A 21-year-old Pune woman has complained to Rapido after allegedly receiving a personal WhatsApp message from a bike-taxi rider following a journey from Swargate Metro Station to Kondhwa, raising concerns about passenger safety and the handling of customer contact details on app-based transport platforms.
According to the woman, she booked the Rapido ride to travel from Swargate to Kondhwa. During the trip, she noticed that the rider was repeatedly staring at her and allegedly driving at high speed. She said the behaviour made her uncomfortable, although she initially did not object because she assumed such riding practices were common.
The woman said the rider contacted her on WhatsApp shortly after the journey ended. She also alleged that he had followed her, which heightened her concern about her personal safety. The incident led her to question how the rider obtained her phone number and whether passengers’ personal contact details are directly accessible to riders.
Rapido’s privacy policy, as cited in the report, states that the company shares customers’ names, pickup addresses and contact details with its Captains to help them locate and contact passengers. The woman questioned why riders need access to customers’ actual phone numbers and said the arrangement could expose passengers, particularly women, to unwanted messages, harassment and privacy violations.
She suggested that platforms should keep passengers’ real phone numbers confidential and route rider-passenger communication through a secure system within the app. Such an arrangement would allow riders and customers to coordinate trips without requiring the direct disclosure of personal contact information.
The woman lodged a complaint with Rapido following the alleged contact. The company reportedly assured her that the rider’s ID would be suspended. The report does not establish whether the suspension had already been implemented or whether the company had completed an investigation into the alleged WhatsApp message and following incident.
The complaint brings a passenger-safety issue into the everyday operation of app-based mobility. Platforms need to share enough information for riders to locate passengers and complete trips, but the reported incident has raised a separate question about what happens when contact details provided for operational purposes are allegedly used after a ride or for reasons unrelated to the booking.
The matter also places responsibility across the platform’s digital and operational systems. The rider is the person alleged to have sent the message, while the platform controls the booking interface, data-sharing arrangements, rider access and complaint process. Rapido’s reported assurance that the rider’s ID would be suspended is the next stated action in the case.
