Privacy Policy

Beside is a personal-safety app. By its nature it handles sensitive information — your location, audio, and who you trust. We treat that data with the seriousness it deserves: we never sell it, never show ads, and never track you across other apps or websites. This policy explains exactly what we collect, why, and the control you have.

Who we are

Beside ("we", "us") provides the Beside mobile app and the besidesafeapp.com website. For privacy questions or to exercise your rights, contact us at [email protected].

What we collect

• Phone number — used to create and sign in to your account (one-time SMS code).
• Display name — shown to the people you connect with so they know it's you.
• Trusted contacts ("Angels") — the names and phone numbers of people you choose to add. We use these only to invite them and to alert them when you trigger a safety event.
• Precise location — collected only while a safety session is active (SOS, Safe Walk, or an overdue Check-in) and shared only with the Angels you selected. We do not track your location in the background otherwise.
• Audio — if you enable recording, ambient audio captured during an SOS. Recordings are encrypted on your device before upload; only you hold the key. Live audio (if enabled) is streamed encrypted (DTLS-SRTP) directly to your Angels and is not stored on our servers.
• Device push tokens — so we can deliver alerts and calls to your phone (Apple Push Notification service / Firebase Cloud Messaging).
• Aggregate website analytics — our website uses Plausible, which is cookieless and does not profile individuals.

What we do NOT do

• We don't sell or rent your personal data to anyone.
• We don't show advertising or share data with ad networks.
• We don't track you across other apps or websites.
• We don't listen to or decrypt your recordings — they're encrypted with a key that stays on your device.

How we use your data

Solely to provide the safety features you ask for: signing you in, inviting your Angels, and — during an active safety session you start — delivering your location, alerts, and audio to those Angels. We also use it to keep the service secure and working.

Who can see your data

Your location and audio during a session are visible only to the Angels you explicitly chose for that session. Beyond that, we use a small number of infrastructure providers ("processors") strictly to run the service:

• Supabase — database, authentication, and encrypted file storage.
• Firebase Cloud Messaging & Apple Push Notification service — delivering push notifications and calls.
• LiveKit — real-time encrypted audio during an SOS (media is not recorded server-side).
• Google Maps — rendering the map image that shows a location to your Angels.

These providers process data only on our instructions. We may also disclose data if required by law or to protect someone's safety.

How long we keep it

Encrypted recordings are kept for up to 30 days by default and then deleted, unless you delete them sooner. Account data (your profile and contacts) is kept until you delete your account. Safety-session metadata is retained for your own history.

Your rights & choices

You can access, correct, export, or delete your data at any time. Deleting your account (Settings → Delete account) erases your profile, contacts, recordings, and sessions from our servers. Depending on where you live, you have rights under the EU GDPR and Thailand's PDPA; to exercise any of them, email [email protected].

Security

All network traffic is encrypted in transit (TLS). Recordings are encrypted on your device before they ever leave it. PINs are stored only as salted hashes, never in plain text. No system is perfectly secure, but we design Beside so that the most sensitive data is unreadable to us by default.

Children

Beside is not directed to children under 16. We don't knowingly collect data from them.

Not an emergency service

Beside helps you reach the people you trust, but it is not a substitute for emergency services. In immediate danger, always call your local emergency number.

Changes

If we change this policy, we'll update the date above and, for significant changes, notify you in the app.