The short version
- Your security company uses this app to send help when you press your panic button.
- We use your location only after you press the button – until the alert is closed, for up to the time you choose (1 hour unless you change it) – or while you have switched on Watch me. We do not track you at other times, and never secretly.
- After a panic your phone keeps sharing its location even when it is locked or the app is closed, so the control room can still find you – or follow your phone if it is taken.
- With Watch me, if you don't get home or back in time, or your phone seems to be taken, the control room keeps following your phone (for up to 1 hour, or the time you chose) so they can find you or the person who took it.
- If you type a wrong PIN when cancelling, the app shows "Cancelled" but quietly tells the control room you may be in danger.
- You can call or message the control room from the app at any time. They keep those messages.
- Only your security company's control room and the officers sent to help you can see your alert.
- The information you give and the record of your alerts may be shared with other parties for investigation purposes – for example the police, a court, an insurer or an investigator (see section 4).
- We never sell your information or use it for advertising.
- You can ask to see, correct or delete your information at any time.
- Watch me, escort home, shared shop logins and area alerts are extras that your security company chooses to offer. If it doesn't offer one, it isn't in your app and none of that information is collected. If it adds one later, your app asks you to agree before you use it.
1. Who is responsible for your information
Your security company (its name, registration number and address are shown in the NearGuard Panic Button app, on the privacy screen) decides why your information is collected and is the responsible party under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).
NearGuard Solutions (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2026/839943/07, Cape Town; nearguard.solutions@gmail.com) provides the app and system to your security company and stores your information on its behalf. NearGuard is the security company's operator and only uses your information as the security company instructs and as described here.
2. What we collect
If you use the NearGuard Panic Button app (clients)
| Information | When |
|---|---|
| Name, surname, email, mobile number, home address, type of home (house or flat block) | When your security company invites you, or when you update your details |
| Your phone's location (GPS) | Only after you press the panic button: from the press until the alert is closed or cancelled, for up to the time you choose in the app under My safety → Share my location for (30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours or 4 hours; 1 hour unless you change it). This carries on when your phone is locked, the screen is off or the app is closed, and your phone shows a notice while it happens. In the first minute it pin-points you; after that the pin only moves when your phone really moves (more than about 150 m), so the control room and the officer can follow you – or your phone, if it was taken. A wrong PIN does not stop it. |
| Floor and unit number | If you choose to tell us after pressing the button |
| Messages and voice notes | That you send to, or receive from, the control room and officer during an alert, and messages you send to the control room at other times using Call or message (with the time they were sent and read) |
| Your phone's location, route and speed during Watch me | Only if you switch Watch me on yourself (going home, or out and back for a walk, run or trip to the shop). From when you start it until you arrive home, tap "I'm safe" or end it. The control room sees where you are, the trail you have taken and the expected arrival time (worked out from the road route). See How Watch me works below. |
| Directions home | If you choose Watch me navigate home, your location and your home pin are used to work out the route and spoken directions. The voice is made on your phone. |
| Cancel PIN | Stored only as a scrambled code (a hash) that nobody can read back – not the control room, not NearGuard. If a wrong PIN is typed when cancelling an alert, the alert is marked "possible duress – wrong PIN" (the PIN typed is not kept). |
| Area alerts | Your home pin, to know which response area and suburb you are in; whether you have switched area alert notices on; and that you read a notice, so the control room can see how many clients read it (not who) |
| Alert details | Time pressed, the street and suburb near your location, what happened to the alert, and the officer's closing notes |
| Readiness checks – to make sure your panic button works: whether location, battery and signal are OK (battery level and battery saver, type of network and whether internet works, location and call permissions), the make and model of your phone, its system and app version, and a random ID the app makes for itself (to tell a new phone or a reinstall apart – not your phone or SIM number) | When you sign in on a phone, at most once a day when you open the app, and when you press the panic button. Never your IMEI, contacts, photos, messages, browsing or other apps. |
How Watch me works
- Going home: the app works out how long the trip should take from the road route, and adds extra time for traffic. If you are still moving towards home it gives you a few more minutes by itself.
- Out and back (a walk, run, shop or other trip): you choose how long you will be.
- If you press Panic now during Watch me, the alert is linked to your trip: the control room sees the route you took and when you were due, and your phone keeps sharing its location as described above.
- The control room is warned if you don't arrive in time, if you are heading away from home for a while, if you stop moving for a long time, or if your phone is suddenly moving much faster than walking or running (for example if it was grabbed and taken in a car).
- When that happens, Watch me turns into an alert and the control room keeps following your phone for up to 1 hour (or the time you chose in My safety), so they can check on you or help find the person who took your phone or car.
- The control room may send an officer to meet you at home when you arrive, or to check on you where your phone is. That officer is given your name, number, home address and, for a check, your phone's live location.
- Escort home ("Meet me at the gate"), if your security company offers it and you ask for it: the officer sent to your home also sees your expected arrival time (worked out from your phone's location on the way home) so he can be at your gate about 5 minutes before you. When he has seen you go inside, he taps Client is safe: Watch me ends and your phone shows a notification. If you are not safe, tap I'm not safe – it sends a panic alert at once. A record of each escort (your name, number and address, the date and time, the officer, and whether it was an extra escort and its price) is kept so your security company can bill extra escorts and NearGuard can bill the company.
- Watch me can only work while your phone is on, has battery and has signal. If the phone is switched off, the last known place and trail are still kept.
Shared shop logins (shopping centres)
- A shop can have one login that its staff share. The first time the app is used on a phone, it asks for the staff member's name and mobile number (a till phone can use a name like "Till 1").
