Safety Notice
INeedHelp Safety Notice
INeedHelp is not an emergency service.
An alert reaches the people in your groups and, with Premium, people nearby. It does not reach the police, an ambulance or the fire brigade, and nobody at INeedHelp watches alerts or answers them.
If you are in danger, or someone's life or health is at risk, call your local emergency number first. Raise an alert as well, not instead.
1. What an alert can and cannot do
- It tells the people you chose that you need help, with your message and your location, updated while the alert lasts.
- It does not make a call, and it cannot know whether anybody saw it in time or is able to come.
- The counts you see ("reached", "seen") show that phones received or opened it - not that someone is on the way. If it matters, call one of them.
2. Why an alert may not arrive
Alerts can be late or lost because of things the app does not control, for example:
- no mobile signal or internet, on your phone or on theirs;
- battery saving, "app sleeping" or similar settings of the phone maker that stop the app in the background;
- notifications, location or Bluetooth turned off or not allowed for the app;
- a phone that is off, flat or on silent with the alert sound disabled;
- GPS that is inaccurate indoors, underground or between tall buildings;
- a failure of our servers or of Google's push service.
3. Prepare before you need it
- Agree with your group what an alert means and what each of them should do: call you, come, call emergency services and give your location.
- Test it. Raise a test alert with your group, after telling them, and check that it rings on their phones - including when the app is closed. Cancel it when you are done.
- Turn on Rapid Response in Settings if you rely on the app. It keeps the app ready in the background, which alerts and Bluetooth buttons need to work quickly when the app is closed. Exclude the app from battery optimisation if your phone asks.
- Allow location, and "all the time" if you use Enhanced Tracking, so that your alert shows where you are. If you set a manual location, remember that alerts show that point and not where you actually are.
- Check a Bluetooth button after pairing it, and from time to time: press it and see that the alert is raised. Keep its battery charged.
- Set a PIN for cancelling if someone else might get hold of your phone and cancel your alert.
- Keep emergency numbers and the numbers of the people you trust where you can call them without the app.
4. When you receive an alert
- Try to reach the person - call them - and if you cannot, or they are in danger, call emergency services and give them the location shown in the alert.
- The location is the phone's last known position. It can be some way off, and some minutes old if the person's phone has lost its signal.
- Do not put yourself in danger. Going to the place is your own decision; if the situation looks dangerous, keep your distance and leave it to emergency services.
5. Nearby alerts and strangers
- A nearby alert comes from someone you do not know, and goes to people you do not know. Neither side can check who the other is.
- If you go to help, prefer public places, go with someone if you can, and call emergency services. Do not share more personal information than needed.
- When you send a nearby alert, write only what helps someone find and help you; strangers will read it.
- If a nearby alert looks false or abusive, report it in the app. Do not report alerts just because nobody needed you in the end.
- If someone in your groups uses alerts to frighten or track you, leave the group or block them, and contact us.
6. False alarms
If you raised an alert by mistake, cancel it at once and tell your group it was a mistake. Repeated false alerts make people stop answering when it is real. Deliberately false alerts are against our Terms.
7. Your responsibility
You decide when to raise an alert, how to respond to one, and whether to go and help. We cannot guarantee anybody's availability, identity or conduct, and we are not responsible for what other users do. Keep a backup plan that does not depend on this app.
8. More information
How your data is used, including what the people you alert can see, is explained in the Privacy Policy. The rules for using the Service are in the Terms of Service.
9. Changes and language
We may update this notice; a change that matters is shown in the app for you to read and accept. This notice is written in English; if a translation differs, the English text applies.