This Privacy Policy explains how Radikal Solutions ("we", "us", "our") collects, uses, stores, and protects your personal information when you use the findME Android application and this website. We are committed to complying with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA) of South Africa.
By downloading or using findME, you consent to the practices described in this policy. If you do not agree, please uninstall the application and do not use our services.
1. Who We Are (Responsible Party)
Responsible Party: Radikal Solutions
Email: tech-support@findmeapp.co.za
Country: South Africa
You may contact us at the email above to exercise any of your POPIA rights or to raise a privacy concern.
2. Personal Information We Collect
2.1 Account Registration
- Full name — displayed in your profile and included in SOS notifications.
- Email address — used for account creation, login, subscription management, and transactional emails (invite, reward, newsletter).
- Phone number — used as the primary recipient for SOS SMS alerts.
2.2 Emergency Contacts
- Names, phone numbers, and (optionally) email addresses of your designated emergency contacts. You are responsible for obtaining consent from those individuals before entering their details.
2.3 Location Data
- Your GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude) are captured and transmitted only when you intentionally trigger an SOS alert (5-second volume-button hold).
- Location data is sent directly to our servers and forwarded to your emergency contacts via SMS. It is not stored long-term — it exists only in transit and in server execution logs (retained for 90 days for debugging, then automatically deleted).
- findME does not continuously track or background-log your location.
2.4 Subscription & Billing
- Google Play processes all payments. We never receive your card number or banking details.
- We store a Google Play purchase token and your subscription status in Database to gate premium features.
2.5 Device & Usage Data
- Our servers may collect anonymous crash reports, device model, OS version, and session events to help us improve app stability. No personally identifiable information is included in these reports.
2.6 Referral Codes
- If you share or redeem a referral code, we store the association between referrer and referred user to process billing rewards. No sensitive personal data beyond email and subscription token is involved.
2.7 Free Plan & Rewarded Ads
- Free alert allowance. We store how many free SOS alerts you have and how many ads you have watched today, to run the free plan.
- Once per email. To make sure the free sign-up alert is given only once per email address, we keep a one-way (SHA-256) hash of your email address with the date it was claimed. The hash cannot be turned back into your email address, and it is kept even after you delete your account, for as long as the free plan exists.
- Rewarded ads (Google AdMob). On the free plan you can choose to watch an ad to earn an alert. An ad only loads when you tap Watch ad. When it does, Google's AdMob SDK collects, and shares with Google, your device's advertising ID (or app set ID), your IP address (from which an approximate location can be derived), basic device and app information, your interactions with the ad and diagnostics. Google uses this to serve and measure ads and to prevent fraud; see how Google uses information from apps that use its services. Where the law requires it (for example in the EEA and UK), you are asked for consent first.
- What we receive. Google tells our servers only that a signed, completed ad view belongs to your account, so we can credit the alert. We never receive your advertising ID.
- You can reset or delete your advertising ID in your Android settings (Settings → Privacy → Ads). Premium subscribers are never shown ads, and no ad is ever involved in triggering or sending an SOS alert.
2.8 Company Accounts (Enterprise Packages)
- Joining. If your employer or another organisation provides findME to you through an Enterprise package, you take up a "seat" on that organisation's company account. This happens when its administrator invites your email address, or when you enter the company join code in the app.
- What we store for this. The organisation's name, the number of seats it has, its contract end date (if it has one) and its company join code; which accounts hold a seat on which organisation's account; and the email addresses its administrator has invited.
- What the administrator can see. The member list in the administrator's app shows the email addresses of the people on the organisation's seats, and the administrator can remove a person from a seat. The app does not give the administrator a view of your location. Your location is shared only when you trigger an SOS, and only with the emergency contacts you chose (see 2.3).
- Premium through the organisation. While you hold a seat you have Premium without a Google Play purchase. If you are removed from a seat you no longer have Premium through the organisation. If the organisation's contract ends, your account moves to the free plan; your findME account is not deleted.
- Invitations. If an administrator invites an email address that does not yet have a findME account, we send an invitation email to that address.
2.9 Advertising Attribution (Meta)
- Why. We advertise findME on Facebook and Instagram. To know which of those ads lead to installs and sign-ups, the app includes Meta's (Facebook's) software development kit, set up to report two events and nothing else: that findME was installed, and that a findME account was created.
- When. Each event is sent once per installation: the install event the first time you open findME, and the sign-up event when you create a new findME account. Only on Android 11 or later; on earlier Android versions the Meta SDK never runs. Nothing else is ever sent.
- What Meta receives. That findME was installed and opened and, if you create an account, that an account was created (without your name, email or any other detail of it), with basic device and app information (such as the device model, Android version and app version), your IP address (from which an approximate location can be derived), an identifier Meta's SDK creates for this installation, and, if you installed findME from one of our ads, the Google Play referral information that links the install to that ad.
- What Meta never receives from findME. Your advertising ID, your name, email address or phone number, your emergency contacts, your location from GPS, whether or when you use SOS, whether you subscribe, your purchases, or anything else you do in the app.
- Meta's use. Meta uses this information to measure and improve our ads, under Meta's Privacy Policy. If Meta can match the install to a Facebook or Instagram account (for example because you tapped our ad there), it may list findME in that account's private Your activity off Meta technologies page, which only you, and anyone signed in to your account, can see. It is never shown on your profile or to your friends. You can disconnect or clear this in your Facebook or Instagram settings (Accounts Centre → Your information and permissions → Your activity off Meta technologies).
2.10 Advertising Attribution (TikTok)
- Why. We also advertise findME on TikTok. To know which of those ads lead to installs and sign-ups, the app includes TikTok's Business SDK, set up to report the same two events and nothing else: that findME was installed, and that a findME account was created.
