Privacy policy

1. Controller

The controller responsible for processing your personal data is Mate Bus, Buenos Aires, Argentina, represented by —. Email: hola@matebus.app.

We process personal data in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), where applicable, and Argentina's Personal Data Protection Law No. 25.326 (Ley 25.326).

2. Data we collect

Depending on how you use our services, we process the following data:

• ●Booking data: name, email address, phone number, country, driver age, travel dates, locations, vehicle category, cover option, extras and booking history.
• ●Check-in data: date of birth, driving licence number, issuing country and expiry date, passport number, address, and photos of your driving licence and passport, for each driver.
• ●Payment data: payments are processed by Stripe. We receive information on the payment status and the amount, but we do not store your card data.
• ●Newsletter: your email address, if you subscribe.
• ●Reviews: the content of your review, your name as you provide it and the related trip.
• ●Communication: the content of messages you send us by email or WhatsApp.
• ●Technical data: IP address, browser type and time of access, which are processed automatically when you visit the website.

3. Purposes and legal bases

We process your data for the following purposes and on the following legal bases:

• ●To process your booking, arrange a vehicle with a vehicle partner, carry out check-in, pick-up and return, and handle cancellations and refunds: performance of a contract and pre-contractual measures (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).
• ●To comply with legal obligations, for example retention obligations under tax and commercial law: legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR).
• ●To send the newsletter: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). You can withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future.
• ●To publish reviews after moderation: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR).
• ●To operate the website securely and reliably, to prevent fraud and misuse, to assert or defend legal claims, and to attribute bookings to referral partners: our legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

4. Check-in data and identity documents

Before the trip you upload the driver data and photos of the driving licence and passport via your booking page. We use this data only for the purpose of the rental, in particular to verify the driver requirements and to prepare the rental contract with the vehicle partner.

The check-in data and document photos are deleted at the latest 12 months after the end of your trip, unless statutory retention obligations require longer storage.

5. Recipients

We only share your data where this is necessary for the purposes described above:

• ●Vehicle partners: the vehicle partner assigned to your booking receives the booking and check-in data needed to hand over the vehicle, prepare the rental contract, hold the security deposit and provide breakdown assistance.
• ●Vercel Inc. (USA): hosting of the website.
• ●Neon Inc. (USA, AWS region us-east): database hosting.
• ●Stripe: payment processing. Stripe processes payment data in part as an independent controller.
• ●Resend: sending of booking emails and the newsletter.
• ●OpenStreetMap: our maps load map tiles from tile.openstreetmap.org. Your IP address is transmitted to the tile servers in the process.
• ●Authorities, courts and legal advisers, where we are legally obliged or this is necessary to assert or defend legal claims.

6. Transfers to third countries

Some of our service providers are located outside the European Union and outside Argentina, in particular in the USA. Where personal data is transferred to such countries, we ensure an adequate level of protection, for example through an adequacy decision, the EU Standard Contractual Clauses or other appropriate safeguards provided for by law.

Because Mate operates in Argentina and the vehicle partners are located in Argentina or Uruguay, the processing of your booking necessarily involves the transfer of data to these countries, where this is required to perform the contract with you (Art. 49(1)(b) GDPR).

7. Cookies

We only use cookies that are strictly necessary. We do not use analytics or advertising cookies, and fonts are hosted on our own servers.

• ●Staff login cookie: keeps authorised staff logged in on the internal operations area (/ops). It is not set for customers.
• ●Referral cookie “mate_ref”: if you reach our website via a partner's referral link, this cookie stores the partner code for 30 days so that a booking can be attributed to the partner.

8. Newsletter

If you subscribe to our newsletter, we use your email address to send you news and offers from Mate Bus. Subscription is voluntary (opt-in). Every email contains an unsubscribe link, and you can also withdraw your consent by writing to hola@matebus.app.

9. Reviews

After your trip you can leave a review. Reviews are moderated before they are published. You can ask us at any time to remove your published review.

10. Partner programme

Hostels, creators and travel agencies can take part in our partner programme. When a booking is made via a partner's referral link, we record the partner code with the booking in order to calculate the commission on completed bookings. We do not share your contact or check-in data with referral partners.

11. Storage period

We store personal data only for as long as necessary for the respective purpose. Booking data is stored for the duration of the contractual relationship and thereafter in accordance with statutory retention obligations. Check-in data and document photos are deleted at the latest 12 months after the trip, unless legal retention applies. Newsletter data is stored until you unsubscribe.

12. Your rights

You have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• ●Right of access to the data we hold about you.
• ●Right to rectification of inaccurate data.
• ●Right to erasure, unless we are legally obliged to retain the data.
• ●Right to restriction of processing.
• ●Right to data portability.
• ●Right to object to processing based on our legitimate interests.
• ●Right to withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future.

13. Right to lodge a complaint

To exercise your rights, write to hola@matebus.app. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, in particular in the EU member state of your habitual residence, your place of work or the place of the alleged infringement.

In Argentina, the supervisory authority is the Agencia de Acceso a la Información Pública (AAIP), which is responsible for receiving complaints regarding breaches of Ley 25.326. Under Ley 25.326, you may exercise your right of access free of charge at intervals of no less than six months, unless you prove a legitimate interest.

14. Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data, including encrypted transmission (TLS) and restricted access to booking and check-in data for authorised staff only.

15. Changes to this privacy policy

We may update this privacy policy if our services or legal requirements change. The current version is always available on this page.