CarpoolWorld’s mission is to help commuters and other people to find real ridesharing partners and to help employers get their employees into carpools with their co-workers.  We collect information from our clients and users to achieve those objectives.

This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, process, and disclose your information, including personal information, in conjunction with your access to and use of the CarpoolWorld Platform.

You take full responsibility for your use of CarpoolWorld, and by using this web site you acknowledge your agreement that CarpoolWorld has no liability whatsoever for any problem that arises from its use. You are solely responsible for, and assume all liability regarding the information and content you distribute, post, transmit or publish through this site and for the interactions resulting from the use of this site.

If you see an undefined term in this Privacy Policy (such as “Trip” or “CarpoolWorld Platform”), it has the same definition as in our Terms of Service.

When this policy mentions “CarpoolWorld,” “we,” “us,” or “our,” it refers to the CarpoolWorld company that is responsible for your information under this Privacy Policy (the “Data Controller”).

The Data Controller is Planète Covoiturage inc. / CarpoolWorld inc.

CarpoolWorld complies with the GDPR.

Please see Section 10. for the contact details of the Data Controller.

1. Information we collect

There are three general categories of information we collect.

1.1 Information You Provide to Us

1.1.1 Information that is necessary for the use of the CarpoolWorld Platform

CarpoolWorld only requests the minimal information necessary to to provide you with a true ride-sharing service. We ask for, and collect the following personal information about you, when you use the CarpoolWorld Platform. Without it, we may not be able to provide you with all the requested services.

• Account and trip Information. When you sign up for a CarpoolWorld Account, we require certain information such as your user name, name, email address, origin and destination cities, schedule, driver/passenger preference.
• Communications with CarpoolWorld and other Members. When you communicate with CarpoolWorld or use the CarpoolWorld Platform to communicate with other Members, we collect information about your communications within the platform. As soon as you share your email address or phone number and contact each other outside of our platform, we do not have access or store these communications.
• Initial contacts from our matches page, from one user to another, go through our mail server. In this way, the email sender does not see the email address that he has contacted. We record these initial contacts in our mail server history.
• We ask you for your starting and destination addresses to help match your commute. We use these addresses to determine your geographic location (latitude and longitude geocode). You may choose to enter a general address, such as street name alone without house number, or street intersection, instead of your full address, to get only an approximate geocode.

1.1.2 Information you choose to give us

You may choose to provide us with additional personal information in order to obtain a better user experience when using CarpoolWorld Platform. This additional information will be processed based on your consent.

• Additional Profile and Trip Information. You may choose to provide additional information as part of your CarpoolWorld profile (such as gender, preferred language(s), and a personal description for your trip, phone number, profile picture). Some of this information as indicated in your Account settings is part of your public profile page, and will be publicly visible to others.
• Other Information. You may choose to provide us information about your commuting habits when you fill in a transportation mode survey form, conduct a search, update or add information to your CarpoolWorld Account, or use other features of the CarpoolWorld Platform.
• We allow you to enter your daytime and secondary telephone numbers, and we display this information to the other users. This is optional.
• We allow you to enter your mobile telephone number, this number is private and not shown to the other users and is optional.

1.2 Information We Automatically Collect from Your Use of the CarpoolWorld Platform

When you use the CarpoolWorld Platform, we automatically collect information, including personal information, about the services you use and how you use them.

• Geo-location Information. When you use certain features of the CarpoolWorld Platform, we may collect information about your precise or approximate location as determined through data such as your IP address or mobile device’s GPS to offer you an improved user experience. Most mobile devices allow you to control or disable the use of location services for applications in the device’s settings menu. CarpoolWorld may also collect this information even when you are not using the app if this connection is enabled through your settings or device permissions.
• Usage Information. We collect information about your interactions with the CarpoolWorld Platform such as the pages or content you view, your searches for Trips, communications you have initiated, replied, declined or accepted, and other actions on the CarpoolWorld Platform.
• Log Data and Device Information. We automatically collect log data and device information when you access and use the CarpoolWorld Platform, even if you have not created a CarpoolWorld Account or logged in. That information includes, among other things: details about how you’ve used the CarpoolWorld Platform (including if you clicked on links to third party applications), IP address, access dates and times, hardware and software information, device information, device event information, unique identifiers, crash data, cookie data, and the pages you’ve viewed or engaged with before or after using the CarpoolWorld Platform.
• Cookies and Similar Technologies. We use cookies and other similar technologies, such as web beacons, pixels, and mobile identifiers. While you may disable the usage of cookies through your browser settings, the CarpoolWorld Platform currently does not respond to a “Do Not Track” signal in the HTTP header from your browser or mobile application due to lack of standardization regarding how that signal should be interpreted. For more information on our use of these technologies, see our Cookie Policy.