- When. Each event is sent once per installation: the install event the first time you open findME, and the sign-up event when you create a new findME account. Nothing else is ever sent: app launches, in-app purchases and screen activity are not reported.
- What TikTok receives. That findME was installed and opened and, if you create an account, that an account was created (without your name, email or any other detail of it), with basic device and app information (such as the device model, Android version and app version), your IP address (from which an approximate location can be derived), an identifier TikTok's SDK creates for this installation, and, if you installed findME from one of our ads, the Google Play referral information that links the install to that ad.
- What TikTok never receives from findME. Your advertising ID, your name, email address or phone number, your emergency contacts, your location from GPS, whether or when you use SOS, whether you subscribe, your purchases, or anything else you do in the app. The SDK does not read anything from the TikTok app on your phone.
- TikTok's use. TikTok uses this information to measure and improve our ads, under TikTok's Privacy Policy. If TikTok can match the install to a TikTok account (for example because you tapped our ad there), it may list findME in that account's private Off-TikTok activity, which only you, and anyone signed in to your account, can see. It is never shown on your profile or to your followers. You can clear it and turn it off in the TikTok app (Settings and privacy; search for Off-TikTok activity).
3. How We Use Your Information
- Deliver the SOS service — transmit your location and identity to emergency contacts.
- Account management — authenticate you, maintain your profile and preferences.
- Subscription management — verify purchases, apply discounts, process referral rewards.
- Free plan — keep your free alert allowance, credit alerts earned by watching ads, and make sure the sign-up alert is claimed only once per email address.
- Company accounts — give Premium to people who join through an organisation's Enterprise package, and let its administrator manage which people hold its seats.
- Advertising measurement — learn which of our Facebook and Instagram ads, and of our TikTok ads, lead to installs and sign-ups (sections 2.9 and 2.10).
- Transactional communications — send invite emails, reward notifications, and account-deletion confirmations.
- Safety newsletter — a weekly email with rotating safety tips (you may opt out at any time by emailing us).
- App improvement — analyse anonymous crash and usage data to fix bugs and enhance performance.
- Legal compliance — retain records as required by applicable South African law.
4. Legal Basis for Processing (POPIA)
- Contract performance — processing your name, email, and phone number is necessary to provide the SOS service you signed up for.
- Consent — location data is processed only when you consciously trigger an SOS alert. Emergency contacts are entered at your discretion.
- Legitimate interest — anonymous analytics and crash reporting to maintain a reliable safety service.
- Legal obligation — we retain transaction records as required by South African consumer protection and tax regulations.
5. Data Storage & Retention
- Database — your account data is retained for as long as your account is active, plus 30 days after deletion to handle billing disputes.
- Location data — not stored in our primary database. Server execution logs containing location data in transit are deleted after 90 days.
- Email delivery logs — Delivery logs are retained for up to 30 days.
- Backups — encrypted database backups are stored and retained for 30 days.
6. Data Security
- All data in transit is encrypted using HTTPS/TLS 1.2+.
- The database technology is secured with granular security rules that restrict access to authenticated users and our service accounts.
- Our servers require a shared secret header to prevent unauthorized invocation.
- We use principle-of-least-privilege IAM roles on the cloud platform.
- No plaintext passwords are stored.
Despite these measures, no internet transmission is 100% secure. In the unlikely event of a data breach affecting your personal information, we will notify you as required by POPIA.
7. Children's Privacy
findME is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.
8. Your Rights Under POPIA
As a data subject under POPIA, you have the right to:
- Access — request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
- Correction — request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information.
- Deletion — request deletion of your personal information (subject to legal retention obligations) by emailing tech-support@findmeapp.co.za. You can also delete your account directly from within the app via Dashboard → More Details → Deregister Account.
- Objection — object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
- Restriction — request that we restrict processing while a complaint is being resolved.
- Data portability — receive your personal data in a structured, machine-readable format.
- Lodge a complaint — contact the Information Regulator of South Africa if you believe your rights have been violated.
Account & Data Deletion
You can delete your findME account and all associated data in two ways:
- In the app: Dashboard → More Details → Deregister Account.
- By email: send a deletion request to tech-support@findmeapp.co.za from the email address registered to your account.
Once your request is received, your account and associated personal data (profile, emergency contacts, and settings) are deleted from our active database within 30 days. The one-way hash of your email address used by the free plan (section 2.7) is kept, so a new account on the same email address does not receive a second free sign-up alert. Server execution logs are automatically purged within 90 days. A minimal audit record of the deletion request itself (containing no location data) is retained for up to 2 years for compliance purposes.
To exercise any of these rights, email us at tech-support@findmeapp.co.za. We will respond within 30 days.
9. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. For material changes, we will notify you via the email address associated with your account. Continued use of findME after notification constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.
10. Embedded Content on This Website
The demo video on our home page is hosted on YouTube and embedded using youtube-nocookie.com, YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode. No cookies are set by YouTube until you press play. When the video loads, Google receives your IP address and browser details as the technical requirement of serving it, and once you press play Google's own privacy policy applies to that interaction.
Advertising (Google AdSense)
This website uses Google AdSense to display advertising. Google, as a third-party vendor, and its advertising partners use cookies and similar technologies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites. This may include:
- Google's use of advertising cookies to serve ads based on your visits to this site and others across the internet.
- Other third-party ad vendors also using cookies to serve ads as part of the Google AdSense network.
You can opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings, or opt out of third-party vendor cookies generally via aboutads.info. We do not control the content of ads served by Google, and cannot guarantee what categories of ads will appear.
This section covers visitors to the website only. In the findME app, ads appear only on the free plan and only when you choose to watch one (see section 2.7). Nothing described here applies to your emergency contacts, your SOS location data or your SOS alerts.
11. Contact Us
If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal information, please contact: