privacy policy - Smart Taxi Service

Introduction:

Smart Taxi Service recognizes the importance of privacy of its users and also of maintaining confidentiality of the information provided by its users as a responsible data controller and data processer.

This Privacy Policy provides for the practices for handling and securing user’s Personal Information (defined hereunder) by STS and its subsidiaries and affiliates.

This Privacy Policy is applicable to any person (‘User’) who purchase, intend to purchase, or inquire about any product(s) or service(s) made available by STS through any of STS’s customer interface channels including its website, mobile site, mobile app & offline channels including call centers and offices (collectively referred herein as “Sales Channels”).

For the purpose of this Privacy Policy, wherever the context so requires “you” or “your” shall mean User and the term “we”, “us”, “our” shall mean STS. For the purpose of this Privacy Policy, Website means the website(s), mobile site(s) and mobile app(s).

By using or accessing the Website or other Sales Channels, the User hereby agrees with the terms of this Privacy Policy and the contents herein. If you disagree with this Privacy Policy please do not use or access our Website or other Sales Channels.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to any website(s), mobile sites and mobile apps of third parties, even if their websites/products are linked to our Website. User should take note that information and privacy practices of STS’s business partners, advertisers, sponsors or other sites to which STS provides hyperlink(s), may be materially different from this Privacy Policy. Accordingly, it is recommended that you review the privacy statements and policies of any such third parties with whom they interact.

This Privacy Policy is an integral part of your User Agreement with STS and all capitalized terms used, but not otherwise defined herein, shall have the respective meanings as ascribed to them in the User Agreement.

USERS OUTSIDE THE GEOGRAPHICAL LIMITS OF INDIA

Please note that the data shared with STS shall be primarily processed in India and such other jurisdictions where a third party engaged by STS may process the data on STS’s behalf. By agreeing to this policy, you are providing STS with your explicit consent to process your personal information for the purpose(s) defined in this policy. The data protection regulations in India or such other jurisdictions mentioned above may differ from those of your country of residence.

TYPE OF INFORMATION WE COLLECT AND ITS LEGAL BASIS

The information as detailed below is collected for us to be able to provide the services chosen by you and also to fulfill our legal obligations as well as our obligations towards third parties as per our User Agreement.

“Personal Information” of User shall include the information shared by the User and collected by us for the following purposes:

Registration on the Website: Information which you provide while subscribing to or registering on the Website, including but not limited to information about your personal identity such as name, gender, marital status, religion, age, profile picture etc., your contact details such as your email address, postal addresses, frequent flyer number, telephone (mobile or otherwise) and/or fax numbers. The information may also include information such as your banking details (including credit/debit card) and any other information relating to your income and/or lifestyle; billing information payment history etc. (as shared by you).

Other information: We many also collect some other information and documents including but not limited to:

Such information shall be strictly used for the aforesaid specified & lawful purpose only. User further understands that STS may share this information with the end service provider or any other third party for provision and facilitation of the desired booking. STS will always redact all/any sensitive & confidential information contained in the vaccination certificate, passbook, bank statement or any other identity card submitted for the purpose of availing a service, promotional offer or booking a product on the Website. In case a User does not wish to provide this information or opts for deletion of the information already provided, STS may not be able to process the desired booking request. STS will never share any of the above information collected including PAN card details, Vaccination status & certificate , Passport details , Aadhar Card details without their prior consent unless otherwise such action is required by any law enforcement authority for investigation, by court order or in reference to any legal process.

HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION:

The Personal Information collected maybe used in the following manner:

While making a booking

While making a booking, we may use Personal Information including, payment details which include cardholder name, credit/debit card number (in encrypted form) with expiration date, banking details, wallet details etc. as shared and allowed to be stored by you. We may also use the information of travelers list as available in or linked with your account. This information is presented to the User at the time of making a booking to enable you to complete your bookings expeditiously.

