Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

FleetMate ("we", "us", "our") is a fleet and plant management platform. Our platform is available via the web at fleetmate.co.za and as an Android application.

We are the data controller for personal information collected through the FleetMate platform. For personal data processed on behalf of your organisation (your company's fleet records), your employer or company acts as the data controller and we act as a data processor.

2. Information We Collect

Account & Identity Information

• Your name and email address when you register
• Profile photo (if provided via Google Sign-In)
• Password (stored as a secure hash — we never store plain-text passwords)
• Google account details when you use "Continue with Google"

Fleet & Operational Data

• Plant and equipment records you create (names, IDs, hours, status)
• Fault reports including descriptions, photos, and assignee information
• Maintenance schedules, service records, and inspection notes
• Parts order information and associated notes
• GPS location data from connected VTrack devices (not your personal device location)

Usage & Technical Information

• Device type, operating system, and app version
• Pages viewed and features used (via Firebase Analytics)
• Crash reports and error logs (to improve reliability)
• IP address and approximate geographic region
• Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) token for push notifications

Communications

• Messages and notes you post within fault or maintenance threads
• Any correspondence you send to our support team

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide and operate the FleetMate platform, including authentication, data synchronisation, and notifications
• Enable collaboration within your company by displaying your name and profile to colleagues in the same organisation
• Send notifications about fault updates, service reminders, and platform alerts you have opted into
• Improve the platform by analysing usage patterns and diagnosing technical issues
• Provide customer support when you contact us
• Comply with legal obligations such as tax, audit, and record-keeping requirements
• Detect and prevent fraud, abuse, or security incidents

We do not use your data for advertising, and we do not sell or rent your personal information to any third party.

4. Legal Basis for Processing

Where applicable law requires a lawful basis for processing personal data, we rely on:

• Contract performance — to provide the services you have signed up for
• Legitimate interests — to improve security, prevent fraud, and develop the platform (where our interests are not overridden by your rights)
• Legal obligation — where we are required to process data to comply with applicable law
• Consent — for optional features such as push notifications (you may withdraw consent at any time)

5. Sharing Your Information

We share personal information only in the following circumstances:

Within your organisation

Your name and profile are visible to other members of your FleetMate company account. Fault reports, notes, and activity you create within that account are accessible to other members of the same company.

Service providers (sub-processors)

We use the following trusted third-party services to operate FleetMate. Each is bound by data processing agreements:

• Google Firebase (Authentication, Firestore, Storage, Functions, Analytics, FCM) — data hosted in Google Cloud (primarily europe-west regions)
• Algolia — powers in-app search indexing of fleet records
• Google Maps Platform — map rendering for GPS tracking features
• Google Sign-In — OAuth authentication

Legal disclosures

We may disclose information if required to do so by law, court order, or regulatory authority, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of FleetMate, our users, or the public.

Business transfers

If FleetMate is acquired, merged, or its assets are transferred, your data may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you before your data is subject to a materially different privacy policy.

6. Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide services. Specifically:

• Account data — retained for the life of your account and deleted within 90 days of account deletion upon request
• Fleet and operational records — retained for the duration of your company subscription plus a 12-month archival period, unless earlier deletion is requested
• Analytics and logs — retained for up to 14 months in line with Firebase Analytics defaults
• Backups — deleted within 90 days of the primary data deletion event

You may request deletion of your account and associated personal data at any time (see Your Rights below).

7. Security

We implement industry-standard technical and organisational measures to protect your data, including:

• TLS/HTTPS encryption for all data in transit
• Firebase Security Rules controlling access at the database level
• Firebase App Check to verify that only authorised clients can access our backend
• Role-based access control — users can only access data belonging to their own company
• Passwords hashed by Firebase Authentication (we never store plain-text passwords)

No system is 100% secure. If you believe your account has been compromised, please contact us immediately at privacy@fleetmate.co.za.

8. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal information. We honour these requests for all users regardless of jurisdiction:

• Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Correction — request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data
• Deletion — request deletion of your personal data ("right to be forgotten")
• Portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format
• Objection — object to processing based on legitimate interests
• Restriction — request that we limit how we process your data
• Withdraw consent — for consent-based processing (e.g. push notifications), withdraw at any time via device settings or by contacting us

You may also have the right to lodge a complaint with the data protection authority in your country or region if you believe we have not handled your data in accordance with applicable law.

9. Children's Privacy

FleetMate is a business-to-business platform intended for use by adults in professional settings. We do not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under the age of 18. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected data from a child, we will delete it promptly. Please contact us at privacy@fleetmate.co.za if you believe this has occurred.

10. Cookies & Tracking Technologies

Our landing page and web app use the following technologies:

• Session storage — to maintain your authentication state across page loads (Firebase Auth session persistence). No persistent tracking cookies are set by us directly.
• Firebase Analytics — uses a first-party cookie and device identifiers to measure feature usage and crashes. This data is pseudonymous and aggregated.
• Google Sign-In — Google may set cookies for authentication purposes, governed by Google's Privacy Policy.

You can disable cookies in your browser settings, though this may affect authentication functionality. Analytics can be disabled by enabling "Do Not Track" in your browser.

11. International Data Transfers

FleetMate uses Google Cloud infrastructure. Your data may be processed in data centres located in the European Union (Google Cloud europe-west regions) and the United States.

Google provides appropriate safeguards for international transfers through Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) and its participation in the EU–US Data Privacy Framework where applicable. For more information, see Google Cloud's Data Processing Addendum.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will notify you via email (to the address associated with your account) or via a prominent notice in the app at least 14 days before the changes take effect. Your continued use of FleetMate after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

The "Last updated" date at the top of this page indicates when the policy was most recently revised. We recommend reviewing this page periodically.

13. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please reach out: