Privacy Policy

1. What this policy covers

This policy describes the information ResQNet's mobile app and backend collect and how that information is used. It applies to the ResQNet app and its backend API, not to this website (see below for website-specific data).

2. Information we collect

• Account information — when you sign in with Google, we receive your email address and display name from Google to create your account. If you sign in with a phone number, we receive that phone number.
• Profile information — optional fields you choose to provide, such as blood group, allergies, medications, emergency contact, and address details. Blood group and allergies are added to an automatic SOS only if you turn on the medical-sharing setting, which is off by default (see section 5).
• Trusted contacts — the names, phone numbers, and relationships you add for people you want notified during an emergency.
• Emergency (SOS) information — when you trigger an SOS, we record its category, any message you include, and your location and location accuracy if your device provides them, plus a signature from your device that lets us verify an SOS relayed by other phones.
• Optional location features — if you turn on nearby-emergency alerts, your last known location so we can tell you about emergencies near you; and any location you choose to share in a chat message.
• Device information — a push-notification token and platform (Android/iOS) so we can deliver notifications to your device.
• Profile photo — if you upload one, stored in ResQNet's object storage, with a visibility setting you control.

We do not collect this information through this marketing website — only through the ResQNet app itself.

3. How we use information

Information is used to operate ResQNet's core functions: creating and authenticating your account, recording and distributing SOS events, notifying your trusted contacts, delivering push notifications, and letting you manage your own profile and contacts. We do not use your emergency information for advertising.

4. Who we share information with

• Your trusted contacts — contacts who use ResQNet receive a push notification with your name, the SOS category and your location, but not your message or medical details. If you send the pre-filled SMS the app opens, they (and any local emergency numbers it includes) receive what that text contains.
• People near you, over the offline mesh — an SOS sent over the mesh is readable by every ResQNet phone that receives or relays it, including people you don't know. They can see your name, the SOS message and your exact location. Mesh messages are signed, not encrypted, and relays keep a copy until the SOS expires (24 hours by default).
• Authorized responders — staff with permission to respond see the SOS message and exact location while retention allows; staff with monitoring permission only see an approximate location.
• Service providers — Google (Sign-In verification and, where used, Firebase Cloud Messaging for push notifications) and ResQNet's own object storage for profile images. These providers process data on ResQNet's behalf; they do not receive it for their own independent use.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share emergency information with advertisers.

5. Medical information

The setting “Include medical information in automatic SOS” is off by default and resets to off on sign-out. When on, your blood group and allergies (never medications) are added to the signed message of an automatic SOS, and are then visible to everyone who receives that SOS over the mesh, to ResQNet's server, and to authorized responders. They are never included in push notifications or the pre-filled SMS.

6. Data retention

• Account, profile, and trusted-contact information is kept while your account exists.
• An SOS that no responder has closed is kept. Once a responder closes it, its personal data (message, exact location, responder notes, delivery log) stops being served after 90 days and is then redacted. The link to your account is removed after 730 days. An anonymous operational record (category, times, response steps) is kept.
• Other periods include: shared-location chat messages 30 days; nearby-alert location 30 days without updates; earthquake sensor reports 30 days; sessions 30 days after they end.
• Backups can contain deleted data for up to about 8 weeks. Copies on other people's phones expire there and can't be deleted remotely.

These periods are ResQNet's operational policy, not a statement of legal compliance.

7. Your choices

You can edit or remove your profile information and trusted contacts directly in the app at any time, turn the medical sharing and nearby-alert settings on or off, and choose who can see your profile photo (private, contacts only, or public). Signing out removes your profile, contacts and unsent messages from the phone. Account deletion is supported by ResQNet's server but does not yet have a button in the app; contact us to request it. Deletion is refused while you have an SOS that responders have not closed.

8. Children's privacy

ResQNet is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from children. This section will be expanded with a specific age policy as part of legal review.

9. Changes to this policy

As ResQNet's features and infrastructure evolve, this policy will be updated to reflect them. Material changes will be reflected here with an updated date once ResQNet has a public release to version this against.

10. Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent to hello@resqnet.co.