Definition
Data residency
The principle that customer data is physically stored in a specified country or jurisdiction.
Data residency refers to where customer data is physically stored on servers. It matters because privacy laws, government access rights, and compliance regimes vary by country. SmartChat stores all customer data in the Johannesburg Google Cloud region, meaning the data never leaves South African soil for African customers. For European customers, Ruka also offers EU-region hosting on request through the Ruka HQ B.V. Netherlands entity.