Welcome to the Sentinel App (the “App”)! Your trust is important to us, and we’re committed to protecting your privacy. Here’s a quick summary of our approach.
Your Privacy at a Glance
- We focus on safety, not your identity. The App is designed to provide emergency preparedness information and alerts. Consequently, we limit the personal identifying information we collect to your name, your location, device information and email address to use the core features of the App.
- Relevance of location. We use and store your device’s last known current location to deliver relevant alerts for your area, including those from government emergency management offices. This location is updated when you use the App with location services enabled. We do not build a historical track record of your movements.
- No persistent user profiles. We do not build persistent profiles of your activity beyond what’s necessary for alert functionality.
- Minimal data collection. We only collect data essential for the App to function and to improve its performance, such as device diagnostics and notification tokens for alerts.
- You are in control. You can manage location and notification permissions through your device settings at any time.
- Sharing — no advertising tracking. We may share your location information with the local government in which your last known current location resides. We do not use your data for advertising tracking or share it with third-party advertisers.
This summary provides key highlights. Please read the full Privacy Policy below for more detailed information.
1Introduction
This Privacy Policy explains how Ladris (“we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, and shares information through our mobile application (the “App”). Ladris specializes in emergency management and risk intelligence tools, and this App is designed for general public use to enhance emergency preparedness and provide timely alerts.
This App Privacy Policy is specific to the Ladris Mobile App and supplements our main Ladris Privacy Policy, which can be found at https://www.ladris.com/privacy-policy. Where this App Privacy Policy describes practices that differ from or are additional to those in our main Privacy Policy, this App Privacy Policy will govern your use of the App. For all other aspects of how Ladris handles data, please refer to our main Privacy Policy.
This App is intended for users in the United States.
2What Information This App Collects
We are committed to collecting only the information necessary to provide and improve the App’s services.
- Name and email. We collect your name and email address as part of your acceptance of the Terms of Use. We use this information for our contract records and to notify you of any changes to the terms of use or our privacy policy.
- Location data.
- How it’s used: When you use the App and have location services enabled, we access your device’s current geographic location (e.g., GPS, Wi-Fi, or cellular triangulation). Your last known current location is stored by Ladris to provide you with relevant, real-time emergency alerts and risk assessments for your general area, including notifications that may be issued by third-party government emergency management offices based on geographic relevance.
- What’s important: This last known location is updated when the App actively checks your location with your permission. While we store this last known location to ensure you receive pertinent alerts even when not actively using the app, we do not use this data to build a historical track record or detailed log of your movements. The stored location is primarily used to match your device (via its anonymous notification token) with geographically relevant alerts. You can enable or disable location services for the App at any time through your device settings. If disabled, we will no longer update your last known location, which may impact the relevance of alerts.
- Device information.
- What it is: We may collect basic, non-personally identifiable information about your mobile device, such as the device model, operating system version, app version, and anonymized crash or error reports.
- How it’s used: This information is used for diagnostic purposes, to improve app performance, ensure compatibility, and for debugging. It is not linked to any individual user in a way that personally identifies them.
- Notification tokens.
- What it is: If you enable push notifications, your device generates a unique, anonymous token.
- How it’s used: This token is used by our system (and our third-party notification provider, as described below) solely to send you push notifications for emergency alerts and other relevant updates you’ve opted into. This token does not allow us to identify you personally but may be associated with your last known location to deliver geographically targeted alerts.
- Optional user preferences.
- What it is: You may have the option to provide preferences, such as selecting a specific county of interest or choosing topics for notifications (e.g., “weather alerts,” “public safety announcements”).
- How it’s used: These preferences are used to customize the information and alerts you receive. These are stored on your device or associated with your anonymous notification token but are not linked to any PII.
3What Information This App Does NOT Collect
We are explicit about the information we do not collect through this App:
- Limited personal identifying information (PII). We do not require or collect your phone number, physical address, or any other directly identifiable personal information not otherwise specified in order to use the core features of the App.
- No persistent user profiles (beyond alert functionality). We do not create persistent user profiles that track your behavior over time or across different services for purposes other than providing the core App functionality and relevant alerts based on your last known location and preferences.
- No advertising tracking or third-party analytics (for advertising). We do not use cookies, beacons, or similar technologies for advertising tracking. We do not share your data with third-party advertisers. While we use Firebase for crash reporting and push notifications (see Section 6), this is for operational purposes, not for building advertising profiles.
- No historical location tracking. While we store your last known location for alert relevance, we do not maintain a detailed historical log or “breadcrumb trail” of your movements.
