1. Who We Are

NearPulse is a hyperlocal AI briefing app developed and operated by Thynkr Systems Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (Company No. 15306717), with its registered office at Office 1, 1st Floor, 73 Station Passage, London E18 1JL.

For any privacy-related queries, you can contact us at: [email protected]

2. What Data We Collect

Account Information

• Full name and email address (required to create an account)
• Password (stored as a secure encrypted hash — we never store plain text passwords)
• Account preferences, interests and notification settings

Location Data

• Home location or postcode you provide during onboarding
• GPS coordinates when you enable live location (optional)
• Up to 5 saved location profiles (Pro users)
• Location is used solely to generate your local briefing and show nearby services

Usage Data

• Features you use within the app
• Briefings generated and viewed
• Searches made (fuel, grocery, services)
• App crash reports and performance data

SOS Emergency Data

• When you activate SOS, we collect your GPS coordinates at the time of activation
• Your emergency contact details (name and phone number) that you provide in Settings
• SOS activation history is stored for your security and our records

Payment Data

• We do not store payment card details
• Payments are processed entirely by Apple App Store or Google Play Store
• We only receive confirmation of successful subscription from the app stores

3. How We Use Your Data

• To provide the service: Generate your personalised Lana AI briefing, show local fuel prices, grocery prices, transport updates, bin collection dates, NHS wait times and other local information
• To send SOS alerts: Your GPS location is sent to your nominated emergency contact via SMS when you activate the SOS feature
• To improve the app: Anonymised usage data helps us understand which features are most valuable
• To send notifications: Morning briefing reminders, breaking alerts and bin day reminders (only if you have enabled these)
• To provide customer support: Respond to your queries and resolve issues
• Legal compliance: We may process your data where required by law

4. Legal Basis for Processing

Under UK GDPR, we process your personal data on the following legal bases:

• Contract performance: Processing necessary to provide the NearPulse service you have signed up for
• Legitimate interests: App improvement, fraud prevention and security
• Consent: Location access, push notifications and marketing communications (you can withdraw consent at any time)
• Vital interests: SOS emergency features where your safety is at risk

5. Third Party Services

NearPulse uses the following third-party services to deliver the app. Each has their own privacy policy:

• Anthropic Claude AI — Generates your Lana AI briefing. Data sent: your location name and anonymised local data. Privacy Policy
• OpenWeatherMap — Weather data. Data sent: GPS coordinates. Privacy Policy
• Google Places API — Local services search. Data sent: GPS coordinates. Privacy Policy
• Twilio — SOS SMS delivery. Data sent: your emergency contact's phone number and your GPS location (SOS only). Privacy Policy
• Mailgun — Transactional emails. Data sent: your email address. Privacy Policy
• AWS S3 — Secure cloud storage for briefing cache. Data stored: anonymised briefing content. Privacy Policy
• Google Tag Manager — Analytics. Collects anonymised usage data. Privacy Policy

6. Data Retention

• Account data: Retained while your account is active. Deleted within 30 days of account deletion request
• Briefing history: Retained for 7 days then automatically deleted
• SOS logs: Retained for 12 months for safety and legal purposes
• Usage analytics: Anonymised and retained for up to 24 months

7. Your Rights Under UK GDPR

You have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right of access: Request a copy of all personal data we hold about you
• Right to rectification: Correct any inaccurate personal data
• Right to erasure: Request deletion of your personal data ("right to be forgotten")
• Right to restrict processing: Limit how we use your data
• Right to data portability: Receive your data in a machine-readable format
• Right to object: Object to processing based on legitimate interests
• Right to withdraw consent: Withdraw consent at any time for consent-based processing

To exercise any of these rights, email us at [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days.

8. Location Data & GPS

NearPulse requests location access to provide hyperlocal information. Specifically:

• When in use: Used to show fuel prices, services and local information relevant to your current location
• Background location (optional): Only requested if you enable auto-briefing based on location changes
• SOS emergency: Your precise GPS coordinates are shared with your emergency contact via SMS when you activate SOS — this is the core safety function of the feature

You can revoke location permissions at any time in your device settings. The app will continue to work using your saved home location.

9. Children's Privacy

NearPulse is not intended for children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us immediately at [email protected].

10. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data including:

• All data transmitted via HTTPS/TLS encryption
• Passwords stored using bcrypt hashing (never plain text)
• JWT authentication tokens with expiry
• Two-factor authentication available for admin access
• Regular security reviews
• Data stored on servers located in the European Union (AWS eu-west-2, London)

11. International Transfers

Your data is primarily processed and stored within the UK and European Economic Area. Where data is transferred to third-party services outside the UK/EEA (such as Anthropic in the USA), we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place in accordance with UK GDPR requirements.

12. Cookies

The NearPulse website (nearpulse.app) uses the following cookies:

• Essential cookies: Required for the website to function
• Analytics cookies (Google Tag Manager): Help us understand how visitors use our site. You can opt out via your browser settings

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes via email or in-app notification. The date at the top of this page indicates when it was last updated. Continued use of NearPulse after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

14. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we handle your personal data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) — the UK's data protection regulator:

• Website: ico.org.uk
• Phone: 0303 123 1113

We would, however, appreciate the chance to address your concerns first — please contact us at [email protected] before contacting the ICO.