About this policy
alé is a taxi app for Mauritius that connects riders with drivers who hold a PSV licence. This policy explains what personal information alé collects through the app and through alemauritius.com, why we collect it, who it is shared with and the choices you have.
If you have a question about your information, write to us at [email protected].
Information you give us
- Your account: your email address, which you sign in with using a code we email you; your name; your mobile number, which you confirm with a code on WhatsApp; a profile photo if you add one; and the currency you choose to see prices in.
- Your rides: the pickup and drop-off, the date and time, the number of people and bags, the car type, the fare, your flight number for an airport ride, who the ride is for, and any cancellation.
- Ratings and messages: the stars, compliments and notes you give after a ride, and the messages and photos you send in a trip’s chat.
- If you drive: your profile photo, your national ID card and driving licence (front and back), your PSV licence, your vehicle’s details (make, model, colour, plate, seats and bags) with a photo of its plate, and the prices you set.
- Companies and travel agencies: the name of the company or agency, its members and their roles, the invitations sent, and the people its team books rides for.
- Booking for someone else: the email address of the person you book for. They agree by giving you a code we email them, and they can stop it at any time.
- Messages to us: what you write to [email protected] and your email address.
Information from your phone
- Location during a ride: from the moment a driver is on the way until the ride ends, the rider’s phone shares its position with alé, also when the app is in the background, together with how accurate the position is and the phone’s battery level. Drivers’ phones share their position while they are online and through every ride. On Android a notification shows while this happens.
- Location to book: when you choose Current location or look at cars nearby, the app uses your position to set the pickup and show them.
- Safety alerts: when you use the Safety button, we record the time, whether you called the police or an ambulance, and where you and the other person on the ride are.
- Notifications: the token your phone gives us to send you notifications, and on iPhone the token for the ride on your lock screen.
How we use your information
- To run rides: to show you cars and prices, send your request to drivers, show each side where the other is, and keep a record of every ride.
- To keep rides safe: to check drivers’ documents before they can take rides, to check ride codes, to let you share a ride with family, and to act on safety alerts.
- To contact you: sign-in codes, booking updates, receipts, a request to rate a ride six hours after it ends if you have not rated it yet, and the WhatsApp code that confirms your number.
- To improve alé: to understand routes, timings and distances across the island, which we look at as a whole rather than person by person.
- To help when something goes wrong: to answer your messages, look into complaints and lost items, and settle disagreements.
- To meet the law: when a law, a court or an authority in Mauritius requires it.
Who can see your information
- The other person on your ride: a rider sees their driver’s name, photo, rating, car, plate, badges and position during the ride. A driver sees what they need to take the ride, such as the rider’s name and rating, the pickup and drop-off, the people and bags and the flight number.
- People you share a ride with: anyone with the link you share sees the ride on a map, whether the driver is on the way, at the pickup or on the ride, and where the car is, until the ride ends.
- People who book for you: a person, company or agency you allow to book for you sees the rides they book.
- The alé team: the people who review driver applications, handle safety alerts and answer support messages.
- Service providers who run parts of alé for us: Amazon Web Services (servers, database, file storage and email), Twilio (WhatsApp codes), Google (address search, which receives what you type and the place you choose, and Google Maps when a driver opens directions), Apple and Google (notifications), OpenFreeMap (the map, whose servers receive your phone’s requests for map tiles) and Cloudflare (the website).
- Authorities when the law requires it, or when it is needed to protect someone’s safety.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for advertising.
Payments
alé does not process payments. Riders pay the driver directly at the end of the ride, in cash or with MCB Juice, and alé takes no commission. We keep the fare and the record of the ride, but no card or bank details. A payment with MCB Juice is between you, the driver and MCB.
How we protect your information
- Driver documents and chat photos are stored privately and can only be seen by the alé team, or by the rider and driver of that trip.
- Photos are re-saved when you upload them, which removes the details your camera stores in them, including where the photo was taken.
- Sign-in codes and WhatsApp codes are stored only in a form that cannot be read back, and are deleted once used or expired.
- The app and the website talk to our servers over encrypted connections.
Where your information is kept
Our servers and files are with Amazon Web Services, and some of our providers are based outside Mauritius, so your information may be kept or handled outside Mauritius.
How long we keep it
- Your account information, for as long as your account is open.
- Ride records, including the positions recorded during rides, ratings and chats, for as long as we need them for safety, to settle disagreements and to keep our records.
- Drivers’ documents, while the driver uses alé and for as long as we need them for safety or the law afterwards.
Your choices and rights
- You can see and change your name, photo, number and currency in the app.
- You can stop anyone booking for you in the app, under Who can book for you.
- You can refuse location access, but then your ride cannot be followed on the map or shared, and current location and nearby cars will not work.
- You can turn notifications off in your phone’s settings.
- You can ask us for a copy of your information, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete your account, by writing to [email protected] from the email address you sign in with.
- Under the Data Protection Act 2017 of Mauritius you can also complain to the Data Protection Office.
Children
alé is meant for adults. If you think a child has given us personal information, write to us and we will delete it.
This website
alemauritius.com has no sign-in, sets no cookies, and runs no analytics or advertising tags. Like every website, the server that sends its pages records in its access logs the address each request comes from, the browser it says it is and the page asked for. Requests reach the server through Cloudflare.
Changes to this policy
We will update this page when alé changes the way it uses personal information, and change the date at the top. If a change matters to you, we will tell you in the app or by email.