An emergency app has to hold a few sensitive things: where you are, who is aboard, who to call. This page says exactly which ones, why, how long, and who else ever sees them. No legalese where plain words work.
Every item below exists because the app cannot do its job without it. The legal basis under the GDPR is named for each one.
Your mobile number, confirmed with a one-time SMS code (there is no password and no email), and your name. The number also goes into the call script so a rescue centre can call you back. Using the SOS screen needs no account at all.
Craft name and type, length, colour, MMSI, call sign, home port and how many people are usually aboard. These are the details a rescue centre asks for first — the app has them ready in the call script and the MAYDAY text.
Read from the phone’s GPS. It leaves the phone only during a trip you start or an SOS: then it is sent in the background, also with the screen locked, at the interval you choose (every 5 seconds during an SOS), together with speed, course, accuracy and battery level. Each trip is kept in your trip history. Ashore and after you tap “I’m ashore”, nothing is collected.
Anyone you give the link to — no account needed — sees your first name, craft name, position, speed, course, battery level and recent positions, and in an SOS the situation and number of people aboard. The link stops working when the trip ends; a quick share link works for one hour.
The name and phone number of anyone you add, each set to None, Emergency or Live. Their numbers are used only for messages you send — today the app opens a ready-made SMS on your phone and you tap Send. Because these are someone else’s details, please tell them you have added them.
When you write to us from the app or rate a trip, we receive your message and phone number, and — only if you tick the box — device model, OS and app version, GPS accuracy. There is no separate crash-reporting service in the app.
During the beta nothing is charged and no payment details are asked for. When paid plans launch they will be sold through the App Store (and Google Play when the Android app is out). The store handles the payment and we never see your card number — we receive only the fact that a subscription is active and when it renews.
Invoices and accounting records are kept for 7 years, as Estonian law requires.
Only these: the people and rescue services you choose to contact, anyone you give your live tracking link to, and the service providers below that run our infrastructure under a data processing agreement.
Where a provider processes data outside the European Economic Area, the transfer runs on the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses. Ask privacy@vesselsos.com if you want the details of any of these providers or transfers.
Write to privacy@vesselsos.com and we answer within one month. In the app (Profile → Privacy, data and account) you can also download your data as a file, delete your trip history and delete your account yourself.
If you think we have handled your data badly, you can complain to the Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate (Andmekaitse Inspektsioon, aki.ee) or to the supervisory authority in your own country.
We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are used in California law, and we do not use it for cross-context behavioural advertising. Residents of California and other US states with privacy laws have the right to know, delete, correct and opt out; the same address, privacy@vesselsos.com, handles those requests, and we will not treat you differently for making one.
The app is for people aged 16 and over in the European Union and 13 and over elsewhere, and we do not knowingly create accounts below that. A younger person can of course be aboard and be counted among the people on the vessel — that is a number, not a profile. If you believe a child has an account, write to us and we will remove it.
Necessary cookies are always on. Analytics and marketing cookies — including the Meta pixel used for Facebook and Instagram ads — are off until you allow them in the cookie banner, and you can change your choice at any time under “Cookie settings” in the footer. Your position in the app is never used for ads.
Data travels encrypted in transit and is stored encrypted at rest. Access inside the company is limited to the people who need it. If a breach ever affects your data, we notify the authority within 72 hours and tell you directly when the law requires it.
When this notice changes in a way that matters, we tell you in the app before the change takes effect. The date at the top always shows the current version.