Legal
Privacy Policy
Sayara is a marketplace for renting cars from rental offices in Lebanon. This policy explains what personal data we collect through the Sayara app (for renters), the Sayara partner app (for rental offices) and this website; why we collect it; who can see it; how long we keep it; and what you can ask us to do with it.
In short. We collect what a car rental needs: your phone number, your name, your driver's licence, your bookings and the record of the handover. The office you book with sees what it needs to run your rental, and can open your licence photo only for that booking. We do not sell your data, we do not show ads, and we do not use advertising trackers.
Who we are
Sayara is operated by Vialo Co LLC, a limited liability company registered in Wyoming, United States, 5830 E 2ND St 38755, Casper, Wyoming, US 82609-4308 ("Sayara", "we", "us"). We decide why and how the personal data described here is used, so we are responsible for it.
Each rental office on Sayara is a separate business. When an office receives your details for a booking, it is also responsible for how it handles them in its own records. Our agreement with offices limits what they may do with your data (see Who can see your data).
To contact us about privacy: support@sayara.app or +961 3 011 862.
What we collect
If you rent a car (Sayara app)
- Phone number. You sign in with it. We send a one-time code by SMS to check that the number is yours.
- Name, as it appears on your driver's licence. It is printed on your rental contract.
- Driver's licence: a photo you take or choose from your phone, and the licence type (for example Lebanese or foreign). We may check it and mark it as verified.
- Email address, only if you give us one (for example by emailing support). The app does not ask for it.
- Bookings: the car, dates and times, pickup details, the prices, extras you chose, the booking fee and whether it was paid or refunded, and cancellations with their reason.
- Messages you and the office write to each other in the in-app chat.
- Handover records. When you pick up and return the car, the office records it in the partner app: 8 photos of the car each time, the odometer and fuel level, your agreement to the recorded condition and your signature drawn on the office's phone and, at return, whether your security deposit was returned in full or how much was kept and why. Each photo carries the time it was taken and, if the office's phone allows it, the place.
- Rental contract: a PDF created when the rental starts, from the booking and the pickup record. It shows your name, phone number, licence type, the car, the dates, the amounts and your signature.
- Payment of the booking fee. Card payments are processed by our payment provider, a licensed card-payment provider (online payment is not open yet; the provider will be named here before it opens). We receive the result: the amount, whether it succeeded and a transaction reference. We do not receive or store your full card number.
- Damage claims and disputes: what you or the office report, the photos concerned and how it was settled.
- Reviews: a rating you give an office, or an office gives you, after a rental.
- Searches: the dates, pickup type and filters you search with, and how many cars matched. These records are stored without your name or account.
- Notifications: if you allow them, a code (push token) that lets us send notifications to your phone.
- Support: what you tell us when you call or write to us.
If you work at a rental office (partner app)
- Your phone number (for sign-in), your name and the office you belong to.
- The office's details: its name, the owner's name, phone number, city, location and directions, and its cars, photos, prices and availability.
- What you do in the app, such as accepting a booking or recording a handover, linked to your login.
- Location, at the moment you take handover photos. The app asks for your phone's location when you photograph a car at pickup or return, and saves it with each photo. It does not track you at any other time. If you refuse, the photos are saved without a place.
- If you allow notifications, a push token for your phone.
Technical data
- Crash reports. If crash reporting is switched on, the app sends a report when it crashes: the error, the device model, the system and app version. It is set up not to include your name, phone number, account ID or IP address.
- Security logs. Our hosting provider keeps short-term technical logs, such as the time and IP address of sign-ins and requests, to keep the service secure.
- This website sets no cookies and uses no analytics. Cloudflare, which hosts it, processes your IP address to deliver the pages and protect the site from abuse.
We do not collect your contacts, and the renter app does not use your phone's location.
Permissions the apps ask for
- Camera and photos (Sayara app): to take or choose a photo of your licence.
- Camera and location (partner app): for handover photos and where they were taken.
- Notifications (both apps): optional; the apps work without them.
Why we use it
| What for | Data used | Why we are allowed to |
|---|---|---|
| Create your account and sign you in | phone number, SMS code | to provide the service you asked for |
| Arrange and run your booking with the office | name, phone number, licence, booking, messages | to perform our agreement with you |
| Take and refund Sayara's booking fee | booking, payment result | to perform our agreement with you; accounting and tax obligations |
| Keep a fair record of the car's condition and the deposit | handover records, rental contract | to perform the agreement; the legitimate interest of you, the office and us in settling disputes on evidence |
| Safety, fraud prevention and enforcing our terms, including bans | account, bookings, reports, a hashed phone number | legitimate interest; legal obligations |
| Review reported messages | the recent messages (up to 50) of a conversation someone reported | legitimate interest in keeping users safe |
| Tell you about your booking | push token, booking | your consent to notifications, which you can withdraw at any time (see Your choices) |
| Fix crashes | crash reports | legitimate interest |
| Learn where cars are missing | search records without identity | legitimate interest |
We do not make decisions about you by automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects. We will not send you marketing messages without your consent.
Who can see your data
The rental office. Any office you send a booking request to sees your name, phone number, licence type, whether we verified your licence, and the booking. It can open your licence photo only from the moment it accepts your booking until about 30 days after the rental ends, or while a damage claim about that rental is open. It cannot open it before it accepts, or for a request it declined or that expired. The office also sees the messages you send it, the handover records and the rental contract for your rental. Offices agree with us to use your data only for your booking and their legal obligations, and not to reuse it for anything else.
