Privacy Policy

Overview

Vanguard ("we", "our", or "us") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and safeguard your information when you visit our website or use our services.

Information We Collect

We collect the following types of information:

• Account information: Email address and name when you create an account
• Organization data: Tenant configuration, settings, and preferences
• Usage data: How you interact with our services to improve functionality
• Device information: Browser type and device information for security purposes

Incident and Weather Data

Vanguard aggregates and displays incident and weather data from publicly available third-party sources:

• PulsePoint: Emergency incident data including call types, responding units, and locations
• National Weather Service (NWS): Weather alerts and warnings

This data is already publicly accessible through these services. Vanguard does not create or originate this incident data; we display information that is already in the public domain.

Address Information and Medical Privacy

To protect individual privacy, incident addresses are handled differently based on incident type:

• Medical incidents: Display generalized location only (street name without specific house numbers)
• Non-medical incidents (fire, rescue, traffic, etc.): Display full address as provided by PulsePoint

This address handling mirrors how data is provided by PulsePoint and does not expose any information beyond what is already publicly available.

Public Status Pages

Organizations using Vanguard may enable a public status page feature that displays:

• Active incident summaries with call types and locations
• Responding unit information
• Weather alerts for the service area
• Historical incident activity

Public status pages can be embedded on third-party websites. All information displayed on public status pages is sourced from publicly available data (PulsePoint, NWS).

Social Media Integration

Organizations may connect their Facebook page to automatically share incident information. When this feature is enabled:

• Incident details are posted to the organization's Facebook page
• Organizations control which incident types are shared via configurable rules
• Posted content becomes subject to Facebook's privacy policy

Facebook Data

When an organization connects a Facebook page, we collect and store the following data from Facebook:

• Facebook Page ID: The unique identifier for the connected page
• Facebook Page Name: The display name of the connected page
• Page Access Token: An encrypted token used to publish posts on behalf of the page
• Facebook User ID: The identifier of the user who authorized the connection

Purpose: This data is used solely to post automated incident updates and weather alerts to the connected Facebook page on behalf of the organization. We do not access, store, or process any other Facebook user data, friend lists, or personal content.

How to disconnect: Organization owners can disconnect their Facebook page at any time from the Social Media Settings page within the Vanguard dashboard. Disconnecting immediately stops all automated posting and removes the stored page access token.

Data retention: Facebook connection data is retained only while the connection is active. When a page is disconnected — whether by the user through settings, via Facebook's app removal flow, or through a data deletion request — all stored Facebook data (page ID, page name, access token, and user ID) is immediately and permanently deleted from our systems.

Data deletion: Vanguard supports Facebook's automated data deletion callback. If you remove Vanguard from your Facebook account or submit a data deletion request through Facebook, we automatically receive and process the request, deleting all associated Facebook data from our systems. You may also contact us at support@vanguardalerts.com to request manual data deletion.

How We Use Your Information

We use collected information to:

• Provide and maintain our services
• Process your subscription and billing
• Send service-related communications
• Improve and optimize our platform
• Ensure security and prevent fraud

Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your information, including encryption in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest (AES-256), secure cloud infrastructure, and regular security assessments. See our Security page for more details.

Third-Party Services

Our platform integrates with the following third-party services, each with their own privacy policies:

• PulsePoint: Emergency incident data provider
• National Weather Service: Weather alert data
• Stripe: Payment processing
• Clerk: Authentication services
• Facebook: Social media integration (optional)

Data Retention

Account information is retained while your account is active. Incident data is retained for historical reporting purposes. You may request deletion of your account and associated data by contacting us.

Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate information
• Request deletion of your account and data
• Export your organization's data

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as our services evolve. We will notify users of any material changes by posting the updated policy on this page with a revised date.

Contact

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at support@vanguardalerts.com.