Privacy policy

PeerCommute (“we”, “us”) is building a student-only mobility network. This website is an early-access waitlist: transport services are not yet available. This notice explains what personal information we collect through the waitlist, why, and your rights.

What we collect

• Identity & contact: first name, last name, email address and WhatsApp number.
• Study details: university, campus and year of study.
• Travel interest: whether you want to find or offer rides, usual areas you travel between, how often, typical days and times, and trip preferences.
• Driver interest (optional): whether you have access to a vehicle, the make and model if you choose to share it, and seats available. We do not ask for ID, licence or vehicle documents at this stage.
• How you found us: the source you select, and any campaign, ambassador or referral code in the link you used.
• Technical: a random first-party visitor ID cookie and a one-way, keyed hash of your IP address. We use these to prevent duplicate or fraudulent sign-ups and to count unique link visits. We do not store your raw IP address.
• Usage: anonymous events such as page views and form steps, to improve the sign-up experience.

Why we use it

• To manage your place on the waitlist and confirm your email address.
• To understand where and when students need to travel, so we can decide which routes and universities to launch first.
• To measure which events, campaigns and ambassadors bring in registrations, and to manage ambassador rewards.
• To prevent duplicate, fake or abusive registrations.
• Only if you opt in: to send you launch news and updates by WhatsApp and/or email.

We process this information with your consent, which you give when you join. Marketing messages are a separate, optional consent, and you can join the waitlist without it.

What we don’t do

• We don’t sell your personal information.
• We don’t show your contact details to other students, drivers or ambassadors. Ambassadors only see totals, never who registered.
• Referral links contain a random code, not your name or contact details.
• We don’t add you to WhatsApp groups or message you on WhatsApp unless you opted in.

Who processes it

We use trusted service providers (operators) to run the website: database and authentication hosting (Supabase), website hosting (Vercel), transactional email (Resend) and, if enabled, product analytics (PostHog) and error monitoring. Some of these providers may store data outside South Africa. Where they do, we rely on providers bound by data-protection terms that give a level of protection comparable to POPIA.

How long we keep it

• Waitlist registrations are kept until the platform launches and for up to 12 months after, unless you ask us to delete them sooner.
• Registrations whose email address is never confirmed are deleted after 180 days.
• Raw usage events and link-visit records are deleted after 18 months.
• If you ask to withdraw, we delete your registration.

Security

Data is encrypted in transit, stored in a database protected by row-level access rules, and only a small, named team can access it. Admin access requires authentication and role-based permissions, and exports are logged.

Your rights

Under POPIA you may:

• ask what personal information we hold about you and get a copy;
• ask us to correct or delete it;
• withdraw consent to marketing at any time (every message will include a way to opt out);
• object to processing; and
• complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa) at inforegulator.org.za.

Use the data request form or email hello@example.com. We may ask you to confirm your identity from the email address you registered with.

Cookies

We use a small number of first-party cookies: one remembers the campaign or referral code you arrived with (30 days), and one holds a random visitor ID (12 months). If analytics is enabled it stores an anonymous identifier in your browser. Admin sign-in uses session cookies.

Changes

If we change this notice we’ll update the date above. We record the version you agreed to with your registration.