Privacy policy · Outreach Transportation

Outreach Transportation is a transportation program operated by Chattanooga Outreach, Inc. We drive people in our programs to work and home again. This policy covers the rider app, the driver app, the sign-up form on this website, and the staff system behind them.

We wrote this to be read, not to be survived. If anything here is unclear, call us and ask.

The short version

We collect what is needed to send a van to the right place at the right time.
Your location is shared only while you are actually riding — from shortly before your pickup until the driver confirms your drop-off. It is off at every other time, and the app tells you on screen which it is.
We do not collect Social Security numbers, bank details, or card numbers. There is nowhere in this system to put them.
We do not sell anything about you, and there is no advertising or third-party tracking in either app.

What we collect

When you sign up on this website

Your name and mobile phone number, and whether you prefer English or Spanish.
Anything else you choose to tell us on the form: whether you are in a program and which one, where you work and your shifts, where you would be picked up, and any note you add.
That you agreed we may call or text you about rides.

We use it only to contact you about rides. Only Outreach staff can see it — not drivers, and not partner organizations. It is not shared with anyone else, apart from the services that help us run this, listed below.

When staff enrol you

Your name and mobile phone number.
Your pickup address — a home, or the shelter.
Where you work, and the shifts you work.
Which program you are part of, if any.
An emergency contact, if you give one.
Whether you prefer English or Spanish.
A photo of you, if you agree to one.

When you use the app

Your ride requests and schedule changes, with the time you made them.
Your ride history: when you were collected, when you arrived, and whether a ride was cancelled or missed.
Your agreement to the transportation waiver and to location sharing, with the date and the exact wording you agreed to.
The milestone chips you have earned.
A profile photo, if you choose to add one, and any new address you send us.
A device token, so we can send you a notification about your ride.

Location

The rider app shares your location only during a ride window — beginning shortly before your scheduled pickup and ending when the driver confirms your drop-off. Outside that window the app does not collect location at all.

The app has no background location permission. If you close the app, location sharing stops. This is not only a setting: our system refuses to record a location that does not belong to a ride that is currently underway.

The driver app shares the driver’s location from when they go on duty until they go off duty, including when they use their own car. Dispatch sees it on the live map, riders can see the van approaching, and it is how we record miles and where pickups and drop-offs happened. Our system refuses to record a driver’s location outside a shift, and takes a driver off duty automatically after 14 hours, or sooner if their phone stops reporting or stays parked for hours.

What we never collect

Social Security numbers.
Bank accounts, card numbers, or any payment information. This program takes no payments and processes no fares.
Your contacts, your microphone, your browsing, or any photo except one you choose to give us for your profile.
Advertising identifiers. There are no advertising or analytics trackers in either app or on this website.

Who can see it

Access is enforced by the database itself, not by what a screen chooses to show. Each of these limits is a rule the system applies to every request.

You see your own records, and nobody else’s.
Your driver sees only the riders on their own run, only on the day of that run, and only the name, phone number, and address needed to collect you. If you have a photo on file, your driver sees it during your ride, so they know who to look for, and cannot see it afterward. Your driver cannot see your case notes, your program, or your stored home address.
Riders see their driver’s name, phone number, and photo, if the driver has added one, only during the ride.
Mission staff see what their role requires. Dispatchers, who run the vans, see your name, phone number, address, and rides. Your intake answers, your program, and case notes are limited to Outreach case managers and administrators.
Partner organizations, once we serve them, will see only their own participants, and never case notes or program affiliation for anyone.

Recovery program information

If you are in a recovery program, that fact is kept separately from the rest of your record and carries tighter restrictions. It is not visible to drivers and will not be visible to partner organizations. Some program information carries confidentiality obligations under federal and state law that are stricter than ordinary privacy rules; we apply the stricter standard.

Who helps us run this

We use a maps provider, Mapbox, to show maps, suggest addresses and work out arrival times. As an address is typed on our sign-up form, in the app or by staff, and while a van is on a run, that address or position is sent to Mapbox for that purpose. It is not sent with your name. The apps run on hosted services that store our data for us. None of them may use it for anything else, and we do not sell it.

How long we keep things

Location history is deleted automatically on a schedule set by Mission staff. It is not kept indefinitely.
Sign-ups from this website are deleted automatically 180 days after they are sent. If you become a rider, what is needed for your rides is kept in your rider record instead.
Ride records are kept — how many rides we delivered, how far, and for how many people. Grant funders and auditors require this, and it is how the program keeps running. It is reported in totals, not as your name.
Waivers and consents are kept for as long as we are required to keep them, including the exact wording you agreed to.
Your photo stays until you remove it in the app or ask staff to. It is deleted when staff remove you as a rider.
A license photo sent with a driver application is deleted about 90 days after we decide on the application. One from an application that was never finished is deleted within days.
The network address a public form was sent from is kept for one day, only to stop the forms being flooded.

How it is protected

Everything is encrypted in transit and at rest.
You choose your own password, with a one-time setup code that staff give you in person. Knowing your phone number is not enough to get into your account. Your sign-in is held in your phone’s secure keychain rather than in ordinary app files.
Every administrative action is logged with who did it and when.
Backups run daily.

No system is perfect, and we will not claim otherwise. If we learn of a breach affecting your information, we will tell you.

Your choices

You can decline location sharing on your phone. The van still comes; you just will not see it approaching on a map.
A photo is optional. You can add, change, or remove yours in the app at any time.
You can ask what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete what we are not required to keep.
You can stop using the app at any time. Ask staff and we will book your rides for you the way we always have.

Children

This program serves adults. The apps are not directed to children and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

Changes

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top and, where the change matters to you, tell you in the app.

Contact

Chattanooga Outreach, Inc., Chattanooga, Tennessee. Call (423) 580-3630.