Privacy Notice

CrimeS!gnal Terms & Privacy Notice (v1.38)

CrimeS!gnal is a community safety and incident management service. It does not replace the South African Police Service or emergency services. Always call 10111 (SAPS) or 112 in a genuine emergency.

We verify your account with your phone number only. We never collect fingerprints, face scans, or ID documents. If you change your number or lose your phone, you can move your account to a new number. Your emergency contacts may be asked to confirm it's you, and people who saved your old number as a contact then reach you on the new one.

Why we ask for your location: so help can find you. We use it when you send an alert or report, during Safe travel, as a rough area (to about 150 m) kept from the last time you opened the app or sent an alert or report, so an alert from someone nearby who has nobody else to tell can reach you (we ask for your location once, the first time you open the app; switch off nearby alerts in Settings to stop this), and to show how far you are from someone who needs help. The Safety Map uses it only on your phone. Alerts still send without it, but then the people you chose can't see where you are until your phone finds a place, and nothing goes to people nearby.

Sending an alert costs you nothing. Any SMS we send is paid for by CrimeS!gnal. Emergency SMS (below) uses your own airtime.

When you send an alert, the emergency contacts and groups you choose see your name, your phone number, the type of incident, any note you add, and a live location link showing where your phone is, with your battery level when your phone shares it, so they can tell a flat battery from a phone switched off. The link works for a limited time, including a while after you mark yourself safe. While it is open, your phone keeps sending its location, even if the app is closed. The notification or SMS only says who needs help, never where you are or what happened. If you say a child is involved in an alert or report, only your emergency contacts see your note; groups and the live link don't.

Some safety settings you choose in the app stay on your phone and are never sent to us.

When your contacts or group members open your alert, you can see that they viewed it, and opening someone else's alert shows them you saw it. We keep when you last opened an alert, so a later change by the sender shows as updated.

You can block someone: their alerts stop notifying you and are kept apart. We keep who you blocked (a number only scrambled) until you unblock them. They aren't told.

Your emergency contacts and the members of groups you send to can download your alert or report as a printable record, for example to take to the police. It holds only what they already see in the app. Once saved, that copy is on their device. People nearby who receive an anonymous alert can never download anything.

Discreet alerts (Settings) are sent quietly, and your contacts and groups are asked not to call you.

Safe travel: you can set a timer for a trip. While it runs, your phone sends its position, and an optional note on where you are going reaches your contacts and groups only if your alert goes out. If you don't check in in time, your alert goes out by itself to the people you chose. Checking in deletes the position kept for the trip. The trip's times and note are deleted after 7 days; until then they show in Your reports.

Safety PIN: your safety PIN, and an emergency PIN if you choose one, are kept only scrambled; nobody at CrimeS!gnal can read them. The PIN protects your alerts, Safe travel and account settings from anyone else using your phone. If the app is used under pressure, it is built to protect you: your emergency contacts and groups may be warned that you could be in danger, and what they see may differ from what your own screen shows. While one of your alerts is open, your phone goes on sending its location to the people you chose until the alert's link closes, and some changes to your account may not take effect until then. Recovery questions let you choose a new PIN if you forget it; the questions are kept as written and the answers only scrambled.

Emergency SMS (phone app only, off until you switch it on): your emergency contacts' names and numbers are kept on your phone, so that without data but with signal you can text them that you need help. Your SMS app opens with the message filled in, and nothing is sent until you press send. It uses your own airtime. Switching it off removes the numbers from your phone.

Feedback you send us is kept with your account; your name and number are not written into it. If you tick the box on the feedback form, your words may be shown on the app's welcome screen once we have checked them, with your name only if you tick that too, and never your number. To have them taken down, email help@crimesignal.co.za.

To decide how to reach your contacts, we keep when you last opened the app (the latest time only) and message delivery receipts for 7 days.

Other nearby users receive only the incident type and an approximate area, never your name, notes or exact address, and only inside the app. You can switch off receiving these anonymous alerts in Settings.

Group admins see their members' names and, when needed, their numbers, and decide who joins. Other members only see the name and number of someone who sends an alert or report to the group. If a group is deleted, its member list, requests and board are removed; alerts and reports already sent stay with the people who got them.

You choose who gets your alerts and reports in Settings, one contact or group at a time: up to 3 contacts at once, and as many of your groups as you like. Groups only ever get a notification in the app, never an SMS. Each new contact or group is on until you turn it off, unless 3 contacts are already on. If you choose nobody, your alert goes without your name to people nearby, and a report is kept for you only. Emergency SMS uses only the contacts you chose.

Each group has a safety board: members see what was sent to the group in the last 7 days while they were members (who sent it, the type, when, whether they're safe now, and how many responded and viewed it). It never shows a location, a note, or who responded.

When you file a non-urgent report, your emergency contacts and groups see it in the app with your name, your phone number, the type of incident, when it happened and any note you add. It is never sent by SMS, and nearby strangers never see it.

The crime map shows official SAPS statistics, not your reports. Your alerts and reports are not shared with SAPS or anyone else beyond the people you choose, unless the law requires it.

Map pictures and street addresses come from OpenStreetMap, a map service based outside South Africa. When you look at the map or at where an alert was sent from, your phone asks OpenStreetMap for that area. Only places are sent, never a name, number or what happened. Directions opens your own maps app.

Your raw report data is kept for 15 days, then anonymised or deleted. If a report is deleted from your phone, we keep it for 15 more days so it can be recovered, then remove it for good.

You can delete your account in Settings. It's kept for 15 days in case you change your mind (signing in again keeps it), then your account and everything in it is deleted for good. Deleting it doesn't stop an alert or trip that's already running. You can also ask to access, correct or delete your data at any time by emailing help@crimesignal.co.za.

If you don't open the app for 12 months, we send you one SMS and delete your account 15 days later, unless you sign in before then.

On your phone, the app keeps a copy of your own profile, contacts, groups and history so it opens quickly and uses less data, and the last place your phone found, so an alert can still go out from there when your phone can't find a new one. It is kept under your account only, so nobody else signing in on that phone sees it, and Sign out removes it, along with the number and first name it remembers for signing in. Settings also lets you sign out on all your devices at once.

Translations are drafts, checked against dictionaries and term lists such as SADiLaR, VivA, isiZulu.net, the Greater Dictionary of isiXhosa and IATE. This English notice is the one that applies.

Children: if you are under 18, a parent or guardian must agree to this notice for you and oversee your use of the app.

Deleting your account

In the app, open Settings and choose Delete my account at the bottom. You're signed out straight away. Your account is kept for 15 days in case you change your mind, and signing in again with your number before then keeps it. After 15 days your account and everything in it (your name, number, emergency contacts, alerts and reports) is deleted for good.

An account nobody has opened for 12 months gets one SMS, then goes the same way 15 days later, unless you sign in.

Can't use the app? Email help@crimesignal.co.za from any address, with the phone number of the account, and we'll delete it the same way.

Contact us

Questions about your information, or anything else: help@crimesignal.co.za.

CrimeS!gnal is not an emergency service. In an emergency, call 10111 (SAPS) or 112.