Privacy Policy

We collect information you provide directly, including:

• Your name, phone number, and employer
• Work email address (for workplace verification)
• Home and work area (used for route matching — not your precise address)
• Vehicle details (Hosts only): make, model, year, and plate number
• Payment details processed securely through Paystack

We also collect usage data such as ride history, in-app messages, confirmation timestamps, and app activity logs to operate and improve the platform.

We use your data to:

• Match you with suitable Hosts or Riders on your commute route
• Process monthly subscription payments securely
• Verify your workplace identity
• Send ride notifications, confirmations, and platform updates
• Enforce our no-show, availability, and conduct policies
• Improve the Usealong platform and user experience

When you are matched with a Host or Rider, we share your first name, employer, gender and ride-related details only. We never share your full home address, precise location, or phone number with other users.

We share necessary data with:

• Paystack : to process payments securely. We never store full card numbers; payment data is tokenised by Paystack.
• Firebase (Google) : our cloud infrastructure provider for data storage and authentication.
• Resend : to deliver transactional email notifications.

We do not sell your personal data to third parties, and we do not use your data for advertising.

We use your home and work areas for route matching only. We do not track your real-time location. Your precise address is never shared with other users, only your general area (for example, "Ikeja" or "Lekki") is visible on your profile for matching purposes.

We retain records of your subscription history, trip confirmations, no-show records, and cancellation history. This data is used to enforce our platform policies (including the no-show and host availability policies in our Terms of Use) and to calculate pro-rated payments in the event of subscription cancellations. This data is retained for the life of your account and for a period of 12 months after account deletion.

We retain your account data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we remove all personally identifiable information within 30 days, except where we are legally required to retain certain records (for example, transaction records for financial compliance purposes).

We use industry-standard encryption (TLS) for all data in transit. Payment data is tokenised and processed by Paystack — we never store full card numbers. Access to user data is restricted to authorised Usealong staff only, and all admin access is role-based and logged.

You have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate data
• Request deletion of your account and associated data
• Export your data by contacting us directly

Nigerian residents have additional rights under the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) and the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 (NDPA). To exercise any of these rights, contact us at support@usealong.co.

The Usealong app uses anonymised analytics to understand usage patterns and improve the product. No advertising cookies or trackers are used. Analytics data cannot be used to identify individual users. You may opt out of analytics collection in your app settings.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes via the app and email. Continued use of Usealong after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy. The date at the top of this page always reflects the most recent version.

For privacy-related queries or to exercise your data rights, contact our team at support@usealong.co. We aim to respond to all data requests within 5 business days.