Acceptance of terms
By downloading, installing, or using the Beacon mobile application or any associated services (“Beacon”, “the Service”, “we”, “us”, or “our”), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service (“Terms”). If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use Beacon.
These Terms constitute a legally binding agreement between you and Beacon. By using the Service, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference.
Service description
Beacon is a campus safety platform designed to connect students, staff, safety officers, and campus administrators. The Service provides:
- Real-time safety incident reporting and campus alerts.
- Safety chat between users and authorised campus safety officers.
- Virtual escort sessions for safe travel across campus.
- Offline campus maps and navigation to safe zones.
- Emergency contact storage and first-responder medical profile.
- Campus-wide announcements and notifications.
Beacon is deployed on a per-campus basis under agreements with educational institutions (“Campus Partners”). Access to features may vary depending on your campus deployment and role.
Eligibility
You must meet the following requirements to use Beacon:
- You must be at least 13 years of age.
- If you are between 13 and 18, you must have parental or guardian consent where required by applicable law.
- You must be affiliated with a campus that has an active Beacon deployment, or be invited by a Campus Partner to use the Service.
- You must not be subject to a ban or suspension from Beacon.
- You must provide accurate information when creating your account.
Your account
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activities that occur under your account. You agree to:
- Provide accurate, current, and complete information when registering.
- Keep your password secure and not share it with others.
- Notify us immediately at hello@beaconresponseplatform.app if you suspect unauthorised access to your account.
- Not create multiple accounts or create an account on behalf of another person without authorisation.
We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms, provide false information, or engage in conduct that threatens the safety of others.
Emergency services disclaimer
Beacon is not a substitute for emergency services. In any life-threatening emergency, your first action should always be to contact your local emergency services — for example, by calling 911 in the United States, 999 in the United Kingdom, or the appropriate emergency number in your country.
Beacon is designed to supplement— not replace — your campus’s existing emergency response infrastructure and official emergency services. Using Beacon does not guarantee:
- That a safety officer or administrator will receive or respond to your report in any specific timeframe.
- That push notifications will be delivered in real time — delivery depends on your device’s connectivity, operating system, and notification settings.
- That offline maps will cover every area of your campus or remain fully accurate.
- That the Service will be available at all times, including during network outages or server maintenance.
We strongly encourage all users to also be familiar with their campus’s emergency procedures, the location of physical emergency call boxes, and how to contact campus security directly.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, Beacon expressly disclaims any liability for harm arising from reliance on Beacon as the sole means of emergency response.
Acceptable use
You agree to use Beacon only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms. You agree to:
- Use the Service only for genuine campus safety purposes.
- Submit accurate, honest incident reports and not knowingly report false emergencies.
- Treat all other users, safety officers, and administrators with respect.
- Follow the guidance of authorised campus safety officers during an active incident.
- Keep your contact information and campus affiliation up to date.
- Use the emergency features only in genuine safety situations.
Prohibited conduct
You must not:
- Submit false reports — reporting fake emergencies wastes safety resources and may leave real emergencies unaddressed. False reporting may also constitute a criminal offence in your jurisdiction.
- Harass or threaten others — use the platform to intimidate, harass, or make threats against any person.
- Impersonate others — create an account or send messages pretending to be a safety officer, administrator, or another user.
- Abuse the platform — send spam, automated messages, or repetitive content through the chat or alert systems.
- Circumvent access controls — attempt to access data or features not authorised for your role, or to interfere with the Service’s security measures.
- Reverse engineer or scrape the Service — decompile, disassemble, or extract data from Beacon through automated means.
- Share credentials — share your account access with others or attempt to log in as another user.
- Violate applicable law — use the Service in any way that violates local, national, or international law.
Violations of this section may result in immediate account suspension, reporting to your campus institution, and/or referral to law enforcement where appropriate.
User-generated content
Beacon allows you to submit content including incident reports, chat messages, photos, and files (“User Content”). You retain ownership of your User Content. By submitting User Content, you grant Beacon and your Campus Partner a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to store, display, and use that content solely to operate and improve the Service and to assist in safety response.
