SayNear Privacy Policy
Last updated: 21 October 2026
App: SayNear for Android (com.saynear.app)
SayNear is an emergency alarm app. We built it so that as little as possible leaves your phone. This policy explains in plain language what data the app uses, where it is kept, how long it is kept and what your rights are.
Important: SayNear does not replace emergency services. If you are in danger, call 112.
1. Summary
- Your safety phrase, emergency contacts and settings are stored only on your phone. We cannot access them.
- The microphone is used only to recognise your safety phrase, and the audio is processed only on the phone. No audio is recorded, stored or sent to us or anyone else. If you have consented, the app listens in the background for your safety phrases – entirely offline on the phone. A notification shows when it is listening.
- You send the alarm SMS yourself. The app opens your SMS app with a ready-made message. You tap Send.
- Alarms reach bears nearby – for everyone aged 16+. Each alarm sends an approximate position (about 110 m) to our server so that adult SayNear users nearby who have bear mode on (“bears”) can be alerted. Bears never see your name or number – only the distance and an approximate area (about 150 m). Only bears who answer “I'm coming” see your exact position, live during your alarm, and you see their first name and position. Bear mode (receiving alarms, 18+) is optional and off by default. Locations are deleted automatically after 24 hours.
- No ads, no analytics, no tracking and no selling of data.
2. Who is responsible for your data?
The data controller is:
Fixarn Ab (Business ID 3162521-4)
Ålandsvägen 40, 22100 Mariehamn, Åland, Finland
Email: info@saynear.com
Contact us with any privacy question or to use your rights (see section 11).
3. What stays on your phone
The following features work entirely on your phone. The data is not sent to us and we cannot see it.
Safety phrase and speech recognition
- You choose a safety phrase. It is stored in the app's local storage on your phone.
- You choose a safety phrase and (optionally) a loud phrase in the app's language. They are stored in the app's local storage.
- Background listening (optional, requires consent): the app listens for your phrases even when it is closed or the screen is off. This uses an Android foreground service, and a permanent notification shows that SayNear is listening. You can turn listening off at any time in Settings.
- Listening is paused during an alarm and while you change language.
- The app does not store any audio or any text of what is said. The recognised text is kept briefly in memory only to compare it with your safety phrase.
- SayNear uses on-device speech recognition only (offline): Vosk for Swedish and most other languages, and Whisper via sherpa-onnx (with Silero VAD) for Finnish. No audio leaves the phone; it is never sent to us or to any cloud service.
- Speech recognition supports all languages included in the app, including Swedish and Finnish. If the language model for your language is not on your phone, the safety phrase does not work and the app shows how to get it. The panic button still works.
- Language model downloads: the Swedish model is included in the app. For other languages the app downloads the speech recognition model once: Vosk models (about 30–170 MB) from alphacephei.com (Alpha Cephei Inc., the developer of Vosk); for Finnish, the Whisper model files (about 160 MB) from Hugging Face (huggingface.co) and the Silero VAD file from GitHub (github.com). During the download the server sees your phone's IP address, the time and which file is fetched, as with any web traffic. No audio, no phrases and no other data about you are sent. Every file is checked with SHA-256 before it is used. Alpha Cephei, Hugging Face and GitHub are not our data processors; their own privacy policies apply to their servers.
Emergency contacts and settings
- You can add 1–5 emergency contacts (name and phone number). You type them in yourself; the app does not read your phone's contact list.
- Contacts, safety phrase, countdown length and other settings are stored in the app's local storage on your phone.
- They are deleted when you remove them in the app, clear the app's data or uninstall the app.
- The app's data is not included in Android backup or device-to-device transfer (backup is disabled in the app).
About your emergency contacts: Please make sure the people you add know about it and are happy to receive alarm texts from you.
Panic button and alarm
- The panic button and the safety phrase start an alarm: siren, flashing screen and flashing torch. The camera is used only to control the torch. No photos or videos are taken.
Automatic call to 112 (optional)
- On first launch the app asks whether 112 should be opened, ready to call, when you say your safety phrase. The default is No, and you can change it in Settings.
- If you choose Yes, the app asks for permission to make phone calls. When the countdown ends, the phone app opens with 112 filled in. Android does not allow apps to call emergency numbers directly, so you tap Call yourself.
- The call goes through your phone and operator like any emergency call. We receive no information about the call.
- False calls to 112 are serious and may be a criminal offence. Cancel the countdown if the alarm started by mistake.
Alarm SMS with location
- When the alarm starts, the app gets your phone's GPS location.
