Section 01
Who we are
Teleza is a ride-hailing service operating in Tanzania. This policy covers the Teleza mobile application (app.teleza.android on Google Play and the equivalent iOS build) and everything you do inside it, whether you use it as a rider, as a driver, or as both.
In this policy, "we", "us" and "Teleza" mean the operator of the Teleza app. "You" means the person using it. Where the Personal Data Protection Act, 2022 applies, we act as the data controller for the personal data described below.
Section 02
What we collect
We collect only what a trip actually requires. Nothing here is gathered for profiling, resale, or advertising.
Account information
You sign in with Google or with Apple — Teleza has no password of its own. From that sign-in we receive your name, your email address and your profile photo, along with a unique account identifier. If you use Sign in with Apple and choose to hide your email, we only ever see Apple's private relay address.
Phone number
Riders are asked for a phone number the first time they request a trip; drivers give one during registration. The number is attached to the trip so that you and your driver can call or message each other, and it is kept on your own device so you are not asked again.
Location
Pickup and destination coordinates for riders, and live position and heading for drivers who are online. This is described in full in section 3.
Trip records
For every trip: pickup and destination, distance, vehicle class, price, the time it was requested and completed, its status, the verification code shown to you and your driver, and the name and phone number of both parties.
Driver registration documents
Drivers upload the documents required to be approved to drive — typically a driving licence, vehicle registration, insurance and a photograph. The exact list is set by us and can change; the app shows the current requirements on the registration screen. Providing them is voluntary, but a driver cannot be approved without them.
Payment information for drivers
Drivers pay a subscription to stay active. We record the mobile money number used, the amount, the plan chosen, a transaction reference and whether the payment succeeded. See section 7.
Device and notification data
A push notification token so we can reach your device with trip alerts, plus basic technical information — app version, device type and operating system — used to deliver the service and diagnose faults.
Camera and microphone
The app requests camera access so you can photograph a document instead of hunting for a file, and microphone access is declared for identity checks. Nothing is captured unless you deliberately start a capture, and no audio or video is recorded in the background.
Data stored only on your phone
Your recent destinations (the last ten), your saved phone number, and — for drivers — your subscription expiry, are stored locally on your device. Uninstalling the app removes them.
Section 03
Location, in detail
Location is the most sensitive thing Teleza touches, so it gets its own section.
If you are a rider
Teleza reads your location when you open the map and when you set a pickup point, so we can show you where you are and find drivers near you. Your pickup and destination are saved with the trip. We do not track riders between trips, and we do not follow you after a trip ends.
If you are a driver
While you are online, Teleza sends your position and heading continuously so riders can see you approaching and so we can offer you requests nearby. This continues while the app is in the background or your screen is locked — a driver whose location stopped the moment they put their phone down could not be dispatched. Android shows a persistent notification for the whole time this is running.
The moment you go offline, location sharing stops. Your last position is overwritten by the next update rather than kept as a history, and we do not build a movement trail of your day.
Background location. Teleza asks for background location permission from drivers only, and only for dispatch and live tracking during trips. Riders are never asked for it.
Turning it off. You can withdraw location permission at any time in your phone's settings. Teleza will still open, but it cannot set a pickup or put a driver online without it.
We also derive a coarse geographic code from a driver's position — an approximate area rather than a precise point — and use it to notify only the drivers near a rider, instead of broadcasting every request to everyone.
Section 04
Why we use it
Each kind of data has a purpose, and we do not repurpose it later for something unrelated.
| Data | Why we hold it | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Name, email, photo | To identify your account, greet you, and show your driver or rider who they are meeting | While your account exists |
| Phone number | So you and the other party can contact each other about a trip, and so support can reach you | While your account exists |
| Rider location | To place your pickup, plan the route, price the trip and match you to nearby drivers | Kept as part of the trip record |
| Driver live location | To dispatch nearby requests and let your rider watch you approach | Overwritten continuously; not kept as a trail |
| Trip records | Your trip history, receipts, driver earnings, safety follow-up and dispute resolution | Up to 7 years, for accounting and legal reasons |
| Driver documents | To verify a driver is licensed, insured and permitted to carry passengers | While the driver is active, then as the law requires |
| Payment records | To activate a driver subscription and keep an accurate financial record | Up to 7 years, for accounting and legal reasons |
| Push token, device info | To send trip alerts and to diagnose crashes and faults | Refreshed by the device; removed when you sign out or uninstall |
Where the law requires a lawful basis, we rely on performance of our contract with you (providing trips), your consent (location and notification permissions, which you can withdraw), our legitimate interest in keeping the service safe and working, and our legal obligations (tax, accounting and licensing records).
