Privacy policy
This policy explains what information Alpaca collects, why, and the choices you have. "Alpaca," "we" and "us" mean Ben Longrie, doing business as Alpaca Agent, in Colorado. You can reach us at benjaminlongrie@gmail.com.
Who this covers
Alpaca is a service for businesses. It has two kinds of people in it: business owners who sign up (you), and your customers, who text your business number. For your customers' information, you decide why Alpaca is used and we handle it on your behalf to provide the service.
What we collect
- Your account: your email address and a password (stored only as a one-way scrambled hash, never in plain text).
- Your business information: the business name, services, prices, hours, service area, tone instructions, the calendar you connect, the phone numbers and email addresses where we send you alerts, and your business address and legal details used to register your texting number.
- Your customers' information: phone numbers or email addresses, names, service addresses, the content of messages sent to and from Alpaca, and the bookings made.
- Calendar information: events on the calendar you share with Alpaca, so it can see open times and add bookings.
- Technical information: basic server logs, IP addresses (used for security and to limit repeated sign-in attempts), and how much AI processing each message uses.
- Cookies: one cookie that keeps you signed in and one short-lived cookie that protects the sign-up and sign-in forms. The website chat stores a random visitor number in the visitor's browser so their chat continues. We don't use advertising, analytics or tracking cookies. See the cookie policy.
How we use it
- To run Alpaca: answer your customers, book jobs, and alert you when you're needed.
- To keep the service secure, prevent abuse, fix problems, and give you support.
- To bill you, once billing is turned on.
- To understand costs and reliability, using counts and totals rather than reading your customers' messages.
We do not sell personal information, and we do not use it for advertising.
Who we share it with
We use other companies to provide parts of the service. They receive only what they need to do their job:
- Anthropic processes messages to write Alpaca's replies. Under its commercial API terms in effect on the date above, it does not use this content to train its models by default.
- Twilio sends and receives text messages and registers your business number with phone carriers.
- Google provides Google Calendar, which Alpaca reads and writes at your request, and Gmail, if you connect a business inbox for email replies.
- Render hosts the website and stores its data.
- Stripe will process payments once billing is turned on. We will never see your full card number.
Our web pages load no outside scripts, fonts, analytics or advertising code. Everything on alpacareply.com is served by Alpaca itself.
We may also share information if the law requires it, to protect people's safety, or if the business is sold or transferred (we would tell you first).
Texting and your customers
Alpaca only replies to messages customers send to your business number. If a customer replies STOP, Alpaca records that and stops texting them. You are responsible for making sure you have the right to contact your customers and for what your instructions to Alpaca say.
Emails and texts we send you
We send you account notices and the alerts you set up (for example, when Alpaca books a job or needs you). We don't send you marketing. To stop alerts, pause Alpaca on your dashboard, change the alert contacts in your setup, or delete your account.
How long we keep it
We keep your information while your account is open so you can review your conversations and bookings. Records of how much AI processing each business used are kept for billing and contain no message text.
Deleting your data
- Yourself, right away: sign in and choose Delete my account (also at the bottom of every signed-in page). It asks for your password, then erases your account, your setup, your business details and every conversation, including your customers' STOP list.
- By email: write to benjaminlongrie@gmail.com from your account email. We will delete it within 30 days, or send you a copy first if you ask.
- Customers of a business: ask that business, or email us and we will help route your request.
Copies in server backups clear on their own within 30 days. We keep something longer only where the law requires it.
If you cancel
- Your calendar: Appointments Alpaca already booked stay on your Google Calendar. They belong to you, and they are real appointments you still need to keep. After you cancel, Alpaca adds no new ones. You can end Alpaca's access at any time by removing the Alpaca address from your calendar's sharing settings in Google Calendar.
- Your access: You keep access until the end of the month you've already paid for. After that, Alpaca stops answering your customers. A customer who is partway through a conversation will not get a reply, so let your customers know or take over before then.
- Your phone number: The number Alpaca uses for your business is registered in Alpaca's texting account, not in your own. If you cancel, tell us what you want done with it. We will work with you to move it to your own account where the phone carriers allow it, and we will not release it without telling you first.
- Your information: We keep your account information and your customers' conversations until you delete them or ask us to. You can delete them yourself any time with Delete my account, or email us for a copy or a deletion and we will do either within 30 days.
Security
The site uses encrypted connections (HTTPS), passwords are hashed, each business can only see its own conversations, and access to the systems that hold data is limited to the people who run Alpaca. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a strong password and tell us right away if you think your account was accessed by someone else.
Your choices
You can ask us to show you the information we hold, correct it, export it, or delete it. If you are a customer of a business that uses Alpaca, please contact that business first; you can also email us and we'll help route your request. Where privacy laws such as the Colorado Privacy Act apply to you, we will honor your rights under them and respond within the time the law allows.
Children
Alpaca is for business owners aged 18 or older and is not directed at children. If you believe a child has given us personal information, email us and we will delete it.
Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will update the date above and tell account holders by email or on the site.