Privacy, plainly.

You sign in with a code, not a password. You enter your phone number and a code arrives by text message, or you choose email and the code arrives there. The phone number or email address is kept because it is your account: your trips, receipts and messages belong to it. Text messages are sent through Twilio and email through Resend; each sees the number or address and the code in order to deliver it.

Your name. Riders give a name so a driver knows who they are collecting. Drivers give their full legal name, because a background check needs one. On a trip, each person is shown the other’s first name and last initial, not the whole name. You can change your name, phone number and email address in your profile.

The rider app uses your location while you use it. It asks for your location to place your pickup, show cars nearby, price the trip and route it. It does not ask for location in the background. An address you type into the search box is sent to Google, which returns matching places and the route between them.

The driver app shares location while the driver is online. That is what makes a driver available for trips and what lets a rider watch the car approach. It keeps running when the app is in the background, so that it works with the phone in a cradle, and Android shows a notification the whole time. It stops when the driver goes offline or closes the app. The app also uses the phone’s motion sensor to tell whether the car is moving; only a moving-or-stopped flag is sent with each position.

Location updates name the app install. The driver app creates a random identifier the first time it needs one; it is not taken from the phone’s hardware. The app sends it with location updates and with the go-online check. When the session identity check is on, Outride stores it, to show which install of the app passed the check and which is sending locations.

The trail is not kept. Only each online driver’s latest position is stored, and the next update replaces it. Outride keeps the times a driver went online and offline, without positions.

Trips are kept. The pickup and drop-off of each trip, as an address and a map point, are stored with the trip, because they are part of the receipt. Your recent places are made from them.

The application. A driver answers eligibility questions (age range, years licensed, vehicle year, county), gives a full name, phone number, service area and vehicle details (make, model, color, plate), and photographs a driver’s license and an insurance card.

The photos. They go into a private file store that cannot be read from the internet. A reviewer on the Outride team opens one through a link that expires shortly after it is made. Each photo is also sent to Google’s Gemini service, which reads the printed details (for a license: the name, license number, date of birth, class and dates; for an insurance card: the insurer, policy number, dates, named insured and plate) and says whether the photo is legible. Those details are stored with the application to help the reviewer. The machine approves nothing and rejects nothing; a person decides.

Identity verification. A driver verifies their identity with Stripe, using a photo of a government ID. Stripe collects and keeps the ID images; Outride keeps Stripe’s reference and whether the check passed.

The background check. Before the check, the driver reads the disclosure and signs the authorization in the app; Outride records the typed name, the date and which version of the disclosure was shown. The check itself is run by Checkr, a consumer reporting agency, which collects what it needs (such as a Social Security number and date of birth) directly from the driver. Outride records the result and a reference to the report.

Fingerprint and face unlock. If a driver’s account requires it, the app asks the phone to confirm it is them before they go online. The phone does the check. No fingerprint, face or other biometric data leaves the phone or reaches Outride. Outride records that a check passed, when, and the app install it was passed on (see Location).

Card numbers never reach Outride. A card is entered into Stripe’s own form and stored by Stripe. Outride keeps the card brand and last four digits, enough to show which card a trip used.

A charge. The fare is held on the card when you request a ride and taken when the trip finishes. Outride keeps the amount, the time, the trip it belongs to, any tip or refund, and Stripe’s references, because together those are the receipt. When a card is declined, the reason is kept for 90 days.

Driver payouts. Drivers are paid through Stripe, which collects identity and bank details directly in order to pay them. Outride sees whether the account is ready to be paid, the payout schedule, and the amounts.

Messages. The text chat on a trip is stored with the trip. The rider and driver on the trip can read it, and the Outride team can read it when it is part of a support request.

Reports and blocks. When you report a message or a person, the report and a copy of the message it is about are kept for the Outride team to review, even if either account is later deleted, and when you block someone, the block is kept so the two of you are not matched or able to message again until you lift it or either account is deleted.

Ratings. The rating, compliments and tip a rider leaves, and the rating a driver leaves, are stored with the trip.

Sharing a trip. A rider can send a link to someone they choose. It shows the rider’s first name, the driver’s first name and last initial, the car and plate, the pickup and drop-off, and the car’s position. It stops working when the trip ends, and after 24 hours at most.

Support. What you write to the Outride team from the help screen is stored with your account, with the trip you attached if you attached one, so the team can answer you.

Notifications. They are delivered by Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging. To send one, Outride stores the token that identifies your copy of the app, and replaces it when your phone issues a new one. Turning notifications off in your phone’s settings stops them; you can also choose which kinds you get in the app.

