Privacy Policy

1. Who is responsible for your data

This policy covers the Rovia mobile app (the "App") and the getrovia.co website (the "Site"). Rovia ("we") acts as the data controller. Because we operate from Türkiye, processing is governed by Turkish Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data ("KVKK") and, where applicable to you, the EU General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"). Contact: [email protected]

2. What we collect

2.1 Account information

• Name or username, email address and an optional profile photo.
• If you use Sign in with Apple, the identity details Apple passes to us (name, email, or the private relay address Apple generates).

2.2 Location and ride data

• GPS location while recording: collected continuously for the route from the moment a ride starts until it ends, and saved to your account.
• Drive detection (in the background): if you grant "Always" location permission, when you are not recording the app uses iOS region monitoring around your last known position. When you leave that area it uses GPS and your device's motion type (in a vehicle / on foot) for about 25 seconds to work out whether you have started driving. If you have, it sends you a reminder to record; if "Auto record" is on, it starts recording for you. These short checks are evaluated on your device and are not sent to or stored on our servers unless a ride is recorded. See 4.3.
• Where a ride starts: your device derives the city, district and country from a ride's starting point, and these are stored with the ride. Depending on your visibility setting they may appear on the ride post.
• Ride statistics: route, distance, duration, average and top speed, elevation and the date and time of the ride.
• Ride labels: anything you add yourself, such as a ride name or vehicle type.

2.3 Garage and vehicle information

• The type of vehicle you add (car or motorcycle), the name you give it, the odometer figure you enter and any vehicle photo you upload.
• This is linked to your account only. We do not ask for or collect number plates or registration documents.

2.4 Social features

• Your friend list, friend requests sent and received, and weekly leaderboard data.
• Ride summaries you choose to share, along with the reactions and comments left on them.
• Live location: while a ride is being recorded, and depending on your visibility setting, friends may see you moving on the map in real time. This only works while the recording is in progress and stops automatically when you end the ride.
• Who has viewed your profile (part of Rovia PRO).
• Likes: when you like a ride, people who can see that ride can see you among the people who liked it (your name, username and profile photo).
• Drivers near you: to suggest drivers in your city on the home screen, your device derives your city from your location and only the city name is sent to our servers; your coordinates are not. If your profile is public, you may be suggested to users in the same city based on where your rides from the last 30 days started, and among the most active public profiles to other users. Profiles set to "friends only" or "private" are never suggested. Without location permission this feature does not run.

2.5 Communities

• The communities you join, your membership status and your role (member or owner). Other members can see you in the member list.
• Rides you share to a community, and your comments and likes there, are visible to that community's members, or to everyone in the app if the community is public.
• Community leaderboard: in communities you belong to, your distance is shown to other members. It is calculated from your "public" and "friends only" rides; your private rides are not included.
• The name, logo and member count of public communities also appear on their share link on getrovia.co. That page does not show who the members are.
• The person who created a community can approve join requests and remove members.

2.6 User content

• Share cards you create and any photos you add to them. Photo access is limited to what you explicitly grant and to the images you select.
• Photos you add to ride posts; they appear in the feed and in communities you share to, according to the ride's visibility.
• Support requests you open in the app and the messages in them.
• When you report a user or content, the reason and any note you add. The person you report is not told who reported them.

2.7 Device and usage data

• Device model, iOS version, app version, language and time zone.
• Your answer to the "Enjoying Rovia?" question (liked / not now / not really), when you answered and the app version. This is only used to avoid asking you too often.
• Crash reports and anonymous performance and usage measurements, such as which screens are used. This is used to improve the app, not to identify you.

2.8 Notifications

• If you allow notifications, your device's push token and platform.
• Your notification preferences (friend requests, ride summaries and so on).
• Activity information derived from your account, used to send Rovia announcements and campaigns to the right people: the date of your last ride, how many rides you recorded in a period, how long you have had an account, your Rovia PRO status, your device type and whether you can receive notifications. This is used to form groups such as "active" or "new member"; it is not used for advertising and is not shared with third parties.
• Which notifications were sent to you, whether they were delivered and, if not, why (for example notifications turned off or quiet hours).

3. Why we process data, and on what legal basis

4. A note specifically about location

• Your location is used in two situations: while you record a ride, and, if you grant "Always" permission, in brief background checks to detect that you have started driving (4.3). We do not keep a location history outside your recorded rides and do not send coordinates to our servers outside of them.
• You can change or revoke location permission at any time in iOS Settings. Ride recording will stop working, but the rest of the app continues to function.
• Your routes are visible only to you by default. Sharing a ride with friends or creating a share card is always your choice.
• We do not use location data for advertising or profiling, and we do not sell it.

4.1 Live location sharing

Rovia lets friends watch you on the map in real time while you are recording a ride. What you should know:

• Live location is broadcast only once you start recording and stops the moment you finish.
• Your visibility setting decides who can see it: public, friends only, or private. You can change it in the app at any time.
• Choosing private means nobody can see your live location.
• Live location is for real-time display; what is stored afterwards is the recorded ride itself.

