What Information Is Collected
When you use the Via Services, we may collect personal information about you, including information that you provide to us, information that is automatically collected, and personal information about you from other sources and third parties.
A. Personal Information You Provide to Us
User Account Information: To use the Via Services, you may be required to maintain an account with us, which may differ depending on whether you are a Rider, Driver, Delivery User, or Enterprise Platform User (together, these are “User Accounts”). We collect information from you whenever you create or update a User Account, or when one is created on your behalf (for example, by an account holder, caregiver, Enterprise Platform User, etc.)
Depending on your User category, and the type of Via Services you are using, the information you provide to create or update a User Account may include: your name, email address, telephone number, a photograph or profile image, login credentials, physical address, payment methods or banking information, driver’s license and other government identification documents or numbers (which may include social security numbers), insurance and vehicle-related information, demographic information, information about your employment or corporate affiliation (including your employer identification number, company, and/or title).
You may also have an opportunity to provide additional information to us related to your User Account, including information about a disability, service animal, a guardian or personal care attendant, an emergency contact, a home or work address, or other information that may be relevant to your preferences or your use of the Via Services.
In certain jurisdictions, and as permitted by law, we may also collect additional background check and identity verification information for Drivers, including drug and alcohol test records and results, driving history, and credentials or certifications required for the specific purposes for which you would be using the Via Services.
In cases where an Enterprise Customer requests additional information from Users (e.g., documents or information needed to demonstrate eligibility for certain services), we may collect that additional information for the service provided to that Enterprise Customer, and we will do so in accordance with all applicable laws. Such information may include, for example, medical documents that a User provides to us to demonstrate eligibility for paratransit services. We do not receive medical documents from healthcare providers and institutions, or our Enterprise Customers. Any medical documents we receive are provided directly and voluntarily by Users solely for the limited purposes, such as verifying eligibility for paratransit services.
Note that we do not directly collect or store full debit or credit card numbers for Riders, Drivers, or Delivery Users. All payments are provided directly to third-party payment processors, and their use of your information is further governed by their privacy notices. We may collect and maintain information about your transactions and payment methods (e.g., amount, time and date, credit card holder, and the last four digits of a payment card number).
Visitor Contact Information: If you are a Visitor and did not create a User Account, you may be given the opportunity to provide us with contact information or other data, including your name, email address, physical address, telephone number, and occupational and employer information.
Your Communications with Us: Whenever you contact us (for example, through online contact forms available through the Via Websites, by seeking support using your User Account, by responding to one of our messages, leaving feedback or ratings using the Via Services, by notifying us of an incident involving the Via Services or by signing up to our Newsletter), we will collect any information you provide (including the content of your messages or telephone calls to us and any attachments). We will also collect information which is apparent from your communication (for example, the email address or phone number from which you contacted us). If you communicate with us by telephone or other communication platforms, we may record the audio of our communications, create transcripts, and retain the recordings or transcripts consistent with applicable law. In certain instances, we may provide you an opportunity to indicate your preferences for our future communications, and we will collect any preferences you indicate. Please note that our systems may record personal information that you type even if you do not ultimately submit it.
Survey and Rewards Program Information: We may offer you the opportunity to participate in surveys, quizzes, contests, interviews, rewards programs, or promotions. If you choose to participate, we may collect or ask you to provide personal information voluntarily. We may share certain personal information about you with our Enterprise Customers or third-party service providers engaged to facilitate and manage these programs. This information may include, but is not limited to, your name and contact details, device information, geolocation data, payment information, demographic information and ride history.
B. Personal Information Automatically Collected When You Use the Via Services
Location Information: We collect information about your location in different ways depending on how you use the Via Services.
- When Riders or Delivery Users are using one of the Via Apps, we collect location data (including GPS and WiFi data) from your mobile device when the Via Apps are running in the foreground of your mobile device (i.e., when the application is open and on-screen). We may also collect location data in the background (when the application is open but not on screen) if you authorize us to do so through your mobile device settings. You may have opportunities to change location-sharing preferences on your mobile device. If you are a Rider who is aboard a Driver-operated vehicle, we may also indirectly receive information about your location based on the data we receive about the Driver’s use of the Via Services.
- When Drivers are using one of the Via Apps, we collect location data (including GPS and WiFi data) from your mobile device whenever the Via Driver App is running in the foreground (when the application is open and on-screen) or the background (when the application is open but not on-screen) of your mobile device. You may have opportunities to adjust location-sharing preferences on your mobile device.
- For all other uses of the Via Services, we may collect approximate location data (for example, country, city, and ZIP) based on any automatically collected Device Information, Online Identifiers and Usage Information, as defined below.