Errors. When error reporting is switched on, a report of what went wrong goes to Sentry so it can be fixed. Email addresses and phone numbers are removed from the report on the phone, before it is sent.

The camera and photos. The driver app uses the camera, or a photo you pick, only to capture application documents. It does not record sound.

Each of these companies does one job for Outride and is given what that job needs. None of them is given your information to use for its own purposes.

• Stripe. Card payments, driver identity verification, and driver payouts. Stripe holds card, bank and identity-document details; Outride holds references to them.
• Checkr. Driver background checks. Checkr collects what it needs for the check directly from the driver, through its own invitation.
• Google. Maps, address search and routes; delivery of push notifications (Firebase Cloud Messaging); and reading the details printed on driver application photos (Gemini).
• Twilio. Delivers the text message that carries a sign-in code.
• Resend. Delivers email: sign-in codes, receipts, and messages about a driver application.
• Supabase. Runs the database, the sign-in service, and the private file store that driver application photos are kept in.
• Railway. Runs the Outride services the apps talk to, including the store of each online driver's latest position.
• Vercel. Serves this website.
• Sentry. Receives error reports when error reporting is switched on, with email addresses and phone numbers removed first.

Beyond these, information goes to another person only as part of a trip (the rider and driver see what is described above), to someone a rider chooses to share a trip with, or where the law requires it.

Outride operates in Florida, in the United States. Its database is hosted in the United States. Email is sent through Resend’s service in Ireland.

• Outride does not sell personal information and does not share it for advertising.
• Neither app contains advertising or analytics software, and neither uses the advertising ID. Nothing follows you between apps or across the web.
• Neither app records audio or video.
• The rider app does not use your location when you are not using it, and the driver app does not use it when the driver is offline.

Your account, trips, receipts, ratings and messages are kept while your account exists, because they are the record of what happened and the basis of any question you raise about it later. Driver application records and photos are kept while the application is open and while the driver is approved to drive.

Some things are shorter-lived by design: only a driver’s latest position exists, a trip-sharing link lasts no more than 24 hours, a held price lasts minutes, and the reason a card was declined is deleted after 90 days. When your account is deleted, the information described here is deleted with it, except what “Deleting your account” lists as kept. Stripe and Checkr keep their own records under their own policies.

To have your Outride account deleted, or to ask what is held about you, write to hello@outride.now from the email address on your account, or send the request from the help screen in either app, or use the contact form and give the phone number or email address you sign in with. A person on the Outride team handles each request and replies to you. You can also delete your account yourself in either app: open Profile and choose Delete account (in the driver app it is also on your application status screen). See how to delete your account.

What deleting keeps. Deleting removes your name, phone number, email address, documents and their photos, cars, registered phones and saved cards, and signs you out everywhere. These are kept, no longer linked to your name: trip and payment records, which the law requires; messages, support requests and ratings you wrote, shown as from “Deleted user”; reports made on a trip, including reports about you; and, for a driver, the background check order and the consent signed for it, including the legal name it was signed with.

Your choices in the meantime. Location and notifications are switches in your phone’s settings, and turning either off works. With location off, the driver app cannot go online and the rider app cannot find your pickup for you. With notifications off, trip updates reach you only while the app is open.

Outride is for adults. You must be 18 or older to use the rider app, and drivers must meet Outride’s minimum driving age, which is 21 today. Outride does not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 has an account, write to hello@outride.now and the account will be closed.

Nothing, unless you fill in one of the three forms: the Outride Food teaser, the driver waitlist, and the contact form on the About page. There is no advertising, no third-party tracking script and no cookie set by this site.

From the two waitlist forms, Outride stores what you typed (an email address and, depending on the form, a phone number, a name, the area you drive, and your answer to the optional question), which form it came from and which region the site was serving, the time you submitted it, your browser’s user-agent string, and a one-way salted hash of your IP address. The address itself is not stored; the hash stops one machine flooding the form. It is not sold, not shared, and not added to any mailing tool. You are contacted once, when the thing you signed up for opens.

From the contact form, Outride stores your message, the name you gave if you gave one, and the email address or phone number you asked to be answered on. It becomes a support request and is used to answer you. Your IP address is not stored: a one-way salted hash of it is counted, in memory, for an hour, so that one machine cannot flood the form.

When the apps change what they collect, this policy changes in the same release, and the date at the top changes with it. Questions about it go to hello@outride.now, the help screen in either app, or the contact form.