Who we are
GuardianLive is operated by GuardianLive LLC (“GuardianLive”, “we”, “us”). This policy covers the GuardianLive apps for iPhone and Android and the website at https://guardianlive.org.
If you have a question about this policy or about your information, write to privacy@guardianlive.org.
The short version
- We collect what the app needs to work: your account details, your contacts within the app, your timers, your location while a timer or location sharing is on, and your video and audio when you record.
- Your contacts see your information only as described in this policy: mainly, when a timer you put them on runs out.
- We do not sell or rent your information, and we do not show ads.
- You can delete any timer and its recording yourself. You can ask us to delete your whole account.
- GuardianLive is for adults 18 and older in the United States.
Information we collect
Account information
When you sign up we ask for a username, your full name, your mobile phone number, your email address, your gender, your date of birth, and a password. We use your date of birth to confirm you are at least 18. We verify your phone number by texting it a six-digit code.
Your password is stored only as a one-way hash by our authentication provider. You may add a profile photo.
Your PINs
You choose a four-digit safety PIN and a four-digit emergency PIN. We store them only in a protected, one-way form that lets us check a PIN you enter. Nobody at GuardianLive can read your PINs.
Your contacts in the app
The people you add as contacts in GuardianLive, the requests you send and receive, and which contacts you put on each timer. GuardianLive does not read your phone’s address book.
Timers
The timers you save and start: their names, lengths, descriptions, response instructions and options; when each one started, ran out and ended; changes you made to the time; and which contacts opened a timer after it ran out, and when.
Location
GuardianLive collects your phone’s location, including in the background when the app is closed or the phone is locked, for three separate purposes:
- During a timer, to record your route for the contacts on that timer.
- After you enter your emergency PIN, until a contact marks the alarm resolved or you close it with both of your PINs.
- When you turn on Share location on the Map tab, to show your latest position to the contacts you chose. For this purpose we keep only your most recent position, not a trail.
Each position includes the time it was captured and how accurate the phone reported it to be. We stop collecting location for a purpose when that purpose ends.
When you open a point on a map to see its street address, the address is looked up by your phone’s own operating system (Apple’s or Google’s service), not by us.
Video and audio
When you record or go live, the app sends video from your camera, and audio from your microphone if you allowed it, to our servers. Recordings are kept with the timer they belong to. They can include other people and places that were in front of your camera.
Messages
Messages you send in a timer’s chat while it is live.
Device and technical information
For each phone you sign in on: a device key that proves requests come from that phone, the token Apple or Google gives us to send it notifications, the app version and operating system, and your network address when the app talks to our servers. We use these to keep your account secure and to limit abuse. We keep technical logs with personal content removed.
Purchases
If you buy a plan, the purchase is made through the App Store or Google Play. We receive confirmation of what you bought and when it renews or ends. We never receive your card number or billing address.
Messages to support
What you write to us, and our replies.
What we don’t collect
We do not use advertising identifiers or advertising trackers. We do not buy information about you from anyone. This website does not use cookies or analytics.
How we use information
We use your information to:
- run your timers and alert your contacts when one runs out;
- show your route, your recording and your instructions to the people you chose, when the rules below allow it;
- sign you in and keep your account secure, including sending verification codes;
- send notifications to you and to your contacts;
- store your History so you can go back to it;
- confirm that a plan has been bought before unlocking timers or recording;
- answer you when you contact support;
- find and fix faults, and prevent misuse of the service;
- meet our legal obligations.
We do not use your location, recordings or messages for advertising, and we do not use them to train artificial intelligence models.
Who can see your information in the app
Your contacts
A person becomes your contact only when one of you sends a request and the other accepts. A contact can see your name, username, profile photo and verified phone number. Your email address, date of birth and gender are never shown to other users.
Anyone who knows your exact username can look it up and will see your name and profile photo, so that they can send you a request.
While a timer is running
The contacts on a timer are told when it starts and can follow it while it runs: its countdown, its route and any live video. If you made the timer Discreet, they are not shown the timer, its route, or its recording, and are not told it started, unless it runs out.
When a timer runs out
The contacts on that timer are notified. They can see the timer’s name, description and response instructions, the times it started and ran out, your route during the timer and since, your latest position, any video recorded during the timer, and the live video if you are recording. You can see which of them have opened it.
When you mark yourself safe, the contacts on the timer are told, unless it was discreet and never ran out.
After a timer ends
The timer stays in your History and in the History of the contacts who were on it, until you delete it. A discreet timer that ended before it ran out stays in your History only. Removing someone as a contact does not remove timers you already shared with them. To do that, delete the timer.
