Flare Privacy Policy · Emberline Industries Inc.

Draft. This policy hasn't been reviewed by a lawyer yet. Items in [brackets] still need filling in before Flare is published in the app stores.

The short version

Flare exists to get help to you when you need it. We collect what that takes, and nothing for advertising.
Your location is shared only during an alert, a Follow Me session you start, or a Plan — never all the time.
We keep only your latest position, never a trail of everywhere you've been.
We don't sell your information to anyone.
You can delete your account in the app. Emergency alerts you sent stay with the people they were sent to (explained below).

Your account: your phone number (it's how you sign in, with a code we text you), your name, and your email address if you add one.
Your contacts: the names and phone numbers of the people you add to your safety network, and whether each has agreed to be your contact. Nobody is sent alerts until they agree.
Your location, only when it's needed:
- During an SOS or I Feel Unsafe alert: your live location, shown to that alert's contacts until the alert ends.
- During Follow Me: your live location, shown only to the people you choose, until the session ends or you stop it.
- During a Plan: an approximate position every two minutes, shown to your contacts only if you miss your check-in.
- During Head To: your phone also checks whether you've arrived, so it can ask you to check in.
What you save in Flare: saved places (like Home), favourites, Plans, Escape Plan messages and sends, and your notification settings.
Notes on an alert: anything you or the people it went to write on an SOS, I Feel Unsafe or Missed Check-In alert, with who wrote it and when.
Your devices: a notification token for each phone you're signed in on, so alerts reach it, and a record of your sign-ins, so you can sign other devices out.

Your contacts see only what's part of an alert or a session you've shared with them. Being someone's contact doesn't give access to their history or their location at other times.
If you're someone's contact, they see whether you've accepted and when you've responded to their alerts.
Notes on an alert are seen by the person who sent it and the contacts it went to. Any of them can share the alert's record, notes included, for example with police; Flare never sends it on its own.

These companies handle some information for us, only to provide their part of the service:

Railway hosts Flare's server, where your account information is stored.
Google Firebase delivers push notifications to your phone.
Twilio sends text messages: sign-in codes, and alerts to contacts who don't have the app.
Google (Places and Routes) looks up places you search for and estimates travel times, using the places and positions involved in that search or trip.
MapTiler draws maps and looks up addresses. Your phone requests map images for the area on screen.

Your account information, contacts and saved places: until you delete them or your account.
Finished Plans and Escape Plan sends: until you clear them (Privacy & Sharing, or History).
Your Follow Me position: deleted as soon as the last session ends.
SOS, I Feel Unsafe and Missed Check-In alerts are permanent. They're the record of what happened, for you and the people who responded, so they can't be deleted — not even by deleting your account. Their notes are part of that record: they can't be edited or deleted either.

In the app, go to More, then Privacy & Sharing, then Delete account. We text a code to your phone to confirm it's you. Then:

Your profile, contacts, saved places, favourites, Plans, Escape Plan history, notification settings, Follow Me sessions and sign-ins are deleted.
You stop being a contact for anyone who added you, and they're told, so nobody thinks you're still covering them.
Your SOS, I Feel Unsafe and Missed Check-In alerts, and their notes, stay with the contacts they were sent to, under your name as it was, but are no longer connected to your phone number. A new account on the same number starts empty.
You can't delete your account during an active alert or Plan; end it first.

You can turn off location or notification access in your phone's settings at any time, but Flare can't protect you properly without them.
You can stop any Follow Me session, and see what's being shared right now, in Privacy & Sharing.
You can ask us for a copy of your information, or ask a question, at f4interactiveinc@gmail.com.

[Minimum age, and how Flare handles younger users, to be decided.]

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top, and tell you in the app if the change is significant.

Flare is made by Emberline Industries Inc.
f4interactiveinc@gmail.com
27 Cougarstone Court SW, Calgary, Alberta T3H 5A4, Canada

[Which privacy laws apply, for example Canada's PIPEDA, to be confirmed during legal review.]