Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Yapalift is a registered business name of Colleen Doherty, trading as a sole trader in Ireland, registered with the Companies Registration Office. Place of business: 111 Moyglare village, Co. Kildare, Ireland. She is the data controller for the personal data described here.

Our supervisory authority is the Data Protection Commission, 21 Fitzwilliam Square South, Dublin 2. Contact us about privacy at hello@yapalift.ie.

2. What we collect and why

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review]

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review] We ask for your mobile phone number during onboarding, when you join. We collect it so that we can reach you about your account. We do not require your number to be confirmed, and we do not use it to decide who can request seats or publish rides. Other Members cannot see it.

We do not collect copies of your ID, driving licence, proof of address or NCT certificate. The one document Drivers can upload is their motor insurance document (section 3b). We do not ask for or check your home address or where you live.

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review] We collect no payment data today. If a Platform fee is introduced (see Terms section 7.4), we will update this Policy first and say what billing data is held and for how long.

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review] Profile photo. You must add a profile photo before you can request a Seat or publish a Ride (Terms section 3.1). We ask for it so that Members can recognise each other at pickup, and for safety. Signed-in Members can see it, on the website and in the app; people who are not signed in are not shown it. The photo file is stored at a web address that is not shown to visitors, but it is not password-protected: anyone who has the exact address can open it. It is separate from the selfie you take for the Stripe ID check, which we never see. We do not run face recognition or face detection on your photo, we do not analyse the image, and we do not check that it is you. If it does not follow the Terms we may ask you to replace it or remove it, and an administrator can remove it and tell you why. It is deleted when we action an account deletion request (sections 6 and 8).

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have weighed our interest in running the platform responsibly against your rights. You may object at any time (see section 8).

3. Identity checks and biometric data

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review] Everyone’s ID is checked before they can request a seat or publish a ride. The only way is Stripe Identity (below). We have ended the video-call check (section 6b). The check confirms that the person who took the selfie matches the photo on the ID document. It is not a criminal record, Garda vetting or driving-history check, and it is not a guarantee of anyone’s conduct.

• Lawful basis: your explicit consent under Article 9(2)(a). You are asked separately and must actively agree. If you do not agree you can still use your account, but you cannot request seats or publish rides, because there is no other way to complete the ID check.
• Purpose: confirming identity and preventing fraud. Nothing else. We do not use your face for advertising, profiling, or training any model.
• Capture: images are captured live on Stripe’s hosted screens. Uploads from a photo library are not accepted. As a Passenger, a driving licence, passport or national ID card can be used. As a Driver, only a driving licence can be used.
• Who does it: Stripe, through its Stripe Identity product, acting as our processor for this check.
• What we receive: only the result, the date and a Stripe reference. Stripe keeps its own copy of your images under its own privacy policy; we do not receive them or hold them, and we cannot delete them ourselves.
• Withdrawing consent: you may withdraw at any time. Your account may then lose its ID-checked status, and you may not be able to request seats or publish rides.

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review] Stripe’s own privacy policy describes how long Stripe keeps its images and who it shares them with. You can ask Stripe directly, and you can ask us to pass on a request.

3b. Insurance documents (drivers)

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review]

• What we collect: if you are a Driver and upload your motor insurance document on your Profile: the file (PDF, JPG or PNG, up to 10 MB), the car’s registration plate, your insurer’s name, the policy expiry date, the two declarations you tick (the exact wording, the time, and your account), and our decision, with the reason if we reject it.
• Why: to check that a driver has a motor insurance document for the car they will use before they offer seats to other members.
• Lawful basis: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)): reviewing a driver’s insurance document before they offer seats, so that passengers can see it has been reviewed. We have weighed this against your rights; you may object at any time (section 8). It is not special category data.
• Who sees it: only you and Yapalift. The file is kept in a private store with our database provider, Supabase, and is opened by us through a link that works for about a minute. Other members never see the document, your plate, your insurer or the expiry date. The only thing they can see is a yes/no “Insurance reviewed”, shown for a driver while an approved document has not expired.
• How long we keep it: we delete the file 30 days after we approve or reject it, by a scheduled job. We keep the status, the expiry date, who reviewed it and when, and the record of your declarations while your account is open. A file that has not been reviewed yet is kept until it is.
• Deleting it: when we action an account deletion request (section 8) we delete your insurance records, and the stored file is removed by the same scheduled job, normally within a day.
• What a review is not: a review is not a guarantee, warranty or promise that a policy is valid or covers any journey. We do not contact your insurer. See Terms section 4.1.

