Privacy Policy

BTR Consult LLC Last updated: 14 October 2026.

1. Summary

• We collect business details to run the Signal Score, answer enquiries and deliver our services.
• The Signal Score sends your business name, website and location to search, maps and AI services to see how your business shows up. We do not send your own name, email address or phone number as part of the scan.
• We use analytics cookies only if you accept them in the cookie banner. We do not use advertising cookies.
• If you connect your Google accounts to our client portal, we use that data only to provide the service and your reports. We never sell it, use it for advertising or use it to train general AI models.
• We do not sell personal information.
• We only send marketing emails if you agree, and every email has an unsubscribe link.
• You can ask to see, correct or delete your information. Email hello@btrconsult.net.

2. Who we are and how to contact us

BTR Consult LLC is a Wyoming limited liability company. In this policy, “BTR”, “we”, “us” and “our” mean BTR Consult LLC.

• Registered address (registered agent): 30 N Gould St Ste N, Sheridan, WY 82801, United States
• Operated from: Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa (no walk-in office)
• Email: hello@btrconsult.net
• Website: https://btrconsult.net

BTR is run by its founder, Will Barnardt, who is based in Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa.

For your information, we are the “responsible party” under South Africa’s POPIA and the “controller” under the UAE PDPL and the EU and UK GDPR. There are two exceptions, set out in section 7.

Information Officer

Our Information Officer is Will Barnardt. You can contact him at hello@btrconsult.net about anything in this policy.

The Growth Engine

The Growth Engine is BTR Consult LLC’s own platform. Our WhatsApp assistant, review management and client reporting run on it. It is not a separate company, so using it does not mean your information goes to another business.

3. Who this policy covers

This policy applies to you if you:

• visit btrconsult.net, including the international (main), South African (/za/) and UAE (/ae/) versions
• run a free Signal Score or buy a full Signal Score report
• join our email list
• send us a message through the contact form, by email or on WhatsApp
• ask for a territory check
• buy IGNITE, or become an INBOUND or INBOUND+ client
• are a customer of one of our clients and contact that client through a channel we manage (see section 7)

Business information can be personal information

Most of what we collect is about businesses. Some of it is still personal information. A business name can include a person’s name, for example a sole trader. South Africa’s POPIA also protects information about identifiable companies and other juristic persons. We treat business information with the same care as information about people.

4. What we collect and why

4.1 Signal Score free scan

You do not need an account. We ask for your email address so we can send you a private link to your report.

What we collect:

• the business you pick from Google’s results. Its name, address or service area and category are shown to you live from Google and are not stored.
• your business website and phone number. We fill them in from your business’s own public search result, and you confirm, change or remove them. If your business is not on Google, you give us your website address instead.
• the areas you serve, which we suggest and you confirm or add
• how you serve your customers (at your premises, at theirs, or online), and the area you serve if you tell us
• the search phrases you choose
• how your customers usually contact you
• your email address
• whether you agree to follow-up emails, with the date, the time and the wording you saw

Business search: as you type your business name, our servers send the text to the Google Places API to suggest matching businesses. Google receives it from our servers, not from your browser. Use of Google Maps data is subject to the Google Maps Additional Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy.

Where the scan’s information comes from:

• public Google search and maps results, collected through a search results data provider
• your business’s own website
• OpenStreetMap, for the names of the areas you serve (© OpenStreetMap contributors)
• Google PageSpeed Insights, for how your website works on a phone

What happens during the scan: we send your business name, website, areas and chosen search phrases to:

• Google PageSpeed Insights and the Google Places API
• a search results data provider
• AI and search providers based in the United States, which we ask questions a customer might ask and which help write the report. You can ask us for their names (see section 8).

The scan also checks the contact details your business publishes on its own website, such as a phone number or a WhatsApp link. We do not send your email address as part of the scan.

We also collect public information about other businesses in your area, so we can compare how you show up. See section 4.9.

Why: to produce your free report and email you the private link to it.

Improving the method: we may use anonymised, aggregated scan results to improve how the Signal Score works and to build benchmarks. Anonymised results cannot be linked back to your business.

Tip: if your business name is your own name, that name will be sent to the services above. If you would prefer it was not, contact us before you run a scan.

Removing your information or objecting: to ask us to remove your business’s information, or to object to us processing it, email hello@btrconsult.net. We act on it as POPIA section 11(3) requires.

4.2 Paid Signal Score report

The full scan also sends your business name, website and location to AI answer engines that customers use, such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude. We ask them questions a customer might ask, such as “Who is the best [service] in [location]?”. An AI model provider helps us write the report.

