StayKnown Contact Approval & Consent Policy for trusted safety contacts and SOS responders.

1) Consent summary

StayKnown is built around approved people, not random tracking. Emergency contacts, SOS responders, and trusted safety participants should understand the role they are accepting and should have the ability to approve, decline, remove, or block safety-contact access where the feature allows.

2) Purpose of approved contacts

Approved contacts help a user stay known during safety moments. They may receive Visit updates, live map links, SOS alerts, manual capture updates, chat safety context, safety gallery context, or other alerts depending on the feature, plan, region, and user permissions.

• To help trusted people know when a user has started, updated, or ended a safety session.
• To help contacts understand location or map context during active Visit, SOS, manual capture, or chat safety flows.
• To make safety alerts more meaningful by showing the user’s identity, profile, or safety gallery context where supported.
• To create a consent-based system that discourages stalking, harassment, hidden tracking, and unwanted monitoring.
• To support lawful family, friend, workplace, community, travel, event, school, or personal safety arrangements where allowed.

3) Contact roles inside StayKnown

Emergency contacts are people a user chooses for safety awareness. They may receive alerts, map links, updates, or communication related to visits, manual capture, or safety events.

SOS responders may receive stronger urgent safety alerts when the user activates SOS. A user should only choose SOS responders who are able and willing to take safety alerts seriously.

Approved chat contacts may be able to communicate through StayKnown Chat, view safety context connected to messages, and use chat map features where supported.

A map viewer may be able to open a permitted StayKnown map link only because the user’s safety flow allowed it. A map viewer does not receive unlimited account access.

4) Contact approval and invitation flow

StayKnown may use email, app notification, web approval pages, pending states, consent checkboxes, and status updates to help users and contacts understand whether a safety relationship has been requested, approved, declined, expired, removed, or blocked.

• A user may request to add a contact by providing the contact identifier required by the app.
• The contact may receive a message explaining the safety role, the user who requested it, and what approval means.
• The contact may approve, decline, ignore, or allow the request to expire depending on the feature.
• The app may show pending, approved, declined, expired, or removed status.
• Approved status may be required before Visit, SOS, chat, live map, or safety-gallery access becomes active.
• If the request expires, the user may need to resend the request where the app allows.

5) Responsibilities of users and contacts

• Use accurate contact information and do not add people deceptively.
• Tell contacts why you are adding them and what alerts they may receive.
• Respect declines, removals, blocked-add settings, and requests to stop.
• Do not use StayKnown to pressure someone into approving a request.
• Remove contacts who should no longer receive safety updates.
• Do not send false SOS alerts, prank safety updates, or repeated unwanted notifications.

• Use received safety information only for the safety purpose intended.
• Do not publish, sell, leak, shame, threaten, exploit, or misuse another person’s location or safety data.
• Do not use map access as permission to stalk, follow, control, harass, or confront someone unsafely.
• If a safety alert appears urgent, contact the user where safe and use appropriate local emergency channels if danger is suspected.
• If you no longer want the role, use available removal or support options.

6) Removal, blocked-add settings, and withdrawal of consent

Consent should not be treated as permanent when the relationship or safety need changes. StayKnown may provide controls for removal, blocking additions, declining requests, or contacting support.

• Users may remove contacts where the app allows.
• Contacts may decline or withdraw from a role where the flow allows.
• A user may be able to block other people from adding them as a contact depending on security settings.
• If blocked-add settings are enabled, other users should receive a friendly notice that the person cannot be added because of their safety settings.
• Repeated attempts to add someone who declined, blocked, or asked to stop may be treated as harassment.
• StayKnown may remove or restrict contacts if abuse, impersonation, spam, stalking, coercion, or legal risk is detected.

7) SOS responders and urgent alert consent

SOS responder access is sensitive because it may involve urgent alerts, location, safety gallery context, live map links, and emergency status. Users should only add people who understand the responsibility and are likely to respond responsibly.

• SOS responders should know they may receive urgent alerts.
• SOS responders should not treat StayKnown alerts as guaranteed official emergency dispatch.
• SOS responders should use judgment and contact official emergency services where immediate danger is suspected.
• Users must not add unwilling people as SOS responders.
• False SOS alerts, repeated fake emergency use, or alerting people to intimidate them is prohibited.
• StayKnown may require stronger consent, confirmation, or audit records for SOS-related flows.

