Last updated: 7 August 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how BluePin Inc ("BluePin", "we", "us", "our"), the company responsible for Dot.Doc, collects, uses, stores, and shares personal information when you use Dot.Doc and the wider Dot Ecosystem it connects to. It is written to align with South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 ("POPIA").
1. Who we are
BluePin Inc is the responsible party for the personal information Dot.Doc processes. Our Information Officer can be reached at privacy@infodot.co.za for any question, request, or concern about your personal information.
2. What we collect
Account information — your name, email address, and password (stored as a salted hash, never in plain text), via your Dot Ecosystem account.
Documents you create or are given access to — rich-text document content, version history, and any file you import or export.
Collaboration data — comments, threaded replies, @mentions, and live presence information (who's viewing or editing a document right now) on documents you have access to.
Sharing settings — whether a document is personal, team-attached, shared with named collaborators, or shared publicly via a password- and expiry-protected link, and who it's been shared with.
AI writing-assistant activity — if you use a feature like grammar check, summarise, continue writing, tone rewrite, translate, or outline, the relevant document text is sent to our AI provider (OpenAI) to generate a suggestion, which you can accept or reject before it changes your document. This is rate-limited and only runs when you actively use the assistant.
Technical information — IP address, browser and device information, and session activity, collected automatically for security and to keep you signed in.
3. Why we process your information
We process personal information to:
- create and maintain your account, and authenticate you when you sign in;
- let you sign in once and move between connected Dot Ecosystem platforms without re-entering your credentials;
- store, edit, and let you collaborate on documents in real time;
- generate AI-assisted writing suggestions when you request them; and
- keep Dot.Doc secure and prevent abuse.
4. Ecosystem single sign-on
When you use another Dot Ecosystem platform to sign in to Dot.Doc (or vice versa), a short-lived, single-use authentication token confirms who you are without exposing your password to the connected platform.
5. Who can see your documents
A personal document is visible only to you. A team-attached document is visible to your team. A document you've shared with named collaborators is visible to exactly those people, at the permission level you've given them. A document you've made public via a share link is visible to anyone with that link — and, if you've set a password, only to people who also have the password. Comments and version history follow the same access as the document they're attached to.
6. How long we keep your information
We keep your account and document data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account or a document, the associated data is removed, except where we're required by law to retain certain records for longer.
7. Security
We apply reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information, including encrypted password storage, permission-based access control on every document, password protection and expiry for public share links, and single-use SSO tokens for ecosystem sign-in. No system is perfectly secure, and we can't guarantee absolute security.
8. Your rights under POPIA
Subject to applicable law, you have the right to:
- request access to the personal information we hold about you;
- request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information;
- request deletion of your personal information;
- object to our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances; and
- lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa.
To exercise any of these rights, contact privacy@infodot.co.za.
9. Cookies
Dot.Doc uses a session cookie to keep you signed in. See our Cookie Policy for details.
10. Changes to this Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we'll update the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, notify you directly.
11. Contact us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal information, contact us at privacy@infodot.co.za.