What we collect: everything in section 4.1, plus:

• payment details from Stripe (see section 4.6)

Why: to perform our contract with you. That means running the full scan, writing the report and delivering it on screen and by email.

4.3 Email updates

On the Signal Score you can tick a box to let us email you about your score and how to improve it. The box is not ticked for you, and you get your report either way. If the Signal Score is paused, you can also ask us to email you when it is back.

What we collect: your email address, whether you agreed, the date and time, and the wording you agreed to.

Why: to send you what you asked for and, if you agreed, occasional emails about the Signal Score and our services. Every email has an unsubscribe link. See section 13.

4.4 Contact form

What we collect: your name, email address and message. Your company name and WhatsApp number are optional.

Why: to reply to you and, if you ask, to prepare a quote.

4.5 Territory check

We offer one business per industry per area. The territory check lets you ask if your area is available.

What we collect: business name, industry, area, market and your name and email address. Your website and WhatsApp number are optional.

Why: to check availability, reply to you and follow up about your request.

4.6 Payments

Card payments for the Signal Score, the walkthrough call and IGNITE are processed by Stripe. You enter your card details with Stripe. BTR never sees or stores your full card number.

What we receive from Stripe: your name, email address, billing country, card type, the last four digits of your card and whether the payment succeeded.

Why: to confirm your order, keep financial records and meet tax law.

Stripe processes card payments under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Stripe also uses payment information to prevent fraud, under its own privacy policy.

4.7 WhatsApp

Once our WhatsApp assistant is live, you can message us on WhatsApp. We use the Meta WhatsApp Business Platform. Replies are AI-assisted and run on the Growth Engine.

What we collect: your WhatsApp number, your WhatsApp profile name, your messages and any files you send.

Why: to answer your questions, qualify your enquiry and book next steps.

We tell you at the start of a conversation that replies are AI-assisted. You can ask to speak to a person at any time. Meta also processes your messages under WhatsApp’s own terms and privacy policy.

4.8 IGNITE and managed services clients

What we collect: contact details of the people we work with, your business information, access to your Google, Meta, WhatsApp Business, website and review accounts, and the reports and content we produce for you.

Why: to perform our contract with you. We use account access only to do the work you have agreed to.

You own your accounts and your data. When our work ends, we hand everything over and remove our access. See section 10.

4.9 Information about other businesses

To compare how your business shows up, the Signal Score collects public information about other businesses in your area. This includes business names, websites, search listings, public reviews and how AI engines describe them.

We only collect information those businesses have made public, or that is publicly available in search results and directories. We use it to benchmark and compare. We do not use it to contact those businesses.

If your business appears in someone else’s Signal Score and you have questions, contact us. You have the same rights as anyone else under section 14.

4.10 Website technical information

When you visit our website, our website hosting and security provider processes technical information such as your IP address, browser type and the pages you request. This is needed to deliver the website, protect it from attacks and abuse, and check that form submissions come from people, not automated scripts.

4.11 Client portal and connected Google accounts

Clients use our client portal at portal.btrconsult.net. We run our work from an internal operations portal at admin.btrconsult.net.

What we collect: the details of the people who use the client portal, the reports we produce for you, files you upload, and the access you give us to your accounts.

Google user data: when you connect a Google account, our Google app, BTR Portal, accesses only:

• Search Console performance data and property settings
• Google Analytics property configuration and user access
• site verification
• Google Business Profile information, reviews and performance data

As part of the onboarding you agree to in your agreement, we add your website to Search Console and verify it. Where you have no Analytics property, we create and configure one and its website data stream, to set up your tracking. We also read the same data through a Google service account that your properties are shared with. When you sign in with Google, we store the access Google gives us in encrypted form.

We use this data only to provide the service and your reports. We do not sell it, we do not use it for advertising, and we do not use it to train general AI models. We keep it stored securely while you are a client, and we delete it within 30 days after you disconnect your Google account, or sooner if you ask. You can remove our access at any time at myaccount.google.com/permissions.

BTR Consult’s use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. In particular, we do not transfer this data to anyone else except where needed to provide the service to you or where the law requires it, and people at BTR see it only to do the work you asked for, to keep our systems secure, or where the law requires it.

Why: to perform our contract with you.

4.12 WhatsApp and Meta for our clients

For clients whose WhatsApp number we connect, we process the messages their customers send on the client’s behalf, so we can answer those customers. We use the Meta WhatsApp Business Platform. For these messages the client is the responsible party and we act as its operator (see section 7).

What we process: the customer’s WhatsApp number and profile name, their messages and any files they send, and our replies.

Deleting this data: you can ask us to delete your WhatsApp conversation data at any time. The data deletion page explains how.