4.2 Visibility settings

You can control who sees your rides and profile at three levels:

4.3 Drive detection

So you do not miss rides you forgot to record, Rovia can detect in the background that you have started driving:

• When you are not recording, the app does not use GPS continuously. It uses iOS region monitoring to wait until you leave the area around your last known position.
• When you do, it uses GPS and motion type for about 25 seconds. If you appear to be in a vehicle at driving speed, it sends a "Started driving?" reminder; if "Auto record" is on in your profile, it starts recording for you.
• To check whether you are on a road, your coordinates at that moment are sent as a query to OpenStreetMap's Overpass service. The query does not contain your account details, name or device identifier.
• For the reminder, only the notification type is sent to our servers; your location is not.
• To turn it off: go to iOS Settings > Rovia > Location and choose "While Using the App". Background drive detection stops completely, and you can still start rides yourself from the app.

5. Who we share data with

We do not sell personal data. We share it only in these cases:

• Service providers: cloud hosting and databases, map and route rendering, crash reporting and anonymous analytics. These providers process data on our behalf and under our instructions, and may only use it to deliver the service. The main ones are:
  • Apple: Sign in with Apple, notification delivery (APNs), deriving city and district from a location, and payments through the App Store.
  • Expo: delivering notifications to your device (push token and notification content).
  • Mapbox: displaying maps, route planning and place search (your search text and map position).
  • OpenStreetMap (Overpass): road-type checks during drive detection (your coordinates at that moment, without identifying information).
  • Amazon Web Services: storing profile, vehicle, ride and community photos.
  • RevenueCat: managing your Rovia PRO subscription status (payment details stay with Apple).
  • Brevo: sending sign-in and email verification codes.
• Other users: depending on your visibility setting, your username, profile photo, ride summaries, garage vehicles and leaderboard distance may be visible to other users. Live location during an active ride follows the same setting. Choosing "private" shares none of it.
• When you share: posting a share card to social media or a messaging app is entirely under your control.
• Legal requirements: where we are legally obliged, such as a court order or a valid request from an authority.
• Business transfer: in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets. We would inform you if that happens.

6. How long we keep data

• Account and ride data is kept for as long as your account is open.
• When you delete your account, personal data is permanently removed from our systems within 30 days at the latest; clearing it from backups can take up to 90 days.
• Live location is not stored permanently; the broadcast ends when the ride ends.
• Vehicles in your garage are kept until you delete them or close your account.
• Anonymised, non-identifying aggregate statistics (for example total kilometres recorded) may be retained.
• Records subject to a statutory retention obligation are kept for the period the law requires.

7. Security

Data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and stored on servers with restricted access. No system is completely secure; if we identify a breach we will notify you and the relevant authorities as required by law.

8. Your rights

Under Article 11 of the KVKK and under the GDPR you have the right to:

• Find out whether your data is being processed, and obtain information about it,
• Learn the purpose of processing and whether the data is used accordingly,
• Have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected,
• Request erasure or destruction of your data,
• Receive your data in a portable format,
• Object to processing and, where processing is based on consent, withdraw that consent,
• Object to decisions produced solely by automated analysis that affect you adversely,
• Claim compensation for damage caused by unlawful processing.

To exercise these rights, email [email protected] from the address registered to your account. We respond within 30 days. You can also delete your account directly in the app: how to delete your account.

If you are in Türkiye you may complain to the Personal Data Protection Authority; if you are in the EU you may complain to your local supervisory authority.

9. Children's privacy

Rovia is not designed for anyone under 16 and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If we learn that a child has provided us with data, we delete it. Please contact us if you believe this has happened.

10. International transfers

Our service providers (for example Apple, Expo, Mapbox, Amazon Web Services, RevenueCat, Brevo and OpenStreetMap) may host servers outside Türkiye and outside the EEA. Where that is the case, transfers are protected by the safeguards required under the KVKK and the GDPR, such as adequacy decisions, standard contractual clauses or your explicit consent.

11. Third-party links

The App and the Site may link to third-party destinations such as the App Store or social networks. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those services.

12. Analytics and cookies

On our website (getrovia.co) we use Google Analytics 4 to understand visitor numbers and which pages are useful. It does not place cookies on your device or store an identifier for you unless you accept via the cookie bar (Google Consent Mode). If you accept, we process aggregate statistics such as page views, device type, country and traffic source, with your IP address anonymised. We do not use advertising or personalisation cookies.

• You can withdraw consent at any time: clearing your browser's site data brings the cookie bar back so you can change your choice.
• Analytics data is retained for a maximum of 14 months.
• How Google handles data: policies.google.com/privacy. To opt out of Google Analytics entirely you can use their browser add-on.
• The app itself does no marketing tracking beyond crash reports and anonymous usage measurement.

13. Changes

We may update this policy from time to time. For significant changes we will notify you in the app or by email. The current version always lives on this page and the "last updated" date reflects the most recent revision.

14. Contact

For anything related to privacy: [email protected]
For general support: [email protected]