What VesselSOS knows about you — and what it does not.

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 is stored on our server only during a trip you start, an SOS, a one-hour share link you start, a rental you accept (section 10) or a race you join (section 11): 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. Outside these, your position is not stored — except the position of a hazard you report and the rounded lookup for hazards nearby, both described below.

Anyone you give the link to — no account needed — sees your first name, craft name, position, speed, course, battery level and recent positions, a button that calls your phone number, 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 for the messages you send yourself — the app opens a ready-made SMS on your phone and you tap Send — and for the automatic overdue SMS described next. Because these are someone else’s details, please tell them you have added them.

If you set a return time and do not answer the app’s “Are you OK?” question, our server texts up to 5 of your contacts set to Emergency or Live through our SMS provider, Twilio. It goes out at your return time plus your chosen delay plus 10 minutes, and contains your name, your craft, how late you are and the live map link; the map page shows your position and your phone number. When you answer, the same contacts get an all-clear SMS. We keep a log of these messages with the phone numbers masked, for 12 months together with the trip. The alert needs mobile data at least once after the trip starts, depends on mobile networks, and never alerts a rescue service — your contacts decide what to do.

A contact with a US or Canadian phone number receives automatic overdue alerts only after they agree to it themselves, by texting YES to +1 888 633 2870 (VesselSOS alerts). They get at most two messages per trip: the overdue alert and the all-clear. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to stop the messages at any time, HELP for help. Mobile phone numbers and SMS consent are never sold. No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Text messaging originator opt-in data and consent will not be shared with any third parties.

If you use Friends, we store who you invited (their phone number and the name you typed), who invited you, and the status of each invitation. Friends you have accepted see your name, phone number and main craft. Only while you are on a trip, and only if “Show friends when I’m at sea” is on, they also see your latest position, speed, course, phone battery, start time and planned return time. They get a notification when you go to sea and when you come back. Nothing is shown while you are ashore.

An invitation holds the phone number and the name you typed, so the person can accept it if they join VesselSOS with that number. We never text or call people you invite — whether to tell them is up to you. An invitation that is not answered is deleted after 90 days. Invite only people who know you.

When you report a hazard, we store its type, the position of your phone when you reported it, the time and your account. Everyone who opens the hazard map — also without an account — sees the type, position, time and confirmations. Your name is not shown to anyone. Notes added before 13 October 2026 are kept until the report is deleted and are visible only to their author. Reports expire by type (from 20 minutes to 7 days, renewed when others confirm them; fixed hazards such as rocks stay until removed) and are deleted 30 days after they expire. Your confirmations and votes are stored with your account. If you delete your account, your name and any note are removed and the report stays without them.

To show and warn you about hazards near you, the app sends an approximate position — rounded to a grid of about 3 nautical miles — to our server. This also happens ashore while the app is open. The approximate position is used only for that lookup and is not stored.

If you allow notifications, we store your device’s push token so we can tell you when a friend goes to sea or comes back. These are delivered through Expo (650 Industries, Inc.) and Apple Push Notification service, or Google Firebase Cloud Messaging on Android. The “Are you OK?” question and hazard warnings are created on your phone itself. A token is kept until you log out or delete your account; tokens that go unused are deleted after 180 days.

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.

For the data of a rental — who rented which craft and when, the position during the rental, help requests, messages, the return check and an incident report — the rental company is the controller. Innovesting OÜ processes this data on its behalf, as its processor, under a data processing agreement (GDPR Art. 28), and does not use it for anything else. The rental company decides what it needs the data for and is your first address for questions about the rental; its name is at the top of the rental offer in the app, and it should tell you about its own use of your data, for example in its rental terms.

Your VesselSOS account itself — phone number, name, contacts, your own trips and the SOS screen — stays with Innovesting OÜ as controller, exactly as described in sections 01–09. Renting gives the rental company nothing from your account beyond what the next paragraphs list.

For the logins of a rental company’s staff, the rental company’s own business details, the Fleet website (fleet.vesselsos.com) and demo requests, Innovesting OÜ is the controller.

Your first name and verified phone number, from your VesselSOS account. Before you accept, the staff see the first name and a masked number; after you accept, the full number, so they can call you. Renting needs a free VesselSOS account (phone number and SMS code) — not Pro.

If you have a contact set to Emergency or Live, the staff see one of them — name and phone number, your primary contact first — while the rental runs, so they can reach someone if they cannot reach you. It is not shown before you accept or after the return. These are someone else’s details: please tell your contacts.

From your Accept until the craft is marked returned, the app sends your phone’s position about every 30 seconds — with speed, course, accuracy and battery level — also in the background with the screen locked. The staff see it on their map with the recent track, and get an alert if you leave the allowed area, are late or your battery runs low. They see only positions recorded after your Accept. A rental is not shown to your friends and sends no automatic overdue SMS to your contacts: during a rental, the rental company is the one watching.