4.13 Calendars you connect (Live Booking)

If you use Live Booking, you can connect your Google Calendar or Microsoft 365 or Outlook calendar to your BTR WhatsApp assistant. We use that access for three things only:

• to see when you are busy (free and busy times, not what your appointments are about), so the assistant only offers times you are free
• to add the bookings the assistant makes for your customers to the calendar you choose
• to list your calendars once, so you can pick which one holds your appointments

We store the access your calendar provider gives us in encrypted form, and we delete it when you disconnect your calendar or stop using Live Booking. We do not sell this data, use it for advertising, or use it to train AI models. People at BTR do not read your calendar, except with your permission to fix a problem, or where the law requires it.

BTR Consult’s use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

You can disconnect at any time by asking us, or from your Google or Microsoft account settings.

Why: to perform our contract with you.

4.14 Walkthrough call

If you buy the full report with a walkthrough call, Will Barnardt takes you through your report on a video call of up to 30 minutes.

What we collect: the time we agree, the email address we send the invitation to, the recording of the call (your voice, and your image if your camera is on), and the written notes of your first steps.

Recording: we record the call so we can write your notes and you can watch it again. We tell you before the recording starts. If you do not want the call recorded, tell us and we will not record it. You still get your notes.

Why: to perform our contract with you. That means holding the call, writing your notes and sending you the recording.

5. Our legal grounds

We only use personal information when the law allows it. The table below shows our main grounds under POPIA (section 11) and the GDPR (Article 6).

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have weighed them against your rights. You can object at any time (see section 14).

UAE: under the PDPL, we rely on your consent or on one of the cases in Article 4 where consent is not needed. These include performing a contract with you, taking steps you ask for before a contract, meeting a legal obligation, and using data you have made public.

6. Automated processing and AI

The Signal Score is produced automatically. Software collects public data and asks AI answer engines questions. An AI model writes the report from the results of the scan.

The Signal Score is an assessment of how a business shows up online. It does not make decisions about you as a person. It does not decide whether you get credit, a job, insurance or any other service. No decision with legal effect on you is based only on automated processing.

AI can make mistakes. If you think your report or a WhatsApp reply got something wrong about you, tell us and we will look at it.

7. When we act for our clients

For INBOUND and INBOUND+ clients, we manage channels such as WhatsApp, Google Business Profile, Meta and website forms. These channels receive enquiries from the client’s own customers. Those enquiries can include names, phone numbers and messages.

For that information:

• the client is the responsible party (controller). The client decides why and how it is used.
• BTR acts as the client’s operator (processor). We only process it on the client’s instructions and under a written agreement.
• the client’s own privacy policy applies. If you are a customer of one of our clients, please contact that client first about your information.

We keep client customer data confidential and secure. We do not use it for our own marketing. We delete or return it when our agreement with the client ends.

8. Who we share information with

We do not sell personal information. We do not share it for advertising.

We use trusted service providers to run our website and services. They may only use your information to provide their service to us, or as their own terms and the law allow.

You can ask us for the name of the provider in any category. Email hello@btrconsult.net.

We may also share information:

• with your permission
• when the law requires it, for example a court order
• to protect our rights, our clients or the public, for example to prevent fraud
• with a buyer or successor if BTR’s business is sold or restructured. We will tell you if this happens.

9. Transfers outside your country

BTR is a US company run from South Africa. Our service providers are based in several countries. Your information may be stored or processed outside the country you live in.

South Africa (POPIA section 72): we transfer personal information outside South Africa when the recipient is bound by law, binding corporate rules or a binding agreement that gives protection similar to POPIA, or when the transfer is needed to perform our contract with you or steps you asked for. We use service providers whose data processing terms require them to protect your information.

UAE (PDPL Articles 22 and 23): we transfer personal data outside the UAE to countries with adequate protection, or in the cases the PDPL allows, such as performing a contract with you or with your consent.

EU and UK: we transfer personal data outside the EU or UK using an adequacy decision, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified, or standard contractual clauses.

You can ask us for more information about the safeguards for a specific provider.

10. How long we keep information

We keep personal information only as long as we need it. When we no longer need it, we delete it or anonymise it.

We may keep information for longer if we need it for a legal claim, or if the law requires it.

11. How we protect information

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information. These include:

• encryption in transit (HTTPS) on our website and forms
• two-factor authentication on our business accounts where the provider offers it
• using delegated or manager access to client accounts rather than shared passwords, where the platform allows
• limiting access to people who need it to do their work
• choosing service providers with strong security practices and written data processing terms

No system is perfectly secure. See section 16 for what we do if something goes wrong.

