Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Markaba AI ("Markaba AI", "we", "us", "our") operates markabaai.com and the Markaba AI application (app.markabaai.com). The operating legal entity is in the process of being incorporated in the United Arab Emirates; until incorporation is complete, references to "we" or "us" mean the founding team operating under the Markaba AI brand.

2. What we collect

On markabaai.com

markabaai.com is a static, informational site with no sign-up form. It uses Google Analytics (GA4) to understand how visitors use the site — pages viewed, general location, device/browser type, and referral source — which sets cookies as part of that measurement; see §3 below. The only other data generated by visiting this site is standard web server access logs kept by our hosting provider (e.g. IP address, browser user-agent, requested page, and timestamp), used solely to operate and secure the server and diagnose problems.

In the application

Using the application at app.markabaai.com involves more data, because it is a working product rather than an informational page:

• Account data — name, email, and authentication identifiers, handled by our authentication provider (Clerk) when you sign up or sign in.
• Vehicle and garage data — the vehicles you add, their service history, and any photos or descriptions you provide for diagnosis.
• Diagnostic chat data — the symptoms, questions, and vehicle context you enter into the AI assistant, which is sent to our AI processing provider (Anthropic's Claude API) to generate a diagnosis, part match, and quotation.
• AI assistant connections — if you connect your own AI assistant, the data described in §5 is sent to the company operating that assistant.
• Order, payment, and booking data — parts and service orders, booking details, and payment transactions. Payments are processed by a third-party payment service provider; we do not store your full card details ourselves.
• Communications — order/booking confirmations and provider notifications sent by email, SMS, or WhatsApp through our messaging providers.
• Usage analytics — which screens you open and which actions you take (adding a vehicle, running a diagnosis, making a booking, and which provider was booked). If you have allowed analytics cookies and are signed in, this includes an internal account identifier, so that one person using a phone and a laptop is counted once rather than twice. It never includes your name, email address, phone number, registration plate, or the content of your diagnosis. See §3.

3. Cookies

markabaai.com uses Google Analytics (GA4), which sets cookies to distinguish visitors and measure site usage as described in §2 — no advertising or cross-site tracking cookies are used. The application uses the session cookies/tokens our authentication provider (Clerk) needs to keep you signed in.

The application at app.markabaai.com uses a separate Google Analytics property for the same purpose. When you have allowed analytics and are signed in, measurement there is linked to a pseudonymous internal account identifier — not your name or email address — so that repeat visits from your different devices are recognised as one person rather than several. Declining analytics, withdrawing that consent later, or signing out all stop that identifier being sent.

Analytics cookies are off until you allow them. You are asked once, on your first visit, and nothing is stored on your device before you answer. You can change your mind at any time — manage cookies — and the same control is in the app under Settings. Declining does not affect anything else on this site.

4. Third-party processors

We rely on third-party services to run the application, each processing only the data needed for its function: an authentication provider (Clerk) for sign-in, a payment service provider for transactions, an AI provider (Anthropic) for diagnostic processing, messaging providers for email/SMS/WhatsApp notifications, and our hosting provider for the servers and database. Google Analytics provides the usage measurement described in §2 and §3, as two separate properties — one for markabaai.com and one for the application. Visiting a link to a destination outside markabaai.com or the application is subject to that destination's own privacy practices, not this policy. Separately, if you choose to connect an AI assistant (§5), the company operating that assistant receives data from us at your instruction; it is not acting as our processor, and its own privacy policy governs what it does with that data.

5. Connecting an AI assistant

You can connect the Markaba AI application to your own AI assistant — such as Claude or ChatGPT — so that you can ask it about workshops, car washes, parts and your own garage without opening the app. This is optional and off until you set it up yourself. If you never connect an assistant, nothing in this section applies to you.

