Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Alerta collects, uses, stores, shares, and deletes personal information when you use the Alerta website, mobile app, dashboards, Guardian Mode features, institution-related workflows, and related safety services.

Alerta is operated by Siddharth Madhan. Alerta is a personal safety service. Because the service may process sensitive information, including precise location, emergency contacts, device-trigger data, incident details, and optional recordings, we aim to use clear, meaningful disclosures and collect only the information reasonably needed to operate the service.

We may collect the following categories of information:

• Account and profile information: name, email address, phone number, institution affiliation, account role, login details, and app settings.
• Emergency contact information: name, phone number, relationship, and related contact details for the emergency contacts a user selects from the device address book.
• Precise location information: GPS coordinates, live location updates, route information, and location timestamps when users enable location-based features.
• Device event and safety trigger information: sensor and app event data used to support Emergency SOS, Alert Mode, Safe Walk, shake-trigger, impact detection, free-fall detection, loud-sound detection, unusual motion detection, and related safety features.
• Incident and usage information: event type, incident timestamps, acknowledgements, responses, resolutions, timer expiry events, live-location shares, Guardian Mode activity, institution event records, and related case metadata.
• Evidence and recording information: photos, videos, audio, notes, uploaded files, recording chunks, file references, and media metadata where evidence capture is enabled during SOS or other incident flows.
• Messaging and communication information: recipient number, message content, delivery status, timestamps, and related messaging metadata for backend-generated safety alerts.
• Support, security, and abuse-prevention information: IP address, device and browser data, app logs, crash data, support requests, fraud indicators, and abuse reports.

We use personal information to:

• create and manage accounts and user settings,
• let users select and manage emergency contacts,
• trigger, route, document, and update safety events,
• share live location and incident information with approved recipients,
• send transactional safety and emergency alerts,
• support Guardian Mode and institution-related workflows,
• host, store, and display incident evidence,
• troubleshoot, secure, monitor, and improve the service,
• investigate misuse, false alerts, harassment, stalking, fraud, and security incidents,
• comply with legal obligations, and
• protect the rights, safety, and property of users, emergency contacts, institutions, and the public.

Alerta uses automatic backend messaging only for transactional safety and emergency communications. Alerta does not use emergency-contact consent for marketing or promotional messaging.

Certain automatic escalations, including automatic threat detection, Safe Walk expiry, and similar backend-triggered safety alerts, may be sent through service providers such as Twilio and telecommunications carriers.

Manual emergency messages and one-time Check-in messages are initiated through the user's device SMS composer. Those messages are not sent by Alerta through Twilio.

Mobile opt-in data and consent will not be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes.

We may share personal information in the following situations:

• With approved recipients chosen through the service: When a user triggers a safety feature, Alerta may share the user's name, incident type, live or recent location, timestamps, incident status, and related case information with emergency contacts, guardians, or other approved recipients.
• With institutions and institution administrators: If Alerta is used through a campus, employer, or other institution, Alerta may share account, location, incident, and evidence information with that institution and its authorized administrators or responders where needed to provide the service or support incident response workflows.
• With service providers: We may share information with providers who help host the service, store data, authenticate users, route messages, process notifications, provide support, and secure the platform. Those providers may process information only to operate the service on our behalf or for the limited purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
• With messaging and telecommunications providers: Automatic safety alerts may be processed by Twilio and wireless carriers for routing, delivery, logging, opt-out handling, and related operational purposes.
• With incident-sharing recipients: If a user or institution creates a shareable incident link, people with that link may be able to view the incident type, location, timestamps, and case status made available through that link until the link expires, is revoked, or access is otherwise disabled.
• For legal, safety, and abuse-prevention reasons: We may disclose information if reasonably necessary to comply with law, respond to lawful requests, enforce our terms and policies, investigate misuse, or prevent harm.

Users must only add emergency contacts who have explicitly agreed to receive Alerta safety and emergency alerts for that user.

Alerta does not buy, scrape, rent, or import emergency-contact lists from brokers, public directories, or third-party marketing databases.

Alerta does not sell, rent, or transfer emergency-contact consent.

For more information about how emergency-contact consent works, see Emergency Contact Consent.

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including safety operations, incident documentation, support, legal compliance, and abuse prevention.

Unless a longer period is required by law or a legal hold applies, Alerta keeps account data, emergency-contact data, incident records, location data, evidence, recordings, messaging logs, support records, and backup copies for up to one year from the relevant event, deletion request, or account closure, whichever is later.

You may be able to:

• review and update your account information,
• remove or replace emergency contacts,
• disable certain device permissions such as location, microphone, camera, or notifications,
• request access to or correction of personal information,
• request deletion of personal information, subject to legal limits,
• withdraw consent where applicable, and
• ask questions about how your information is used.

Depending on where you live, you may also have additional rights under applicable US state privacy law or Canadian privacy law.

Alerta may process personal information in Canada, the United States, and other countries where Alerta or its service providers operate. Those jurisdictions may have privacy laws that differ from the laws where you live.

When we transfer personal information across borders, we use reasonable steps appropriate to the sensitivity of the information and the role of the service provider.

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, loss, misuse, alteration, and disclosure.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and no safety, messaging, or location system is guaranteed to be available or error-free at all times.

Alerta is not directed to children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided personal information to Alerta without appropriate authorization, contact us using the details below.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make a material change, we will update the effective date and provide any additional notice required by law.

For privacy, support, or messaging questions, contact:

Siddharth Madhan
175 Bagot Street
Kingston, Ontario K7L 3E9
Canada

Privacy: sidmadhan@gmail.com
Support: sidmadhan@gmail.com
Messaging support: sidmadhan@gmail.com
Phone: +1 825 882 1906