Privacy PolicyPrivacy Policy

The platform is being designed to ask for the least information needed to complete a trip safely and to keep the service accountable afterwards. The categories below are grouped by the reason the information exists rather than by where it is stored.

Account information

Your name, phone number, email address, profile photo and the language and city preferences you set. Captains additionally provide the documents required to operate: driving licence, vehicle registration, insurance and a photograph used to verify that the person driving is the person on the account.

Location information

Precise or approximate location from your device when you open the app, set a pickup point or take a trip. For captains, location is collected while they are online so that nearby requests can be routed to them. This category has its own section below.

Trip information

Pickup and drop-off points, the route taken, distance and duration, date and time, the ride type selected, the fare and any tolls or waiting charges, ratings and written feedback, and reports of items left behind.

Device and app information

Device model, operating system and app version, language, mobile network, crash reports, diagnostic logs and the identifiers used to keep you signed in and to stop the same device from creating fraudulent accounts.

Payment information

Payments are handled by third-party payment processors. RideNova expects to receive confirmation that a charge succeeded, the type of method used and a truncated identifier such as the last four digits of a card. Full card numbers and security codes are not intended to reach RideNova systems.

Communications

Calls and messages placed between a rider and a captain through the app, which are masked wherever the platform supports masking, along with your conversations with support and any feedback you send us.

Information from other people

Someone who books a ride on your behalf, or a rider or captain who reports an incident, may give us information that concerns you.

Information collected through RideNova is intended for the purposes listed here. If we ever need it for a materially different purpose, we will say so before that use begins.

• Creating and maintaining your account, and keeping you signed in on your device.
• Matching a request to a nearby captain, dispatching the trip and routing it.
• Estimating arrival times, routes and fares, and calculating the final amount owed.
• Processing payments, issuing receipts and handling refunds, adjustments and disputes.
• Providing support, and investigating complaints, incidents and items left in a vehicle.
• Verifying captain documents and vehicle details before a captain is allowed to go online.
• Detecting and preventing fraud, unsafe behaviour and other misuse of the platform.
• Sending service messages about a trip, your account, or a change to this policy.
• Understanding demand in aggregate so that coverage, wait times and pricing can be improved.
• Resolving disputes and meeting the record-keeping obligations that apply to a transport platform.

Promotional messages are separate. We ask before sending them, every one carries a way to stop receiving them, and turning them off never affects the service messages you need in order to take a trip.

RideNova does not sell personal information and does not share it so that another company can advertise to you. Information is intended to leave RideNova only in the situations below.

With your captain, or your rider

To complete a trip, a captain sees the rider’s first name, photo, rating and the pickup and drop-off points. A rider sees the captain’s first name, photo, rating, vehicle model and number plate. Phone numbers stay masked wherever masking is supported.

With service providers

Companies that run parts of the platform on our behalf — hosting, maps, messaging, payment processing, identity verification, analytics and support tooling. They are to be bound by contract to use the information only to perform that work for RideNova.

For safety and legal reasons

Where we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to answer a valid legal request, to protect the safety of a rider, a captain or the public, to investigate fraud, or to establish or defend a legal claim.

In a corporate transaction

If RideNova is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing or sale of assets, information may transfer as part of it. We would tell account holders before their information became subject to a different policy.

When you ask us to

For example when you share a live trip with someone you trust, send a receipt to another address, or ask support to speak to a family member on your behalf.

Location is the most sensitive information a ride-hailing platform touches, so it is described separately rather than folded into a list.

When it is collected

For riders, location is collected while the app is open and, if you allow it, while a trip is in progress, so the map stays accurate when the app moves to the background. For captains, location is collected from the moment they go online until they go offline, because dispatch depends on knowing which vehicles are near a request.

Why it is collected

• Showing where you are and setting a pickup point a captain can actually reach.
• Matching a request to nearby captains and dispatching the trip.
• Navigation, route guidance and arrival estimates during the trip.
• Calculating distance-based fares and resolving a disputed fare afterwards.
• Reconstructing a route when an incident is reported or an item is left behind.

Your control over it

Location permission is granted at the device level and can be changed or withdrawn at any time in your device settings. With location switched off you can still enter addresses by hand, but matching, arrival times and fare accuracy are degraded, and a captain cannot go online at all.

The website uses cookies and similar technologies to keep pages working, to remember preferences such as language, and to understand which pages people find useful. The apps use device identifiers for the equivalent purposes. Non-essential technologies are intended to be optional.

Information is intended to be kept for as long as it is needed for the purpose it was collected for, and then for as long as a record of a transport or payment transaction must be retained.

Account records

Held while the account is open. When an account is closed, deletion begins for everything that is not required for a reason described below.

Trip and payment records

Held for a defined period after the trip so that receipts, refunds, fare disputes and safety investigations remain possible.

Support conversations

Held for a defined period so that a repeat problem can be understood in the context of what happened before.

Captain documents

Held while a captain is active on the platform, and for a defined period afterwards for accountability.

The exact periods will be published in the launch version of this policy rather than invented now. Information kept only because a record must exist is stored apart and is not used for anything else.

These are the protections the platform is being built to provide at launch, not a description of a system in operation today.

• Traffic between the apps and our servers is to be encrypted in transit, and stored information encrypted at rest.
• Access to production data is to be limited to the roles that require it, and every access logged.
• Payment details are to be handled by payment processors, so full card numbers never reach RideNova systems.
• Contact numbers between riders and captains are to be masked wherever masking is supported.
• Sign-in is to rely on one-time verification rather than a reusable password wherever it can.

No system is perfectly secure, and any policy that promises otherwise is worth less than the paper it is printed on. If we become aware of a breach affecting your information, we will notify the people affected and describe what happened and what we did about it.

The information tied to your account belongs to you. The mechanisms available may differ from place to place, but the choices below are the ones RideNova intends to offer everywhere it launches.

See and correct

View and edit the details on your profile in the app, and ask us for a copy of the information held against your account.

Delete

Ask us to close and delete your account. We delete what we are not required to keep, and tell you plainly what has to be retained and why.

Permissions

Turn location, notification, camera, microphone and contact permissions on or off at the device level whenever you want, without losing access to the account.

Marketing

Opt out of promotional email, SMS and push notifications while continuing to receive the service messages attached to your trips.

Account restrictions

Ask a person to review any restriction placed on your account, and send us anything you believe the review missed.

To use any of these, write to us through the contact page. We will confirm that the request arrived, tell you what we need in order to act on it, and answer within a reasonable time.

RideNova is built for adults. The apps are not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from a child. A minor may travel as a passenger when accompanied by the adult who holds the account and takes responsibility for the trip.

If you believe a child has created an account or given us personal information, contact us and we will remove it.

This document will change. The first substantial change will be the launch version, which will carry a date and replace the notice at the top of this page.

When a change materially affects how information is handled, we will mark it on this page and, where the change is significant, tell account holders in the app or by email before it takes effect. Continuing to use RideNova after that date means the updated policy applies to you.

Questions about this policy, a request about your own information, or a concern about how something is being handled can all be sent through the contact page. Tell us which app you use and the phone number on your account so that the right records can be found.

If you are reviewing this draft on behalf of a legal team, use the same channel and mark the message for the attention of the privacy team.