3c. Proof of residence (utility or phone bill)

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review]

• Purpose: to reduce fake accounts and to confirm that an account is linked to a real address. It is not used for anything else: not for marketing, not for matching, and not to decide who you can travel with, except that, once we have switched the requirement on (Terms section 3.1, with at least 30 days’ notice), you need an approved proof to request a Seat or publish a Ride.
• What we hold: the bill you upload (PDF, JPG or PNG, up to 10 MB, with the account numbers, amounts and call lists hidden as we ask), what kind of bill it is, the date on it, the two declarations you tick (the exact wording, the time, and your account), the name of the person who reviewed it, the date of our decision, and our reason. We do not read the bill automatically (no text reading), and we do not run face recognition or any image analysis on it. We do not accept bank, card or credit statements. If you have no bill in your name you can email us for another proof (a lease or a letter from your landlord): we then keep only the record that we approved it, the date and our reason, and no file.
• Lawful basis: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)): keeping the platform free of fake accounts and making sure each account has a real address behind it, so that members can trust who they are meeting. Balancing test, in short: we think the interest is real, because Yapalift puts strangers in a car together and a fake account is the main way trust breaks; the information is a household bill, not special category data; we ask for the least that does the job (a bill with everything hidden except your name, address, date and company; no bank statements; no account numbers or amounts); only one person at Yapalift opens it, and every opening is logged; the file is deleted 7 days after we decide; other members never see it; and you are told in advance and can object (section 8). Against that, the bill does carry your home address, and we recognise that some people have no bill in their name, which is why there is another route. Until we switch the requirement on, uploading is optional and nothing depends on it. We keep this balancing test under review and it is part of our data protection impact assessment.
• Who sees it: only Yapalift (the administrator account). The file is kept in a private store with our database provider, Supabase, that no other member and no website visitor can open, and is opened by us through a link that works for about a minute. Each time it is opened, and each decision, is written to a log with who and when. Other members never see the bill, your address or anything on it. The only thing they can see is a yes/no “Address checked”, shown while an approved proof exists.
• Sharing: we do not share it with anyone else, and we do not contact the company that issued the bill. Supabase stores it for us as our processor (section 4).
• How long we keep it: we delete the file 7 days after we approve or reject it, by a scheduled job. A file that has not been reviewed yet is kept until it is. We keep the status, the kind of bill, its date, who reviewed it, the decision date and our reason, and the record of your declarations, while your account is open.
• Deleting it: when we action an account deletion request (section 8) we delete these records, and the stored file is removed by the same scheduled job, normally within a day.
• Your rights: you can ask to see, correct or delete this information, and you may object to it at any time (section 8). If you do not want to upload a bill, or have none, email us and we will look at another proof, such as a lease or a letter from your landlord. What a review is not: it is not a guarantee that you live at the address or that a bill is genuine. See Terms section 4.2.

