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Privacy Policy

Effective date: 13 October 2026

Overview

This policy explains what personal information takRide collects, why, who it's shared with and how long it's kept. takRide is operated in Zimbabwe by takRide Investments (Pvt) Ltd, a subsidiary of takRide Holdings (Pty) Ltd (South Africa), which is responsible for your information. We handle it in line with Zimbabwe's Cyber and Data Protection Act. We do not sell your personal information, and we don't use it for third-party advertising.

What we collect

Account: name, mobile number, email (optional), profile photo (optional), saved places (home and work).
Trips: pickup, stops and destination, the route driven (GPS points), times, distance, fare, payment method, cancellations, ratings and comments.
Payments: amounts, status and the payment reference from our payment provider. Your mobile-money number or the last digits of your card are kept to show which method you used. We never see your PIN or full card number.
Messages: in-app chat between rider and driver, and your conversations with the in-app support assistant.
Calls: in-app calls connect rider and driver without sharing phone numbers. We do not record calls.
Safety: SOS alerts, trusted contacts you add, and reports you make.
Drivers, in addition: driver's licence, national ID or passport, a selfie (used as your profile photo, and compared with the photo on your ID to confirm it's you), vehicle registration and photos, and any permits. Information is read from these documents (such as names, numbers and expiry dates). We also keep payout account details, commission credit, top-ups and cash-outs.
Device: device type, operating system, app version, and a notification token so we can send trip alerts. Technical error reports when the app or server fails.

Location

Riders: your location is used while the app is open, to set your pickup and show nearby drivers. During a trip, the driver's location (not yours) is what's tracked.
Riders, while waiting for pickup: after a driver accepts and until the trip starts, the rider app shares your live location with your driver only, and only while the app is open on your screen, so they can find you. We keep just your latest position, and delete it when the trip starts, ends or is cancelled.
Drivers (including in the background): while you're online, the driver app sends your position regularly, even when it's in the background or the screen is off, so we can offer you nearby trips. During a trip it also sends your route, so your rider can see you coming, and to calculate distance and confirm arrival at the pickup. While you're online we keep only your latest position. During a trip we keep a GPS route point about every 15 seconds. Positions also feed the demand map, which only ever shows grouped areas.
When it stops: background location stops when you go offline in the app. If your phone stops sending positions for about 5 minutes while you're not on a trip, we set you offline.
Location is checked for fake-GPS apps, and the distance from the pickup when a driver taps "Arrived" is recorded. These records are used to settle cancellation fees and disputes.
You can turn location off in your phone's settings, but takRide can't match trips without it.

How we use it

To match riders and drivers, calculate fares, navigate and complete trips.
To take payments, pay drivers, manage ride credit, takPoints and promotions.
To verify drivers and keep riders and drivers safe (trip sharing, SOS, start PINs, check-ins during trips, pairing rules after low ratings).
To provide support and settle problems.
To detect fraud and misuse.
To send receipts, trip notifications and important service messages.
To improve the service, for example by using past trip locations to show drivers where demand usually is. The demand map only ever shows grouped areas, never individual trips.

Automated decisions

To keep things fast and fair, many decisions are made automatically from trip and payment records, without a person looking at them first:

whether a cancellation fee applies;
refunds and ride credit;
whether an unpaid-cash report stands;
driver document checks;
flagging accounts for review.

The AI support assistant explains these outcomes but doesn't set amounts. You can ask for any automated decision to be reviewed by a person by emailing support@tak-ride.com.

Your rider sees (if you drive): your name, photo, rating, vehicle make, colour and plate, and your live location from acceptance to drop-off.
Your driver sees (if you ride): your name, rating (plus a note if it's low), pickup, stops and destination. They see a balance being collected if you owe one.
People you share a trip with see the live trip on a web page until it ends. The link stops working after the trip.
Authorities: we share information only where the law requires it, or where it's needed to protect someone's safety.

Service providers

These companies process data for us, only to provide their part of the service:

Google Maps Platform — maps, address search, routes, distance and travel times. It receives the places and coordinates needed for each search or route (pickup, stops, destination, a driver's position).
Twilio — SMS sign-in codes (it receives your phone number and the code). If you switch on WhatsApp receipts, it also sends those.
Expo push service — push notifications, delivered through Google and Apple. It receives your device's notification token and the text of the notification.
Sentry — crash and error reports with technical details. It's set up not to collect personal information.
LiveKit — in-app voice calls between rider and driver. Audio is streamed live and is not recorded.
ContiPay — payments and driver payouts. It receives the amount, the payment method and number you chose, and your name.
Amazon Web Services — servers, database and file storage. Uploaded documents and photos are stored in South Africa (region af-south-1).
Anthropic — the AI behind the in-app support assistant (your support messages and the relevant account, trip and payment details are sent to it to write a reply), and the AI that checks driver documents and selfies (it reads the documents and compares the selfie with the ID photo).
Didit — driver identity verification. Drivers photograph their ID document and take a selfie in Didit's check; Didit tells us whether it passed, with the verified name and ID number.
SendGrid (Twilio) — email receipts, if you've added an email address.

Where data is stored

Our servers are in the United Kingdom (London). Uploaded documents and photos are stored with Amazon Web Services, and some service providers above process data in South Africa, the United States, the European Union and elsewhere. Your information is therefore transferred outside Zimbabwe. We only use providers that protect data under contract and with security measures appropriate to the information.

How long we keep it

GPS route points from trips are deleted after 90 days.
Trip chat between riders and drivers is deleted 12 months after each message is sent, for everyone.
A rider's live location while waiting for pickup is deleted when the trip starts, ends or is cancelled.
Support chat on your phone clears after 24 hours. Records of reports and their outcomes are kept as part of the trip record.
Trips, receipts, payments, commissions and payouts are kept for legal, accounting and tax reasons, and to handle disputes. After you delete your account they're anonymised (see below).

Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app (Profile → Delete account) or on our account deletion page. The rider and driver apps share one account, so it's deleted for both. You can't delete it during a trip, while you owe money from an earlier ride, while a question about a cash payment is waiting for your answer, or as a driver while you have earnings not yet cashed out or commission credit below zero.

Deleted straight away: your name, phone number, email, profile photo, home and work places, saved payment methods, trusted contacts, signed-in devices and notification tokens. Upcoming scheduled rides are cancelled. Any ride credit is given up (you confirm this first).
Drivers, also straight away: payout details (mobile-money number and bank account), licence number, your profile photo and your vehicle photo (the stored files are deleted too).
Kept, anonymised: trips, receipts, payments, ratings and support cases stay without your name or number. The other person's trip history and our accounts depend on them. A driver's vehicle plate stays on past riders' receipts.
Kept for 3 years, then deleted automatically: a driver's verified ID number and name, and their identity and verification documents (ID, licence, selfie, vehicle papers). These are kept for fraud prevention and safety investigations.
Kept: a one-way scrambled code made from your phone number (not the number itself), so first-ride offers can't be claimed again by re-registering.

Your rights

You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, correct it, object to how it's used, ask for a person to review an automated decision, or delete your account. Account deletion is in the app under Profile, or on our account deletion page. For anything else, email support@tak-ride.com from the email on your account, or tell us your registered number. We'll respond within 30 days. You can also complain to the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ), which oversees data protection.

Security

Connections to takRide are encrypted, and access to data is limited to what each part of the system needs. Payments are handled by a licensed payment provider. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects you, we'll tell you and the regulator as the law requires.

Changes to this policy

When we change how we use your information, we'll update this page and the date at the top, and tell you in the app if the change is significant.

Contact

Privacy questions or requests: support@tak-ride.com.