🔒 Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how ShareMyRide ("we", "us", "our") collects, uses, stores, and protects information when you use our platform to offer or find shared rides with fellow students. By creating an account or using ShareMyRide, you agree to the practices described here.
1. Information We Collect
When you sign up, we collect your full name, college email address, password (stored as a one-way hash — we never store or can see your actual password), college, branch, year of study, phone number, and gender. This information is required to verify that you're a genuine student and to connect you with rides at your own college.
When you use the platform, we also collect ride details you post or book (pickup/drop locations, dates, times, seats, price), booking requests and their status, and messages you send through in-app Chat.
2. College Email & OTP Verification
ShareMyRide is restricted to verified college students. We verify your identity by sending a one-time password (OTP) to your official college email address. The OTP is valid for 10 minutes, is never logged in plain text anywhere accessible to staff, and is deleted from our database as soon as it's used or expires. We temporarily track failed OTP attempts and resend timing purely to prevent abuse (brute-forcing or spamming OTP requests) — this data is not used for any other purpose.
3. Chats
Messages you send through ShareMyRide's in-app Chat are only ever visible to you and the other participant in that specific conversation (the driver or passenger on that booking) — enforced on our servers, not just hidden in the interface. We do not read, sell, or share your chat content with third parties. Chats are retained as described in "Data Retention" below, and are permanently deleted if you delete your account.
4. Cookies & Local Storage
ShareMyRide does not use third-party advertising or tracking cookies. We use your browser's local storage to keep you logged in (storing your session token) and to remember basic app state — this data stays on your device and is cleared when you log out. We do not use cookies to track you across other websites.
5. How We Use Your Information
- To verify you're a real student and create/manage your account
- To connect you with rides and other students at your own college
- To send OTP verification codes and important account notifications
- To enable booking requests, ride hosting, and in-app chat
- To detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and violations of our Terms
- To respond to support requests submitted via our Contact Us page
We do not sell your personal data to advertisers or other third parties.
6. Data Sharing
Your name, college, and rating are visible to other students when you post or book a ride, so they know who they're travelling with — this is core to how the platform works and cannot be disabled while keeping your account active. Your phone number is only shared with the other party once a booking is Accepted, so ride details can be coordinated directly. We may share information if legally required to (for example, in response to a valid court order) or to protect the safety of our users.
7. Data Retention
We retain your account data for as long as your account is active. Ride, booking, and chat history are retained to support dispute resolution, safety investigations, and platform improvement while your account exists. If you delete your account, we permanently delete your profile, ride listings, bookings, chats, reports linked to you, and notifications — see "Account Deletion" below for exactly what's removed.
8. Account Deletion
You can permanently delete your account at any time from Account Settings. Deleting your account permanently removes:
- Your profile and login credentials
- Every ride you've hosted
- Every booking you've made or received, as driver or passenger
- Every chat conversation and message you're part of
- Reports you've filed or that were filed against you
- Notifications addressed to you
This action is permanent and cannot be undone — we ask you to confirm your password before deletion goes through, precisely because it can't be reversed.
9. Security
Passwords are hashed with bcrypt and never stored or transmitted in plain text. All API traffic should be served over HTTPS in production. Access to chats and bookings is restricted on our servers to the people actually involved in that conversation or booking — not just hidden by the app's interface. We apply rate limiting to login, signup, and OTP endpoints to reduce the risk of automated attacks. No system is 100% secure, and we encourage you to use a unique password for your ShareMyRide account and to report any suspicious activity via our Contact Us page.
10. Your Rights
You have the right to:
- Access the personal data we hold about you
- Correct inaccurate account information
- Delete your account and associated data at any time
- Withdraw consent by deleting your account (you cannot use ShareMyRide without an account, since college verification is core to the service)
- Contact us with questions or concerns about how your data is handled
11. Children's Privacy
ShareMyRide is intended for college students and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from children under 13.
12. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by updating the "Last updated" date above. Continued use of ShareMyRide after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.
13. Contact Us
Questions about this Privacy Policy or your data? Reach us at sharemyride.bike@gmail.com or through our Contact Us page.