4. Who we share data with

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review]

• Other Members — see section 5.
• Google — only if you choose to sign in with it, to confirm who you are. Google is an independent controller for that sign-in under its own privacy policy. If you tap a “Directions” link on a ride page, your browser opens Google Maps with that route.
• Stripe — runs Stripe Identity checks (section 3), acting as our processor.
• Supabase — hosts our database and runs account sign-in. Everything in section 2 is stored there, including a driver’s insurance document in a private store.
• Vercel — hosts the website. Web requests, including IP addresses, pass through it and appear in its logs. We do not use any analytics service on the site.
• Resend — delivers alert emails to us, for example when a safety report is filed. Those emails contain the names of the people involved and what the reporter wrote.
• Formspree — receives only the details you enter in the waiting-list form on our home page (name, email, route, whether you drive). It no longer receives anything about verification calls, because there are none.
• MapTiler — provides map tiles and place search. It receives your IP address when a map loads, and the text you type into a place search.
• The public OSRM routing server (router.project-osrm.org) — when a Driver plans a route, the start, end and stopping-point coordinates of that route are sent to this third-party service, which sends back the road route. It is an open public service run by a third party; we have no contract with it, and it will see the IP address of the device or server making the request.
• unpkg.com — in the mobile app, the map screens load a map-drawing library from this public service, which sees the IP address of the phone.
• Expo — delivers push notifications to the mobile app. It receives your push token and the notification text, which can include the first part of a message you were sent.
• An Garda Síochána, courts, or regulators — where the law requires it or where behaviour puts someone at risk.
• Insurers and professional advisors — where needed to handle a claim or dispute.

Supabase, Vercel, Resend, Formspree, MapTiler, Expo and Stripe act for us as service providers. We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it with advertisers.

5. What other members can see

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review] Any signed-in Member can see your first name, photo, bio, interests, gender, age band, rating, number of rides, whether your ID has been checked, whether your address has been checked, and the year you joined. The route and stops, time, seats left and any pickup note on a Ride you publish can be seen by anyone, including people who are not signed in.

Other Members do not see your surname, email address, phone number, ID, insurance document, plate, insurer or expiry date, or your proof of residence or address. They see only “Address checked” once an approved proof exists. For a Driver with an approved, unexpired insurance document they see only “Insurance reviewed”. Your full vehicle registration is not shown to other Members. Messages are visible only to the people in the conversation. During a trip, if you both agree, the other person can see your phone’s location.

5b. What we will never do

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review] If we ever wanted to do something with your personal data beyond running the service, we would have to ask you first, separately, and you could say no. This policy would be updated before it happened.

6. How long we keep data

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review] We keep your data while your account is open. We have set only the automatic deletion periods in the table; for everything else, the period is until your account is deleted (section 8), apart from the records described under the table. We will add further periods here when they are in place.

When you ask us to delete your account we do not keep your personal details, but some records stay in a form that no longer names you: the history of rides, seat requests and reviews that involve other Members; safety reports made about or by you, so that someone who is removed for safety reasons cannot simply return; a record that you asked for your account to be deleted, and when; and a log of changes our administrator made to a Member’s verification status or details, which we keep as an accountability record. Stripe, and the other providers in section 4, keep data under their own policies.

6b. The end of verification calls

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review] Yapalift used to offer a short video call with a member of our team as a way to check ID, and, for drivers, residency and insurance. We have ended that completely. We no longer book, make or ask for calls, and we no longer check where you live. Your ID is checked by Stripe Identity only, and a driver’s insurance document is reviewed as described in section 3b.

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review] Old call data is being deleted. For anyone who booked or had a call, we held the time chosen, name, email and phone number, the outcome, and short notes written by the operator. We have locked those records so that nobody, including members and our own website, can read them, and we will permanently delete them 14 days after they were locked. If you want them deleted sooner, or want a copy first, email hello@yapalift.ie within those 14 days. Calls were never recorded. Anyone who was ID-checked by a call keeps their ID-checked status; we do not hold any image of their ID.

6c. Employers (not live yet)

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review] Employer features are not live. Yapalift does not currently share any information about any member with the company they work for. If that ever changes, we will update this policy first. Any employer arrangement would be a separate agreement that is not connected to individual journeys.

7. International transfers

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review] Some of the providers in section 4 are based outside the European Economic Area or may process data there. Where they do, the transfer relies on an adequacy decision or on Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission. The public OSRM routing server and unpkg.com are open public services with whom we have no contract, so we cannot promise where they process data.

