Privacy Policy — Swiss Radio Rescue (SRR)

This policy describes how the Swiss Radio Rescue application ("SRR", "the app", "we") collects, uses and protects your personal data. It applies to the mobile application (iOS and Android) as well as the web version.

The application is published by Swiss Radio Rescue, a Swiss non-profit association forming an emergency volunteer network (information, skills and alerting) in times of crisis. Data processing complies with the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) and, for the users concerned, with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union.

1. Data controller

Swiss Radio Rescue Confignon, Switzerland — Contact: contact form

2. Data we collect

The application is intended for members and volunteers of the Swiss Radio Rescue emergency network — operators (amateur radio, CB, PMR and other participants), coordinators, authorities and emergency partners. We only collect the data necessary for this purpose, which you provide when creating your account and updating your profile:

Identity and contact data

• First name, last name
• Email address
• Phone numbers (mobile, landline)
• Emergency contact (name and phone)
• Profession (optional)

Location data

• Postal address (street, number, postal code, municipality, canton)
• Geographic coordinates (latitude, longitude) derived from your address
• Device GPS position — optional: only if you explicitly consent, to position you automatically on the map or to geolocate an incident report.

By default, the application does not access your device's GPS position. Coordinates are derived from the address you enter. GPS access, which is optional, only occurs if you authorize it, at the precise moment you use a location feature, and never in the background. You can revoke this permission at any time in your device settings.

Radio / operational data

• Radio call sign
• Participant type (amateur radio, CB, PMR, other)
• Declared bands, power and equipment
• Amateur radio licence (uploaded document, optional)
• Declared skills and qualifications
• Declared availability

Technical data

• Session identifiers and activity logs (sign-ins, profile changes)
• Minimal information required for operation (device type, language)

Messaging

• Messages exchanged within groups are kept temporarily, then automatically purged after 3 days, unless explicitly archived by a coordinator.

Reports and support (feedback)

• The content of your reports (type — bug, suggestion or question; title and message).
• The messages exchanged with the support team in connection with a report.
• Technical context attached automatically to help with diagnosis (page viewed, app version, device and browser type, screen size, online/offline status, language).
• A screenshot that you attach voluntarily and optionally to a report. It is generated at your request from the current display (with no additional access to your device); it may contain information shown on screen and is only visible to administrators.

Sign-in help request (without an account)

• If you are unable to sign in, you can contact us through a public form without being logged in. In that case we collect the email address you provide and the message describing your problem, solely to help you access your account.

Reporting a hazard (in the app, with or without an account)

• What you send: the type of hazard, its location (your phone's location, if you allow it), the municipality and canton and, if you wish, a description and a photo. If you are signed in, the report is linked to your account, together with the address found for that location.
• To prevent abuse: a hash of the phone identifier and, without an account, a hash of your IP address that changes every day. These hashes cannot be used to identify the phone or the IP address.
• Without an account, the app attaches a proof that it is genuine, issued by Apple or Google (see section 7).
• SRR coordinators review reports. On SRR terminals, only the type of hazard and the municipality may be displayed, without the author, the description or the photo. A report does not replace the emergency numbers (112, 117, 118, 144).

We do not collect: banking data, advertising identifiers, third-party browsing history, or background GPS location.

3. Device permissions

The application requests minimal permissions. Except for Internet, all are optional: they are only requested when you use the relevant feature, and you can refuse or revoke them at any time in your device settings (the app remains usable).

• Internet / network: to communicate with our servers.
• Camera — optional: only if you choose to take a photo (incident report, licence document). No photo is taken without your action.
• Files / gallery access — optional: only if you choose to attach an existing image or document. A report screenshot, by contrast, is generated at your request from the current display and requires no additional access.
• Location (GPS) — optional: only if you enable a location feature (see section 2). Never in the background.
• Face ID, Touch ID or fingerprint — optional: only if you turn on unlocking without a password in your profile. The check takes place entirely on your phone: SRR neither receives nor stores any biometric data. SRR only records a random identifier for the authorised phone, which you can remove from your profile at any time.

4. Purposes of processing

Your data is used exclusively to:

• create and manage your member account;
• coordinate emergency operations (operator mapping, availability, mobilizations);
• enable communication between members and coordinators;
• notify you of operational alerts and call-ups;
• collect and process your reports (bugs, suggestions, help requests) and respond to you;
• receive hazard reports, verify them and pass them on to coordinators;
• ensure the security and maintenance of the service.

We do not sell or rent your data. No data is used for advertising purposes.

5. Legal basis

Processing is based on:

• the performance of the service you join by creating an account;
• your consent, for optional data;
• the legitimate interest of the association in coordinating emergency response effectively.