8) Minors, guardians, families, schools, and vulnerable users

Contact consent is especially important when minors or vulnerable users are involved. StayKnown must not be used to exploit, groom, threaten, secretly monitor, or control a child, teen, dependent, student, employee, or vulnerable person.

• Under 13 users are not permitted to create an account or use StayKnown.
• Ages 13–15 may use StayKnown only with active parent or legal guardian permission and supervision, where allowed.
• Ages 16–17 may use StayKnown with parent or legal guardian permission/consent and lawful safety purpose, where required.
• If local law requires stricter age, guardian, school, workplace, or data rules, the stricter rule applies.
• Adults must not use StayKnown to secretly monitor minors unless they have lawful authority and the use is consistent with applicable law and safety purpose.
• Schools, organizations, churches, nonprofits, workplaces, and youth programs should use StayKnown only with proper notice, consent, and role clarity.

9) Nigeria, United States, United Kingdom, EU, and global use

StayKnown can support users in different countries, but consent, privacy, emergency response, telecom reliability, family rules, workplace rules, and location-sharing laws differ by region. Users and contacts must follow the law where they live and where the safety event happens.

• In Nigeria, StayKnown should be used for lawful personal, family, community, workplace, travel, and safety awareness with trusted people.
• Users should not add contacts to shame, threaten, monitor, extort, or pressure anyone.
• Contacts should understand that network issues, power, rural coverage, city congestion, road conditions, and provider delays may affect alerts.
• If immediate danger is suspected, Nigerian contacts should use appropriate local channels, which may include trusted family, local police, medical help, FRSC, NSCDC, NEMA, state emergency agencies, private security, or nearby responsible responders depending on the situation.
• StayKnown does not replace Nigerian police, ambulance, hospitals, fire service, road safety, civil defence, disaster management, or any official authority.

• In the United States, StayKnown is not 911, a public safety answering point, law enforcement, EMS, fire department, or rescue provider.
• Users must respect state and federal laws on stalking, harassment, privacy, location sharing, minors, workplace monitoring, and protective orders.
• If immediate danger is suspected, contact 911 or the correct local emergency service.

• In the U.K. and EU, users and contacts should use official emergency numbers such as 999 or 112 where immediate danger is suspected.
• European users may have stricter consent, data protection, transparency, and privacy rights for location and contact data.
• In all countries, users must not use StayKnown to violate local laws, privacy rules, employment rules, school rules, family court orders, child-protection rules, or emergency-service laws.

10) Prohibited misuse of contact and consent features

• No adding people without permission for harassment, intimidation, revenge, monitoring, spam, or coercion.
• No repeated requests after a person declines, blocks, removes, or asks to stop.
• No impersonating another person to gain contact approval.
• No tricking a contact into approving a role they do not understand.
• No using StayKnown to violate protective orders, restraining orders, no-contact orders, custody rules, school rules, workplace rules, or local law.
• No using contact alerts to frighten, shame, manipulate, extort, or control someone.
• No selling, leaking, posting, exposing, or misusing location or safety data received as an approved contact.
• No fake emergencies, false SOS, swatting, prank safety alerts, or repeated manual captures designed to scare contacts.

11) Consent records, retention, and legal handling

StayKnown may keep contact approval and consent records to prove authorization, support app functionality, resolve disputes, protect contacts, prevent abuse, handle legal requests, and support safety investigations.

• Consent records may include requester, requested contact, role, approval state, timestamps, expiration state, decline state, removal state, and audit metadata.
• Notification records may include delivery state, email or push delivery metadata, event type, and timestamp.
• Blocked-add settings may be stored to prevent unwanted contact requests.
• Records may be retained longer where needed for safety, fraud prevention, legal compliance, abuse review, security, or dispute handling.
• Deletion requests may be limited where records must be preserved for legal, safety, fraud-prevention, security, or compliance reasons.
• Law enforcement or emergency requests must follow the Law Enforcement & Emergency Requests policy.

12) Contact and related policies

For contact approval issues, unwanted contact requests, blocked-add questions, SOS responder concerns, abuse reports, legal concerns, or privacy questions, contact StayKnown support.

• Support: support@stay-known.com
• Use Abuse Reporting for unwanted requests, harassment, stalking, impersonation, fake emergencies, or unsafe contact behavior.
• Use Law Enforcement & Emergency Requests for valid official requests, legal preservation, or urgent safety disclosure questions.
• Use Security Disclosure for vulnerability reports or platform-integrity concerns.