Last updated 26 September 2026

Privacy notice

Pogalaame helps students at IIM Trichy, Bharathidasan University and Anna University (BIT campus) share autos and taxis to and from Trichy city. This notice explains what we collect, and why.

What we collect

• Your college email address and which college it belongs to, to confirm you’re a student.
• When you signed up and agreed to this notice.
• Passkeys: only the public key your device creates. Your fingerprint, face or screen lock never leaves your device.
• Sign-in sessions, so you stay signed in.
• What you add to your profile, all optional: your name, mobile number, gender, usual pick-up point and ride preferences, and up to 3 emergency contacts. Your mobile number and emergency contacts are stored encrypted.
• A scrambled form of your IP address (a keyed hash, not the address itself) to limit how many sign-in codes can be requested.

Sign-in codes are stored only in scrambled form and expire after 10 minutes.

When you book a ride

We record your pick-up and drop-off points, when you want to leave, how many seats you need and your share of the fare. Co-riders in the same vehicle see your first name, your college, your stops and your share, never your email. Your driver sees the same and, once they accept, your mobile number if you added one, so they can call you at the pick-up.

Gender is only used for women-only rides. You declare it yourself; the Pogalaame team may check it and can remove someone from women-only rides. It isn’t shown to co-riders or drivers, though a women-only ride is labelled as one.

Location

• Riders: we don’t track you. Your location is only used if you press SOS (see below).
• Drivers: if you turn on Share my location, your phone sends its position while your trip page is open, from an hour before the trip until it ends. Only that trip’s riders see it, and it is deleted when the trip ends.

SOS

If you press SOS during a ride, we make a secret link showing your first name, college, ride, driver and, if your phone allows it, your live location while your ride page is open. Anyone you send the link to can see it; you choose who, and it’s sent from your own phone. It stops working after 6 hours or when you tap I’m safe now. The Pogalaame team is alerted with your name and phone number so we can help. The location is deleted after 7 days; we keep a record that an SOS happened.

Ride chat

Each ride has a chat for its riders and driver, so nobody needs to share a phone number. We store the messages, who sent them and when. Only people on that ride see them, by first name, and the Pogalaame team can read them to keep rides safe. You can report a message to us. Messages are deleted 7 days after they’re sent, or after 90 days if one was reported or someone pressed SOS on that ride. Deleting your account deletes your messages too.

Ratings and blocks

After a ride, riders and drivers can rate each other. Riders see a driver’s average once they have at least 3 ratings; comments are seen only by the Pogalaame team. You can block a student by their college email, or a driver you’ve ridden with, and you won’t share a ride with them. Nobody is told they were blocked. A blocked email is stored as a keyed hash and in encrypted form.

Notifications

If you turn on notifications, we store your browser’s push address. Ride updates are encrypted on our side and delivered by your browser’s push service (Google, Apple, Mozilla or Microsoft), which can’t read them. We also email important updates, such as a driver confirming your ride; you can turn emails off on your account page.

If you drive with Pogalaame

When we add you as a driver we record your name, mobile number, UPI ID, vehicle type and registration number, the last 4 characters of your licence number, and when your licence and permit expire. We check the documents in person and don’t keep copies. Your mobile number and UPI ID are stored encrypted. When you accept a trip, its riders see your name, vehicle, registration number, mobile number and UPI ID, so they can find, call and pay you. If a rider presses SOS, the link they send to their contacts shows your name, vehicle, registration number and mobile number. Riders can rate you and see your average rating once you have 3.

Who else handles it

We don’t sell your data. Cloudflare hosts the site and database, an email provider (Resend) delivers sign-in codes and ride emails, and your browser’s push service delivers notifications. They process data only to provide those services. Maps on Pogalaame are drawn by us, so no map service sees your trips.

How long we keep it

• Sign-in codes and requests: deleted within about a day.
• Sessions: end 30 days after your last visit, or when you sign out.
• Drivers’ shared locations: deleted when the trip ends. SOS locations: deleted after 7 days.
• Ride chat messages: deleted after 7 days, or 90 days if one was reported or there was an SOS on the ride.
• Your account and ride history: until you delete your account (on your account page) or ask us to.

Your choices

You must be 18 or older to use Pogalaame. To see, correct or delete your data, or to raise a concern, email privacy@pogalaame.com.