If you answer No to “Is anyone in danger?” and ask the rental company for a hand, we store the time and the reason you picked (wind or current, too tired, something broke, lost the paddle or leash, something else). The staff get it with your position.

An SOS during a rental works exactly as everywhere else in the app: it calls the rescue centre for those waters, and neither VesselSOS nor the rental company alerts a rescue service for you. In addition, the rental company’s staff see the SOS and its position at the same moment — on their dashboard, as a notification and, for staff who have set a phone number for it, by SMS. Showing your SOS to the people closest to you is done to protect your life, which is why the legal basis here is vital interests.

The staff can extend your time and send you fixed messages — head back inside the zone, your time is up, we are coming to you, head back because the wind is turning offshore. They arrive as notifications in the app; we store which message was sent and when.

The rental record holds the craft, the times (offered, accepted, due, returned), the number of people, a note from the staff, the time of any help request or SOS, and a summary: duration, distance, top speed and minutes late — not your track. At the return, the staff can note damage (yes or no, and a short note) and the fuel level; you see a copy of the return check in the app. Photo upload for the return check is not built yet; when it is, photos will be stored with the return check under the same rules. The rental company keeps the record for its own books.

If the rental company connects its booking system (Booqable or Bókun) or sends bookings through the Fleet API, we receive the booking — your name, phone number and email, the craft type, times and notes — and show it as a draft on its dashboard for the check-out. We read the booking with the rental company’s own access key. The booking system is the rental company’s own service, under its own terms.

If an SOS or a help request happened during your rental, your positions from that rental are not deleted at the return but kept for 30 days, so the rental company can make an incident report — for its insurer, an authority, or to answer a claim. The report holds your first name and phone number, the craft, the times, what happened and when, the return check and the track. After 30 days the positions are deleted automatically, and they are never shown on the live map after the return. Vital interests covers the SOS itself, not keeping a record once everyone is safe: keeping it for 30 days rests on the rental company’s legitimate interest in documenting what happened, and, where a national law requires an accident to be reported, on that legal obligation.

Staff sign in to the Fleet dashboard with their work email and a one-time link or code — there is no password. We store the email, the name they give, their role (owner, staff or rescue) and their alert settings, and — only if they enter it themselves — a phone number for SOS text alerts. Staff who use the VesselSOS app with the same login get alerts as notifications, so we store that device’s push token. Each step of a rental (offer, message, extension, return) is logged with who did it. The owner sees the staff’s emails. The sign-in is kept in the browser’s local storage; the dashboard sets no tracking cookies.

Company name, country, phone and email, its rental terms and rules, bases, zones, crafts and settings, and the integrations it connects. Of a Fleet API key we store only a fingerprint (a hash); the key itself is shown once. Access keys for its booking systems and webhook signing secrets are kept encrypted in a secrets vault, never in plain database tables.

When you book a demo or download a free tool or checklist on fleet.vesselsos.com, we receive your work email, company name, the page language and the page you sent it from — for the checklist also the country and the craft types you picked — and store the request with your browser’s user agent in a private store at our hosting provider and, without the user agent, in our own list of Fleet sales contacts in the Fleet database. A copy reaches our inbox by email, sent from your browser through FormSubmit. To stop abuse we keep a hash of your IP address, never the address itself. We use a request to answer you and to follow up about Fleet — not for advertising. If we send you a personal demo link, we log when it is opened, with the browser family and country only, no IP address.

For the data of a race — the entry list, who sails which boat, the number of people on board, contact details, the position and track during the race, an SOS or a request for assistance during the race, messages from the race committee, and the results — the organiser (the club or other body that runs the race) is the controller. Innovesting OÜ processes this data on its behalf, as its processor, under a data processing agreement (GDPR Art. 28), and does not use it for anything else. The organiser decides what the race needs and is your first address for questions about the race; its name is on the race card in the app before you join, and it should tell you about its own use of your data, for example in the notice of race or the sailing instructions.

Your VesselSOS account itself — phone number, name, contacts, your own trips and the SOS screen — stays with Innovesting OÜ as controller, exactly as described in sections 01–09. Joining a race gives the organiser nothing from your account beyond what the next paragraphs list.

For the logins of an organiser’s race team, the organiser’s own club details, the Racing website (racing.vesselsos.com) and pilot requests, Innovesting OÜ is the controller.

The organiser enters the boats itself — by hand or from a CSV or Manage2Sail file: sail number, boat name and rating (TCF) and, if it has them, the skipper’s name and phone number and an ashore contact. If the organiser allows it, you can add your boat yourself with its sail number and boat name. When you join, the boat’s entry is linked to your account. Where the organiser has not entered a name, phone number or ashore contact, the race office sees the ones from your VesselSOS account instead: your name, your verified phone number and your first contact set to Emergency or Live (name and number). They are read from your account, not copied, and are no longer shown 30 days after the race. The ashore contact is someone else’s details: please tell your contacts.

