How LinqRoad works: carpooling without an account

Why no account?

Most ride-sharing apps ask you to create a profile before you can even see a ride: email, password, photo, sometimes ID and a payment card. For a one-off trip that's a lot to hand over to a stranger's app.

LinqRoad works the other way round. Anyone can search, and a driver only has to publish what a rider actually needs to make the trip happen: where, when, how much, and how to get in touch.

How a ride gets matched

• A driver posts a ride: pickup, drop, date and local time, vehicle (car or bike), seats, price per seat and preferences such as AC, music and smoking.
• A rider searches with their own pickup and drop. LinqRoad shows rides that start within about 25 km of the rider's pickup and end within about 25 km of their drop.
• The rider calls or messages the driver using the number on the listing, and they agree the details directly.
• Once the departure time passes, the ride disappears from search automatically.

What we do and don't store

What a driver enters is public: name, phone number, route, time, vehicle, price and notes. To keep the service safe and stop spam, we also record technical details with each ride and search: IP address, approximate location from that IP, device and browser type, and a random device ID cookie. We don't ask for email, ID documents, payment cards or home addresses, we don't use advertising or analytics trackers, and we never sell data.

Place suggestions come through our own server rather than straight from your browser to Google, so Google doesn't receive your IP address when you search for a place.