A check-in app should never be the thing that puts you at risk. Here's exactly how Beacon Safe protects your data, why we don't track your location, and how alerts stay reliable.
Encryption
Every byte that travels between your phone and our infrastructure is encrypted with TLS 1.3 — the latest, most secure version of the protocol that powers HTTPS. No older fallbacks, no weak ciphers. The same standard your bank uses.
Your data lives in a managed Postgres database on enterprise cloud infrastructure, which encrypts every record at rest using AES-256. Database backups are encrypted, automated, and retained on rolling windows.
Authentication uses signed JWT tokens with short-lived access credentials. Each session is bound to a refreshable token. Passwords are hashed with bcrypt — we cannot read them, even if we wanted to.
Location
Most personal-safety apps demand 24/7 GPS access. They argue this lets them respond when something goes wrong — but it also creates a continuous record of where you live, work, sleep, and travel.
Beacon Safe takes a different approach: we don't need to know where you are. We only need to know whether you checked in.
The app does not request location permission. We don't store coordinates, addresses, geofences, or any positional data. If you're being stalked, surveilled, or simply value your privacy, we are not a vector someone can subpoena, breach, or extort.
The trade-off is honest: Beacon Safe alerts your contacts, not 911. Your trusted people decide what to do with the information. We trust them to know your situation better than a dispatcher ever could.
Reliability
This is the most important piece of architecture in Beacon Safe, and it's worth understanding.
Every check-in app on the market falls into one of two camps:
Beacon Safe is firmly in the server-timer camp. Your check-in deadline is a row in our database. A scheduled job fires every minute, scans for missed deadlines, and triggers escalation through trusted SMS, voice, and email providers directly — with no dependency on your phone being awake, online, or even existing.
Your phone in a river, your phone left at home, your phone destroyed in an accident. The alerts still go out.
SMS Compliance
SMS alerts to your emergency contacts require explicit, verified consent — this is the law (TCPA), and we take it seriously.
When you add a contact and enable SMS for them, our system runs a double opt-in flow: we send the contact a one-time verification text asking them to confirm they want to receive Beacon Safe alerts on your behalf. They reply YES to opt in. Until they do, no further SMS is sent to that number.
Every SMS includes opt-out language. Recipients can text STOP at any time to immediately and permanently opt out — honored within seconds at the carrier level. They can text HELP for support information.
We retain a consent log for every SMS-enabled contact: the timestamp of opt-in, the verification reply, and any subsequent STOP request. This log is auditable and exists to protect both you and your contacts.
For the full SMS terms, see /sms-terms.
Data Minimization
We collect the minimum data needed to operate the service. Nothing more.
| Data | Purpose | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Email + password hash | Account login and recovery | Stored |
| Display name | Personalize alerts to contacts | Stored |
| Your phone number | Safety Check calls (Plus only) | Stored |
| Contact names / phone / email | Send alerts when you miss a check-in | Stored |
| Check-in timestamps | Activity report, deadline tracking | Stored |
| Notification log | Audit, debugging, idempotency | 90 days |
| Push notification token | Send reminders and alert resolutions | Stored |
| GPS / location data | — | Never |
| Contact list scraping | — | Never |
| Photos / camera / mic | — | Never |
| Browsing or device fingerprint | — | Never |
| Third-party ad / tracking SDKs | — | Never |
Retention windows: Notification logs are pruned after 90 days. Subscription records are retained as long as required by Apple / Google. Account data is retained until you delete your account, after which all of the above is irrevocably removed within 30 days.
Your Right to Be Forgotten
You can delete your Beacon Safe account at any time, by either method:
Deletion permanently removes your profile, all emergency contacts, check-in history, notification logs, and push tokens. Subscription billing records are retained by Apple or Google per their policies (we cannot delete those for you, but you can request deletion through the app store directly). Anonymous, aggregated metrics that cannot identify you may be retained.
Subprocessors
To run a multi-channel alerting system, we rely on a small number of carefully chosen vendors. Each one signs a Data Processing Agreement and is bound by our retention and confidentiality requirements. Full list with addresses and DPAs is published in our Privacy Policy.
We rely on a small number of vetted, enterprise-grade subprocessors for database hosting, SMS and voice delivery, email delivery, and subscription management. Each signs a Data Processing Agreement and is bound by our retention and confidentiality requirements. The full, named list — with company details and DPAs — is maintained in our Privacy Policy.
Responsible Disclosure
We welcome reports from security researchers and users. If you believe you've discovered a vulnerability in Beacon Safe, our website, or our infrastructure, please email security@beaconsafe.app with a description and reproduction steps.
We commit to:
Please do not exploit vulnerabilities, access data that isn't yours, or disrupt service for other users. Test only against accounts you control.
Beacon Safe is live on iOS and Android.