Device Information & Online Identifiers: We may collect information transmitted from the devices and browsers you use to access the Via Services. This may include your internet protocol (IP) address, cookie ID, similar unique online and mobile identifiers, operating system, browser type, browser language, screen resolution, the URL you entered and any relevant referring page/campaign, as well as information about the mobile devices you may use to access the Via Apps (including your hardware model, version, unique device identifiers, operating system, battery level and charging status, and screen size). This information may be collected and stored by us, or by our third-party service providers and business partners, using cookies, related technologies (such as pixels and web beacons), and third-party analytics tools. For more details, please review our Cookie Notice.Usage Information: We collect information about how you interact with the Via Services, including your User Account transactions, usage, and activity. Usage Information may include, but is not limited to, information about when and how you downloaded any of the Via Apps or created your User Account, your access and login activity, log data, your preferences, details about any transportation or delivery services you request or participate in through the Via Services, your transactions, the specific components of the Via Apps, Via Website, or any other aspect of the Via Solution you visit or use, along with details about your views or use of these components and actions made, such as the links, objects, products and benefits you view, click, or otherwise interact with as well as the duration, time and date stamp, any alerts or communications we send you in connection with your use of the Via Services and your interactions with such alerts or communications; and any errors that may have occurred during your use of the Via Services. This information may be collected and stored by us, or by our third-party service providers and business partners, using cookies, related technologies (such as pixels and web beacons), and third-party analytics tools. For more details, please review our Cookie Notice.Communications Between Riders and Drivers: As noted in the “How We Share Or Disclose Personal Information” section, when we facilitate phone calls between Riders and Drivers, we may use a third-party service to enable these Users to call one another through masked phone numbers without revealing their personal contact information to the User they are contacting. If you make a phone call through this tool, we will collect metadata regarding your communications, including the date, start and end times of the call, and the unmasked phone numbers that participated in the call.In-Vehicle Recordings: Some vehicles operated by Drivers may be equipped with devices that use video camera and/or sensor technology to record events inside and outside the vehicle. Any in-vehicle audio or video recordings comply with the applicable laws of the countries and jurisdictions where the recordings are made. If such devices are installed by one of our service providers, we may collect video images of Drivers and Riders, along with telematics data that includes vehicle location, speed, braking, relative proximity to other vehicles, and collision events that may occur during your ride. In certain limited instances, and subject to notice or consent requirements or another lawful basis in accordance with applicable law, we may also collect audio recordings. Certain devices may employ artificial intelligence to process images of a Driver in real-time in order to identify or alert the Driver to safety-related events such as indicators of distracted driving or unsafe distances between moving vehicles. To the extent that such images would be considered biometric information under applicable laws, the devices may temporarily store or transfer such information consistent with their and Via’s privacy notices. Note, we do not disclose biometric information to third parties for any commercial purposes. When we collect data from in-vehicle recording devices, we work with our service providers to provide notice to both Drivers and Riders that there is a recording device in their vehicle; such notice may be provided through physical signs on the exterior and/or interior of the vehicle.
C. Personal Information Collected from Other Sources and Third Parties
Although we generally collect the personal information described above directly from you, we may also collect this information through service providers and other third parties that collect it on our behalf, as noted below. To learn about the privacy practices of any third party, please review their respective privacy notices.
Enterprise Customers: Enterprise Customers may provide us with your name, contact information, demographic information, and any of the other personal information that may be included in “User Account Information” (defined above) to enable us to offer and provide the Via Services to you. For example, if an Enterprise Customer is a transit agency that wishes to provide the Via Services to paratransit passengers, we may receive Riders’ contact information and information about their eligibility for paratransit services through that Enterprise Customer. In another example, if the Enterprise Customer is a business that uses the Via Services to request transportation services for its employees, the Enterprise Customer may provide us with your name and contact information so that we may notify you of the status of your ride or send you other communications. Additionally, if you are an Enterprise Platform User who needs to access the Via Services to manage a transit network, your employer may provide your personal information to us so that we may authorize you as a User.
Referrals: We may use referral promotions to encourage Riders, Drivers, or Delivery Users to tell friends, relatives, or others they know (“Referred Persons”) about the Via Services. We may ask Riders, Drivers, or Delivery Users to provide personal information about Referred Persons. We use personal information collected in connection with these referrals to communicate with the Referred Person, including to invite them to create a User Account. As explained in the “How We Share or Disclose Personal Information” section, we may also share certain personal information about a Referred Person with the Rider, Driver, or Delivery User who referred them.
Service Providers and Business Partners: We work with a wide range of third-party service providers and business partners who make it possible for us to make the Via Services available and also help us to improve the Via Services. These service providers include data storage and processing services, mapping services; customer support services; background check providers; fraud prevention, security, and troubleshooting services; communications services; translation and accessibility services; insurance providers; research and analytics providers; professional service providers; video recording and telematics service providers; payment processing services; and marketing and social media services. In certain contexts, we may work with business partners including vehicle leasing partners, telehealth services, in-vehicle advertising providers, and insurance providers, among others, which make products or services available to Users who wish to participate. These service providers and business partners may collect your personal information when you provide it to them or automatically when you interact with them, and they may share that information with us.
Social Media: If you decide to interact with Via through social media, we may collect personal information about you that you have chosen to make available to us through your social media account and social media platform settings. We use personal information collected in connection with your social media account and activity to communicate with you and better understand your interests and preferences. Please note that the social media platforms’ respective privacy policies further apply to any of your interactions through their platforms and their own collection, use and personal information sharing practices.
Single Sign-On: We may provide you the ability to log in to the Via Services through certain third-party accounts you maintain. When you use these single sign-on protocols to access our Via Services, you give us your permission to retrieve the relevant information about you, depending on your third-party account’s settings, which may include your email address, user name and other public profile information, provided however that we do not receive your password or similar login credentials.
Other Sources of Information: We may collect personal information from publicly available sources (including government records or public websites) or from other third parties (including data and mailing list providers, regulators, law enforcement, the media, or insurers), including to correct or supplement personal information we have collected about you from other sources.
Use of Anonymized and Aggregated Data:
This Privacy Notice does not apply to anonymized, aggregated, or de-identified data.
Once information is aggregated, anonymized, or de-identified in a way that cannot be associated with or linked to you, we may use and share it for various purposes. For example, we may share aggregated insights about demand patterns with our affiliates, partners, and Enterprise Customers to help them understand passenger behavior, make smarter planning and operational decisions, or improve the Via Services and business operations.
Additionally, we may aggregate, anonymize, or de-identify personal information for analytics purposes to help understand Users’ needs and improve our services and offerings. For example, we may analyze how Users interact with the Via Services (such as the most viewed content, feature or click stream) to improve the way we present such content or develop better features, to measure the effectiveness of our content and advertising campaigns, or otherwise to develop and train our artificial intelligence features and models.