4How We Use Your Information
In the event of a risk of physical harm to individuals at your last known location, we may share such location with the local government in which such location exists. The information collected through the App may also be used for the following purposes:
- To provide you with location-specific emergency alerts and risk intelligence based on your last known location.
- To deliver push notifications you have opted to receive, potentially targeted by your last known location or preferences.
- To allow you to customize your App experience based on your preferences.
- To monitor and analyze App usage and trends to improve App functionality, performance, and user experience.
- To diagnose and fix technical problems (e.g., app crashes).
- To communicate with you about important App updates or changes if necessary (though typically this will be through general App Store notifications rather than direct contact, as we don’t collect your contact details).
5How We Store and Secure Your Information
- Data security. Ladris takes reasonable administrative, technical, and physical security measures to protect the information collected through the App from loss, theft, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. However, no internet or electronic transmission is ever fully secure or error-free, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.
- Data retention.
- Last known location data: Your last known current location is stored by Ladris and associated with your anonymous notification token. It is updated when the App accesses a new current location with your permission. If you disable location services for the App, we will stop updating this location. The last stored location may be retained to attempt delivery of relevant alerts until you uninstall the app, or it is overwritten by new data or administratively cleared after a period of inactivity or irrelevance.
- Your name and email address: We may retain this information to document your acceptance of the Terms of Use and to send notices of updates to such terms.
- Device information: Anonymized or aggregated device information and crash logs may be retained as long as necessary for diagnostic, security, and App improvement purposes.
- Notification tokens: Retained as long as you have the App installed and push notifications enabled. If you disable notifications or uninstall the App, the token becomes invalid or is deleted, and its association with any stored location data is severed or the data is removed.
- User preferences: Stored on your device or associated with your anonymous notification token and retained until you change them or uninstall the App.
6Third-Party Services
We may use third-party services to help us operate and improve the App. These services may have access to certain data collected by the App solely for the purpose of providing services on our behalf.
- Firebase (Google). We use Firebase services for:
- Push notifications (Firebase Cloud Messaging — FCM): To deliver push alerts to your device. FCM uses notification tokens to route messages. These tokens may be linked to your last known location data on our servers to enable geographically targeted alerts.
- Crash reporting (Firebase Crashlytics): To help us identify and fix app crashes. This service collects anonymized crash data and device information. Google’s use of data collected through Firebase is governed by Google’s Privacy Policy, which we encourage you to review at https://policies.google.com/privacy. We configure these services to collect minimal data necessary for their function.
We do not authorize these third-party service providers to use or disclose your information for any other purpose.
7Your Choices and Controls
You have control over certain information collected by the App:
- Location services. You can enable or disable location services for the App at any time through your mobile device’s settings. If you disable location services, the App will not be able to update your last known location, and you may not receive location-specific alerts, or alerts may be based on an outdated location until it is cleared. Other features may still be available.
- Push notifications. You can enable or disable push notifications for the App at any time through your mobile device’s settings.
- User preferences. You can typically adjust any optional preferences you have set within the App’s settings menu.
- Opting out of App usage. You can stop all collection of information by the App by uninstalling it from your mobile device. Uninstalling the app will also lead to the deletion of your last known location data and notification token from our active systems according to our data retention policies.
8Children’s Privacy
The App is not directed to children under the age of 13 (or 16 in certain jurisdictions), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child without parental consent, we will take steps to delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at the address below.
9Applicability of Privacy Regulation
Residents of California have certain rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). We are not currently subject to either the CCPA or the CPRA.
If we do become subject to either of those Acts, we will let you know. The Acts would give you the following rights:
- Right to know / access. You would have the right to request information about the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you, the categories of sources from which the personal information is collected, the business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling, or sharing personal information, and the categories of third parties to whom we disclose personal information.
- Right to delete. You would have the right to request the deletion of your personal information that we have collected, subject to certain exceptions. For app data, uninstalling the app will initiate the removal of your last known location and associated token from our active systems. You can also contact us to request deletion.
- Right to correct. You would have the right to request the correction of inaccurate personal information that we maintain about you. For location data, ensuring your device’s location services are accurate and allowing the app to update it is the primary method of correction.
- Right to opt out of sale/sharing. Ladris may “share” with the County of San Mateo any personal information collected through this App; however, Ladris does not “sell” or “share” personal information with other commercial entities, as those terms are defined under CCPA/CPRA.
- Right to non-discrimination. We would not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA/CPRA rights.
If you have questions about the application of the CCPA or the CPRA, please contact us at the email address set forth in Section 11 below.
10Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by updating the “Last Updated” date at the top of this policy and, where appropriate, may provide a more prominent notice (such as an in-app notification or an update description in the app store). We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about our information practices.
11Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns about this App Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:
Ladris Privacy Team
Email: support@ladris.com