- That name and number, and the phone's make and model, are listed for the security company and sent with every panic from that phone, so the control room knows who pressed and can call them back.
- A panic from a shop goes to the security company's guards at the shopping centre and its nearest response vehicle. It is sent with the shop's own map pin, number and level – the shop phones don't use or share their location.
- The security company decides the hours when a shop's panic button works. Outside those hours the app shows the control room and SAPS numbers instead.
- When someone leaves the shop, the shop asks the security company to remove their phone. It is then signed out, and the phone stays on the list as "removed" for the record.
If you use the NearGuard Agent app (security officers)
| Information | When |
|---|---|
| Name, email, mobile number | When your employer invites you |
| Your phone's location | Only while you are on duty in the app. It stops when you go off duty. |
| Daily route and distance | While on duty, for your employer's reports |
| Messages and voice notes | That you send during callouts and to the control room or other officers |
| Site patrol: your site, rounds and checkpoint scans | When you work at a site on foot: which site, each checkpoint you scan (time, QR or NFC, and whether your phone was at the site), and warnings when you are off the site or standing still. For your employer's supervision and reports; kept 12 months. |
Control room staff
Name, email and a record of actions taken in the system (for example who received, assigned or closed an alert, or who added or suspended an account).
3. Why we use it
- To send armed response, find you quickly and keep you informed while help is on the way.
- To let the control room and officers contact you and each other during an alert, and to let you message or call the control room at other times.
- To watch over you on a trip you choose to share with Watch me, and to help find you or your stolen phone or car if something goes wrong.
- To warn the control room quietly if you may be forced to cancel an alert.
- To send you notices about crime or danger in your area, if you have them switched on.
- To keep a record of each alert, for example if there is a complaint, insurance claim or police case.
- To check that your panic button can work, and to keep a short record of these checks so that a problem with an alert can be looked into fairly. These records can't be changed or deleted by anyone, and are used for nothing else.
- To produce reports for your security company, for example response times and areas where alerts happen. These reports do not show your name.
- To keep the system secure and working properly.
We rely on your consent (which you give when you set up the app), on the contract between you and your security company, and on the legitimate interest of protecting you. You can withdraw consent at any time, but then the panic button cannot work.
4. Who can see it
- Your security company: its control room staff and the officers sent to help you, meet you at home or check on you.
- NearGuard: only to run, support and fix the system.
- Service providers that run parts of the system for us, under their own security and privacy terms:
- Google Firebase: secure data storage, sign-in and app services
- Mapbox: maps, travel times and driving directions for officers and for Watch me (receives locations, not names)
- Esri: finding the street and suburb for a location, and street maps (receives locations, not names)
- Expo: delivering app notifications
- Police, emergency services or a court, when the law requires it or to protect someone's life.
- Other parties for investigation purposes. If an alert, incident, complaint, insurance claim or legal case needs to be looked into, the information you gave and the record of the alert (times, locations, Watch me trails, messages, voice notes, readiness checks and the officer's notes) may be shared with the parties investigating it – for example the South African Police Service (SAPS), a court or prosecuting authority, an insurer handling a claim, the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA), or an investigator or legal adviser appointed by your security company or NearGuard. Only what is needed for that investigation is shared, and the receiving party must keep it confidential.
We never sell your information and never use it for advertising.
5. Information stored outside South Africa
Some of our service providers store information on secure servers outside South Africa. We only use providers that protect personal information to a standard similar to POPIA, as section 72 of POPIA requires.
6. How long we keep it
- Alerts, locations, messages and voice notes: 12 months after the alert, then deleted, unless needed longer for a complaint, claim or legal case.
- Watch me trips that ended safely: 30 days. A Watch me trip that turned into an alert is kept like an alert.
- Escort records: 5 years, because they are billing records (tax law requires billing records to be kept for 5 years).
- Shop phone list (staff name, mobile, phone make and model): while the shop's login is active; removed phones are kept 12 months, then deleted.
- Messages to the control room outside an alert: 12 months.
- Officers' daily routes: 90 days.
- Your account details: while your account is active, and deleted 30 days after it is closed.
- Records of who did what in the system: 3 years.
- Readiness checks: 3 years, because most claims must be made within 3 years.
7. How we keep it safe
- Everyone must sign in with their own email and password. A client login works on one phone at a time.
- Each person only sees what their role needs. Clients can only see their own alerts.
- Information is encrypted while it travels and while it is stored.
- Accounts can be suspended immediately, and changes to accounts are recorded.
If there is a security breach that affects your information, we and your security company will tell you and the Information Regulator as soon as reasonably possible, as POPIA requires.
8. Your rights
You may ask to:
- see what information we hold about you;
- correct it (you can also change your name and number in the app under My details);
- delete it, or close your account;
- object to how it is used.
To delete your account, see how to delete your account.
Contact your security company's Information Officer (their name, email and phone are shown in the app under Account → Privacy contact), or NearGuard: nearguard.solutions@gmail.com. We will reply within 30 days.
If you are not happy with our answer, you may complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa): inforegulator.org.za.
9. What the app can't promise
The panic button, Watch me, messages and area alerts depend on your phone being on, charged and connected, on location being switched on, and on networks and services outside our control. Alerts and messages can be delayed or fail. The app helps your security company respond – it does not guarantee that help arrives within a certain time. In an emergency, also call 10111 (police) or 112 from a mobile phone.
10. Children
The app is meant for adults. A child under 18 may only use it if a parent or guardian sets it up and agrees to this policy for them.
11. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy in an important way, the app will show you the new version and ask you to agree again.