The renter, if you work at an office: renters see your office's name, phone number, location and directions, and the messages you send them.
Sayara staff see account, booking, payment and handover records and licence photos, to run the service, verify licences, give support and handle disputes.
We do not read your chats. Our tools do not show them to us. If you or the other person reports a conversation, its recent messages (up to the last 50) are sent to Sayara so that we can review them and act, for example by warning, suspending or banning an account. Either of you can also block a conversation. An automatic filter hides severe insults in messages.
Service providers that process data for us, on our instructions:
| Provider | What it does for us |
|---|---|
| Supabase | Hosts our database, file storage and sign-in, on servers in Frankfurt, Germany (EU) |
| An SMS provider | Sends sign-in codes to your phone number |
| Expo, Apple and Google | Deliver push notifications; Expo also delivers app updates |
| a licensed card-payment provider (online payment is not open yet; the provider will be named here before it opens) | Processes card payments and refunds of the booking fee |
| Sentry | Receives crash reports, if crash reporting is switched on |
| Cloudflare | Hosts this website and receives email sent to us |
Offices and service providers that receive personal data from us must protect it with the same or equal protection as this policy describes: offices under our office agreement, and service providers under their contracts with us. They may use it only for the purposes described here.
Authorities, when the law requires it, for example a valid order from a Lebanese court or prosecutor, or when it is needed to protect someone's life or safety.
In a dispute about a rental, the records of that rental (photos, signatures, the contract and the deposit record) may be shared with the other party to the rental, and with an insurer, lawyer or court dealing with it.
If Sayara's business is transferred, for example to a company set up to run it, your data may be transferred with it, and this policy will continue to apply.
We do not sell personal data and we do not share it for advertising.
Where your data is kept
Our database and files are stored by Supabase in Frankfurt, Germany. Some of our providers process data in other countries, including the United States (for example push notifications and crash reports). Sayara is run from Lebanon, so we access the data from Lebanon. We use each provider only for the purposes listed above.
How long we keep it
- Your account (name, phone number, licence photo and type): until you delete your account. If you upload a new licence photo, earlier photos may be kept until then.
- Bookings, payments, handover records, deposit records, damage claims, reviews, messages and rental contracts: 10 years after the rental. They are the financial and legal record of a rental, for the renter, the office and us. Deleting your account removes your name and phone number from your account, but not from these records in every case; the account deletion page explains exactly what stays.
- Reported messages: as long as we need them to handle the report and anything that follows from it.
- Search records: kept for statistics. They do not identify you.
- Bans: if an account is banned, we keep a one-way hash of its phone number (not the number itself) so that the same number cannot sign up again, until the ban is lifted.
- Push tokens: until you sign out or delete your account.
- Technical logs: for a short period set by our providers.
Your choices
- What you must give us, and what is optional. You can look at cars without an account. To book, you need a phone number (to sign in) and your name (it goes on the rental contract); without them we cannot take your booking. Your licence photo is optional in the app: you can add it when you book or later. You must still show your driving licence to the office at pickup, and the office can refuse to hand over the car without it (see the Refund & Cancellation Policy). If you work at an office, you need a phone number to sign in to the partner app.
- Notifications. They are optional. You can switch them off at any time in your phone's settings, which withdraws your consent. Your bookings and messages stay visible in the app.
- Location (partner app). You can switch off the partner app's access to your location at any time in your phone's settings. Handover photos are then saved without a place.
- Camera and photos. You can switch these off at any time in your phone's settings. You then cannot add a licence photo (Sayara app) or take handover photos (partner app) until you allow them again.
- Withdrawing consent stops any further use that relied on it. It does not undo what was done before you withdrew it.
- Your account. You can delete it yourself in the app, except while you have an accepted booking or a rental under way or in dispute. See Delete your account.
Your rights
Lebanese Law No. 81/2018 on Electronic Transactions and Personal Data gives you rights over your personal data. You can ask us:
- whether we hold personal data about you, and for a copy of it;
- to correct data that is wrong or incomplete;
- to delete your data (we will tell you what we must keep, and why);
- to stop using your data for a purpose you object to, where the law allows it;
- to withdraw a consent you gave, at any time (see Your choices).
You can delete your account yourself in the app (see Delete your account). For anything else, contact us at support@sayara.app or +961 3 011 862. We will check that the request really comes from you, usually by calling or texting the phone number on the account, and reply within 30 days.
If you are in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you may also have rights under the law where you live, including the right to complain to your data protection authority. You can also complain to the competent Lebanese authorities.
Security
Licence photos, handover photos and contracts are kept in private storage that only the people described above can open, and the database itself enforces who may see what, not only the app. Data travels encrypted (HTTPS). Once you agree to a handover record, the office cannot change it. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your data, we will tell you as the law requires.
Children
Sayara is not for anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect data about children.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we will update the effective date at the top. If the change is important, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect.
Contact
Vialo Co LLC, a limited liability company registered in Wyoming, United States, 5830 E 2ND St 38755, Casper, Wyoming, US 82609-4308. Email support@sayara.app, phone +961 3 011 862.