Updated: February 23, 2024

Our Commitment to Privacy

The uSafeUS® mobile device application is a confidential resource committed to protecting your privacy. Our primary goal is to be a resource to make campuses safer. We understand that you may have questions or concerns regarding your personal information and how it will be used. To make this Privacy Policy easy to find, it is available both from the home page of the uSafeUS website at uSafeUS.org (the “website”) and through the uSafeUS  mobile device application. You may also email prevention.innovations@unh.edu with any privacy-related questions. In this policy, the word “Application” means the uSafeUS mobile device application and any related software, website(s), servers, updates, content and/or documentation. Not everyone is guaranteed to have access to all aspects of the Application.

Introduction and Background

The Application was developed by the team at University of New Hampshire Prevention Innovations Research Center (PIRC) which is internationally recognized for its collaborative research and community engagement focusing on sexual assault and harassment, relationship violence and stalking prevention and response. PIRC conducts scholarly, cutting-edge research that informs policy and practice and convenes practitioners and researchers to develop strategies for evidence-based, innovative approaches to violence prevention.

Applicability of Privacy Policy

Throughout this policy, the term “personal identifying information” (PII) is used to describe information that can be associated with a specific person and can be used to identify that person. We do not consider PII to include data that has been aggregated and/or anonymized such that it does not identify a specific user.

Your name, your specific usage of the Application, nor details or the very fact of a sexual assault incident will ever be collected or transmitted.

Information Collection and Use

For a better experience, while using the Application, certain PII may be required. The information will be retained securely and only used as described in this privacy policy.

PII: When the uSafeUS mobile device application is first used, your cell phone number is stored on our server.

Your cell phone number is used when the Time to Leave (fake text or call) or the Expect Me (safe arrival) features are used. In the case of Time to Leave, the cell phone number is used to deliver the fake text or call to your phone. In the case of Expect Me, your cell phone number is shared with the trusted friends you chose when configuring the feature as a way for them to reach you if you do not arrive at your destination as planned. The cell phone number of the configured trusted friends is used to deliver them text messages while the Expect Me feature is active. Twilio, a third-party service provider, is utilized to deliver the text messages.

When configuring the Expect Me feature, you may choose to temporarily share your Global Positioning System (GPS) location with trusted friends. If you do, your GPS location is temporarily stored on our servers and is shared, along with your cell phone number and configured name, with those trusted friends. When you deactivate the Expect Me feature (arrive safely), GPS location sharing will stop, and all stored location data is deleted. If the Expect Me feature is not deactivated before the timer expires (you didn’t signal you arrived safely), GPS location sharing will stop but the stored GPS location data will remain in our servers for up to 120 hours and then deleted.

All location information is encrypted in transit.

The Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) of your mobile device, device type, device operating system version and your school affiliation are used to deliver relevant, text-like messages (Push Notifications) from your selected school administrators to the mobile device application. OneSignal, a third-party service provider is utilized to provide this service. Using the same information, both OneSignal and Microsoft Application Insights will gather anonymized usage analytics.

When you visit the administrator dashboard (dashboard.uSafeUS.org) your standard web log-in information is collected.

Contacts: The mobile device application asks users for permission to access their contacts list as a requirement to utilize the features Time to Leave and Expect Me. The mobile device application will not access the contacts list unless the user grants permission. This contact data is used ephemerally and is stored on the user's device only. No data about the contact other than their name is stored by the mobile device application. When using the Time to Leave feature, the mobile device application will not transmit any information from the contacts list externally. When using the Expect Me feature the mobile device application will share only the cell phone number of the configured trusted friends with Twilio (see above for more information) for delivery of the notification texts. Sharing contact information is not necessary for any other aspect of the mobile device application.

uSafeUS.org and Cookies: Cookies are small pieces of text sent to your browser by a website you visit. They help that website remember information about your visit, which can both make it easier to visit the site again and make the site more useful to you. You have the option to either accept or refuse these cookies and know when a cookie is being sent to your device. If you choose to refuse the cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of the Application.

When you visit uSafeUS.org, standard web analytics, such as your browser type and the pages you accessed on the website are collected. We also may collect certain geo-location information such as the location of your device (such as your computer, phone, or tablet). If you do not agree to the collection of this information, you should not use the Application.

Analytics: To evaluate our effectiveness and improve our services we collect aggregated and anonymized data. All data collected is stripped of PII, and only data related to feature use and functions within the Application will be collected. For example, we may collect the number of active users at an institution, as well as the frequency of use of Application features and content, including some data about use at specific times or days. This does not identify a specific user.

Log Data Collection in the Case of an Error: When an error is encountered during use of the Application, information about your mobile device will be collected. This may include information such as the mobile device brand and model, operating system type and version, locale (language preference and country code), time zone offset from UTC, the cell phone carrier country and name, the configuration of the Application when the error occurred, time and date of the error and other statistics.

How We Share Information

PIRC will not rent, sell, trade, or otherwise share PII with third-parties, other than OneSignal, Microsoft Application Insights, and Twilio as mentioned above.

Links to Other Sites

The Application contains links to external websites that we cannot guarantee are up-to-date, secure and/or confidential; use of those links is at your own risk, and we do not make any warranty or promise regarding those websites or their privacy practices.

We strive to ensure security for the Application and associated systems. Despite our efforts, we cannot guarantee that information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of our administrative, managerial, and technical safeguards. Therefore, we urge you to take adequate precautions to protect your personal data as well, including never sharing your password with anyone.

Information From Children

The Application is not intended for children under 13 years of age, and we do not knowingly collect PII from children under 13. If we learn we have collected or received PII from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will promptly delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at prevention.innovations@unh.edu.

Changes to this Privacy Policy and Notification

We will update this policy if our data collection practices are changed. If we make any changes pertaining to our collection, retention, use or sharing of PII, we will make the update on our website first. The most up-to-date version of this policy is located on our website here.

How We Use the Information We Collect

Our primary purpose in collecting the information mentioned above is to provide you with a safe, smooth, efficient and customized experience. We may use that data to:

• provide the services and customer support at your request

• create and send custom push notifications and alerts related to the mobile device application

• customize, personalize, measure, and improve our services and the content and layout of our website

• send you updates about new products and services that we are offering to customers

• compare information for accuracy and verify it with third-parties

• perform other duties as required by law

Delete Account

If you would like to delete your mobile device application account, please visit here.

If you would like to delete your dashboard user account, please email: contact@usafeus.org.

Terms of Use

This Privacy Policy is subject to, and is governed by the Terms of Use, to which you agree by accessing, downloading or using the Application.

How To Contact Us

Any questions about this Privacy Policy should be addressed to prevention.innovations@unh.edu.