Terms of Use

Welcome to Athena. By downloading, accessing or using the Athena app, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Use. If you do not agree, please do not use the app.

1. The service

Athena is a personal safety toolkit offering SOS alerts, live location sharing, safe journey monitoring, evidence recording and UK support resources. Athena is a supplementary safety aid and is not a replacement for emergency services.

Personal alarm limitations: The in-app personal alarm produces sound through your device's speaker and does not reach the same pitch or volume as a dedicated rape alarm or personal attack alarm. It is designed to deter and attract attention as a supplementary aid only and must not be relied upon as a replacement for a purpose-built rape alarm. For the highest level of audible protection, we recommend carrying a dedicated, certified personal attack alarm.

2. No guarantee of emergency response

You must not rely solely on Athena in an emergency. Always dial 999 (or 112) for the emergency services when in immediate danger. SOS alerts and location sharing depend on your device having power, signal, GPS availability and an internet connection, none of which can be guaranteed. We are not liable if an alert is not sent, not received or delayed.

3. Your account & responsibilities

• You are responsible for keeping your account credentials secure.
• You agree to provide accurate information for emergency contacts and to use the app lawfully in the UK.
• You must not submit false safe/unsafe area reports or misuse the evidence recording feature to harm others.

4. Data protection

Athena is committed to protecting the privacy of all users, particularly vulnerable individuals who may be at risk of being identified through their data. The following measures are applied to safeguard user identity:

• Location rounding: Report coordinates are snapped to a ~50-metre grid before storage, so pins indicate a general area rather than a precise doorstep, workplace, or walking route.
• Delayed publishing: New safe/unsafe area reports are held for 24 hours before appearing on the public map, preventing real-time location tracking of the reporter.
• Anonymous reporting: Area reports carry no user ID, device identifier, browser fingerprint, or IP address. Users may optionally attach a display name, but this is never required.
• Heatmap for sensitive reports: Harassment hotspots and suspicious activity reports are displayed as blurred heatmap circles rather than precise pins, so individuals cannot be correlated to a specific location at a specific time.
• Report clustering: When multiple reports fall within a small area, they are grouped into a single marker with a count, reducing the ability to correlate reports to an individual's movement.
• Auto-expiry of descriptions: Free-text descriptions in area reports are automatically removed after 90 days, retaining only the type, approximate location, and date for trend analysis.
• Rate limiting: Submission of reports is rate-limited to a maximum of 3 per location per hour, preventing misuse or targeted flooding of a specific area.
• Privacy notice on the form: The submission form displays a clear privacy notice explaining exactly what data is stored, that reports are anonymous, and that descriptions should avoid identifying details such as names or addresses.

4.1 Protection of vulnerable adults

Athena recognises that some users may be vulnerable adults — including those experiencing domestic abuse, stalking, harassment, or coercion — for whom exposure of their location, activity, or app usage could result in serious harm. The following protections apply specifically to safeguard vulnerable adults:

• Row-level data isolation: Emergency contacts, evidence recordings, journey records, and location shares are restricted to the account holder through row-level security. No other user can view, edit, or delete another user's personal safety data.
• No real-time tracking surface: Community reports are never shown immediately after submission. The 24-hour delay and coordinate rounding together ensure that a report made "right now, right here" cannot be used to locate or follow a vulnerable user.
• Disguise mode: Users at risk of device inspection can enable Disguise Mode, which presents the app as an ordinary calculator. Access to the real app requires a secret PIN and biometric verification (fingerprint or Face ID).
• Biometric app lock: An optional app-wide biometric lock requires fingerprint or Face ID on every app launch, preventing unauthorised access if the device is seized or borrowed.
• Silent SOS: The SOS feature includes a silent mode that sends alerts with no visible countdown or sound, and does not auto-dial 999, allowing vulnerable users to discreetly signal for help without drawing attention.
• Shake-to-SOS: Three sharp shakes trigger a silent SOS even from a pocket or locked-feeling screen, so a vulnerable user does not need to visibly interact with the device.
• Evidence vault security: Audio and video evidence recordings are stored against the user's account only, with GPS metadata, and are not accessible to other users or visible on any public map.
• Aggregated data sharing only: When community report data is shared with local police or councils to support safety improvements (e.g. better lighting, CCTV, or patrols), it is provided in aggregated, anonymised form only. No information that could identify an individual user is ever shared.

Personal data — such as emergency contacts, evidence recordings, location shares, and journey records — is restricted to your account through row-level security and is not visible to other users. Athena compiles aggregated, anonymised community reports to highlight unsafe locations where safety improvements (such as better lighting, CCTV, or patrols) may be needed. This data may be shared with local police or councils in aggregated form only, with no information that could identify an individual user.

4.2 GDPR & your data rights

We process your personal data in line with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, as set out in our Privacy Policy. The lawful bases we rely on are performance of the contract (running your account and the safety features you requested), vital interests (sending alerts to protect your safety), your consent (optional features such as community reports, profile photos and analytics), and our legitimate interests (securing and improving the service). Location and evidence data that may reveal your health or vulnerability is treated as special category data and processed only with your explicit consent or under the substantial public interest conditions in the Data Protection Act 2018.

• Your rights: access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, objection, withdrawal of consent, and the right to lodge a complaint with the ICO (ico.org.uk).
• Emergency contacts: when you add a contact, you confirm that you have their permission to share their name, phone number and email with us and to send them alerts on your behalf. They may ask us to remove their details at any time.
• Retention: you can delete your emergency contacts, evidence recordings and incident journal entries at any time within the app, and you can request export or full deletion of your account data by contacting support.
• International transfers: where data is processed outside the UK, we rely on UK adequacy regulations or Standard Contractual Clauses to keep it protected.

5. Acceptable content

You retain ownership of content you create (evidence recordings, reports). You grant us a limited licence to store and process it solely to provide the service to you. You must not upload content that is unlawful, infringes others' rights, or that you do not have permission to record.

6. Advertising

Athena is free and supported by advertising on non-emergency screens. Ads are never displayed during active SOS, Torch, Alarm or Evidence use. We are not responsible for the content of third-party ads.

7. Intellectual property

The Athena name, logo and software are owned by us or our licensors. These terms do not grant you any rights to our trademarks or proprietary content.

8. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Athena is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind. We are not liable for indirect, incidental or consequential damages, or for any failure of the app to send an alert or capture evidence.

9. Termination

You may stop using Athena at any time. We may suspend or terminate access if you breach these terms.

10. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms from time to time; continued use after changes constitutes acceptance.

11. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales.