We collect very little: your full name, username, date of birth, and e-mail address — that's the entire list of personal information tied to your identity that we store.
Deleting your account deletes that data immediately and permanently — your name, username, date of birth, and e-mail are erased, along with your commute schedules, blog posts, replies, and messages.
License plate numbers are only ever collected for custom-commute safety verification. They are never stored as part of your account — they're automatically deleted the moment a commute ends, or 30 minutes after the commute's scheduled time window if never verified (e.g. a commute scheduled for 8:45–9:00 AM is deleted by 9:30 AM), or within 4 hours if verified but never explicitly ended, whichever comes first.
We don't sell your data, and we don't use it for advertising or share it with third parties for their own purposes.
Other users never see your full name, e-mail, or date of birth — only an anonymous ID during match discovery, and your chosen username if you post to the Blog.
1. Information We Collect
SlugHub is built to collect the minimum information necessary to match commuters and verify custom commute safety. Here is the complete list of what we collect and store, tied to your account:
Data type
Why we collect it
Full name
Identity verification and account ownership. Never shown to other users.
Username
If you choose to post in the Blog, your chosen username and the content of your post or reply are visible to all users. We recommend choosing a username that doesn't reveal your real identity.
Date of birth
To confirm you're at least 18 years old, a requirement for using SlugHub. Never shown to other users.
E-mail address
Account creation and password recovery. Never shown to other users.
We also collect the information you choose to enter for the app's core function — commute schedules (route, lot, direction, date and time), blog posts and replies you choose to publish, and, only for custom commute matches, a license plate number (see Section 5).
What we do not collect
We do not track your precise GPS location or location history.
We do not collect payment information — SlugHub does not process payments.
We do not collect government-issued ID, Social Security numbers, or similar identifiers.
We do not use advertising trackers, analytics SDKs that build ad profiles, or third-party tracking pixels.
2. How We Use Your Information
To operate your account — authenticate your login, and let you post and manage commute schedules.
To find you a match — your posted schedule (route, lot, direction, time) is shown to other users searching for a compatible commute, identified by an anonymous ID rather than your name.
For safety verification — a license plate number is used, briefly, to let a matched rider confirm they're getting into the correct vehicle for a custom commute.
To confirm you meet the age requirement — your date of birth is used only to verify you are 18 or older at registration.
To communicate with you about your account — e.g. password resets. We do not send marketing e-mail.
3. Who Can See Your Information
User anonymity is a core part of how SlugHub is designed:
Your full name, date of birth, and e-mail address are visible only to you. No other user of SlugHub — matched or not — can see this information through the app.
When you post a custom commute schedule, other users see its route, lot, and time along with a randomly generated anonymous ID (for example, "Driver1234567") — never your name, username, or e-mail.
Once you accept a custom commute match, the app still identifies your match by their anonymous ID (for example, "Rider7654321") — never their name, username, or e-mail.
If you choose to post in the Blog, your chosen username and the content of your post or reply are visible to all users. We recommend choosing a username that doesn't reveal your real identity.
4. Data Retention & Deletion
You can permanently delete your account at any time from the Profile tab. Deleting your account is immediate and irreversible, and removes:
Your full name, username, date of birth, and e-mail address — deleted immediately and permanently.
Your login credential — permanently removed, so no one can sign in to that account again.
Every commute you have scheduled, including custom commutes whether matched or not.
Any license plate number tied to your schedules (see Section 5 for how plates are handled even before deletion).
Direct messages you've sent or received through a commute match.
Every blog post you've published, and every reply you've left on other users' posts.
Content that belongs to other users — for example, a blog post someone else wrote that mentions a conversation with you — is not deleted when you delete your account, since it isn't your data to remove. Only content you personally authored (your posts and your replies) is deleted.
5. License Plate Numbers
License plate numbers are collected only in one specific situation: a custom commute match, where a rider needs to be able to confirm they're getting into the correct driver's vehicle. A license plate is never part of your permanent profile, and it is never required to use the rest of SlugHub.
A license plate number is automatically and permanently deleted at whichever of these happens first:
Immediately when the custom commute is marked as ended.
30 minutes after the end of the commute's scheduled time window, if the match is never verified by either rider or driver.
4 hours after the end of the commute's scheduled time window, if the match was verified but the commute was never explicitly marked as ended — for example, if both users simply forget to close it out.
Every commute has a 15-minute scheduled window (for example, a commute scheduled for 8:45 AM is shown as an 8:45–9:00 AM window). An unverified match has its plate deleted 30 minutes after that window ends — so a commute scheduled for 8:45–9:00 AM has its plate deleted by 9:30 AM. A verified match gets a longer 4-hour allowance instead, since it may still be an active, in-progress trip — the same 8:45–9:00 AM commute would have its plate deleted by 1:00 PM if it was verified but never marked as ended.
This is enforced two ways: the app clears a plate the moment the driver ends the commute or the schedule is removed, and — as a backstop for cases where that never happens (a closed app, an abandoned match) — an automated process running on our servers checks every 5 minutes for any commute whose applicable window-plus-grace-period has passed, or that's already ended, and deletes its plate.
6. The Blog
The Blog is a public feature. Anything you post — including replies to other users' posts — is visible to every SlugHub user, associated with your username (never your real name). If you delete your account, your own posts and any replies you left on other users' posts are removed.
7. Children's Privacy
SlugHub is not intended for use by anyone under 18 years of age, and registration requires confirming you meet that age requirement. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we become aware that we've collected information from someone under 18, we will delete it promptly.
8. Data Security
Your data is stored using Google's Firebase platform, which encrypts data both in transit and at rest. Access to your personal profile information (name, date of birth, e-mail) is restricted to your own authenticated account — no other user's login can read it, enforced at the database level, not just hidden in the app's interface.
9. Third-Party Services
SlugHub relies on a small number of infrastructure providers to operate:
Google Firebase — authentication, database, hosting, and backend functions. Firebase acts as our data processor and does not use your SlugHub data for its own purposes.
WMATA (Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority) — we query WMATA's public transit API for live train, bus, and station data to show in the app. Only generic station and route codes are sent to WMATA — never any information about you or your identity.
Open-Meteo — a free, key-free weather API we query for local forecast conditions at a small number of fixed commuter-lot locations. No information about you is sent.
CartoDB and Leaflet — map tiles and the mapping library used to display commuter lot locations. Only the map area being viewed is requested — no information about you is sent.
Google Fonts — used to load the app's typefaces.
We also display schedule information for VRE, OmniRide, and Metrobus, sourced from those agencies' own publicly published transit data. SlugHub is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by WMATA, VRE, PRTC/OmniRide, or any other transit agency — their data is used under each agency's own public data terms.
We do not share your personal information with any other third party, and no third party uses your data for advertising.
10. Your Rights & Choices
Access — you can view your own profile information at any time within the app.
Deletion — you can permanently delete your account and associated data at any time from the Profile tab, or by contacting us (see Section 13).
Questions or requests — you can reach us directly using the contact information below for any privacy-related question or request, regardless of where you live.
11. No Sale of Personal Information
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to any third party, for any purpose, ever.
12. Changes to This Policy
If we make a material change to how we collect, use, or retain your information, we'll update this page and change the effective date above. We encourage you to review this page periodically.
13. Contact Us
For any question about this Privacy Policy, your data, or to request deletion of your account outside the app, contact us at: