Legal
Privacy policy
How we handle your personal information. We follow the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA).
1. Who we are
Guard Route (Pty) Ltd (“Guard Route”, “we”) is the responsible party for personal information collected through our website at guard-route.com and our apps. For privacy questions or to contact our Information Officer, email [email protected] or [email protected].
2. What we collect
| Information | When |
|---|---|
| Name, email address and city | When you contact us or ask to be told about the launch |
| Account and subscription details (such as a user identifier and subscription status) | When you use the app. Payment is handled by Apple or Google. We do not receive your card number. |
| Location and route information | While you navigate, and while you use safety features you have turned on |
| Destinations, saved places and search terms | When you search or save a place |
| SOS and alert information: your live location, route, vehicle details, linked service, time and status | When you send an SOS or turn on an alert |
| Optional medical or contact details you add | Only if you choose to add them |
| Road reports you submit | When you report a hazard or incident |
| Device and technical information (device model, operating system, app version, crash and performance data, IP address) | When you use the app or the website |
| Voice input | Only for voice search and the hands-free SOS phrase, as set out below |
Medical details and some location information can be sensitive. We collect them only when you choose to provide them or turn a feature on, and we use them only for that feature.
3. How we use it
- To provide navigation, live traffic and route guidance.
- To send your SOS and alerts to the services you link, when you ask us to.
- To run, secure, maintain and improve the app, including detecting fraud and abuse.
- To learn traffic and road conditions from drivers, using information that is combined and not used to identify you in the maps shown to others.
- To manage your subscription status and give you support.
- To tell you about the launch if you asked, and to answer your enquiries.
- To comply with the law.
4. Why we may process it
We process personal information where you consent (for example by turning on location, microphone or a safety feature, or by emailing us), where it is needed to provide the service you asked for, where the law requires it, or where it is in our legitimate interests or yours or a third party's and does not unfairly affect your rights. You can withdraw consent at any time in your device settings or by emailing us. Withdrawing consent may stop some features working.
5. Location, microphone and permissions
Location is used to show your position, calculate routes and traffic, and, if you use safety features, to send your location to your linked services. The app may use your location in the background only while a trip, SOS or alert is active. The microphone is used for voice search and to listen for your SOS phrase when you have turned that feature on. You can turn permissions off in your device settings at any time, but features that need them will stop working.
6. Who we share it with
- Your linked services. If you send an SOS or turn on an alert, we send the relevant information to the armed-response, tracking, ambulance or other service you linked. They then handle it under their own privacy policies and terms.
- People you choose. Family or contacts, when you share a trip or add them as emergency contacts.
- Service providers. Companies that help us run the service, such as hosting, maps and routing (for example Mapbox), traffic and incident data, analytics, crash reporting and communications. They may only use the information to provide services to us and must protect it.
- Apple and Google, for app distribution, subscriptions and, where you use them, CarPlay and Android Auto.
- Authorities and advisers, where the law requires or to protect rights, safety or property.
- A buyer or successor, if our business is sold or restructured, who must honour this policy.
We do not sell your personal information.
7. Tracking-company and partner data
Where a tracking or security partner shares vehicle or incident data with us under an agreement, we use it to build route and area risk information and to provide the partner features. Where we receive information about you from a partner, it is used only for the purposes agreed with the partner and described in this policy.
8. Transfers outside South Africa
Some of our providers store or process information outside South Africa. Where that happens we take steps to make sure the recipient is bound by law, binding rules or an agreement that gives a similar level of protection to POPIA, or we rely on your consent or another lawful ground.
9. How long we keep it
We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purpose it was collected for, to meet legal, accounting or security requirements, or to resolve disputes. Precise location and SOS data is kept for a limited period for safety, support and dispute purposes and is then deleted or de-identified. Waitlist details are deleted after the launch notification unless you stay in touch with us. You can ask us to delete your information earlier.
10. How we protect it
We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information, including encrypted connections, access controls and server hardening. No system is completely secure. If we become aware of a security compromise that affects your personal information, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as the law requires.
11. Your rights
Under POPIA you may ask us to:
- confirm whether we hold personal information about you and give you a copy;
- correct or delete information that is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, misleading or unlawfully obtained;
- stop processing your information, or object to it, in certain cases;
- withdraw your consent.
Email [email protected]. We may need to verify your identity first. If you are unhappy with how we handle your information you may complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa) at inforegulator.org.za. We would appreciate the chance to fix the problem first.
12. Children
Guard Route is not for children under 18, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information. If you believe a child has given us information, email us and we will delete it.
13. Cookies and the website
See our cookies page. The website does not require an account.
14. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy. The date at the top shows when it was last changed. If we make material changes we will tell you in the app or by email where we can.