We may also use your Personal Information for several reasons including but not limited to:

confirm your reservations with respective service providers;
keep you informed of the transaction status;
send booking confirmations either via sms or Whatsapp or any other messaging service;
send any updates or changes to your booking(s);
allow our customer service to contact you, if necessary;
customize the content of our website, mobile site and mobile app;
request for reviews of products or services or any other improvements;
send verification message(s) or email(s);
validate/authenticate your account and to prevent any misuse or abuse.
contact you on your birthday/anniversary to offer a special gift or offer.

Surveys:

We value opinions and comments from our Users and frequently conduct surveys, both online and offline. Participation in these surveys is entirely optional. Typically, the information received is aggregated, and used to make improvements to Website, other Sales Channels, services and to develop appealing content, features and promotions for members based on the results of the surveys. Identity of the survey participants is anonymous unless otherwise stated in the survey.

Marketing Promotions, Research and Programs:

HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

STS will retain your Personal Information on its servers for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purposes listed in this policy. In some circumstances we may retain your Personal Information for longer periods of time, for instance where we are required to do so in accordance with any legal, regulatory, tax or accounting requirements.

Where your personal data is no longer required we will ensure it is either securely deleted or stored in a way which means it will no longer be used by the business.

COOKIES AND SESSION DATA

Cookies:

STS uses cookies to personalize your experience on the Website and the advertisements that maybe displayed. STS’s use of cookies is similar to that of any other reputable online companies.

Cookies are small pieces of information that are stored by your browser on your device’s hard drive. Cookies allow us to serve you better and more efficiently. Cookies also allow ease of access, by logging you in without having to type your login name each time (only your password is needed); we may also use such cookies to display any advertisement(s) to you while you are on the Website or to send you offers (or similar emails – provided you have not opted out of receiving such emails) focusing on destinations which may be of your interest.

A cookie may also be placed by our advertising servers, or third party advertising companies. Such cookies are used for purposes of tracking the effectiveness of advertising served by us on any website, and also to use aggregated statistics about your visits to the Website in order to provide advertisements in the Website or any other website about services that may be of potential interest to you. The third party advertising companies or advertisement providers may also employ technology that is used to measure the effectiveness of the advertisements. All such information is anonymous. This anonymous information is collected through the use of a pixel tag, which is an industry standard technology and is used by all major websites. They may use this anonymous information about your visits to the Website in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of potential interest to you. No Personal Information is collected during this process. The information so collected during this process, is anonymous, and does not link online actions to a User

Most web browsers automatically accept cookies. Of course, by changing the options on your web browser or using certain software programs, you can control how and whether cookies will be accepted by your browser. STS supports your right to block any unwanted Internet activity, especially that of unscrupulous websites. However, blocking STS cookies may disable certain features on the Website, and may hinder an otherwise seamless experience to purchase or use certain services available on the Website. Please note that it is possible to block cookie activity from certain websites while permitting cookies from websites you trust.

Automatic Logging of Session Data:

Each time you access the Website your session data gets logged. Session data may consist of various aspects like the IP address, operating system and type of browser software being used and the activities conducted by the User while on the Website. We collect session data because it helps us analyze User’s choices, browsing pattern including the frequency of visits and duration for which a User is logged on. It also helps us diagnose problems with our servers and lets us better administer our systems. The aforesaid information cannot identify any User personally. However, it may be possible to determine a User’s Internet Service Provider (ISP), and the approximate geographic location of User’s point of connectivity through the above session data.

WITH WHOM YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION IS SHARED

COMPANIES IN THE SAME GROUP:

BUSINESS PARTNERS and THIRD-PARTY VENDORS:

We may also share certain filtered Personal Information to our corporate affiliates or business partners who may contact the customers to offer certain products or services, which may include free or paid products / services, which will enable the customer to have better travel experience or to avail certain benefits specially made for STS customers. Examples of such partners are entities offering co-branded credit cards, travel insurance, insurance cover against loss of wallet, banking cards or similar sensitive information etc. If you choose to avail any such services offered by our business partners, the services so availed will be governed by the privacy policy of the respective service provider.

STS may share your Personal Information to third party that STS may engage to perform certain tasks on its behalf, including but not limited to payment processing, data hosting, and data processing platforms.