1.3 Information We Collect from Third Parties

CarpoolWorld may collect information, including personal information, that others provide about you when they use the CarpoolWorld Platform, or obtain information from other sources and combine that with information we collect through the CarpoolWorld Platform. We do not control, supervise or respond for how the third parties providing your information process your personal data, and any information request regarding the disclosure of your personal information to us should be directed to such third parties.

• Third Party Services. If you link, connect, or login to your CarpoolWorld Account with a third party service (e.g. Google, Facebook, SSO providers), the third party service may send us information such as your registration and profile information from that service. This information varies and is controlled by that service or as authorized by you via your privacy settings at that service. Facebook, may collect or receive information that you use our app and use that information to provide measurement services and targeted ads, you can opt out of those on the Facebook platform by going to your settings.
• Your References. If someone has written a reference for you, it will be published on your CarpoolWorld public profile page with your consent. To learn more, see our Help Center article about References.

2. How we use the information collected

We use, store, and process information, including personal information about you, to provide, understand, improve, and develop the CarpoolWorld Platform, create and maintain a trusted environment and comply with our legal obligations.

2.1 We Never Sell Your Personal Information

We will never sell your Personal Information to any third party.

2.2 Provide, Improve, and Develop the CarpoolWorld Platform

• Enable you to access and use the CarpoolWorld Platform and find carpool matches.
• Enable you to communicate with other Members.
• Operate, protect, improve, and optimize the CarpoolWorld Platform and experience, such as by performing analytics and conducting research.
• Provide customer service.
• Send you match requests, updates, and match-list reminder notifications.

2.3 Create and Maintain a Trusted Environment

• Detect and prevent spam, abuse.
• Conduct security investigations and risk assessments.
• Comply with our legal obligations.
• Resolve any disputes with any of our Members.
• Enforce our Terms of use and other policies.
• In connection with the activities above, we may conduct profiling based on your interactions with the CarpoolWorld Platform, your profile information and other content you submit to the CarpoolWorld Platform, and information obtained from third parties. In limited cases, automated processes may restrict or suspend access to the CarpoolWorld Platform if such processes detect a Member or activity that we think poses a safety or other risk to the CarpoolWorld Platform, other Members, or third parties.

2.4 Provide, Personalize, Measure, and Improve our Marketing

• Send you newsletters, match-lists, and other information that may be of interest to you based on your preferences (including information about CarpoolWorld or partner campaigns and services).
• Personalize, measure, and improve our marketing.
• Conduct profiling on your characteristics and preferences (based on the information you provide to us, your interactions with the CarpoolWorld Platform, and your search history) to send you newsletters, match-lists, and other information that we think may be of interest to you.

We will process your personal information for the purposes listed in this section given our legitimate interest in undertaking marketing activities to offer you products or services that may be of your interest. You can opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us by following the unsubscribe instructions included in our marketing communications or changing your notification settings within your CarpoolWorld Account.

3. Sharing and disclosure

3.1 Sharing between Members

To help facilitate carpooling between Members, we may need to share certain information, including personal information, with other Members, as it is necessary to organize a carpool, as follows:  

• When you submit a contact request, certain information about you is shared with the contacted party, including your name, trip cities, and other information you agree to share. When you contact another member, you may choose to provide your email address and phone number and any other information such as schedule and sharing preferences.

3.2 Profiles, Trips, and other Public Information

The CarpoolWorld Platform lets you publish information, including personal information, that is visible to the general public. For example:

• Parts of your public profile and Trip information, such as your name, your description, and city (origin and destination), Trip description, schedule, number of seats offered or required, smoker or non-smoker, gender, and driver/passenger preferences, and any additional information you choose to share are publicly visible to others.
• After submitting a contact request, carpoolers may write References and rate each other. References and Ratings are a part of your public profile page.

We may display parts of the CarpoolWorld Platform (e.g., your Trip) on Twitter, using technologies such as widgets or APIs. If your Trip is displayed on a partner’s site, a link to your public Trip may also be displayed.

Information you share publicly on the CarpoolWorld Platform may be indexed through third party search engines. If you change your settings or your public-facing content, these search engines may not update their databases. We do not control the practices of third party search engines, and they may use caches containing your outdated information.