Section 06
Services we rely on
Teleza is built on infrastructure from other companies. They process data on our instructions, and their own privacy policies apply to that processing.
Teleza contains no advertising networks, no analytics sold to third parties, and no social media tracking pixels.
Section 07
Payments
Trip fares are settled directly between rider and driver. Teleza shows the agreed price for the trip; the app does not take a rider's card details or process a rider's fare, so we hold no rider payment credentials at all.
Drivers pay a subscription — daily, weekly or monthly — to stay active on the platform. That payment is initiated from the app using a mobile money number you enter, and completed by the mobile money provider. We store the number, the amount, the plan, a reference and the result. We never see or store a PIN.
Before you activate
Starting a driver subscription in the app triggers a real charge on the mobile money number you enter. Confirm the number and the plan before you confirm the payment.
Section 08
How long we keep it
Retention periods are set out per data type in the table in section 4. In summary:
- Your account and its details are kept while your account is open.
- Trip and payment records are kept for up to seven years, because tax, accounting and dispute rules require a financial record to survive the account that produced it.
- Driver live location is not archived. Each update replaces the last.
- Driver documents are kept while the driver is active, and afterwards only for as long as licensing or legal obligations require.
- Anything held only on your phone disappears when you uninstall the app.
When you ask us to delete your account, we remove your profile, your phone number and your driver documents, and we detach your trip history from your identity so that what remains is a financial record rather than a record about you.
Section 09
Your rights
You can exercise any of the following. We answer within 30 days and we do not charge for it.
- Access. Ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Correction. Fix anything wrong. Your name and photo can be edited in the app under Profile; anything else, ask support.
- Deletion. Ask us to delete your account and personal data, subject to the financial records we are legally required to keep.
- Objection and restriction. Ask us to stop or limit a particular use of your data.
- Portability. Ask for your data in a machine-readable form.
- Withdraw consent. Turn off location or notification permissions in your phone's settings at any time. This does not undo processing that already happened, and parts of the app will stop working.
- Complain. If we have not handled your data properly, you can complain to the Personal Data Protection Commission in Tanzania.
How to make a request. Open the app, go to Menu → Help, and use Message support or Call support. Tell us which right you are exercising. We may need to confirm your identity before we act, so that no one else can make the request in your name.
Section 10
Security
Everything the app sends travels over encrypted connections (TLS), and data at rest is encrypted by our infrastructure providers. Access to our database is governed by server-side security rules, so a signed-in account can only read the trips and records that belong to it — a rider cannot read another rider's trips, and a driver cannot read documents that are not theirs. Access by our own staff is limited to the people who need it to run the service and handle support.
No system is perfect. If a breach affects your personal data and puts you at risk, we will notify you and the relevant authority without undue delay. Keep your Google or Apple account secure — anyone who can sign in there can sign in to Teleza.
Section 11
Where data is stored
Teleza runs on Google Cloud infrastructure. This means your personal data may be stored and processed on servers outside Tanzania, in countries whose data protection laws differ from Tanzanian law. Where that happens, we rely on our providers' contractual safeguards for international transfers and require them to protect your data to the standard described in this policy.
Section 12
Age requirement
You must be at least 18 years old to hold a Teleza account, as a rider or as a driver. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. A younger passenger may of course travel, but the account and the booking must belong to a responsible adult.
If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we will remove it and the data attached to it.
Section 13
Changes to this policy
We update this policy when what we do with data changes. The effective date at the top of the page always tells you which version you are reading, and the current version lives at this address, reachable from Menu → Privacy Policy in the app.
If a change materially affects your rights or introduces a new use of your data, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect. Continuing to use Teleza after a change means you accept the updated policy.
Section 14
Contact us
Questions about this policy, or about your data, reach us the same way everything else does.
This policy is written to be read. If any part of it is unclear, tell us and we will fix the wording, not just explain it.