Privacy policy

Michael Chambers t/a IGuard 999, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom, is the data controller. ICO registration number ZC154226. Contact us through our contact form.

• Your account: name, email address, mobile number, and your cancel PIN and duress code (stored only as secure one-way hashes, so nobody can read them).
• Your contacts: the name, mobile number and email address of up to 5 people you add.
• During an alert or shared journey only: your GPS location, accuracy and phone battery level, and which contacts have responded.
• Photos and voice messages: only if you choose to send one, by tapping the button, during an alert or shared journey. We never take photos or record sound by ourselves. Hidden camera data such as GPS tags is removed from photos.
• Emergency ID (optional): if you switch it on, your profile photo, your name, the contacts you choose to show and any important information you type (which may include health details). Your lock-screen picture is made on your own device and is never shown to people who scan your code. This is shown to anyone who scans your QR code, so only add what you are happy for a stranger to see. You can switch it off, replace the code or delete it at any time. We keep a count and the time of scans.
• Pet and luggage tags (optional): if you make a tag, its name, an optional photo, any message you write, and the contact details you choose to show (name, phone, email). These are shown to anyone who scans the tag's QR code. If a finder presses a button, their location or the message and contact details they type are emailed to you only. We keep a count and the time of scans.
• Neighbourhood communities (optional): if you start or join a community, your membership, and any reports you post (title, description, time, place, and a map location only if you add it). Other members see your first name and the report. We ask members not to name or accuse anyone. Admins can hide or delete reports and remove members. Reports are not shared outside the community, and are deleted when the community or your account is deleted.
• Tell a friend (optional): if you ask us to email a friend, we send that one message and do not store their email address. We keep only a log that a message was sent, and a short-lived record to prevent repeat sends.
• Security records: your IP address when you use forms, and a log of which alerts were delivered, to prevent abuse and fix faults.

• Sign-in: the app keeps a private key on your phone, in its secure storage, so you stay signed in. It is not shared with other apps.
• Location: the app asks for location, including "all the time", so your contacts can still follow you if your phone is locked or the app is closed. It only collects your location while a help alert or shared journey is active, and shows a notification while it does. It stops when you cancel or end the journey. The app does not collect location at any other time.
• Alerts for people who added you: if you choose to get alerts in the app, we store your email address (already held as their contact) and a notification token for your phone. We use these only to deliver those alerts. You can stop at any time from the app's Settings, and the token is removed when the contact is removed or the account is deleted.
• Notifications: alerts are delivered through Expo's push service and Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging, which receive the notification text and your phone's notification token. They do not receive your location.
• Other permissions: vibration and internet access, to sound alerts and talk to our server. The app has no advertising and no analytics or tracking tools.

• To provide the service you signed up for (contract): sending your alerts, cancel messages and sign-in links.
• Your contacts' details are used under legitimate interests: to tell them they have been chosen and to alert them in an emergency. Each contact can remove themselves at any time from the link in their welcome message.
• In a genuine emergency, we may rely on vital interests to protect someone's life.

Your contacts can see your name, number and live location, and any photo or voice message you send, only while an alert is active, through a private link sent to them. For a journey or check-in, only the contacts you chose can see it. When you cancel, the map stops showing your location.

We use a small number of trusted suppliers to run the service, bound by data processing terms: our UK web host, ClickSend (text messages), our email provider, and Expo and Google Firebase (to deliver notifications to the phone app). Maps on the live page are drawn from OpenStreetMap, which receives the map area being viewed but not who you are.

We will only share information with the police or other authorities if the law requires it or to protect life.

• Location history, photos and voice messages are deleted 30 days after an alert ends, or straight away if you delete your account. Your Emergency ID photo is deleted when you remove it or delete your account.
• Your account and contacts are kept until you delete your account, which you can do yourself at any time from My account. Deletion is immediate and permanent.
• Contact form messages are kept for up to 12 months.

You can ask to see, correct, delete or move your data, or object to how we use it. Most of this you can do yourself from My account. For anything else, use our contact form and choose "Data protection request". We will reply within one month.

We use one essential cookie to keep you signed in. There are no tracking, analytics or advertising cookies.

The whole site runs over HTTPS. PINs are hashed, alert links use long random codes and stop working when an alert ends, and forms are protected against automated abuse.

You must be 13 or over to create an account. If you are under 16, please set it up with a parent or guardian.

If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, please tell us first. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.