3.3 Compliance with Law, Responding to Legal Requests, Preventing Harm and Protection of our Rights

CarpoolWorld may disclose your information, including personal information, to courts, law enforcement or governmental authorities, or authorized third parties, if and to the extent we are required or permitted to do so by law or if such disclosure is reasonably necessary: (i) comply with our legal obligations, (ii) to comply with legal process and to respond to claims asserted against CarpoolWorld, (iii) to respond to verified requests relating to a criminal investigation or alleged or suspected illegal activity or any other activity that may expose us, you, or any other of our users to legal liability, (iv) to enforce and administer our Terms of Service, or  agreements with Members, or (v) to protect the rights, property or personal safety of CarpoolWorld, its employees, its Members, or members of the public.

Where appropriate, we may notify Members about legal requests unless: (i) providing notice is prohibited by the legal process itself, by court order we receive, or by applicable law, or (ii) we believe that providing notice would be futile, ineffective, create a risk of injury or bodily harm to an individual or group, or create or increase a risk of fraud upon CarpoolWorld’s property, its Members and the CarpoolWorld Platform. In instances where we comply with legal requests without notice for these reasons, we will attempt to notify that Member about the request after the fact where appropriate and where we determine in good faith that we are no longer prevented from doing so.

3.4 Service Providers

CarpoolWorld uses a variety of third party service providers to help us provide services related to the CarpoolWorld Platform. Service providers may be located inside or outside of the European Economic Area (“EEA”).

For example, service providers may help us: (iv) perform product development, maintenance and debugging, (v) allow the provision of the CarpoolWorld Services through third party platforms and software tools (e.g. through the integration with our APIs), or (vi) provide customer service, advertising. These providers have limited access to your information to perform these tasks on our behalf, and are contractually bound to protect and to use it only for the purposes for which it was disclosed and consistent with this Privacy Policy.

3.5 Business Transfers

If CarpoolWorld undertakes or is involved in any merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of assets, bankruptcy, or insolvency event, then we may sell, transfer or share some or all of our assets, including your information in connection with such transaction or in contemplation of such transaction (e.g., due diligence). In this event, we will notify you before your personal information is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

3.6 Aggregated Data

We may also share aggregated information (information about our users that we combine together so that it no longer identifies or references any individual user) and other anonymized information for regulatory compliance, industry and market analysis, demographic profiling, marketing and advertising, and other business purposes.

4. Other information

4.1 Analyzing your Communications

We may review, scan, or analyze your communications on the CarpoolWorld Platform for regulatory compliance, investigation, product development, research, and customer support purposes. In some cases, we may also scan, review, or analyze messages to debug, improve, and expand product offerings. These activities are carried out based on CarpoolWorld's legitimate interest in ensuring compliance with applicable laws and our Terms, preventing fraud, promoting safety, and improving and ensuring the adequate performance of our services.

4.2 Linking Third Party Accounts

You may link your CarpoolWorld Account with your account at a third party social networking service. Your contacts on these third party services are referred to as “Friends.”  When you create this link:

• some of the information you provide to us from the linking of your accounts may be published on your CarpoolWorld Account profile;
• a link to your public profile on that third party social networking service may be included in your CarpoolWorld public profile;
• the information you provide to us from the linking of your accounts may be stored, processed and transmitted for risk assessment purposes; and
• the publication and display of information that you provide to CarpoolWorld through this linkage is subject to your settings and authorizations on the CarpoolWorld Platform and the third party site.

4.3 Google Maps/Earth

Parts of the CarpoolWorld Platform use Google Maps/Earth services, including the Google Maps API(s). Use of Google Maps/Earth is subject to Google Maps/Earth Additional Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy.

5. Third parties and integrations

The CarpoolWorld Platform may contain links to third party websites or services, such as third party integrations, co-branded services, or third party-branded services (“Third Party Partners”). CarpoolWorld doesn’t own or control these Third Party Partners and when you interact with them, you may be providing information directly to the Third Party Partner, CarpoolWorld, or both. These Third Party Partners will have their own roles about the collection, use, and disclosure of information. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of the other websites you visit.

6. Your rights

You may exercise any of the rights described in this section before your applicable CarpoolWorld Data Controller by sending an email. Please note that we may ask you to verify your identity before taking further action on your request.

6.1 Managing Your Information

You may access and update some of your information through your Account settings. If you have chosen to connect your CarpoolWorld Account to a third-party application, like Facebook or Google, you can change your settings and remove permission for the app by changing your Account settings. You are responsible for keeping your personal information up-to-date.

6.2 Rectification of Inaccurate or Incomplete Information

You have the right to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal information concerning you (and which you cannot update yourself within your CarpoolWorld Account).