You are solely responsible for your User Content and represent that:
- You have the right to submit it.
- It is accurate to the best of your knowledge.
- It does not violate any law or the rights of any third party.
- It does not contain malicious code, offensive material unrelated to campus safety, or content that would violate these Terms.
We reserve the right to remove User Content that violates these Terms or that we determine, in our sole discretion, poses a risk to the safety or integrity of the platform.
Intellectual property
Beacon and its original content, features, and functionality are owned by Beacon and are protected by intellectual property laws. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or lease any part of the Service or its content without our prior written consent.
The Beacon name, logo, and related marks are trademarks of Beacon. You may not use them without our prior written permission.
Privacy
Your use of Beacon is governed by our Privacy Policy, which explains how we collect, use, and protect your personal information. By using the Service, you consent to the collection and use of your data as described in the Privacy Policy.
Third-party services
Beacon uses third-party services including Supabase (database and authentication), Google Firebase (push notifications and analytics), Cloudflare (push relay), Expo (app infrastructure), and Sentry (error monitoring). Your use of Beacon means your data may be processed by these providers as described in our Privacy Policy.
The Service may contain links to third-party websites or services. We are not responsible for the content, privacy practices, or terms of third-party services.
Service availability
We aim to provide a reliable and high-availability service, but we do not guarantee that Beacon will be available 100% of the time. The Service may be unavailable due to:
- Scheduled maintenance (we will give advance notice where possible).
- Unplanned outages, network issues, or third-party service failures.
- Events beyond our reasonable control.
Because Beacon serves a safety function, we treat availability as a high priority and will work to restore service as quickly as possible in the event of an outage. However, given the critical nature of emergencies, do not rely on Beacon as your only means of accessing help.
Disclaimers
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, BEACON IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. WE DO NOT WARRANT THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED THROUGH THE SERVICE.
BEACON IS NOT A LICENSED EMERGENCY RESPONSE PROVIDER. CAMPUS SAFETY OFFICERS WHO USE THE PLATFORM OPERATE UNDER THEIR OWN AUTHORITY AND TRAINING. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ACTIONS OR OMISSIONS OF CAMPUS SAFETY PERSONNEL.
Limitation of liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL BEACON, ITS DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, PARTNERS, OR AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH:
- Your access to or use of (or inability to access or use) the Service.
- Any conduct or content of any third party on the Service.
- Any failure or delay in emergency response by campus safety personnel.
- Unauthorised access to or alteration of your data.
- Any other matter relating to the Service.
IN JURISDICTIONS THAT DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OUR LIABILITY SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM, OR (B) USD $100.
Indemnification
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Beacon and its directors, employees, partners, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in any way connected with:
- Your use of or access to the Service.
- Your violation of these Terms.
- Your User Content.
- Your violation of any third-party rights.
- Any false emergency report you submit.
Termination
We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your access to Beacon at any time, with or without notice, for any reason, including but not limited to violation of these Terms.
You may delete your account at any time by going to Profile → Delete Account in the app, or by contacting us at hello@beaconresponseplatform.app. Account deletion is covered in our Privacy Policy.
Upon termination, your right to use the Service ceases immediately. Provisions of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination (including disclaimers, limitation of liability, and indemnification) shall survive.
Governing law
These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with applicable law. Any disputes arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service shall be resolved through good-faith negotiation in the first instance. If a dispute cannot be resolved informally, it shall be submitted to binding arbitration or the courts having jurisdiction where Beacon is registered, depending on applicable law.
If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision shall be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.
Changes to terms
We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. When we make material changes, we will:
- Update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page.
- Send a push notification and/or in-app notice to active users.
- For significant changes, require you to acknowledge the updated Terms before continuing to use the Service.
Your continued use of Beacon after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you must stop using the Service and may delete your account.
Contact us
If you have questions about these Terms of Service, please contact us:
- Email: hello@beaconresponseplatform.app
- Legal enquiries: legal@beaconresponseplatform.app
- Privacy enquiries: privacy@beaconresponseplatform.app
We aim to respond to all enquiries within 5 business days.