Requests from police and authorities
Last updated: 25 September 2026
The short version. We hold very little, and most of it is gone within days. We answer written requests from a verifiable official address, after calling back through the force's own switchboard. We disclose only on a court order or other compulsory legal power, or when someone's life is in immediate danger. We do not disclose voluntarily: a request without a legal power behind it gets the records preserved, not handed over. We tell the person unless the law prevents it or doing so would put someone at risk.
What we hold, and for how long
This is a summary of section 7 of our privacy policy, which is the authoritative and complete version; anything not listed here follows the periods stated there.
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Account: name, mobile number, date of birth, ZeroPercent PIN (as a hash we cannot read back) | Until the account is deleted |
| Backup contacts: name, number, relationship, as the member typed them | Until the member removes them or deletes the account |
| Battery level history | 30 days |
| Battery check-in records | 7 days |
| Crash and performance reports from the app (technical, linked to the account) | 90 days |
| One-time codes sent to someone agreeing to be reached | 24 hours |
| Links sent to someone to agree to be reached | 30 days after use or expiry |
| Rescue messages and replies (the text itself) | Deleted within a day of the 15-minute session ending |
| Rescue session records (times and internal references, no content) | 7 days |
| Rescue sign-in attempts (number tried, borrowed phone's internet address, outcome) | 30 days |
| Safety and security log (what happened and when, by internal reference; never what anyone said) | 6 years |
| Twilio's copy of each message and call record, held by the company that carries our texts | 30 days, then up to 30 more to clear |
We hold no location data, ever: the app never asks for it. We hold no message content beyond the day after a rescue. Once a member removes a backup contact, the contact's details are gone from the member's list; what remains is the log entry that a removal happened, and the record that the number once agreed to be reached, kept for four years after that person can no longer reach it (privacy policy section 7).
How to make a request
- In writing, from an official email address we can verify, to [email protected]. Say exactly what is wanted and about whom (a mobile number is the identifier we use).
- We verify every request by calling back through the force or agency's published switchboard, never a number given in the request itself.
- A phone call on its own is not enough for disclosure. It is enough for us to preserve the records it concerns while the written request follows, which we do straight away. Preserving is not disclosing: we set that person's records aside so our normal deletion does not remove them, and nothing else changes.
When we disclose
- A court order, warrant, production order or other compulsory legal power.
- Where someone's life is in immediate danger, for example a missing child, we give what is needed to find the person, verify by calling back even then, and record what was given and why the same day.
Nothing else. A written request that cites no legal power, however reasonable it sounds, is answered by preserving the records it names and asking for the order. Being asked politely is not a reason to hand over a child's data.
Telling the person
We tell the person their data was requested unless the law prevents it, or telling them would be likely to put someone at risk or prejudice an investigation. Where we cannot tell them, we record why.
Requests from outside the UK
We preserve the records and do not disclose directly to an authority outside the UK. Requests should come through UK authorities under the arrangements that exist for that purpose.
Transparency
Some kinds of request can by law never be counted, confirmed or denied in public, so we do not publish a running count of requests. What we can say is how we handle them, which is this page.
Our internal procedure for all of this, including the exact steps taken to preserve a record, is written down and reviewed; this page is the public summary of it. If something here and section 7 of the privacy policy ever disagree, the privacy policy wins and this page is wrong.