12. Cookies and browser storage

Analytics cookies: we use Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity to understand how people use our website, for example which pages they visit and where they click and scroll. They run only if you choose Accept in the cookie banner. Nothing loads before you choose, and if you choose Decline they do not run. You can change your choice at any time with “Manage cookies” in the website footer.

Advertising cookies: we do not use them.

Payment pages: when you pay, Stripe’s payment forms may use their own cookies to process the payment and prevent fraud.

Browser storage: your cookie choice is kept in your browser’s local storage, so we do not ask again on every page. It stays in your browser.

Time zone: the website reads your browser’s time zone to suggest the right market version (South Africa, the UAE or international). This happens in your browser only. We do not send or store your time zone. If you close the suggestion or choose a region, your browser remembers that choice; you can clear it by clearing this site’s data in your browser.

Country: To suggest the right regional site, our hosting provider tells our website which country a visit comes from. We do not store your IP address or this country code; your choice of region is kept only in your browser.

13. Marketing emails and messages

We only send you marketing emails or messages if:

• you have given consent, for example on the Signal Score preview, or
• you are a customer, and the message is about similar services. You can object when we collect your details and in every message.

If you send a contact form or a territory check, we reply about your request. We do not add you to marketing emails unless you agree.

Every marketing email:

• says it is from BTR Consult LLC
• includes our physical address
• has a clear unsubscribe link

If you unsubscribe, we stop within 10 business days, and usually much sooner. You can also email hello@btrconsult.net to stop marketing.

This follows POPIA section 69, ECTA section 45, the CPA, the UAE PDPL and the US CAN-SPAM Act.

14. Your rights

14.1 How to use your rights

Email hello@btrconsult.net and tell us what you would like us to do.

• We may ask you to confirm your identity before we act. This protects your information.
• We reply within 30 days. If a request is complex, we will tell you if we need more time, and why.
• We do not charge for reasonable requests.
• If we cannot do what you ask, we will explain why.

14.2 South Africa (POPIA)

You have the right to:

• be told that we are collecting your personal information
• ask whether we hold your personal information, and get a copy of it
• ask us to correct, delete or destroy personal information that is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, misleading or unlawfully obtained
• object to processing based on legitimate interests
• object to direct marketing at any time
• not be subject to a decision with legal effect based only on automated processing
• complain to the Information Regulator

You may use the forms in the POPIA Regulations, but an email is enough.

Information Regulator: you can complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa. Its contact details and complaint process are at https://inforegulator.org.za. We would like the chance to fix your concern first, so please contact us before you complain.

14.3 United Arab Emirates (PDPL)

You have the right to:

• get information about the personal data we process about you, including why and who receives it
• receive your personal data in a structured, machine-readable format and have it transferred
• ask us to correct inaccurate data or delete data we no longer need
• ask us to restrict processing in certain cases
• ask us to stop processing, including for direct marketing
• object to decisions based only on automated processing that have legal effects on you
• withdraw consent at any time

You can also complain to the UAE Data Office.

14.4 European Union and United Kingdom (GDPR)

If you are in the EU or UK, you have the right to:

• access your personal data
• have inaccurate data corrected
• have your data erased in certain cases
• restrict processing in certain cases
• data portability
• object to processing based on legitimate interests, and to direct marketing at any time
• withdraw consent at any time, without affecting processing before you withdrew it

You can complain to the data protection authority in your country. In the UK this is the Information Commissioner’s Office (https://ico.org.uk).

14.5 United States

BTR Consult LLC is a Wyoming company. We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising. If a US state privacy law gives you rights that apply to us, contact us and we will respond as that law requires.

15. Children

Our website and services are for businesses and adults. They are not meant for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has sent us information, contact us and we will delete it.

16. Security incidents

If there is a security compromise that affects your personal information, we will:

• act quickly to contain it
• notify the Information Regulator and you as soon as reasonably possible, where POPIA requires it
• notify the relevant authority and you where the PDPL, GDPR or other law requires it, within the time that law sets
• tell you what happened and what you can do to protect yourself

17. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when our services, providers or the law change. We will show the new date at the top. If a change is significant, we will tell you by email or on the website before it applies, where we have your contact details.

18. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information:

1. Email hello@btrconsult.net with the details.
2. We will confirm we have your complaint within 5 business days.
3. We will give you a full answer within 30 days.

If you are still unhappy, you can complain to the authority for your country listed in section 14.

19. Contact

BTR Consult LLC Information Officer: Will Barnardt 30 N Gould St Ste N, Sheridan, WY 82801, United States Email: hello@btrconsult.net Website: https://btrconsult.net