GoCarma collects a limited set of information during your commute trips so it can verify your travel mode, measure your Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) reduction, and calculate incentives accurately.
Every piece of data serves a specific purpose, and none of it is sold or shared for marketing.
🚗 1. Trip Start and End Time
What it is: The time your trip begins and ends.
Why it’s needed: To determine whether the trip matches your registered commute schedule and to identify the total duration of travel.
Privacy note: Only the timestamps are stored.
📍 2. Trip Route (GPS Segments)
What it is: A series of GPS points used to reconstruct the path of your commute.
Why it’s needed:
To measure trip distance.
To determine if the trip started within your home geofence and ended within your work geofence (or vice versa).
To classify your travel mode (e.g., drive alone, carpool, transit, bike, walk).
Privacy note:
GPS points are processed and summarized on the server to generate trip statistics.
Trips are not viewable by anyone outside of the GoCarma team responsible for validation.
🚶 3. Travel Mode Classification
What it is: The system’s determination of how you traveled — such as drive alone, carpool, transit, bike, walk, or telework.
Why it’s needed: Each mode earns a different VMT reduction rate.
Privacy note: Mode detection is automated and based on motion, location, and Bluetooth signals — not personal content or behavior.
📶 4. Motion & Activity Data
What it is: Data from your phone’s sensors that indicate movement (e.g., stationary, walking, driving).
Why it’s needed: To improve trip detection accuracy and mode classification confidence.
Privacy note: No personal or biometric information (like heart rate or step count) is collected — only generic motion signals.
🔗 5. Bluetooth Vehicle or Passenger Signals
What it is: Short-range Bluetooth data used to confirm if multiple GoCarma users are traveling together in a carpool or HOV trip.
Why it’s needed: To verify carpool occupancy and prevent fraudulent trip claims.
Privacy note:
Bluetooth identifiers are temporary and anonymized.
The system only checks for proximity, not identity.
📏 6. Trip Distance
What it is: The total number of miles traveled between your home and work locations.
Why it’s needed: To calculate miles saved (the difference between your baseline commute distance and your actual trip distance).
Privacy note: Distances are stored as summary values — no identifiable route details are shared.
💰 7. Miles Saved and Incentives Earned
What it is: The result of combining your verified trip data with the program’s incentive rate table.
Why it’s needed: To determine your rewards and update your account balance.
Privacy note: These summary values are stored with your user ID, but are not shared outside the GoCarma system.
🧭 8. Confidence Scores
What it is: System-generated values that indicate how confident GoCarma is in its mode classification for each trip.
Why it’s needed: To flag trips that may require human review or validation.
Privacy note: Confidence scores are metadata only — they don’t include personal or location details.
🛡️ Privacy Summary
Data Type | Purpose | Retained? | Shared Outside GoCarma? |
Trip time | Trip validation | Yes | No |
Route GPS points | Distance and mode detection | Yes for customer support and to enable trip auditing. | No |
Mode classification | Incentive calculation | Yes | No |
Motion data | Trip accuracy | Yes for customer support and to enable trip auditing. | No |
Bluetooth signals | Carpool verification | Yes for customer support and to enable trip auditing. | No |
Distance | Miles saved | Yes | Aggregated only |
Earnings | Incentives | Yes | Aggregated only |
🧾 Transparency and Oversight
All commute trip data collection follows SBCTA’s Data Privacy Framework and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) requirements.
Trip data is processed automatically and used solely for program operation and reporting.