How the connection is made. You add Markaba AI in your assistant's own connector settings and sign in with your Markaba AI account. Before anything is shared, our authentication provider (Clerk) shows you a consent screen listing exactly what the assistant is asking for. Nothing is shared unless you approve it there. There are two permissions: one to look up workshops, car washes, parts and open booking slots, and one to see your own garage, car health and bookings.

What your assistant can read. Only the information you can already see in the app yourself, and only when you ask it something. Specifically:

• Workshops, car washes and logistics providers — business name, area and emirate, specialties, rating and review count, listed service packages with their AED prices, opening hours, recent review text, map coordinates, and a link to the provider's page in the app.
• Parts — name, category, compatible makes and models, and each sourcing option's brand, AED price, availability and warranty.
• Your garage — each car's nickname, year, make, model, trim, engine, transmission, drivetrain, odometer reading and its latest Markaba AI health score.
• Your car's health — the health score and the scores for individual systems, open concerns, recent service visits and our recommendations.
• Your bookings — the provider's name, the date, the time slot, the status, what was booked and the total in AED.

What it never receives. Your registration plate, your chassis or VIN number, your insurance details, any private notes on your vehicle, your phone number, your email address, the confirmation code on a booking, your payment or card details, and workshops' own contact numbers. These are not withheld by policy alone — the connection is built so that there is no place in its answers for them to go.

It can only read. An assistant connected this way cannot book, buy, pay, cancel, change or delete anything, and it cannot create an account. When it finds something you want, it gives you a link that opens the app, where you complete the booking yourself. Your questions to your assistant are answered by that assistant, not by us — our own AI diagnosis (§2) is not involved and is not called.

Where the information goes afterwards. Once an answer reaches your assistant it is held by the company that operates it — Anthropic for Claude, OpenAI for ChatGPT — under that company's own privacy policy, not this one, and it will normally stay in your conversation history there. We cannot see or delete that history. Deleting your Markaba AI account erases your data from our systems (§7), but it cannot remove what has already been copied into a conversation with your assistant. To remove that, delete the conversation in the assistant itself.

Connecting ChatGPT also shares your account profile with OpenAI. ChatGPT's connector additionally asks for your basic profile when you sign in, so our authentication provider issues OpenAI an identity token about you. It can carry your name (as a full name and as first and last name), the email address on your Markaba AI account and whether that address is verified, your username if you have set one, your profile picture if you have one, and the internal identifier for your account. This is required by ChatGPT's connector and cannot be switched off for it. Claude does not ask for any of it, and we send it none of this. The consent screen shows you what is being asked for before you approve, and if you would rather not share it, simply do not connect ChatGPT — the app itself works exactly the same either way.

Disconnecting. Remove the Markaba AI connector in your assistant's own settings at any time. That is the direct route and the one in your hands — once it is removed, that assistant stops reading your data. If you cannot do it yourself, or you believe an assistant is connected to your account that should not be, write to hello@markabaai.com and we will help you stop it. Disconnecting does not remove answers already in your conversation history, which you delete in the assistant.

What we record. For security we keep a record of when an assistant is first connected to your account and of each occasion on which your own garage, car health or bookings are read through it. These records are kept as described in §6 and are covered by your rights in §7.

6. Data retention

markabaai.com's server access logs are retained only as long as needed for security and operational purposes. Application data (accounts, vehicles, orders, bookings) is retained for as long as your account is active, or as needed to satisfy legal, tax, or dispute-resolution obligations after that.

7. Your rights

If you are in the UAE or another jurisdiction with data protection rights, you may contact us with any question or request about the data described in this policy — including access, correction, or deletion of your account and application data. For markabaai.com alone, most such requests will not apply beyond incidental server logs, since it collects no personal data of its own.

Two of those rights are self-service in the application, under Settings → Account & data: Download my data exports every record your account touches, and Delete my account erases it. Deleting your account sets out both routes — including how to ask by email if you cannot sign in — and exactly what is erased, what is kept in anonymised form, and why.

8. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as the site and application evolve. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision.

9. Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent to hello@markabaai.com.