We use non-identifiable Personal Information of Users in aggregate or anonymized form to build higher quality, more useful online services by performing statistical analysis of the collective characteristics and behavior of our customers and visitors, and by measuring demographics and interests regarding specific areas of the Website. We may provide anonymous statistical information based on this data to suppliers, advertisers, affiliates and other current and potential business partners. We may also use such aggregate data to inform these third parties as to the number of people who have seen and clicked on links to their websites. Any Personal Information which we collect and which we may use in an aggregated format is our property. We may use it, in our sole discretion and without any compensation to you, for any legitimate purpose including without limitation the commercial sale thereof to third parties.

Occasionally, STS will hire a third party for market research, surveys etc. and will provide information to these third parties specifically for use in connection with these projects. The information (including aggregate cookie and tracking information) we provide to such third parties, alliance partners, or vendors are protected by confidentiality agreements and such information is to be used solely for completing the specific project, and in compliance with the applicable regulations.

DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION

In addition to the circumstances described above, STS may disclose User’s Personal Information if required to do so:

by law, required by any enforcement authority for investigation, by court order or in reference to any legal process;
to conduct our business;
for regulatory, internal compliance and audit exercise(s)
to secure our systems; or
to enforce or protect our rights or properties of STS or any or all of its affiliates, associates, employees, directors or officers or when we have reason to believe that disclosing Personal Information of User(s) is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be causing interference with our rights or properties, whether intentionally or otherwise, or when anyone else could be harmed by such activities.

Such disclosure and storage may take place without your knowledge. In that case, we shall not be liable to you or any third party for any damages howsoever arising from such disclosure and storage.

USER GENERATED CONTENT

STS provides an option to its users to post their experiences by way of reviews, ratings and general poll questions. The customers also have an option of posting questions w.r.t a service offered by STS or post answers to questions raised by other users. STS may also hire a third party to contact you and gather feedback about your recent booking with STS. Though the participation in the feedback process is purely optional, you may still receive emails, notifications (app, sms, Whatsapp or any other messaging service) for you to share your review(s), answer questions posted by other users or a. The reviews may be written or in a video format. The reviews written or posted may also be visible on other travel or travel related platforms.

The UGC that STS collects may be of the following kinds:

Review and Ratings
Question and Answers
Crowd Source Data Collection (poll questions).

Each User who posts review or ratings, Q&A, photographs shall have a profile, which other Users will be able to access. Other Users may be able to view the number of trips, reviews written, questions asked and answered and photographs posted.

HOW CAN YOU OPT-OUT OF RECEIVING OUR PROMOTIONAL E-MAILS?

You will occasionally receive e-mail updates from us about fare sales in your area, special offers, new STS services, and other noteworthy items. We hope you will find these updates interesting and informative. If you wish not to receive them, please click on the “unsubscribe” link or follow the instructions in each e-mail message.

PERMISSIONS REQUIRED FOR USING OUR MOBILE APPLICATIONS

When the STS app is installed on your phone or tablet, a list of permissions appear and are needed for the app to function effectively. There is no option to customize the list. The permissions that STS requires and the data that shall be accessed and its use is as below:

Android permissions:

Device & App history: We need your device permission to get information about your device, like OS (operating system) name, OS version, mobile network, hardware model, unique device identifier, preferred language, etc. Basis these inputs, we intend to optimize your travel booking experience, use OS specific capabilities to drive great in-funnel experiences using components of device’s OS, etc.

Camera: This permission enables you to use your camera from within the application to upload a new profile picture, upload an image for sharing hotel reviews and also allows you to take videos to upload as video reviews on our application. This permission will also enable you to scan QR codes for easy UPI payments.

Identity: This permission enables us to know about details of your account(s) on your mobile device. We use this info to auto-fill your email ID’s and provide a typing free in-funnel experience. It helps us map email ID’s to a particular user to give you the benefit of exclusive travel offers, wallet cash-backs, etc. It also allows facilitating your Facebook and Google+ login.