- After a countdown that you can cancel, the app opens your normal SMS app with your emergency contacts as recipients and a ready-made message with a Google Maps link to your location.
- You tap Send yourself. The text is sent by your SMS app and your mobile operator, not by us. Ordinary SMS is not encrypted the way app data is.
- When a recipient opens the map link, the location is sent to Google Maps under Google's terms.
- The app does not keep the location after the alarm.
Alarms in the background, saved position, reminder and battery
- Position at the moment of an alarm, also in the background: If your safety phrase is heard while the app is closed or the screen is locked, the listening service gets the phone's current position at that moment (for at most about 10 seconds) using Android's location service (Google Play services). During that time Android shows that SayNear is using location. The position is sent with the alarm to bears nearby (everyone aged 16+, with or without bear mode). Your position is then shared live with bears who answered “I'm coming” until the alarm ends, also with the screen off (Android shows a notification meanwhile). The app never gets your position in the background without an alarm.
- The last position is saved on the phone: While the app is open, it saves its last position locally on the phone (updated about every 5 minutes; without bear mode only if location access is already allowed). It is only used if a new position cannot be obtained during an alarm. In that case the time of the position is sent with the alarm, and recipients see how old it is (for example "position 12 min old"). Positions older than 6 hours are not used. The saved position is not sent anywhere else and is deleted when you clear the app's data or uninstall the app.
- Evening reminder: If listening is switched off or paused, the app shows a notification at most once per evening (9 pm by default) asking whether you want to switch it on. The reminder is created entirely on the phone and uses no position. You can switch it off or change the time in Settings.
- Battery optimisation exemption: On first start the app asks you to exempt SayNear from Android's battery optimisation, so that listening continues when the screen is off. The exemption does not give the app access to any more data. You can change it at any time in the phone's settings.
4. Alarms to bears nearby and bear mode (optional, 18+)
Alarms (everyone aged 16+): Every alarm from a user aged 16 or older – with or without bear mode – sends an approximate position (about 110 m) to our server, so that adult users nearby who have bear mode on (“bears”) can be alerted. The alarm is stored without your name or number and is deleted after 24 hours. Bears never see your name or number. Your exact live position is shown to a bear only after the bear has answered “I'm coming”. Bear mode (optional, 18+) lets you receive alarms from others and help. It is off by default; before you turn it on, the app asks for your first name, shows what is shared and asks for your consent.
You turn bear mode on and off with the Act as a bear switch on the home screen or in Settings.
What is sent to our server
| Data | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Your latest location (bears only), coarsely rounded (latitude/longitude to about 110 m and a geohash, a code for an area of roughly 150 × 150 m) | While the app is open and bear mode is on – never in the background | So we can alert you if someone within about 1–5 km raises an alarm |
| Alarm location (about 110 m) and time, and when the position was determined – without name or number | Every time you raise an alarm (everyone aged 16+, with or without bear mode) | To alert bears within about 1–5 km |
| A random app ID (anonymous Firebase sign-in); with bear mode also a push token, the app language and the fact that you confirmed you are 18 | App ID: when you raise an alarm or turn on bear mode. The rest: while bear mode is on | So that only you can end your alarm and share your position, and to deliver alarm notifications to bears, in their language and only to adults |
| Your exact live position (about every 10 seconds) | While your own alarm is active | So that bears who answered “I'm coming” can find you |
| Your first name and your answer (“I'm coming”, “Can't come”, ended) | When you answer an alert as a bear | So that the person raising the alarm knows who is on the way |
| Your exact live position as a bear | While you are on your way to an alarm and the app is open | So that the person raising the alarm sees where you are |
| Technical data such as IP address, time and error messages | With every request to the server | To run the service and protect it from abuse |
We do not receive your phone number, safety phrase, date of birth, emergency contacts or any audio. We only receive a first name if you enter one as a bear or for practice with friends (see below).
The app only gets your location while it is open, at the moment you raise an alarm and while your own alarm is active – also when the alarm is triggered in the background (see section 3). With bear mode on, your location (for receiving alarms and while you are on your way to an alarm) is shared only while the app is open. We do not track you in the background.
What other users see
- A bear within about 1–5 km gets a message that a SayNear user about X metres away has raised an alarm (rounded to the nearest 50 m), and a map with an approximate area (a circle of about 150 m with an offset centre). Your exact position is not shown until the bear answers “I'm coming”.
- Once a bear has answered “I'm coming”, the bear sees your live position and a walking route. You see the bear's first name and where the bear is. Bears never see each other's names.
