Legal
Privacy Policy
What personal information we collect when you hire a car or book a shuttle, why we need it, and what you can ask us to do with it.
Last updated 21 October 2026 · Sofar Car Hire & Shuttle
The short version
- We collect what we need to hire you a car or drive you, and nothing for advertising.
- We never sell your information or ask for card details on this website.
- Your booking records are stored with Cloudflare in Western Europe.
- We keep booking and invoice records for five years because tax law requires it.
- You can ask to see, correct or delete your information at any time.
1. Who we are
This website is run by Sofar Car Hire & Shuttle (“we”, “us”), a Namibian car-hire and shuttle business operating from Windhoek & Hosea Kutako International Airport (WDH), Namibia. We decide how your personal information is used, so we are responsible for it.
Our managing director, Ms. Sophia Sibungo, is responsible for this policy. You can reach us at info@sofarcarhire.com or on +264 81 322 5727 or +264 81 127 5783.
This policy explains what we collect when you book a car, ask for a quote, book a shuttle or contact us, what we do with it, and the choices you have.
2. What we collect
We only ask for what we need to hire you a car or drive you somewhere safely.
- When you book a car or accept a quote: your name, email address, mobile and WhatsApp numbers, country, residential address, date of birth, ID or passport number, driver's licence number, the country that issued it and how many years you have held it. We also record the car, the dates, times and places of collection and return, your flight number, anything you tell us in special requests, and the moment you accepted our terms.
- When you ask for a quote: your name, email address, telephone number, company name if you give one, the car and dates you are interested in, and any notes you add.
- When you book a shuttle: your name, email address, mobile number, country and address, the pick-up and drop-off addresses, travel date and time, number of passengers, flight number and any special requests. We do not ask for details of the other passengers.
- When you manage a booking: your booking reference and email address, which we use to find the booking, and any reason or note you give when you ask to extend or cancel it.
- During your hire: a copy of your driver's licence and ID or passport, your nationality and licence expiry date, the signed rental agreement, the vehicle condition report and odometer readings, the payments and refunds on your booking, and anything that happens to the car, such as damage, an accident or a traffic fine. Our staff may also keep short internal notes about your bookings to help them serve you.
- When you contact us by email, phone or WhatsApp: what you tell us and the details you contact us from.
- When you visit the website: we do not track you. Our hosting provider, Cloudflare, handles technical information such as your IP address and browser type in order to deliver the site and protect it from abuse, and counts page visits without cookies. Our Cookie Policy explains this in full.
This website never asks for your card details. Payments are made by bank transfer or in person.
Most of this comes from you. Some is added by our staff at collection and return, and information about a traffic fine or an insurance claim may come from the authority or insurer concerned.
3. Why we use it
- To carry out your hire or transfer. To reserve the car, send your confirmation, quote, invoice and rental agreement, hand the car over and take it back, take payment, and handle extensions, cancellations and refunds. Without these details we cannot hire you a car.
- To meet our legal obligations. To keep the accounting and tax records the law requires, and to identify the driver to the traffic authorities or police when we are legally obliged to.
- For safety and to prevent fraud. To confirm the driver's identity, age and licence before we release a car, to keep automated abuse off our forms, and to trace and recover a car that is not returned, as set out in our Terms & Conditions.
- To run our business properly. To answer your questions, recognise a returning customer, recover money owed to us, deal with insurance claims and defend legal claims. We do this because we have a legitimate interest in it, and only in ways you would reasonably expect.
- With your consent, for anything optional. We do not send marketing emails. If we ever want to, we will ask you first, and you can change your mind at any time.
5. Where your information is stored
Our booking database is stored by Cloudflare in Western Europe. Cloudflare delivers the website itself from data centres around the world, usually the one nearest to you. Our email provider keeps our email in its own data centres outside Namibia.
This means your information leaves Namibia. We use only large, established providers that publish their own security and data-protection commitments, and only for the purposes described here.
6. How long we keep it
- Bookings, shuttle bookings, invoices, payments, rental agreements and the emails that go with them: five years after the hire or transfer, because tax and accounting law requires business records to be kept for that long. Longer only if a claim, fine or dispute about that hire is still open.
- Copies of your licence and ID or passport: kept with the rental file for the same period.
- Quote requests that did not become a booking: two years, then deleted automatically.
- Messages you send us: as long as we need them to help you, or with the booking they relate to.
You can ask us to delete anything sooner that we are not required to keep.
7. How we protect it
- The whole website runs over an encrypted connection (HTTPS).
- Only our staff can see booking records. Each person has their own account and password, sees only what their role allows, and is signed out automatically after 8 hours.
- To view or change a booking online you need both its reference and the email address it was made with.
- While you fill in the booking form, what you type is kept only in that browser tab so it survives a visit to another page. It is cleared when the booking is sent and disappears when you close the tab.
No system is perfectly secure. If something goes wrong that puts your information at risk, we will tell you promptly and explain what we are doing about it.
8. Your rights
You can ask us at any time to:
- tell you what personal information we hold about you and give you a copy
- correct anything that is wrong or out of date
- delete your information, where we are not required by law or an open claim to keep it
- stop using your information for a purpose you object to, where we rely on our legitimate interests
- withdraw any consent you have given
To do any of these, email info@sofarcarhire.com or call us. To protect you, we may ask you to confirm your identity first, for example with your booking reference and the email address you booked with. We will not charge you, and we aim to reply within 30 days.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You may also have the right to complain to the data protection authority where you live.
9. Children
Cars are only hired to drivers who are at least 23 years old. Children may travel on our shuttles with an adult, but we only record how many passengers there are, not who they are. This website is not aimed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.
10. Changes to this policy
We will update this page if the way we handle personal information changes, and change the date at the top. If a change affects a booking you have with us, we will tell you by email.
Questions about your information?
Contact Sofar Car Hire & Shuttle and we will help, whether you want a copy of what we hold or want something corrected or deleted.
Contact us