Location: This permission enables us to give you the benefit of location specific deals and provide you a personalized in-funnel experience. When you launch Smart Taxi Service app to make a travel booking, we auto-detect your location so that your nearest airport or city is auto-filled. We also require this permission to recommend you nearest hotels in case you are running late and want to make a quick last minute booking for the nearest hotel. Your options are personalized basis your locations. For international travel, this enables us to determine your time zone and provide information accordingly

SMS: If you allow us to access your SMS, we read your SMS to autofill or prepopulate ‘OTP’ while making a transaction and to validate your mobile number. This provides you a seamless purchase experience while making a booking and you don’t need to move out of the app to read the SMS and then enter it in the app.

Phone: The app requires access to make phone calls so that you can make phone calls to hotels, airlines and our customer contact centers directly through the app.

Contacts: If you allow us to access your contacts, it enables us to provide a lot of social features to you such as sharing your hotel/ flight/ holidays with your friends, inviting your friends to try our app, send across referral links to your friends, etc. We may also use this information to make recommendations for hotels where your friends have stayed. This information will be stored on our servers and synced from your phone.

Photo/ Media/ Files: The libraries in the app use these permissions to allow map data to be saved to your phone’s external storage, like SD cards. By saving map data locally, your phone doesn’t need to re-download the same map data every time you use the app. This provides you a seamless Map based Hotel selection experience, even on low bandwidth network.

Wi-Fi connection information: When you allow us the permission to detect your Wi-Fi connection, we optimize your experience such as more detailing on maps, better image loading, more hotel/ flights/ package options to choose from, etc.

Device ID & Call information: This permission is used to detect your Android ID through which we can uniquely identify users. It also lets us know your contact details using which we pre-populate specific fields to ensure a seamless booking experience.

Calendar: This permission enables us to put your travel plan on your calendar.

Bluetooth: This permission enables us to provide you services of the third parties that make available certain features of their products/services on our application. The permission specifically enables our third party service providers whose services you book on the application to permit you to lock and unlock your self-driven vehicles seamlessly.

Video/Audio: This permission enables you to upload videos on our application or to submit video reviews of your hotel/property stays and thereby providing you with new ways of providing reviews of your experience on our application. The audio permission enables us to ensure that the video content that you upload has a clear audio in its background.

Phone Number: We need the permission of access to phone number to provide a seamless login experience, to optimise your travel booking experience and to enable you to obtain UPI services and to prevent fraud in some cases on our application

IMEI/IMSI: This permission enables us to identifying different users uniquely and helps us to prevent frauds on our application.

Subscription Information: Your subscription information enables to provide you a seamless experience depending upon your network and to optimise the application’s performance. In addition this also enables us in providing to you the train status even in an offline mode and additionally even in a no network area you can get fully aware of the status of the train you want to search for.

IOS Permissions:

Notifications: If you opt in for notifications, it enables us to send across exclusive deals, promotional offers, travel related updates, etc. on your device. If you do not opt for this, updates for your travel like PNR status, booking confirmation, refund (in case of cancellation), etc. will be sent through SMS.

Contacts: If you opt in for contacts permission, it enables us to provide a lot of social features to you such as sharing your hotel/ flight/ holidays with your friends, inviting your friends to try our app, send across referral links to your friends, etc. We will also use this information to make recommendations for hotels where your friends have stayed. This information will be stored on our servers and synced from your phone.

Location: This permission enables us to give you the benefit of location specific deals and provide you a personalized in-funnel experience. When you launch our app to make a travel booking, we auto-detect your location so that your nearest Airport or City is auto-filled. We require this permission to recommend your nearest hotels in case you are running late and want to make a quick last minute booking for the nearest hotel. Your options are personalized basis your locations. For international travel, this enables us to determine your time zone and provide information accordingly.

ELIGIBILITY TO TRANSACT WITH STS

You must atleast 18 years of age to transact directly with STS and also to consent to the processing of your personal data.

CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY POLICY

We reserve the rights to revise the Privacy Policy from time to time to suit various legal, business and customer requirement. We will duly notify the users as may be necessary.

You may always submit concerns regarding this Privacy Policy via email to us at [email protected] . STS shall endeavor to respond to all reasonable concerns and inquires.