- During your own alarm, your position is shared live (about every 10 seconds) with bears who answered "I'm coming", whatever their distance, until you or they end it.
- PIN code to end an alarm: An alarm is ended with a PIN code that you choose when you start using the app. The code is stored only as a salted hash on your phone. If you enter the wrong code, the phone shows the alarm as ended, but the alarm continues in secret: your position is still shared with bears who answered that they are coming, and they are warned that the alarm was probably stopped under duress. Remember your code – if you mistype it, the alarm keeps running and the bears are warned.
- They never see your name or your number – it is never sent to the server, is not part of the alert and cannot be read by others (blocked in the database rules). Only bears who answered that they are coming see your exact location, and only while the alarm is active; for everyone else: Alerts are stored without identity and with a coarsely rounded location, and the distance is calculated in the recipient's app. Other users can never read your stored location (your latest location is readable only by you).
- Push notifications while the app is closed are sent by our server, which calculates the distance. The notification contains only the distance, the alarm radius and how old the position is – never a name, number or location.
- Walking routes and maps: For the walking route, the bear's app sends both the bear's and your position to a routing service (currently FOSSGIS e.V., routing.openstreetmap.de). Maps are loaded from OpenStreetMap (tile.openstreetmap.org), which then sees the IP address and which map area is shown. No identity is sent. These services are not our data processors; their own terms apply.
- Address line on the bear's phone: When a bear follows an alarm, an address line is looked up with the phone's built-in geocoder. It may send the coordinates to the phone's map service (for example Google). We do not store the address.
Practice with friends (optional)
If you use Practice with friends, our server stores your first name, an invitation code, who your practice friends are, a push token for practice notifications and, during a practice, a coarsely rounded position, the time and your friends' replies (“I'm coming”, “Arrived”). This is shown only to you and the friends who accepted. Practices never go to strangers, to 112 or as SMS.
How long it is kept
| Data | Deleted |
|---|---|
| Your latest location (to receive alerts) | Overwritten each time it is updated. Deleted 24 hours after the last update, or immediately when you turn bear mode off. |
| Alert location and time | 24 hours after the alert |
| Your live position during the alarm | When you end the alarm, at the latest after 24 hours |
| A bear's live position | When the alarm ends, at the latest 24 hours after the alert |
| A bear's first name and answer | 24 hours after the alert |
| Practice: invitation | After 7 days |
| Practice: practice alarm and replies | 24 hours after the practice |
| Practice: friendship and push token | When you or your friend removes it |
| Push token and app ID | Together with your latest location (see above). The app ID linked to an alarm: 24 hours after the alarm. |
| Technical logs | After 30 days at the latest |
The automatic deletion can technically take up to one more day to complete. If you uninstall the app, your data is deleted automatically on the schedule above.
5. Why we may process the data (legal basis)
| Processing | Legal basis under the GDPR |
|---|---|
| Alarms (everyone aged 16+): alarm location, live position and app ID | Vital interests (Art. 6(1)(d)): protecting your life and safety in an emergency, and performance of the service you request (Art. 6(1)(b)): alerting people nearby when you raise an alarm. |
| Bear mode: your latest location, first name, answers and live position as a bear, push token, app language and 18+ confirmation | Your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)). You give it by turning on bear mode and allowing location access. You can withdraw it at any time by turning bear mode off. |
| Practice with friends: first name, friends, coarse position, replies and push token | Your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)). You can withdraw it by removing your practice friends. |
| Technical logs and abuse protection | Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)): keeping the service secure and working |
| Replying to emails and requests | Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)), and legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)) when you use your rights |
| Disclosures required by law | Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)) |
The features in section 3 run only on your phone. We do not process any personal data about you there.
6. Who receives the data?
- Google (Firebase and Google Cloud) runs our server, database (Cloud Firestore), server functions and push notifications (Firebase Cloud Messaging). Google is our data processor and may only process the data on our instructions and under contract.
- Other SayNear users: bears within about 1–5 km receive the distance, the time and an approximate area. Bears who answered “I'm coming” receive your live position, and you receive their first name and position. Practice friends receive your first name and the practice's coarse position (see section 4).
- FOSSGIS e.V. (routing.openstreetmap.de) and the OpenStreetMap Foundation (tile.openstreetmap.org) receive coordinates or the map area, and the IP address, when walking routes and maps are shown (see section 4).
- Alpha Cephei (alphacephei.com), Hugging Face (huggingface.co) and GitHub (github.com) see your IP address when you download a speech recognition model for a language other than Swedish (see section 3).
- Authorities, if we are legally required to disclose data.
We never sell data and never share it for advertising.