A contact who is allowed to see a recording can download it. A downloaded copy is on their phone and outside our control.
Location sharing on the map
Only the contacts you select can see your latest position, and only while Share location is on.
People watching the same live video
People who are watching the same live video can see each other’s names and profile photos in the list of viewers and in the chat, even if they are not each other’s contacts.
The emergency PIN
If you enter your emergency PIN instead of your safety PIN, the app appears to carry out the action you chose, and also raises an alarm: all of your contacts are notified, and your location is recorded until one of them marks the alarm resolved, or until you close it yourself in Settings with your safety PIN and then your emergency PIN.
While that alarm is unresolved, the app deliberately does not show it on your own screens or send your phone notifications about it. This is to protect you if someone else is looking at your phone. It means that during this time the app will not show you everything it is recording about you. Once a contact resolves the alarm, it appears in your History.
A contact you appeared to remove, or a timer you appeared to delete, using the emergency PIN is not actually removed or deleted.
Companies that process information for us
We use other companies to run parts of the service. They process information on our instructions and only to provide their part.
| Company | What it does for us | What it handles |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Database and sign-in | Account details, contacts, timers, routes, messages |
| Amazon Web Services | Live video, and storage of recordings and photos | Video, audio, profile photos |
| Twilio | Text messages with verification codes | Your phone number |
| Resend | Emails with verification codes | Your email address |
| Apple and Google | Notifications, purchases, maps, and address lookup on your phone | Notification contents, purchase status, the areas of the map you look at, positions you look up |
| RevenueCat | Confirming plan purchases | An anonymous customer ID and your plan status |
| Sentry | Error reports from the app and our servers | Technical details of faults, with personal content removed |
We also disclose information when the law requires it, for example in response to a valid court order, and we will tell you when we are legally allowed to. If GuardianLive is ever sold or merged, your information would pass to the new operator under this policy, and we would tell you beforehand.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for advertising.
How long we keep it
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Your account | Until it is deleted |
| Timers, routes, descriptions, instructions and chat | Until you delete the timer or your account is deleted |
| Recordings | Until you delete the timer or your account is deleted. Seven days after recording, video moves to long-term storage; it is still kept, and can be retrieved on request |
| Your latest shared position on the map | Replaced by each new position; removed when you stop sharing |
| Verification codes | Up to 24 hours |
| Records of who is watching a live video | 24 hours |
| Technical logs | 30 days |
| An account that was started and never finished | Removed after 7 days |
| Encrypted backups | 90 days |
Deleting information
- A timer. Open it in History, choose delete, and enter your PIN. The timer, its route, its chat and its recording are removed for you and for everyone it was shared with, and then permanently deleted from our storage.
- Your account. Ask from the app (Profile, then Settings, then Request account deletion) or by email. See Delete your account. We complete requests within 1 day of confirming it is you.
- What deletion can’t reach. Copies of a recording that someone downloaded before you deleted it; and messages or timers that belong to other people.
Security
Information is encrypted in transit and at rest. Recordings and photos are kept in private storage and are served only through short-lived links issued to people who are allowed to see them. Access by our staff is limited, logged, and requires a stated reason. Signing in on a new phone requires a code sent to your phone or email.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your information, we will tell you as the law requires.
Your choices and rights
- Permissions. You can turn location, camera, microphone and notifications on or off in your phone’s settings at any time. Timers still work without the camera or microphone. Without location, your contacts cannot see where you are. Without notifications, you will not receive alerts about your contacts.
- See and correct. You can see and change your name and photo in the app. To change your email or phone number, or to get a copy of the information we hold about you, contact support.
- Delete. As described above.
- State privacy laws. Depending on where you live, you may have the right to know what personal information we hold, to get a copy, to correct it, to delete it, and to appeal if we refuse a request. We give these rights to everyone, wherever they live. We do not sell personal information or use it for targeted advertising, and we do not treat you differently for using your rights. To make a request or an appeal, write to privacy@guardianlive.org.
Children
GuardianLive is not for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly create accounts for, or collect information from, anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 has an account, tell us at privacy@guardianlive.org and we will remove it.
Where information is processed
GuardianLive is offered in the United States, and your information is processed and stored in the United States.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy in a way that affects how your information is used or who can see it, we will tell you in the app before the change takes effect. The date at the top shows when this version took effect.
Contact
GuardianLive LLC
814 East Forest Hills Blvd, Durham, NC 27707
privacy@guardianlive.org