Tourch Technologies, Inc. (“Tourch”, “we”, “us”) operates the Tourch ride-hailing application (the “Service”). This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect when you use the Service, how we use it, who we share it with, and the rights you have over your data.
Information We Collect
Account information. When you sign up, we collect your name, email address, phone number, and gender. If you sign in with Google or Apple, we receive the email address and (where the provider supplies it) name associated with your provider account. Drivers additionally provide a profile photo, driver's licence, vehicle registration, insurance, and inspection documents.
Location data. With your permission, we collect precise GPS location continuously while you have an active ride or are online as a driver. Riders' pickup and drop-off location is shared with their assigned driver during the ride; drivers' live location is shared with the rider so they can see the car approaching. Drivers' location is also used to match riders with the closest qualified driver within the driver's chosen working area.
Payment information. Payments are processed by Stripe, Inc. We do not store your card number, CVV, or full bank details. We retain a Stripe customer ID, the last four digits and brand of any saved card (for display), payment history, and a payment risk tier we compute from your payment history.
Trip-time data. For each ride we store the pickup and drop-off addresses, any waypoints/stops, the calculated route, the timestamps of each phase, the fare, mid-trip route changes, and any cancellation reason. A 4-digit start-trip verification PIN is generated when a driver arrives and discarded after the trip begins.
Communications. Chat messages between rider and driver during a ride are stored on our servers so both sides see the conversation across app restarts. They are retained after the ride for limited safety-review purposes (see Data Retention below).
Emergency contacts (optional). You may save up to five trusted contacts in the in-app Safety Center. For each contact we store the name, phone number, optional relationship label, and optional photo. These are stored only on your Tourch account and are never sold or shared with advertisers.
Safety reports. When you use the Safety Center to call 911, report a route deviation, or share your location with your emergency contacts, we store an append-only record of the action, an optional note you provide, and the GPS coordinates at the moment of the report.
Ridesharing on behalf of someone else. If you book a ride for another person, we collect the name and phone number you provide for that passenger so the driver can identify them.
Public live-tracking links. When you choose to share a ride, we generate a short link that shows the driver's live position and ride status. The link expires automatically 7 days after the ride completes, and you can revoke it sooner from the app.
Driver earnings and payouts. For drivers, we record per-ride earnings, lifetime totals, and any manual payout requests you submit.
Device information. We collect a Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) push token (and an APNs token on iOS) so we can send you notifications about your rides, plus basic device metadata (OS version, app version) from crash and error reports.
Ratings and reviews. After each ride, riders and drivers can rate each other and leave an optional comment. We display aggregate ratings on profiles within the app.
How We Use Your Information
- To match you with drivers (or with riders if you're a driver) using your location and selected working area
- To process ride payments, tips, refunds and supplemental charges via Stripe
- To send transactional notifications (push and SMS) about your ride status
- To verify driver identity, vehicle eligibility, and driving licence
- To deliver safety features — start-trip PIN, emergency contact alerts, 911 reports, public live-tracking links, mid-trip route change approvals
- To investigate safety incidents and resolve disputes between riders and drivers
- To compute driver earnings and process manual payouts
- To detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and payment risk
- To improve service quality and the matching algorithm
Text Messages (SMS)
We use SMS to send one-time verification codes during sign-up, ride status updates if you have booked a ride for someone else, and Safety-Center location alerts to emergency contacts when you request them. SMS consent is collected in the app during sign-up via an unchecked consent checkbox — no text message is sent until you affirmatively opt in. Message and data rates may apply; frequency varies based on how often you use these features.
You can opt out at any time by replying STOP to any Tourch text message, or reply HELP for help. We do not sell or share your mobile number or SMS opt-in information with third parties for their marketing purposes. Full details are on our SMS Terms & Messaging Consent page.
Information We Share
We share information with the following third-party services that support our operations:
- Stripe — payment processing
- Google (Firebase) — authentication, push notifications (FCM), and file storage
- Apple — Sign in with Apple, and push notifications via APNs on iOS
- Google Maps / Places — geocoding, address autocomplete, route calculation
- Mapbox — map tile rendering inside the mobile app
- Twilio — SMS verification codes and Safety Center alerts
- Google Cloud Platform — server hosting and file storage (United States)
- Neon — managed PostgreSQL database hosting (United States)
- Upstash — Redis cache used for ride-tracking session state
Between riders and drivers. We share your first name, profile photo, phone number, and live location with the rider or driver matched to you, for the duration of the ride.
With anyone holding a tracking link. Anyone with a public live-tracking link you've shared can see the driver's first name, vehicle details, live location, and ride progress until the link expires or you revoke it.
With law enforcement. We may share information in response to a valid legal process, or when we believe in good faith that doing so is necessary to protect the safety of a Tourch user or the public.
We do not sell your personal information to advertisers and we do not share it with third parties for their own marketing purposes.
Data Retention
- Account information: retained until you delete your account.
- Location traces: retained for 90 days, then anonymised.
- Ride history (route, fare, ratings): retained for 7 years for tax and safety records.
- Safety reports: retained for 7 years for accountability and compliance.
- Chat messages: retained for 30 days after the ride completes.
- Public live-tracking links: auto-expire 7 days after the ride; revocable any time.
- Payment records and payout requests: retained for 7 years for tax purposes.
Your Rights
- Access and update your profile information from within the app.
- Manage your saved emergency contacts directly in the Safety Center.
- Revoke a public live-tracking link from the ride share screen at any time.
- Request a copy of all personal data we hold about you.
- Request deletion of your account and associated data.
- Withdraw push or location consent in your device settings.
- Opt out of SMS messages at any time by replying STOP to a Tourch text.
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at support@tourchgo.com.
Children
Tourch is not intended for children under 18. We do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe we have, contact us and we will delete the records.
Security
All data is transmitted over HTTPS / TLS. Stored data is encrypted at rest by our cloud providers. Stripe is PCI DSS Level 1 certified and handles all sensitive payment data on its own infrastructure. We restrict employee access to production data on a need-to-know basis and use multi-factor authentication for all administrative tools.
International Users
Tourch is operated from the United States. If you use the Service from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States, where data protection laws may differ from your jurisdiction.
Contact
Tourch Technologies, Inc. — support@tourchgo.com