Teal Wheels
Privacy Policy
Operator: Ryan Kirkpatrick · Contact: ryan@tealwheels.org
Teal Wheels is a free community project that connects Sharks fans for voluntary carpools.
Information we collect
- Email and authentication details
- Name, profile photo, short bio, and an optional social media link
- Optional phone number for trip coordination
- Home city and neighborhood, pickup/drop-off details, ride times, seat requests, and vehicle details
- License plate information for pickup identification
- Optional ticket screenshots submitted by drivers (for a game or a season), which we delete after we look at them, keeping only our decision
- The four statements a driver confirms when posting a ride (licensed, permission to use the vehicle, required insurance, traffic laws), with the date
- Trip feedback: whether you say a trip happened, an optional thumbs up or down about the other person, and an optional private note, kept with your name and email
- Messages, notifications, reports, blocks, and moderation records
- Technical information needed for security, authentication, hosting, operation, and page-view analytics
- The first business-card campaign you visited, if you arrive through a Teal Wheels QR code; we keep it in a first-party, HTTP-only cookie for up to 90 days and store the campaign with your account if you register
We do not collect government ID, driving records, criminal-history information, or background checks.
How we use and share it
We use information to run accounts, review community membership, post game-specific rides, match participants, coordinate trips, show a plate to eligible participants, respond to reports, secure the service, and comply with law.
If you visit through a Teal Wheels business-card QR code, Vercel Web Analytics counts page views for that campaign. We store your first campaign visit (room, turn, or cars) in a first-party cookie for up to 90 days so we can connect a later signup to that card. If you create an account, the campaign is stored with it and used to compare signups, membership approvals, and rides. We do not create a separate account record for each QR scan. The campaign cookie is cleared after a successful signup or email-link request.
Trip feedback is private. Only the operator reads your rating and note, and the other person never sees what you wrote or what they were given. Other members see only how many trips both people confirmed. We may use feedback to follow up with the people involved and to review concerns.
Your name, bio, home city and neighborhood, and social media link (if you add one) are shown to approved members. A driver's profile photo is shown to approved members; a rider's photo is shown only to a driver the rider has asked for a seat. The operator looks at every profile photo before approving a member and whenever it is changed, and may ask for a different one. When you say you are looking for a ride you choose a pickup area, and approved members see counts of riders looking and seats available by city and neighborhood, never names; a neighborhood's rider count is shown only when two or more riders share it. Once a driver has accepted riders on a ride, each accepted rider also sees the name, bio and area of the other accepted riders on that ride, but not their photo. Phone numbers and email addresses are shared only after a driver accepts a rider, with clear notice in the app. License plates are shown to the driver and accepted riders for that ride. A driver or accepted rider may also include the plate in a private ride link shared with a trusted contact. We do not sell personal information or run targeted advertising.
Messages are visible to the two people in the conversation, which can begin before a seat is requested. After a request is declined or canceled the conversation can still be read, but not added to, for 7 days, and then it is hidden from both people. The operator can also read messages when reviewing a report or keeping the service safe. We email you about activity on your rides and requests (for example a request, an acceptance, or a cancellation); those emails name who it is about and which game and trip, but never include contact details, license plates, or message text. If a driver cancels on an accepted rider shortly before a ride, we keep a private record that only the operator can see, including anything the rider tells us about it.
Supabase and Vercel provide authentication, storage, hosting, database, and page-view analytics services, Resend delivers our emails, and an email-forwarding service receives mail sent to our @tealwheels.org addresses. We may disclose information when legally required or reasonably necessary to address a serious safety threat. The footer has an optional tip link to Venmo; if you use it you leave Teal Wheels and Venmo's own terms and privacy policy apply, and we do not receive anything about you from it.
Retention and deletion
Ticket screenshots are deleted after we look at them. Ride-specific information, messages, and pickup details are intended to be deleted after the applicable hockey season. The one exception is trip feedback: your confirmations of whether a trip happened, thumbs up or down, and private notes are kept, as a record that helps keep the community safe. We keep your name and email with that feedback. If you ask us to delete your account, we delete the ratings and notes you wrote and keep whether each trip happened (so the people you rode with keep their ride counts), and we keep the feedback written about you. If you come back later with the same email, the operator reviews that history when you ask to rejoin, and it is attached to your new account when you are approved. Account information, notifications, and business-card campaign attribution remain until you request deletion. Safety reports may be retained only as long as reasonably needed to resolve a concern or meet a legal obligation.
Send an account or deletion request to ryan@tealwheels.org. Only adults may create accounts, and Teal Wheels is not designed for minors.