6.3 Data Access and Portability

In some jurisdictions, applicable law may entitle you to request copies of your personal information held by us. You may also be entitled to request copies of personal information that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and/or request us to transmit this information to another service provider (where technically feasible). We may charge a reasonable fee based only on the administrative cost of providing the requested information.

6.4 Data Retention and Erasure

We generally retain your personal information for as long as is necessary for the performance of the contract between you and us and to comply with our legal obligations. If you no longer want us to use your information to provide the CarpoolWorld Platform to you, you can request that we erase your personal information and close your CarpoolWorld Account. Please note that if you request the erasure of your personal information:

• We may retain some of your personal information as necessary for our legitimate business interests, such as prevention and enhancing safety. For example, if we suspend a CarpoolWorld Account for safety reasons, we may retain certain information from that CarpoolWorld Account to prevent that Member from opening a new CarpoolWorld Account in the future.
• We may retain and use your personal information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations.
• Information you have shared with others (e.g., References) may continue to be publicly visible on the CarpoolWorld Platform, even after your CarpoolWorld Account is cancelled. However, attribution of such information to you will be removed. Additionally, some copies of your information (e.g., log records) may remain in our database, but are disassociated from personal identifiers.
• Because we maintain the CarpoolWorld Platform to protect from accidental or malicious loss and destruction, residual copies of your personal information may not be removed from our backup systems for a limited period of time.

6.5 Withdrawing Consent and Restriction of Processing

Where you have provided your consent to the processing of your personal information by CarpoolWorld you may withdraw your consent at any time by changing your Account settings or by sending a communication to CarpoolWorld specifying which consent you are withdrawing. Please note that the withdrawal of your consent does not affect the lawfulness of any processing activities based on such consent before its withdrawal. Additionally, in some jurisdictions, applicable law may give you the right to limit the ways in which we use your personal information, in particular where (i) you contest the accuracy of your personal information; (ii) the processing is unlawful and you oppose the erasure of your personal information; (iii) we no longer need your personal information for the purposes of the processing, but you require the information for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims; or (iv) you have objected to the processing pursuant to Section 6.6 and pending the verification whether the legitimate grounds of CarpoolWorld override your own.

6.6 Objection to Processing

In some jurisdictions, applicable law may entitle you to require CarpoolWorld not to process your personal information for certain specific purposes (including profiling) where such processing is based on legitimate interest. If you object to such processing CarpoolWorld will no longer process your personal information for these purposes unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for such processing or such processing is required for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

Where your personal information is processed for direct marketing purposes, you may, at any time ask CarpoolWorld to cease processing your data for these direct marketing purposes by changing your notification preferences.

6.7 Lodging Complaints

You have the right to lodge complaints about the data processing activities carried out by CarpoolWorld before the competent data protection authorities.

7. Operating globally

To facilitate our global operations CarpoolWorld may transfer, store, and process your information with service providers. Laws in the service provider's country may differ from the laws applicable to your Country of Residence. For example, information collected within the EEA may be transferred, stored, and processed outside of the EEA for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. Where we transfer store, and process your personal information outside of the EEA we have ensured that appropriate safeguards are in place to ensure an adequate level of data protection.

7.1 California Privacy Rights

CarpoolWorld does not share personal information with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes.

8. Security

We are continuously implementing and updating administrative, technical, and physical security measures to help protect your information against unauthorized access, loss, destruction, or alteration. Some of the safeguards we use to protect your information are SSL certificates, data encryption, and information access controls. If you know or have reason to believe that your CarpoolWorld Account credentials have been lost, stolen, misappropriated, or otherwise compromised or in case of any actual or suspected unauthorized use of your CarpoolWorld Account, please contact us following the instructions in the Contact Us section below.

9. Changes to this policy

CarpoolWorld reserves the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time in accordance with this provision. If we make changes to this Privacy Policy, we will post the revised Privacy Policy on the CarpoolWorld Platform and update the “Last Updated” date at the bottom of this Privacy Policy. We will also provide you with notice of the modification by email at least thirty (30) days before the date they become effective. If you disagree with the revised Privacy Policy, you may cancel your Account. If you do not cancel your Account before the date the revised Privacy Policy becomes effective, your continued access to or use of the CarpoolWorld Platform will be subject to the revised Privacy Policy.

10. Contact us

If you have any questions or complaints about this Privacy Policy or CarpoolWorld’s information handling practices, you may email us or contact us at:

• Planète Covoiturage inc. / CarpoolWorld inc., 317 Levis, Joliette, QC, J6E 2N9, Canada
• Contact us

Last Updated: July 9, 2020