.

4. Acceptable use

No attempts to break, overload or reverse engineer the service, to access other companies' data, or to send spam through PatrolBot.

5. Fees

Fees are set out in the customer's proposal or order. Unless agreed otherwise, they are billed monthly in advance per active site.

6. Availability and support

We aim for high availability and tell customers about planned maintenance in advance, but we don't promise that the service will be uninterrupted or error-free. Support is available by WhatsApp and email during business hours.

7. The customer's data and our records

The customer owns its data and can export reports at any time. PatrolBot keeps a record of each alert and each delivery attempt (sent, failed, acknowledged and by whom). Both parties agree that these records are acceptable evidence of what PatrolBot did, unless shown to be wrong.

8. No warranties

To the extent the law allows, PatrolBot is provided "as is" and "as available". We give no warranty that it will prevent any incident, loss, injury or crime, detect every false or missed patrol, or be fit for any purpose beyond what these terms describe.

9. Limits on our liability

We are not liable for any loss, damage, injury or death arising from: a message, alert or SOS that was delayed, not delivered, not read or not acted on; the failure of WhatsApp, Meta, networks, phones, power or the internet; the acts or omissions of guards, supervisors, response teams, clients or other third parties; crime, or any security incident at a site; or decisions the customer makes using PatrolBot's information.
We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, including loss of profit, contracts, clients or reputation.
Our total liability for all claims in connection with PatrolBot is limited to the fees the customer paid us in the three months before the event that caused the claim.
The customer must tell us in writing about a claim within 30 days of becoming aware of it.
Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, such as for our gross negligence or wilful misconduct, or rights under the Consumer Protection Act that cannot be waived.

10. Indemnity

The customer indemnifies MJ Tech Solutions, its owners and staff against claims by the customer's guards, staff, clients, site owners and other third parties arising from the customer's security services, its use of PatrolBot, or a breach of these terms, except to the extent the claim is caused by our gross negligence or wilful misconduct.

11. Events outside our control

We are not responsible for failures caused by events outside our reasonable control, including load-shedding, network or platform outages, natural disasters, unrest, strikes, or changes by Meta to WhatsApp.

12. Ending the agreement

Either party may end the agreement with 30 days' written notice, or immediately if the other party materially breaches it and doesn't fix the breach within 14 days of being asked. Sections 2, 7 to 11 and Part B survive the end of the agreement.

13. General

South African law applies, and the courts of South Africa have jurisdiction. These terms (with any signed proposal or order) are the whole agreement. If a clause is found unenforceable, the rest still applies, and that clause applies as far as the law allows. We may update these terms; material changes are shown in the console and must be accepted to keep using the service.

Part B: Operator agreement (POPIA sections 20 and 21)

For personal information the customer puts into PatrolBot, the customer is the responsible party and we are its operator.

Instructions. We process personal information only to provide PatrolBot as the customer configures it, or as the law requires.
Confidentiality. Everyone at MJ Tech Solutions with access is bound to keep it confidential.
Security. We maintain appropriate technical and organisational measures (section 19), including encryption in transit, access control per company and per person, hashing of PINs, rate limits, audit trails and regular review.
Breaches. We tell the customer without undue delay if we have reasonable grounds to believe its personal information was accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person (section 21(2)), and help it notify the Information Regulator and data subjects (section 22).
Sub-operators. We use Meta (WhatsApp Business Platform) and Cloudflare (hosting and storage). We tell the customer before adding or replacing a sub-operator that processes its personal information, and bind them to equivalent protection.
Cross-border transfers. Data may be processed outside South Africa only under the protections of section 72.
Data subject requests. We help the customer respond to requests to access, correct or delete information.
Retention. We keep patrol records for about 12 months and incidents for 24 months, unless the customer instructs otherwise or the law requires longer.
End of agreement. Within 30 days of the end, we return the customer's data in a common format on request and then delete it, except where the law requires us to keep it.
Audit. On reasonable notice, we give the customer the information it needs to show that these obligations are met.

Questions: privacy@patrolbot.co.za