Transfers outside the EU/EEA
We store the database in a data centre in the EU (Cloud Firestore in the EU multi-region eur3, with data centres in Belgium and the Netherlands). The server functions (Cloud Functions) run in the europe-west1 region (Belgium). Google is a US company and some data, for example when delivering push notifications, may be processed outside the EU/EEA. Such transfers are protected by the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.
7. Security
- All traffic between the app and our server is encrypted (HTTPS/TLS).
- Database rules stop users from reading other users' stored locations. Alerts contain no identity.
- We keep as little data as possible and delete it quickly.
- Only authorised people at Fixarn Ab can access the server.
8. Permissions the app asks for
| Permission | Used for |
|---|---|
| Microphone | Listening for your safety phrases offline (also in the background if you have consented) |
| Foreground service (microphone) | Background listening with a permanent notification |
| Foreground service (location) | Current position at the moment of an alarm triggered in the background (at most about 10 seconds), and live position to bears who are coming while your alarm is active |
| Battery optimisation exemption | Keeping listening running when the screen is off |
| Location (precise, while using the app) | Map link in the alarm SMS, proximity alerts, live position during an alarm and walking route for bears |
| Notifications | Notification while the app is listening, and proximity alerts |
| Camera / torch | Flashing torch during an alarm (no photos are taken) |
| Internet | Proximity alerts, practice with friends, maps and walking routes, and language model download (languages other than Swedish) |
| Keep screen awake (wake lock) | Keeping the alarm running |
Texts are sent through your own SMS app, so SayNear does not need SMS permission. You can change permissions at any time in your phone's settings.
9. Age
SayNear is intended for people aged 16 or older; younger children cannot register in the app. Bear mode ("Act as a bear": receiving alerts from others and sharing your approximate position) requires you to be 18 or older. When you start using the app you enter your date of birth. The date is stored only on your phone. While bear mode is on, only the fact that you have confirmed you are 18 or older (not the date) is sent together with your position. Age is self-declared and we cannot verify it. If you believe a child under 16 is using the app, or that someone under 18 is acting as a bear, contact us and we will delete the data. Everyone aged 16 or older can send alarms that reach bears nearby, even without bear mode.
10. False alarm review and suspension
Anyone who tapped I'm coming on an alert can review it afterwards and mark it as a real emergency, a false alarm or unsure, with an optional comment. Reviews help us protect proximity alerts from misuse.
- The first confirmed false alarm suspends the account for 30 days. The next confirmed false alarm bans the account permanently.
- Cancelling during the countdown carries no penalty.
- You can appeal a false alarm decision.
- Data processed: which alert the review concerns, the reviewer's marking and any comment, and a suspension flag linked to the app ID. It is kept for two years.
11. Your rights
Under the GDPR you have the right to:
- access the data we hold about you and get a copy,
- correct inaccurate data,
- delete your data,
- restrict processing,
- object to processing based on legitimate interests,
- data portability,
- withdraw your consent at any time. This does not affect processing that has already happened.
How to delete your data
- Bear mode: turn off Act as a bear. Your location and push token are deleted from the server immediately. Alarms are deleted automatically 24 hours after the alarm.
- Practice with friends: remove your practice friends under Settings → Practice with friends.
- Everything on your phone: remove contacts and the safety phrase in the app, clear the app's data or uninstall the app.
- By email: write to info@saynear.com. Because we do not know who you are, we may need to ask you, for example, roughly when you raised an alarm to find the right data.
How to delete your account
SayNear uses an anonymous account: a random app ID created automatically. You do not register a name, email or phone number with us. There is currently no button in the app to delete the account. Here is what you do:
- Turn off Act as a bear and remove your practice friends. Your location and push token are then deleted from the server immediately.
- Uninstall the app (or clear the app's data). Everything stored on the phone is deleted, and the app can no longer use your app ID. What remains on the server is deleted automatically on the schedule in section 4 (alarms after 24 hours).
- If you want us to delete your account and data immediately, write to info@saynear.com with the subject "Delete my account".
A suspension flag after a confirmed false alarm is kept as described in section 10.
We reply within one month.
12. Complaints
If you think we handle your data wrongly, you can complain to the Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman in Finland (tietosuoja.fi) or to the data protection authority in the EU country where you live. Please contact us first and we will try to sort it out.
13. Changes
We update this policy when the app changes, for example when new features are added. The date at the top shows the latest version. For major changes we will let you know in the app.
14. Contact
Fixarn Ab, Ålandsvägen 40, 22100 Mariehamn, Åland, Finland info@saynear.com