Pocket Guard Privacy Policy
Pocket Guard is an anti-theft and personal-safety app. It works on your phone, with no ads, no analytics and no account to create. The only data that leaves your phone is the SOS alert you set up and approved: sent by SMS from your phone to the emergency contacts you chose, and, unless you switch off "Live location link", your location and the video recorded during SOS, and your contacts' email addresses, sent to Pocket Guard's server so your contacts can follow you on a live map, watch the recording and get the alert by email. This policy explains what the app uses and why.
What the app uses, and why
- Motion, proximity and light sensors: to tell when the phone is taken out of a pocket or picked up from a table while the guard is armed. Readings are processed on the phone as they arrive and are not stored, except a short detection log you can view and clear in Settings.
- Camera (photos): when the theft siren starts, to take a few photos of whoever holds the phone. They are saved on the phone, in History.
- Camera and microphone (video with sound): only after you start SOS, until you unlock, to record what happens. Recordings are saved on the phone, in History. When "Live location link" is on and your alert is approved, they are also uploaded for your contacts (see below); otherwise they leave the phone only if you share them yourself.
- Emergency contacts: the names, phone numbers and (optional) email addresses you pick (through the system's contact picker, which hands the app only the contact you choose) or type in. Stored on the phone.
- Location: only while SOS is running, to put it in the alert to your emergency contacts, to send an update if you move and, when "Live location link" is on, to show it on the live map their link opens. It is not used at any other time.
- SMS: when you start SOS, after a 5-second countdown you can cancel, the app sends the alert you approved (your name, the time and a map link to your location) to the contacts you approved, from your own phone and at your carrier's normal rate. If you stop SOS right away, it sends "false alarm". In the Google Play version the app prepares the message and you tap Send.
- Accessibility service (optional): only to detect volume up tapped 4 times quickly (with the screen on) for the SOS gesture. It does not read the screen, what you type, or any other content, and nothing it sees leaves the phone.
- Nearby devices (Bluetooth): the names of your paired earbuds or watch, so you can choose which ones warn you when they lose the phone. Stored on the phone.
- Physical activity: to remind you to arm the guard on a bus or train. Not stored.
- Notifications, Do Not Disturb access and alarm over the lock screen: to show the guard's status and to make the alarm heard and seen.
- Text-to-speech: the spoken call for help uses your phone's own voice engine.
Live location link and alert emails (online)
When "Live location link" is on (Settings, Online; on by default) and you approve your alert, the app signs in to Pocket Guard's server with an anonymous account made for this phone, so SOS doesn't have to wait for it. The account is a random ID with no email, phone number or password, and is not linked to your identity. Starting SOS then also does this:
- It opens an SOS record with the name you entered for alerts, your battery level, and the start and end time, and uploads your location (position, accuracy and time) about every 30 seconds while SOS runs.
- The video recorded during SOS is uploaded in one-minute pieces (480p, with sound) as they are saved, to storage that is not public.
- The SMS carries a private link to a live map of that location, with the recordings. Anyone with the link can see it, and play a recording through a link that works for 10 minutes, without signing in, until one day after SOS ends.
- Emergency contacts who have an email address get the alert by email (in your phone's language), sent through our email provider. The addresses are used to send that email and are not stored on the server: only a one-way hash of each one is kept for 90 days, so that no address can be sent too many alerts. Brevo keeps its usual delivery logs.
The server is run on Supabase (database and sign-in, hosted in Singapore), recordings are stored on Cloudflare R2 (Asia-Pacific), and emails are sent through Brevo. They process the data only to provide this service. The data is used for nothing else: not for advertising, profiling or sale.
Sharing
The app shares only the SOS alert you approved, with the emergency contacts you approved, when you start SOS (by SMS, by email and through the live location link, as described above). When you choose to share a recording, a photo or the alert (for example on WhatsApp), it goes only to the app or person you pick. Personal data is never sold.
Storage, retention and deletion
On the phone, everything stays in the app's private storage. History keeps warnings for 7 days and alarms for 90 days, then deletes them with their photos and recordings. You can clear History at any time, and uninstalling the app deletes all of its data on the phone.
On the server, SOS records, their locations and their recordings are deleted after 90 days (the live link stops working one day after SOS ends). To delete them sooner, use Settings, Online, Delete my online data: it deletes this phone's anonymous account and everything stored with it, at once. If you no longer have the app, ask us (see Contact) with the approximate date and time of your SOS and we will delete it.
Security
Data is kept in storage only the app can read. Stopping an alarm needs your phone's own unlock (PIN, pattern, password or biometrics). Data sent to the server travels encrypted (HTTPS). On the server, each SOS record can be read only by the phone that made it and, through its live link, by the people it was sent to.
Children
Pocket Guard is meant for adults and is not directed at children.
Changes
If a future version changes what is shared or stored, this policy will be updated before that version is released, and the app will ask for your approval again before sharing anything new.
Contact
Questions or requests, including deletion: email support.pocketguard@gmail.com.