Privacy policy

Last updated: 2 November 2026

This policy explains what personal information the Panic Alert app and website ("Panic Alert", "we") collect, why, who receives it, how long we keep it and your rights under South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA). Panic Alert is the responsible party.

1. What we collect

• Name, mobile number and email address – to create your account and so your contacts know who needs help.
• Community name – shown under the PANIC ALERT heading and on your alerts.
• Profile photo (optional) – so your contacts can recognise you.
• Contacts and groups – the people linked to your code, the contacts you choose to alert and the codes you entered to receive other people's alerts.
• Live location – only while an alert you sent is active, or during a short test. This can continue while your phone is locked, and stops when the alert is cancelled. We do not track you at any other time. When you open someone else's alert, your phone works out your distance to them on the device; that location is not sent to us.
• Medical alerts – that you asked for medical help, when, and who responded. This is health-related (special) personal information, and we only process it with your separate consent, given before your first MEDICAL alert.
• Alert history – type (panic, medical, home safe, test), time, recipients and who confirmed or responded.
• Consents – what you agreed to (privacy policy and terms, location sharing, marketing, age or guardian consent, medical consent), with the date, time and version.
• Device and account security – a push notification token, your mute setting, a securely hashed password, and security logs (for example network address and time of refused access attempts).
• Subscription – plan and status from Apple, Google or PayFast. We never see or store your card details.
• Support messages you send us.

2. Why we use it

• To send your panic, medical and home-safe alerts, with your live location, to the people you chose and to your community's own paramedic.
• To run your account, groups, subscription and free trial.
• To keep the service secure, prevent abuse, detect and report security breaches, and answer support requests.
• To send news and offers only if you ticked the optional marketing box. You can switch this off any time in Settings.

We rely on your consent (location sharing, medical alerts, marketing), on running the service you signed up for, and on our legal duties. We do not sell your information and do not use it for advertising.

3. Who receives it

• Your chosen contacts receive your name, number, photo, community name and live location when you send an alert.
• Your community paramedic (only if your community uses a medical code) receives the same for MEDICAL alerts. The paramedic is run by your community. Panic Alert is not connected to any emergency or medical service and does not send your information to them.
• Service providers (operators) that run the app for us under contract and may only use the information to provide their service:
  • Emergent (app hosting, database and file storage)
  • Expo and Google Firebase Cloud Messaging (push notifications to Android); Apple Push Notification service (iPhone)
  • Resend, through Emergent (emails such as password reset codes and support replies)
  • Apple App Store, Google Play and RevenueCat (in-app subscriptions)
  • PayFast (web card/EFT payments, South Africa)
  • Cloudflare (secure network delivery, a bot check on the website, and Cloudflare Web Analytics on the website)
  • Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com): when you open our website your browser downloads fonts from Google, so Google receives your IP address and browser details
• Authorities, only where the law requires it.

4. Transfers outside South Africa

Most of these providers store or process information outside South Africa, mainly in the United States and the European Union (Emergent, Expo, Google, Apple, RevenueCat, Resend, Cloudflare, Google Fonts). PayFast processes in South Africa. We only use providers that are bound by laws, contracts or binding rules giving protection similar to POPIA (section 72), and by using Panic Alert you agree to these transfers.

5. Analytics and session recording

The Panic Alert app uses no analytics, advertising trackers or session recording.

Our website does not record sessions, and form fields (name, phone, email, password, messages) are masked and never captured. The website uses:

• Cloudflare Web Analytics (static.cloudflareinsights.com): counts page visits and loading speed without cookies or cross-site tracking. Cloudflare also runs a bot check to protect the site; both see your IP address and browser details.
• Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com, fonts.gstatic.com): not analytics, but Google receives your IP address and browser details when the fonts load.

Any other website tool will be listed here before it is switched on.

6. How long we keep it

• Alerts and location trails: deleted automatically after 90 days.
• Account information: kept while your account is open.
• Deleting your account (Settings > Delete my account): choose Delete now to permanently remove your profile, photo, contacts, groups, alert history and location data straight away, or Delete in 30 days to switch the account off at once and keep the option to restore it by signing in within 30 days. Either way you are signed out on all devices immediately. In other people's alerts your name, number and photo are removed.
• Security logs and consent records may be kept longer where the law requires.

7. Security and breaches

Information is sent over encrypted connections (HTTPS), passwords are hashed, sessions can be ended on all devices and access is limited. Every refused attempt to reach personal data is logged and our Information Officer is alerted. If a breach exposes your personal information, we will notify the Information Regulator and you as soon as reasonably possible (POPIA section 22). No system is completely secure, and alerts depend on phones and networks (see the service disclaimer in the app).

8. Your rights

• Access: Settings > Download my data gives you a copy of everything we hold about you.
• Correction: edit your name, number, community name and photo in Settings, or ask us.
• Deletion: Settings > Delete my account, or ask us.
• Objection and withdrawing consent: switch off marketing in Settings, stop location by cancelling the alert or in your phone settings, or contact us. Withdrawing consent does not affect what was done before.
• Contacts: if someone added you, you can leave their list at any time (Groups > Receive > Leave). Your details are then removed from their contacts.

9. Children

Panic Alert is for people aged 18 or older. Under-18s may only use it with the consent of a parent or guardian, which is recorded at sign-up.

10. Information Officer

Tommy Botha
Email: tommythetraveller@gmail.com
Phone / WhatsApp: +27 82 444 5276

11. Complaints

Please contact our Information Officer first. You also have the right to complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa): inforegulator.org.za, email POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za.

12. Changes

We will update this page and the date above if this policy changes, and tell you in the app about important changes.

Support page: Panic Alert support