8. Your rights, and deleting your account

Under the GDPR you may: access your data; have it corrected; have it erased; restrict or object to processing; receive it in a portable format; and withdraw consent at any time. You can correct most of your profile yourself in the app. For anything else, contact hello@yapalift.ie. We respond within one month.

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review] Deleting your account. Use Request account deletion in your profile settings (website or app), or email us. Your request is recorded and we action it by hand, within one month. It is not instant. When we action it, we:

• cancel your upcoming rides and seat requests, so the other people are told;
• remove your name, email, phone, photo, bio, interests and other profile details, and your car details, and replace your name with “Deleted member”;
• delete your push tokens, saved and favourite rides, waiting-list entries, live location points, any records of an old verification call (whether still locked or not), your insurance records (the stored file is then removed by a daily job), your proof of residence records (the stored file is queued and removed by the same daily job), your profile photo (the stored file is queued and removed by the same daily job), and every feedback message you sent us, and blank the text of messages you sent and of your seat requests;
• close your sign-in so that the account can no longer be used, and remove its link to Google;
• keep, without your name, the records described under section 6, and delete by hand any Stripe record held for you, and anything you sent through the waiting-list form on our home page (held by Formspree).

Erasure is not absolute: we may keep what the law lets or requires us to keep, as described in section 6. We cannot delete the images held by Stripe ourselves; Stripe holds them under its own policy.

You may complain to the Data Protection Commission at dataprotection.ie.

9. Security

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review] The website and app use encrypted connections. Passwords are stored only as hashes by our sign-in provider. The database restricts what each signed-in Member can read, so that other Members can read only the profile details listed in section 5. Changes our administrator makes to verification status are logged. No system is perfectly secure. Where a breach is likely to risk your rights, we will notify the Data Protection Commission within 72 hours and tell you where required.

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review] In practice, if we become aware of a personal data breach, we will: assess it promptly to understand what happened and who it affects; contain it and take steps to reduce any further risk; notify the Data Protection Commission within 72 hours of becoming aware of it, where the breach is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms; and, where the breach is likely to result in a high risk to you specifically, tell you directly and without undue delay, describing what happened, its likely consequences, and what we are doing about it.

10. Children

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review] Yapalift is for people aged 18 or over. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If we learn that we have, we delete it.

11. Automated decisions

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review] Three things are decided automatically. First, Stripe Identity compares your selfie with your document and returns a match or no match. Second, when a serious safety report is filed about a Member, or a Member receives repeated reports, their account is suspended automatically and stays suspended until a person reviews the report (if nobody has looked after 72 hours, we are alerted again). Third, no member can start more than 3 ID checks in 24 hours; this limits what each check costs us and is not a judgement about the person, and after a failed check an administrator can reset it. We do not scan messages or listings.

Under Article 22 GDPR you have the right to human review of any decision that significantly affects you, to express your point of view, and to contest it. Contact us and a person will review the decision.

12. Cookie Policy

We use cookies and similar technologies. Under the ePrivacy Regulations (S.I. No. 336 of 2011), non-essential cookies are set only with your consent, which you can change at any time. You choose with the banner on the site, or through “Cookie preferences” in the footer.

We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. You can also block cookies in your browser, though strictly necessary ones are needed for the site to work. This section is also published on its own at /cookies.

13. Changes and contact

[DRAFT — pending solicitor review] We will publish any update here with a new version and date. When a change matters we will put a notice on the Platform and ask you to accept the new version the next time you sign in. Where we have your email address and are able to, we will also email you, but we do not promise to. You do not have to accept: you may stop using the Platform and ask us to delete your account instead (section 8). If you carry on using the Platform after the notice, you accept the updated policy.

Privacy queries and rights requests: hello@yapalift.ie
Postal: 111 Moyglare village, Co. Kildare, Ireland