Privacy Policy
Last updated September 4, 2026
Rydar AI (“Rydar,” “we”) is a community trust layer for public transit across the cities and regions we support — currently including Puerto Rico, Barbados, and several U.S. metros, and growing as riders help us map new places. This policy explains what we collect, why, and the choices you have. It’s written to be readable — not to hide things in legalese.
What we collect
- Account — your email and name from the sign-in provider (email/password or Google, via Firebase Authentication).
- Profile — your first name, username, avatar emoji, and any profile photo you upload.
- Location — while you run a guided ride, your device location. On mobile, so the bus stays visible even when you put your phone away, this collection continues while the app is in the background or your screen is locked — but only for the duration of an active ride. It is shared with nearby riders solely as an anonymized live bus position, never as your individual location, and it stops the moment the ride ends. Rydar does not collect your location at any other time, and you can decline location permission and still use most of Rydar.
- Rider contributions — trip reports (e.g. “bus didn’t show”), route confirmations, and the Secrets you post, along with any pinned locations you attach.
- Basic usage — searches, routes viewed, and app diagnostics needed to run and improve the service.
How we use it
- Plan trips and show live, crowd-sourced bus positions.
- Compute route confidence scores from rider reports (weighted by reputation).
- Power community features — Secrets, confirmations, and your public profile (emoji/name/photo).
- Keep the service secure and prevent abuse.
How your location is shared
During an active guided ride, your position is fused with other riders’ into anonymized buspositions on the map — the goal is to show where the bus is, not where you are. An individual rider dot is never shown to other riders as an individual. On mobile this continues while the app is backgrounded or the screen is locked, but only for the duration of the ride, and it ends when you stop the ride.
Privacy by design. We apply minimum-aggregation and light location-fuzzing safeguards so a single rider’s exact position cannot be reverse-engineered from a shared bus position, and so no one can reconstruct your home, workplace, or repeated travel patterns from what Rydar displays. Location pings retained to measure reliability are not tied to your public profile.
Who we share data with
- Other riders — anonymized live positions during active rides; your public profile (emoji, name/username, photo) on Secrets you post.
- Service providers — Firebase (authentication) and Google Maps (maps, geocoding). Their handling is governed by their own policies.
- We do not sell your personal information.
Sponsored content (Rydar Nearby)
Rydar Nearby shows public attractions and sponsored offers alongside your transit results. Every paid placement is labeled Sponsored or Founding Pilot. Matching is contextual — based on the route, stop, or broad area of your current trip, not a permanent profile of where you go. To measure and bill placements we record aggregate activity such as impressions, clicks, saves, and coupon redemptions, keyed to route/stop and an anonymous session rather than your precise coordinates. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share your identity with advertisers.
Jobs & housing
Rydar Jobs and Housing help you find work and homes you can reach by transit. When you tap to apply or contact a provider, we record an outbound click for product analytics — this is never treated as an application, hire, or lease, and is keyed to route/stop context and an anonymous session, not a precise commute history. We do not sell or expose your commute history to employers or landlords, and we do not tell them that a named rider passes a commute check. Housing search is kept neutral: we use objective criteria only and never infer household composition, disability, immigration status, income, or other protected traits from your activity.
Your choices & rights
- Edit your profile (name, username, avatar) or remove your photo anytime.
- Turn off location sharing in your device settings.
- Request deletion of your account and associated data by contacting us.
Retention & security
We keep data for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the service. Location pings from rides are retained to analyze reliability and are not tied to your public profile. We use reasonable technical measures to protect data, including encrypted transport and access controls.
Children
Rydar isn’t directed to children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their data.
Changes & contact
We’ll update this page and the “last updated” date when this policy changes. Questions or requests: privacy@rydar.ai.
This is a plain-language template reflecting Rydar’s current data practices. Have it reviewed by legal counsel before public launch.