Last updated: 2026-09-01
This Privacy Policy explains how RidersOn ("we") collects, uses, shares, and protects your personal data when you use the app. By using the app, you agree to the practices described here. We encourage you to read it in full, and sections 5 and 6 in particular - they cover contacts and the lookup directory, which involve data you may not expect to be shared.
Account information: your phone number and country dialling code - these are your account identity and are required - and the username you choose. We do not ask for an email address or a password. Profile information: your avatar photo, if you choose to upload one from the camera or gallery. Bike data: brand, model, year, plate number, and the factory specifications attached to that model. Location data: your coordinates when you turn on location sharing or check in. Contacts: phone numbers from your device address book, when you press the button to add friends from contacts and grant permission (see section 5). Content you create: messages in group chats, ride chats, and one-to-one conversations; group names and descriptions; rides and meeting points; and feedback submitted through the Help form. Activity data: groups you join, rides you take part in, your friends list and friend requests, your notifications and their settings, and your chat mute settings. Technical data: your Firebase Authentication identifier, a device token used to deliver notifications, and your language preference.
We use your data to create and manage your account, verify ownership of your phone number by SMS, enable app features (bikes, groups, rides, map, chat), display your profile to other users within the relevant features, send notifications inside and outside the app according to your settings, respond to your enquiries and feedback, and improve the app and diagnose technical problems. We do not use your data for advertising, and the app shows no ads.
Location is entirely optional and is only collected with your explicit operating-system permission, in three situations: (a) When you switch on "Show me to riders", your position is updated periodically (roughly every 30 seconds) for as long as the app is open in front of you, and becomes visible to other users on the map. We do not track your location when the app is closed or in the background. (b) When you tap "Check in", your position and a place name are saved and stay visible to others for two hours, unless you check out sooner. (c) When you create a ride, to suggest the starting country and city. You can stop sharing at any time from inside the app, or withdraw the permission in your device settings - doing so disables only these features. Note that we send coordinates to the OpenStreetMap Nominatim service to turn them into a readable place name (see section 10).
Only when you press the button to add friends from your contacts, the app asks permission to read your device address book so it can help you find people you know who are already on RidersOn. It is not requested when you open the app, or when you browse any screen. What actually happens: phone numbers on your device are read and reformatted locally, then those numbers are sent to our servers as lookup queries to check whether any of them belong to a registered account. What does not happen: we do not save your address book, we do not store your contacts\' names or numbers on our servers, we do not message or invite your contacts, and we do not share your contacts with any third party. Contact names never leave your device. Numbers that do not belong to a registered account return no result. You can decline or revoke this permission at any time in your device settings - the rest of the app continues to work normally, and only contact matching stops functioning.
To check that usernames and phone numbers are not already taken, to let you add a friend by their username or number, and to match contacts, we maintain a lookup directory that maps a username and a phone number to an account identifier. This directory can be queried for one specific value (a particular username or phone number) without being signed in, because those checks happen before you have an account to sign in with. It cannot be listed or downloaded as a whole. In practice this means someone who knows your username can learn that the username is taken, and someone who knows your phone number can learn that you are registered. The directory does not reveal your photo, bikes, location, friends, or any other content.
Some of your data is visible to other users by the nature of the feature itself: your username and avatar appear to members of your groups, participants in your rides, and next to your chat messages; your location appears on the map when you enable sharing or check in; your phone number is shown only to people whose friend requests you have accepted; group and ride messages are readable by every member of that room; and one-to-one conversations are readable by the two people in them. Chats are not end-to-end encrypted, and we are technically able to read them where necessary to investigate an abuse report or comply with a legal obligation. Do not send information through chat that you consider confidential.
We do not sell or rent your personal data to anyone, and we do not share it for advertising. We may share limited information: with other users through the features described in section 7; with the service providers listed in section 10, to the extent needed to operate the app; or where necessary to comply with a legal obligation or lawful request, or to protect our rights or the safety of our users.
The app sends notifications about ride and group invitations, friend requests, join requests, friends checking in, pinned chat announcements, and private messages addressed to you. These reach you inside the app and on your device even while it is closed, through Firebase Cloud Messaging; for that we store a token identifying your device, used only to deliver them. You can control each category separately in Notification Settings, mute any individual group, ride, or one-to-one conversation for a set period or permanently, and withdraw the notification permission entirely in your device settings.
The app relies on the following services, each governed by its own provider\'s privacy policy: Firebase Authentication (sign-in, including the SMS verification message sent to your phone number); Cloud Firestore and Firebase Storage from Google (storing your account data, content, and photos); Firebase Cloud Functions (cleaning up account data on deletion, and sending notifications); Firebase Cloud Messaging (delivering notifications to your device); Google Maps (map display - Google receives map usage data and your location when you use it); EmailJS (sending the support messages you submit through the Help form; your message text passes through it); OpenStreetMap Nominatim (converting coordinates into place names; it receives your coordinates without your account identifier); Open-Meteo (weather data and city search; it receives an approximate location or your search text, and no personal data); and WhatsApp (when you choose to share an invitation link through it, entirely at your own initiative). Motorcycle model and specification data is bundled inside the app itself and no queries about it are sent anywhere, so choosing your bike never leaves your device.
Your data is stored on Firebase and Google Cloud servers. We apply database-level security rules that define precisely what each user may read and write: your bike data is private to you, group chats are readable only by that group\'s members, ride chats only by that ride\'s participants, one-to-one conversations only by the two people in them, your notifications only by you, and a pinned announcement can only be written by the group\'s owner or the ride\'s creator. Even so, no method of electronic transmission or storage can be guaranteed to be absolutely secure.
We retain your data for as long as your account exists. When your account is deleted, your profile and bike data are removed automatically, and your username and phone number are released so they can be used again. Please note that some content is not deleted automatically because it belongs to other people as well: messages you sent in group chats, ride chats, and one-to-one conversations remain visible to the other side, and groups or rides you created continue to exist for their members. If you want that content removed too, ask us explicitly using the contact details in section 16.
You have the right to access, correct, or request deletion of your personal data, to object to or restrict its processing, and to withdraw any consent you have given (such as location, contacts, or notification permission) at any time - noting that this may limit your ability to use some features. You can edit most of your data directly in the app, including changing your phone number, and exercise the remaining rights through the Help form or the email address in section 16.
The app is not directed at children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under that age. If we learn that we have collected data from a child without parental consent, we will delete it promptly. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has created an account, please contact us.
Because we rely on Firebase, Google Cloud, and the other services listed in section 10, your data may be processed or stored on servers outside your country of residence. We rely on the contractual and technical safeguards those providers offer to protect your data during such transfers.
We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for legal or operational reasons, and we will notify you of any material change through the app; the last-updated date appears at the top of this page. For any question about your privacy or your data, contact us through the Help form in the app or by email at support@riderson.com.