6. Data sharing

Your data is accessible to:

• yourself;
• the coordinators and administrators of your canton/organization, within the limits of their duties;
• according to your visibility settings (for example, call sign and name visible to other operators).

Hosting and data storage are provided by our partner IAPC (International Amateur Packet Club), a Swiss association whose infrastructure is located in Switzerland (Onex, canton of Geneva). IAPC acts as a data processor, under an agreement and solely on the instructions of Swiss Radio Rescue. We do not share your data with third parties for commercial purposes.

Data you make visible. Information you choose to make visible according to your settings is accessible to the relevant members; by publishing it, you acknowledge that it is not confidential towards them. Your data remains your property at all times. Swiss Radio Rescue may refuse to disclose a profile in case of doubt about how it might be used. The association cannot, however, be held liable in the event of data theft or dishonest use by a third party.

7. Third-party services and mapping

To display operational maps, convert addresses into coordinates and protect certain forms against bots, verify that the app is genuine and deliver notifications, the application relies on external services:

• OpenStreetMap and CartoDB (map tiles): when a map is displayed, your IP address is sent to these services to download the image tiles.
• Nominatim (OpenStreetMap) (geocoding): when you enter an address (profile or incident report), the address text is sent to this service to obtain the corresponding coordinates.
• Cloudflare Turnstile (anti-bot protection): when you use the public sign-in help form, your IP address and a verification token are sent to Cloudflare to confirm that you are not a robot. Governed by Cloudflare's privacy policy.
• swisstopo (geo.admin.ch), Federal Office of Topography: when you report a hazard, our servers send only the location to this service to find the municipality and street (otherwise to Nominatim).
• Apple App Attest and Google Play Integrity, via Firebase App Check (Google): when you report a hazard without an account, the app asks Apple or Google for a proof that it is genuine and installed on a real phone. Google receives technical information (phone model and operating system, app version), never your profile or the content of the report.
• Push notifications: delivered by Apple (iPhone) and Google (Android), which receive a technical token of your phone and the text of the notification.

These services are governed by their own privacy policies. We do not send them any other data from your profile.

What the application does NOT use: no third-party audience-measurement or analytics tools (the application only keeps its own usage statistics — sign-ins and pages viewed — stored on our servers in Switzerland), no advertising, no third-party trackers, no advertising identifier, no third-party crash-reporting service, no social network SDK.

Notifications

As part of operations, the service may send you emails and, where applicable, SMS messages (call-ups, alerts). These use your email address / phone number solely for the operational purposes described in section 4.

8. Storage on your device (offline mode)

To work in crisis situations even without a network, the application may store locally on your device a copy of your profile and session information. This data is encrypted (AES-GCM) before storage. It remains on your device and is deleted upon sign-out, account deletion, or uninstallation of the application.

9. Hosting and security

Data is hosted in Switzerland, within the infrastructure of our partner IAPC (International Amateur Packet Club) (Onex, canton of Geneva), acting as a data processor. We apply technical and organizational measures: encrypted connections (HTTPS), token-based authentication, automatic sign-out after inactivity, and role-based access control.

10. Retention period

• Profile data: kept as long as your account is active.
• Messages: automatically purged after 3 days (unless archived).
• Hazard reports: anonymised after 6 months. The author, hashes, precise location, address, description and photo are deleted; the type, municipality, dates and decision remain.
• Reports (feedback) and associated messages: kept as long as they are useful for follow-up, then archived or deleted.
• Logs: kept for a limited period for security purposes.

Upon deletion of your account, your personal data is erased or anonymized, subject to legal retention obligations.

11. Your rights

In accordance with the FADP and the GDPR, you have the following rights: access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection and portability of your data. You may also withdraw your consent at any time.

Most of these actions can be performed directly within the application (editing your profile, deleting your account). For any other request, write to us via our contact form.

Deleting your account

You can delete your SRR account yourself, at any time, without contacting us:

1. sign in to the SRR app or, if you no longer have it, at swissradiorescue.ch/app;
2. open My profile, Security tab, Account deletion section;
3. confirm with your password and by typing DELETE.

If you can no longer sign in, request deletion via our contact form, stating your account's email address. We handle it within 30 days at most.

Deletion is immediate and permanent: your profile and the data linked to your account (contact details, licence, photos and documents, authorised devices, preferences) are erased. Backup copies disappear on their own as they are replaced. Only technical security logs are kept for a limited period (see section 10).

12. Children

The application is not intended for persons under 16 and does not knowingly collect their data.

13. Changes

We may update this policy. Any significant change will be reported in the application. The date of the last update appears at the top of this document.

14. Contact

For any question regarding this policy or your personal data, write to us via our contact form.