Privacy notice

English · Deutsch (legally binding)

Guarding Angel is built to collect as little as possible: your circle stays on your iPhone, and positions you share live are end-to-end encrypted — we cannot read them.

1. Controller

Alex Fitterling
Wöhrder Kreuzgasse 8, 90489 Nürnberg, Germany
Email: info@sp33c.tech

More in the imprint.

2. The app

Your circle (emergency contacts). Names and phone numbers you enter in the app are stored only on your device and never sent to us. You delete them in the app with “Erase all my data”, or by removing the app.

Location. The app asks for “While Using the App” permission. Your location is processed on the device and only leaves it when you share it, start a live beacon or use “Hold for help” (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). While a live beacon is running, the app may keep updating your location in the background until you stop it.

Texts, FaceTime and sharing. Emergency texts and calls go through Apple’s apps (Messages, FaceTime) or the app you pick in the share sheet. We receive nothing from them. One-off positions contain a link to openstreetmap.org; when a recipient opens it, the OpenStreetMap Foundation processes that request.

Map. The in-app map is Apple Maps. Showing it makes your device load map tiles from Apple, which processes your IP address and the visible area as an independent controller (Apple’s privacy policy).

Anonymous usage statistics (optional). Only if you switch on “Share anonymous usage statistics” in the app (off by default) does it tell us which features were used — e.g. “app opened”, “live beacon started”, “help triggered” — together with the app version and language. No device ID, account, location or contacts are sent. We store only a daily count per event, never the individual report; your IP address is used only for short-lived abuse protection (see retention). The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, § 25(1) TDDDG), which you can withdraw at any time in the app’s settings.

No tracking. The app contains no third-party analytics or advertising SDKs, collects no advertising identifier (IDFA) and shares nothing with data brokers.

3. Live beacon (end-to-end encrypted)

When you start a live beacon, your iPhone creates a random key (AES-256-GCM) and encrypts every position before it leaves the device. The key exists only in the link you share, after the “#” — the part browsers never send to a server. So all we store is:

  • a random beacon id and the encrypted position (unreadable to us),
  • when it started and was last updated,
  • a hash of the write key that lets only your device send updates,
  • which signed-in accounts viewed it (account id, display name, first and last view) — so it’s known who is watching.

A beacon ends after 24 hours at the latest and is then deleted automatically. When you tap “Stop”, we delete the encrypted position immediately; an “ended” notice stays readable for one more hour. Only signed-in people who have the complete link can watch (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).

4. Website

Hosting. The website and the app’s endpoints run on Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Frankfurt (eu-central-1) and are delivered through the Amazon CloudFront content delivery network. AWS is our processor (Art. 28 GDPR). Where data may reach the US, we rely on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the EU Commission’s standard contractual clauses.

Logs and abuse protection. We keep no access logs. Technical errors are logged without content data in AWS CloudWatch and deleted after one month. To prevent abuse we count requests per IP address (on the support form also per email address); these counters delete themselves after 11 minutes at most (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

Cookies and local storage. We only use strictly necessary cookies (§ 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG):

  • ga_session — keeps you signed in (up to 30 days).
  • ga_lang — remembers your language (up to 12 months).
  • ga_csrf — protects forms against forgery (up to 2 hours).

Your browser stores locally (localStorage) that you dismissed the cookie notice; it is never sent. We serve our fonts ourselves — there is no connection to Google Fonts or any other third party, and there is no tracking.

Web account. To watch a live beacon or use the dashboard, you sign in with your name and phone number. We store these, contacts you add in the dashboard, and trust links computed from them (a number counts as verified when several people add it independently). One-time sign-in links are valid for five minutes. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR. Please only add contact details you are allowed to share.

5. Support form

Through /support we process your name (optional), email address, topic and message. We first email you a confirmation link (double opt-in); until you confirm, the request stays with us for 24 hours at most and is then deleted automatically. Once you confirm, we forward it to our mailbox info@sp33c.tech and delete the temporary copy. Emails are sent through Amazon SES (AWS). We keep the correspondence as long as needed to handle your request and delete it afterwards, unless the law requires us to keep it (Art. 6(1)(b) and (f) GDPR).

6. Recipients

  • Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL — hosting, database, email delivery (processor).
  • Apple — App Store distribution, Apple Maps, Messages and FaceTime when you use them (independent controller).
  • OpenStreetMap Foundation — only when a recipient opens a shared map link.

We don’t sell data and don’t share data for advertising.

7. Retention at a glance

  • Your circle in the app: only on your device, until you delete it.
  • Live beacon: 24 hours at most; after “Stop” no position at once, notice for 1 hour.
  • Unconfirmed support request: 24 hours at most.
  • Anonymous daily usage counts: about 13 months.
  • Abuse counters: 11 minutes at most. Error logs: 1 month.
  • Session: up to 30 days. Sign-in link: 5 minutes.
  • Web account and dashboard contacts: until you ask us to delete them.

8. Your rights

You have the right of access (Art. 15), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20) and to object (Art. 21 GDPR). You can withdraw consent at any time with effect for the future.

  • Data in the app: delete it yourself with “Erase all my data” in Settings.
  • Access, export or deletion of your web account: via the support form (topic “Privacy or data request”) or by email to info@sp33c.tech.

You may also complain to a supervisory authority, e.g. the Bavarian Data Protection Authority (BayLDA).

9. Related documents

Terms of use · Imprint

Last updated: 14 October 2026