Why reports are private

Sooner or later someone asks why ATAP has no public page. A plate, a count, a list of the worst drivers: it sounds like pressure that would work. We chose not to build it. This guide sets out the rules we built in its place and the reason for each, so you can judge them for yourself.

The problem we are trying to help with

In 2022, 1,68,491 people killed in road accidents in India in calendar year 2022. Source: Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Road Accidents in India 2022. A number like that does not say who drove badly or when. ATAP works at the other end of the problem, in the small moments before anything happens, when a driver could have been told and nobody told them.

Most drivers never hear that they cut someone off or ran a signal. Telling them is the whole idea. The hard part is how to tell them without causing harm of its own.

Rule 1: nothing about a plate is public

There is no page for a plate, no count of reports and no search. We have four reasons.

• A plate leads to an owner, not to a driver. The vehicle may have been lent, driven by a chauffeur, or sold before the papers changed.
• Plates get mistyped and photographed from a bad angle. A public mistake would stick to someone who did nothing.
• One person's few seconds on the road is not a verdict. A public count turns it into one.
• A public lookup works for anyone, including someone who only wants to find out about a neighbour.

Rule 2: the owner never learns who reported

Road disagreements can turn ugly. If drivers could find out who reported them, people would stop reporting, and the ones who carried on would be the ones least bothered by a confrontation. So we ask reporters for no name, number or email, and the place is optional.

We keep one thing: a scrambled version of a random code that sits on your phone. It lets us limit abuse without knowing who anyone is.

There is one exception, and it is yours to choose. If you make a profile, sign in and take credit, your reports are tied to that profile so you can earn recognition. Owners never see the tie.

Rule 3: only a verified owner sees a report

A report about a plate is held privately until a person at ATAP has checked the owner's registration certificate and a photo of the vehicle. Without that check, anyone could claim your plate and read what people said about you. The documents are deleted 30 days after the review.

Rule 4: a report is a signal, not a verdict

The owner can reply. If they dispute a report, a person at ATAP rules on it, and nothing leaves that circle. A hidden report counts for nothing. A dispute never counts against the sender. We also say plainly that a report is not legal evidence.

Rule 5: keep as little as we can, for as short a time as we can

• Reporters give no name, phone number or email.
• Report photos are deleted after 90 days.
• Ownership documents are deleted 30 days after review.
• Driver shift records are deleted after 180 days.
• We use no advertising and no tracking cookies.

One thing stays. The written record of a report, meaning what happened, when, the place if it was shared and the note, is kept after the photo goes, so that owners and ATAP can see patterns over time. It holds no name or contact detail.

What a plate, a photo and a place can reveal

A plate, a photo of a vehicle and a place can each point to a real person, so we treat them as personal data. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 is the Indian law that deals with data of that kind. We claim no more than that here. Our privacy notice is still a draft, and a lawyer has to review it before we announce the site.

What this costs us

Quiet pressure is slow pressure. An owner can ignore a report, and a driver who is not the owner may never hear of it. A public list would move faster, and we are choosing not to have one. A quiet word that reaches the right person is worth more to us than a loud one that reaches everybody, and we would give up some speed before we hurt someone who did not deserve it.

What we have not solved

• Someone can send a false report. Limits on how many one phone can send, the owner's reply, staff rulings and device blocks make it harder. None of them makes it impossible.
• ATAP staff can see reports and photos. They follow written rules, their decisions are logged, and they never see who sent a report. Even so, it is a trust you have to extend to us.
• A determined person could send many reports against one owner to harass them. Staff can hide those and block the device. If it happens to you, write to us.
• Nothing here is a promise about the future. If a rule changes, this guide and the privacy notice change with it, and we will say so.