Mero Rides Safety & Emergency Policy

This Safety & Emergency Policy explains how Mero Rides approaches user safety, incident handling, and the limited use of certain sensitive data (such as emergency contacts or blood group information). It supplements our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

1. Safety Principles

We aim to:

• Provide tools that help riders and drivers stay safe during trips.
• Respond appropriately to serious incidents and emergencies.
• Limit access to and use of sensitive data to what is strictly necessary.

We cannot guarantee that incidents will never occur, but we work continuously to reduce risks and respond effectively.

2. Safety-Related Data

Where enabled and permitted by law, we may ask you to provide:

• Emergency contact details (for example, the name and phone number of a trusted person).
• Basic medical information, such as blood group or important medical notes.

Providing this information is generally optional. We will clearly explain where it is optional and how it may be used.

We treat this as sensitive personal data and use it only:

• To support emergency response workflows.
• To assist support staff when handling serious safety incidents.

We do not use this data for advertising, marketing, or general profiling.

3. Use Of Location For Safety

Location data (including background location for drivers and location during trips for riders) is crucial to safety features. It may be used to:

• Show live trip routes and positions.
• Investigate incidents or disputes related to a specific trip.
• Support emergency responses or law enforcement requests where legally required.

We retain detailed location history only as long as is necessary for safety, dispute resolution, legal, and operational needs, as described in the Privacy Policy.

4. Incident Reporting And Response

4.1 Reporting Tools

We provide in-app and/or support channels for reporting:

• Safety concerns
• Inappropriate behaviour
• Harassment, discrimination, or violence
• Accidents and other serious incidents

4.2 How We Respond

Depending on the severity and local rules, we may:

• Contact the reporting user to obtain more information.
• Temporarily suspend one or more involved accounts while we review the case.
• Collect and review relevant data (such as trip details, location, and account history).
• Contact emergency services where we become aware of imminent or ongoing risks to life or safety.
• Cooperate with law enforcement or regulatory authorities where required by law.

5. Access Controls

Access to safety-related data is restricted to a limited set of authorised personnel and systems, on a need-to-know basis and subject to logging and oversight measures where feasible.

6. Retention

We keep safety-related records (including incident reports and relevant trip data) for as long as necessary to:

• Handle the incident and any follow-up actions.
• Comply with legal, regulatory, and insurance requirements.
• Prevent future harm or abuse, in line with applicable law.

Where possible, we anonymise or aggregate data over time.

7. Changes To This Policy

We may update this Safety & Emergency Policy periodically. Material changes will be reflected in the "Last updated" date and, where appropriate, communicated in-app or via other channels.