Privacy Policy

Bitsmiths Solutions (“Bitsmiths,” “we,” “us”) builds jot.co.zm, a link-shortening service, from Lusaka, Zambia. This policy explains what information Jot collects, why, and what rights you have over it. It covers jot.co.zm, the dashboard, and the API.

Information you give us directly

• Account details. Your name, email address, and password (stored as a one-way hash, never in plain text) when you sign up, or your identity from a social login provider if you use one instead.
• Links you create. The destination URL, any custom back-half, password, or UTM tags you set on it, and the short code we generate for it.
• API keys. Generated per account, stored as a one-way hash -- we can verify a key presented to us, but we can’t recover its original value, so neither can anyone who gains access to our database.
• Enterprise quote requests. Your organization’s registration and tax details, used only to prepare the pro-forma invoice you requested.

Information collected automatically

Every time someone taps a Jot link, we record the country, device type, and referrer the click came from, plus the time it happened. This powers the click-analytics dashboard account holders see for their own links. We use it to show aggregate patterns for a link, not to build a profile of the individual person who clicked it. When you create an anonymous link or sign up, we run an automated check to confirm the request isn’t from a bot before it goes through; this may briefly process technical details like your browser and network characteristics, and isn’t used for anything beyond that one check.

How we use your information

• To create and operate your account, links, and API keys.
• To screen a link’s destination for known malicious content before and after it goes live.
• To show you analytics for links you own.
• To bill a paid plan, where applicable, and to send renewal reminders and receipts.
• To respond if you contact us, and to keep the service secure and free of abuse.

We don’t use your information for advertising, we don’t build marketing profiles of visitors, and we never sell or rent personal information.

Who we share it with

We don’t sell or share your information for marketing purposes. A small number of service providers process it on our behalf, strictly to make Jot work:

• Our hosting and infrastructure providers. Run the redirect path, the dashboard, and the database behind them.
• Our email delivery provider. Sends the transactional emails your account triggers (verification, password reset, billing reminders).
• Our payment processor, Lenco (Broadpay). Handles mobile money and card charges for paid plans directly -- we never see or store your full card or mobile money details ourselves.

We may also disclose information if required to by law, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Bitsmiths, our users, or others.

Cookies

Jot uses one cookie to keep you signed in: a session cookie that’s httpOnly (unreadable by page scripts) and strictly necessary for the dashboard and API to know it’s you. It isn’t used for advertising or cross-site tracking, and, like the bot-verification check above, is exempt from cookie-consent requirements under Zambia’s Data Protection Act and GDPR as a strictly necessary cookie for a service you’ve actively requested.

How long we keep it

An anonymous link and its click data are deleted automatically 7 days after creation. Links in a free or paid account don’t expire and are kept until you delete them or close your account. Click analytics are retained 90 days on the Free plan and a full year on every paid plan. If you close your account, we delete your personal information within a reasonable period afterward, except where we’re required to keep billing records longer for tax or legal reasons.

Your rights

You may have the right to access, correct, or delete the personal information we hold about you, or object to how we use it. Most of this you can do yourself from the dashboard; for anything else, email support@jot.co.zm and we’ll respond directly.

Children’s privacy

Jot isn’t directed at children, and we don’t knowingly collect information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we’ll delete it.

International visitors

Bitsmiths is based in Zambia, and this policy is written to meet Zambia’s Data Protection Act No. 3 of 2021. If you’re visiting from the EU, UK, or elsewhere with its own data protection law, the practices above -- minimal collection, no advertising cookies, no sale of data -- are intended to meet those standards too.

Changes to this policy

If we change what we collect or how we use it, we’ll update this page and the date at the top. We won’t make a material change that reduces your rights without making it clearly visible here first.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your information: email support@jot.co.zm, or write to us at 6th Floor, ZEP-RE Business Park, Alick Nkhata Road, Mass Media, Lusaka, Zambia.