Garawuli Bus ("we", "us") lets passengers in Uganda find buses, book seats, pay with mobile money and send parcels, and lets bus companies and their conductors sell and check tickets. This policy explains what information we collect, why, who we share it with, and the choices you have.
1. Information we collect
- Account details: your name, phone number, email address (if you give one) and a password (stored only in scrambled/hashed form).
- Bookings and parcels: trips you book, seat numbers, passenger names, boarding and drop-off points, parcel sender and receiver names and phone numbers, and receipts.
- Payments: the amount, the mobile money number used and the payment reference from our payment provider. We do not see or store your mobile money PIN or card details.
- Location: the passenger app may use your location, with your permission, to show nearby boarding points. The conductor app shares the bus's location only while the app is open during a trip, so passengers and the bus company can see where the bus is. We do not collect location in the background.
- Camera (conductor app only): used only to scan ticket QR codes. Pictures are not stored or sent.
- Device and usage information: app version, device model and a notification token so we can send booking messages, plus basic logs that help us fix errors.
- Staff information (conductor app and admin panel): name, phone, email and the buses a staff member works on, entered by their bus company.
2. How we use it
- To create and run your account, make bookings, issue tickets and receipts, and check passengers onto the bus.
- To take payments, prevent double charges and fraud, and give refunds.
- To send booking confirmations, trip reminders and important service messages (and, if you allow notifications, occasional offers).
- To issue electronic tax receipts to the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA EFRIS) where the bus company is required to.
- To produce reports for the bus company you travelled with, and to improve the service.
3. Who we share it with
- The bus company you book with receives the booking and passenger details it needs to carry you or your parcel.
- Payment providers (such as pawaPay for MTN and Airtel Mobile Money) process your payment.
- Uganda Revenue Authority (EFRIS) receives receipt details where required by law.
- Service providers that host our servers, send SMS/OTP codes and push notifications (for example Google Firebase and OneSignal), only to run the service.
- Authorities, when the law requires it.
We do not sell your personal information. Adverts shown in the passenger app are simple sponsor banners; tapping one opens the sponsor's website, and we only count views and taps, not who you are.
4. How long we keep it
We keep your account while it is active. Booking, payment and tax receipt records are kept for as long as Ugandan tax and accounting law requires (usually up to 10 years), even after an account is deleted, but they are no longer linked to an active account.
5. Security
Data is sent over encrypted connections (HTTPS), passwords are hashed, and each bus company can only see its own data. No system is perfectly secure, so please keep your password private.
6. Your choices and rights
- See or correct your details in the app under My Account.
- Turn off location or notification permissions at any time in your phone settings.
- Delete your account: in the passenger app go to My Account → Delete account, or use our web form: Request account deletion. Conductor accounts are managed by the bus company; you can also use the same form.
- Contact us to ask what information we hold about you, in line with the Uganda Data Protection and Privacy Act, 2019.
7. Children
The apps are not meant for children under 13 to use on their own. A parent or guardian may book a ticket for a child.
8. Changes
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top and, for important changes, tell you in the app.
9. Contact
Garawuli Bus, Kampala, Uganda
Email: psti3058@gmail.com
Phone / WhatsApp: +256 786 489 202