Kav Yashir privacy policy

Last updated: 2026-10-26

Kav Yashir ("קו ישיר") is a service for filing complaints about public transport in Israel: an Android app, a website (which can also be added to an iPhone's home screen), a phone line and WhatsApp. You can also rate rides and see a stop's departures board. This page explains what we collect, why, who it is shared with, and how you can export or delete it. We collect only what is needed to file a complaint and follow it up.

Who we are

The service is operated by the Kav Yashir organisation ("ארגון קו ישיר"), acting on behalf of the National Forum for Promoting Public Transportation ("הפורום הארצי לקידום תחבורה ציבורית", registered association 580842557). It is not a government body and does not act on behalf of the Ministry of Transport. For any privacy question, write to kav-yashir@kav-yashir.org.

What we collect

• Personal details: full name, Israeli ID number, phone, e-mail address and home address, and a Rav-Kav card number if you choose to give it. The Ministry of Transport needs these details to handle a complaint. You give them when you register, or on the complaint itself when you file without an account. If you sign up with a Google account, Google gives us your name and e-mail address.
• Filing without an account: you can file a complaint in the app, on the website and by phone without opening an account. Your details are then kept encrypted on the complaint itself, and no account is opened. In the app and on the website a code is sent to the e-mail address you gave, and the complaint goes to the Ministry of Transport only after the code is confirmed. A complaint not confirmed within 24 hours is closed and never sent. If you later open an account with the same e-mail address, once you have verified it, those complaints are added to the account.
• Complaint details: the complaint type, your description, the line, stop and time, and any files or photos you attach. Correspondence with the Ministry of Transport about the complaint is kept with it.
• Location, only with your permission: to suggest nearby stops, show a stop's departures board and fill in where an incident happened.
• Background location, only when you turn on automatic ride detection: the feature is off by default. When you turn it on in Settings, the app uses location also when it is closed, in short windows and with a visible notification, only to notice that you boarded a bus and offer to rate the ride. An approximate position is sent to our server only to look up the nearby stops, without any identifier. The boarding point is sent only if you choose to rate the ride. You can turn the feature off at any time.
• Ride ratings: the line, the stop, the stars, the tags you chose and a comment if you wrote one.
• Anonymous ride reports: such as "crowded" or "no air conditioning". Other passengers on the same bus see them with nothing about you, and they are deleted when the trip ends. Only a count by line and hour remains.
• Technical data: your device's push notification token, to send you updates; a random install identifier with no personal details, to count installs; and anonymous error reports (the error text, app version and screen, with no personal data).
• Voice dictation in the app and on the website: the microphone button turns speech into text with your phone's or browser's own speech recognition, only while it is pressed. The recording is not sent to our server, only the text you confirm.
• The phone line: the number you call from (or the number you key in when yours is hidden), the keys you press and the answers you say. An answer you say aloud (a name, a town, a street, an e-mail address or the description) is recorded by the phone system of FreeIVR, our phone line provider. Our server downloads the recording, deletes it from FreeIVR's system and transcribes it with Google's speech recognition (the Gemini API), which processes the recording on our behalf. What we understood is read back to you to confirm, and only the text is kept in the complaint. A description we could not transcribe is kept as a recording attached to the complaint, like any file attached to a complaint, so that it is not lost. An e-mail address you say in the call is written from your speech, and a confirmation link is sent to it. Once confirmed, it becomes the e-mail address of the account opened from the call, so you can sign in with it to the app and the website.
• The state of a phone call: the steps and answers of a call still in progress are kept in our database, so a server restart does not cut it off, and are deleted 30 minutes after the call's last step. If you hang up before confirming, no complaint is kept.
• WhatsApp: the messages, photos and files you send to Kav Yashir on WhatsApp, and your phone number. A voice message is transcribed by Google's speech recognition (the Gemini API), which processes the recording on our behalf. The recording is sent to Google only to be transcribed and is not kept by us, only the text.
• The record of sent e-mail: every e-mail the system sends (sign-in codes, complaint updates and letters to the Ministry of Transport) is recorded, with the recipient, subject and body encrypted, so we can check that an e-mail went out. A sign-in code is never kept in the record. The record is deleted after 180 days.

Why we use it

• To file your complaint with the Ministry of Transport, follow it up, and keep you informed by e-mail and notifications.
• To prevent duplicate reports of the same event.
• For statistics per line and operator, to show where the service falls short. Statistics contain no identifying details.
• To run the features you chose: the departures board, ride detection and ratings.
• To help a passenger who contacted us with a problem with their account or a complaint.

Today, complaints are sent only to the Ministry of Transport, not to the transport operators.

Who we share it with

• The Ministry of Transport: the complaint and the personal details needed to handle it.
• Service providers working for us: Google sends our e-mail (Google Workspace) and push notifications (Firebase), and runs Google sign-in. FreeIVR runs the phone line and records the answers said in calls. Google transcribes those recordings and WhatsApp voice messages (the Gemini API). WhatsApp messages pass through WhatsApp (owned by Meta), under its own privacy policy. The server and the encrypted backups are kept with a hosting provider. When you search for a place, map services receive only the search text, with no identifying details.

Kav Yashir staff see complaints according to their role only. To help a passenger who is stuck (for example, cannot sign in or cannot find a complaint), authorised managers can also see the list of passenger accounts and an account's details, without the full ID number and without the Rav-Kav number. Every such view, and every view of personal details, is logged. We never sell data to anyone and never use it for advertising.

No ads, no tracking

The app and the website have no advertising and contain no third-party advertising, tracking or behavioural analytics tools.

How it is protected

Personal details (name, ID number, phone, e-mail and address) are stored encrypted in the database, including against anyone with direct access to it. Traffic between the app and the server is encrypted (HTTPS). Backups are encrypted.

Retention, export and deletion

• Data is kept as long as your account exists, so you can follow your complaints.
• The state of a phone call is deleted 30 minutes after its last step, and the record of sent e-mail after 180 days.
• Export: at any time, in the app's Settings under "Privacy and data", you can get a full copy of the data held about you.
• Account deletion: in the same place, confirmed with a code sent to your e-mail. Your account and every personal detail, your consents, messages, notifications and push tokens are deleted. Complaints already filed with the Ministry of Transport stay with us without any identifying detail, because they were already sent and we must be able to account for them. Ride ratings stay only as statistics, without the comment and without any link to you.
• You can also ask for export or deletion by e-mail: kav-yashir@kav-yashir.org. This is also the way for anyone who filed without an account, by phone or on WhatsApp.

Minors

The service is open to people of any age, and we do not check age. Registration requires an Israeli ID number and full contact details, as an official complaint does, and we collect the same details from a minor as from any other passenger, for the same purposes only. We recommend that a minor, and especially someone under 14, registers and files complaints with a parent or guardian involved. A parent or guardian of a minor can write to us to get a copy of the data or to delete the account.

Changes

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of this page, and announce any material change in the app.

Contact

Kav Yashir, kav-yashir@kav-yashir.org