Privacy notice

Last updated: 14 October 2026

1. Who we are

The Chat Operator is a product of Crocadilo, a brand of CVC International Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company no. 12172111). Our registered office is 128 City Road, London EC1V 2NX. We decide how your details are used, which makes us the "controller".

Contact us about privacy at privacy@cvcinternational.com or by post to the address above.

2. What we collect and why

If you fill in one of our forms on Facebook or Instagram

We collect your name, business name, phone number, email address, website, the best time to call, your answer to our question about how many enquiries you get, and which of our ads you came from.

We use them to call or message you back as you asked, to arrange a demo, to tell you about our service, and to see which ads work. We don't buy lists, and we don't add you to a mailing list unless you ask.

Lawful basis: taking steps you ask for before a contract, and our legitimate interest in replying to people who ask about our service and in measuring our advertising.

If you message us or comment on our Facebook or Instagram pages

We collect your messages or comment, your public name and profile on that platform, and anything you choose to tell us. A member of our team reads them and replies. Replies to comments are public, like any comment on the page, so if your question needs personal details we'll ask you to message us instead.

Lawful basis: our legitimate interest in answering people who contact us, and steps you ask for before a contract.

If you use the chat on our website

• What you tell us: your messages, any name, email, phone number or business details you give us, and any files you upload.
• Who answers: our AI assistant answers first and says it's an AI. A member of our team can read the conversation and take over, and you can ask for a person at any time.
• What we hide: in messages you type into the chat, card numbers and card security codes, bank details given as a sort code and account number or an IBAN, and National Insurance numbers are hidden automatically before they're stored. Email addresses and phone numbers aren't hidden, because we need them to reply. We also try to hide health and other sensitive details (for example religion, ethnicity or sexuality) from what we store and what our team sees. This is done by an AI check, so it is best effort, and the AI doing the check has to read the message. Files and images you upload aren't checked, and they reach our AI providers as they are. Please don't send any of these in the chat.
• Technical details: to make the chat work and to see how people find us, the chat also records your approximate country (worked out from your IP address, which we then discard), your browser, operating system and device type, your language, time zone and screen size, and, with your first chat message, the name of the website that sent you, the page you started on, and any campaign tags in the link you followed.

Lawful basis: our legitimate interest in answering people who contact us and running a working, secure service, and steps you ask for before a contract.

If you use a form on our website (contact, demo or partner)

Your name, email, phone number, business name, website and message, plus anything else you choose to tell us, such as what customers ask you most, which add-ons interest you or, if you'd like to become a partner, what kinds of businesses you work with. We use it to reply, to prepare your demo or quote, and to consider partner applications. Forms don't hide anything automatically, so please don't put card, bank or ID details in a form.

Lawful basis: as above.

Analytics (only if you agree)

Google Analytics tells us how people find and use our website, such as which pages they visit and which ad they came from. It runs only after you click "Accept analytics". You can change your mind at any time with the Cookie settings link at the bottom of every page.

Lawful basis: your consent.

If you become a client

We keep the details needed to run your account, bill you and meet our tax duties. Your contract and our Client Terms explain this.

3. Our AI assistant

The chat on our website is an AI. It answers from information we have given it about our service and prices. It doesn't make decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects, and a person can take over at any time. We check how well it answers, including by testing different AI models, so we can keep improving it.