The number you set when you join (1 to 99). Rescuers ask for it first, so it is shown to the race office and goes with an SOS alert to the race committee and with a request for assistance to nearby boats, as described below.

From the moment you join until you are ashore, the app sends your phone’s position every 5 seconds — less often when the battery is low, as on every trip — with speed, course, accuracy and battery level, also in the background with the screen locked. The server uses it to detect the start, the mark roundings and the finish, and to rank the boats. The race office sees your position, track, speed and battery on its map. Sharing stops by itself when you reach the harbour the organiser set or when the race office closes the race, and you can stop it with “I’m ashore — stop sharing”. A race is not shown to your friends and sends no automatic overdue SMS to your contacts: during a race, the race office is the one watching.

Other boats in the race see your boat in their app — sail number, boat name, status, position, speed, course, leg, distance to the finish and rank — as the organiser sets it for the race: live, 15 minutes delayed, or own boat only (then each boat sees only itself, and no ranks while racing). The organiser can also show the race on a public live page (racing.vesselsos.com/live/ and the race code) that anyone with the link can open: the course, the boats by sail number and boat name with status, position, leg, distance to the finish and rank — with the same delay — and the results. In own-boat-only mode the public page shows only each boat’s status while racing, and the organiser can turn the public live page off. Other competitors and the public never see names, phone numbers, ashore contacts or tracks, nor the number of people on board — except the boats asked to assist in an SOS, below.

An SOS during a race works exactly as everywhere else in the app: it calls the rescue centre for those waters, and neither VesselSOS nor the organiser alerts a rescue service for you. In addition, the race committee sees the SOS, your boat, the number of people on board and your position at the same moment — on the race office dashboard, as a notification to race team members who use the VesselSOS app with the same login (the boat, and for owners and officers the number of people on board), and by SMS to members who have set a phone number for it (sail number, boat name and race; no position). While the SOS is active, every boat in the race sees yours at its live position, whatever the visibility setting, so boats nearby can help. The public live page marks the boat as SOS but does not show its position. Showing your SOS to the people closest to you is done to protect your life, which is why the legal basis here is vital interests.

During an SOS, the race committee can ask the 3 nearest boats on the water to assist. Those boats get a MAYDAY card in the app with your sail number, boat name, the number of people on board, your position, and their distance and bearing to you. Their answer (heading there, or can’t assist) and the time a boat spends helping are logged, so that the time can be taken into account in the results (Racing Rules of Sailing, rule 61.4(b)(4)).

From the positions, the server flags a boat that may have started early (OCS), may have missed a mark or crossed the finish too early, and records start, rounding and finish times. A flag is never a decision: the race officer decides on starts, marks, finishes and retirements and can correct any time by hand. No decision about your result is made by a computer alone.

The race committee can send messages to all boats or to one boat (up to 280 characters, sent as typed), and your app gets notifications for course changes, the start sequence, postponements, recalls and an individual recall (X flag) for your boat. We store the messages and a race log — start, roundings, finish, the race officer’s decisions, retirements, SOS and assistance — with the times.

The result of each boat — sail number, boat name, rating, place on line and corrected, finish, elapsed and corrected time, and status (for example retired, DNF or OCS) — is shown to the race office, in your race history in the app and on the public live page, and the race office can export it (CSV, Sailwave) for its noticeboard and results. Results stay provisional until the organiser marks the race complete and its protest time has passed. After the race, results stay published as results, as is usual in sailing, until the organiser deletes the race. The skipper’s name is kept with the result in the race office, as sailing results usually name the skipper, and is anonymised 5 years after the race; VesselSOS never shows names on the public live page.

The race team signs in to the race office (racing.vesselsos.com/app/) with their email and a one-time link or code — there is no password. We store the email, the name they give, their role (owner, officer or viewer) and — only if they enter it themselves — a phone number for SOS text alerts. Members who use the VesselSOS app with the same login get SOS alerts as notifications, so we store that device’s push token. Owners and officers see competitors’ phone numbers, ashore contacts and the number of people on board; viewers see positions, status, ranks and skipper names, but not those contact details. Owners see the team’s emails and invite new members by email.

Club name, country, phone, email and time zone; its races — name, date, class, planned start, course, harbour area, scoring and visibility settings — and its team. We also keep our own internal notes about the account, which the club does not see.

From the warning signal until the race is complete, we fetch the wind forecast for the race area from MET Norway, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute — sending only the coordinates of the middle of the course, or of the harbour, and no personal data. The race office and the app show it with MET Norway’s attribution; the race officer can enter the wind by hand instead.

When you ask to join the pilot on racing.vesselsos.com, we receive your email, club name, when your next race is, the page language and the page you sent it from, and handle the request like a Fleet demo request (section 10): stored in a private store at our hosting provider, a copy to our inbox through FormSubmit, used to answer you and follow up about Racing — not for advertising. The public live page counts how often it is opened per race and day, with no IP address; to stop abuse it keeps a hash of the visitor’s IP address that changes daily, never the address itself.