4. Who we share your details with

We never sell your details. We share them only with providers who help us run our business, and only as much as each one needs:

• Google Cloud: our servers, in London, UK, which run our website and chat.
• Google Drive: stores our backups.
• AI providers that write the chat's replies:
  • OpenAI (USA), our main AI provider, which handles most of the AI work. It doesn't use your messages to train its models, and it may keep them for up to 30 days to check for misuse.
  • Other AI providers in the USA, reached through OpenRouter, for some tasks, tests and background checks, including a DeepSeek model run by a US host. For these calls only, we send messages only to providers that OpenRouter lists as keeping no copy of them and not using them to train models.
• Meta Platforms (Ireland and USA): runs Facebook and Instagram, our forms there, and our ads. Meta also uses information under its own privacy policy, which you agreed to when you joined Meta.
• ClickUp (USA): the task system our team uses to follow up enquiries and review how the chat is doing. It can hold your contact details, summaries of your enquiry, some or all of your chat conversation (for example when you make a complaint, or when we review a conversation), any files you upload, and any comment you leave when you rate the chat. Card numbers, and bank details given as a sort code and account number or an IBAN, are hidden before anything is saved.
• Amazon Web Services (London region): sends our system emails.
• Microsoft (Outlook / Microsoft 365): our own email.
• Google (Gmail): receives our system's error alerts, which can sometimes include part of a message.
• Google (Ireland and USA):
  • Google Analytics, only if you agree;
  • Google Tag Manager, which loads our chat;
  • the fonts our chat uses.

  Because Google delivers these when a page loads, your browser's IP address reaches Google.

We may also share details with professional advisers, or with authorities where the law requires it.

5. Advertising on Facebook and Instagram

We use Meta's ad tools to show our ads to business owners. We may show further ads to people who watched our videos or opened our forms on Facebook or Instagram. Meta decides who those people are; we don't get a list of them. You can control the ads you see in your Facebook and Instagram ad settings.

6. Transfers outside the UK

Some providers, including OpenAI, the providers we reach through OpenRouter, ClickUp, Meta and Google, are in the USA or send data there. When your details go there, they're protected by the UK–US data bridge or by the UK's approved contract terms (the IDTA, or the UK Addendum to the EU clauses).

7. How long we keep your details

We are setting up automatic deletion at the end of these periods. Until it is running, we delete records by hand: when you ask us to, and when we review them and no longer need them.

8. Your rights

You can ask us for a copy of your details, or ask us to correct them, delete them, limit how we use them, or send them to you in a portable form. You can object to how we use them at any time. If you object to marketing, we'll stop. Email privacy@cvcinternational.com and we'll reply within one month. If you want comments you left on our Facebook or Instagram pages deleted too, tell us the name you use there, because we can't always link them to you otherwise.

If you're unhappy, please tell us first. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, or call 0303 123 1113.

9. Children

Our service is for businesses. It isn't meant for anyone under 18, and we don't knowingly collect their details.

10. How to delete your data (Facebook and Instagram)

This section is also published on its own at thechatoperator.com/data-deletion.

To have us delete what we hold about you from Facebook or Instagram, such as a lead form you filled in, or messages or comments you sent us:

1. Email privacy@cvcinternational.com with the subject "Delete my data", or send our Facebook or Instagram page the message "delete my data".
2. Tell us the name you use on that platform, and roughly when you contacted us, so we can find you.
3. We'll delete your details from our systems, including our team's task list. Some records, such as technical logs, are deleted by hand. We'll confirm by email or message once everything is done, within one month at most.

If you ask Meta to delete your data, or you disconnect our app, we delete what we received through Facebook or Instagram within 90 days. Usually it's within a day.

Backup copies are deleted within about two months. Messages also stay in your own Facebook or Instagram account, and Meta keeps what it holds under its own policy. If you connected an app of ours, you can remove its access in your Facebook settings under Apps and websites.

We may keep a short note that you asked, so we don't contact you again. We may also keep anything the law requires, such as invoices for clients.

11. Cookies and browser storage on our website

All of these are essential to how the site and chat work, except the Google Analytics cookies, which need your consent. You can change your choice at any time with Cookie settings at the bottom of every page, or on our cookies page.

© 2026 CVC International Ltd. The Chat Operator is a product of Crocadilo, a brand of CVC International Ltd. CVC International Ltd is registered in England and Wales, company no. 12172111. Registered office: 128 City Road, London EC1V 2NX. Email hello@cvcinternational.com.