Privacy notice

Version 2026-10-01. Effective October 1, 2026.

Previous version: September 29, 2026 (2026-09-29).

What changed in this version

• Updated: pseudonymous usage data depends on where you are. In the EU, the EEA and the UK it stays off until you turn it on (your consent, which you can withdraw at any time). Elsewhere it is on by default: you are told when you start, and you can turn it off at any time in Settings under Privacy & Terms (our legitimate interest; you have the right to object). It is still not collected yet.
• Updated: the security check asks for one or more nationalities; “prefer not to say” is no longer an option. Answers given before this change stay as they were.
• New: service usage statistics. We count how EWS is used, as daily totals only. No content and no IP address; kept for 13 months.

This version is for information only. You do not need to accept it again, and the app keeps working as before.

Changes in version 2026-09-29

• New: how the one-time security check for invited users works, what it asks, who sees the answers and when they are deleted.
• New: app activity statistics (when the app was last opened and on which days), kept for 90 days.
• New: pseudonymous usage data, how it is protected, how long it is kept and how to turn it off. It is not collected yet.
• Updated: preferences stored with your account (countries, notification level, quiet hours, briefings), region access, access requests and the approval notification.
• Updated: AI services process public source material only, never your account data.
• Updated: how we tell you about changes to this notice, and a 30-day response time for requests.

At a glance

EWS is a private-beta situational-awareness service for approved users. It is available by invitation. This notice explains what information EWS uses, why, who receives it, how long it is kept and what rights you have. EWS does not sell personal data and does not use it for advertising or cross-app tracking. The legal web pages you are reading set no cookies and run no analytics.

Who is responsible

EWS is operated by Amir König (Switzerland), the controller for personal data processed through EWS. Contact: privacy@relaygarden.com. For account or technical help, email support@relaygarden.com.

Age scope

EWS is intended for approved users aged 17 or older and is not directed to children. If you believe a child has given us personal data, email privacy@relaygarden.com and we will delete it.

Information we use

Account and access

Your email address, optional display name, role, device limit, account status, the regions and features you have access to (for example the Middle East, Europe or briefings), and a record of which versions of this notice and the terms you accepted and when.

Security check for invited users

EWS is available by invitation. Before access is granted, invited users complete a short security check once (and again only if its questions change materially). It asks:

• how you intend to use EWS (for example travel, living in the region, family there, work or security, journalism, research or another use you describe);
• your country of residence;
• one or more nationalities you hold;
• optionally, your organisation or role and how you heard about EWS; and
• which regions you would like access to.

We use the answers only to review your access and for ongoing safety checks while you use EWS. A person reviews every request; nationality never decides access on its own, and the answers are never used for automated decisions, usage statistics or anything else. The answers are stored encrypted, only the EWS review team can open them, and every opening is logged. The app does not keep your answers after you send them.

Access requests and approval

If you ask for access to a region or feature (for example Europe or briefings), we store your email address, the feature, the status of the request, how often you asked and when the request was made and handled. If you choose “Notify me when I’m approved”, we register your device for that notification only. When access is granted, the app shows a welcome message and may send one notification.

Preferences

The countries and regions you follow, your notification level, quiet hours, the briefings you subscribed to and your selected region are stored with your account so they apply on all your devices. Some settings stay on your device only (see “Information on your device”).

Sign-in, sessions and devices

When you sign in, we create a session for your device and record the device name and model, platform, app version and build, language and region setting, and when the session was created, last used and ended. We use this to keep your account secure, enforce the device limit and show your active devices.

Notifications

If you allow notifications, we store your device’s notification address, your notification settings and permission status, and delivery results. We use them to send the alerts, briefings and account messages you asked for, at your chosen level, for your countries and outside your quiet hours. Attack alerts are marked as time-sensitive so they can reach you during a Focus mode; you can change this in your device settings. Pausing a region for an hour from a notification is stored on your device only.

App activity statistics

For your account and each signed-in device we store when the app was last opened and last updated in the background, the app version and build, and for each day when the app was first and last used and roughly how often it was opened. We do not record what you view or tap for this purpose. We use it to understand how often EWS is used, to support your devices and to plan capacity. Only the operator can see it.

Service usage statistics

To run and improve EWS, we count how the service is used, as daily totals only: how often each part of EWS is used (such as News, alert details, the map, the situation, briefings, the inbox, settings and reports), for which region, with which app version and build, and whether it worked; how many accounts and devices were active on a day and over the previous 7 and 30 days; and how many notifications were sent and delivered. These totals contain no content, nothing you entered or searched for, no security-check answers and no IP addresses, and they are not linked to your account or device. We keep the daily totals for 13 months and then delete them. Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in operating and improving the service (Art. 6(1)(f)). You can object at any time by emailing privacy@relaygarden.com; because the totals contain nothing that identifies you, we cannot pick out your share of totals already counted.

Pseudonymous usage data

When sharing is on, the app records how it is used so we can fix problems and decide what to improve: which screens and features are opened and for how long, how quickly screens load, which errors or empty screens appear, notification and accessibility settings (such as text size or whether VoiceOver is on), device type, system version, language and region setting. It never includes content such as the text of alerts or briefings, your security-check answers, your email address or your location.

• In the EU, the EEA and the UK, sharing stays off until you turn it on. This is your consent, and you can withdraw it at any time by turning it off.
• Elsewhere, sharing is on by default. You are told when you start using the app, and you can turn it off at any time in Settings under Privacy & Terms. This is based on our legitimate interest in improving EWS, and you have the right to object; turning sharing off is the quickest way to do so.
• To choose the default, EWS uses the country your internet connection comes from (not stored for this) and your device’s region setting. If either points to the EU, the EEA or the UK, or the country cannot be determined, sharing stays off until you turn it on. Your security-check answers are never used for this.
• The data is pseudonymous: it is tied to a random identifier that changes every month. We do not link it to your account, email address, device or notification address.
• With this data we keep the country your internet connection comes from, not your IP address. With a VPN or while roaming, the country may differ from where you are.
• We keep individual events for 90 days and aggregated statistics for up to 25 months. Because the data is not linked to your account, we cannot find or delete it for a particular account.
• Nothing is sent until EWS starts collecting usage data. It is never a condition for using EWS. You can turn it on or off at any time in Settings under Privacy & Terms; when you turn it off, the app stops recording and deletes what it had stored on your device.

Support correspondence

Your contact details, your messages and anything you choose to send us, and the information needed to verify a request or protect an account.

Technical and security information

Limited information generated when the service is used, such as times, network addresses, status and error information, and records of administrative actions, needed to keep EWS secure and reliable and to investigate misuse or outages.

What EWS does not collect

EWS does not ask for or use your device’s location, contacts, health data, payment details, advertising identifiers, microphone, camera or photo library. Places shown on the map belong to reported events, not to you. Region emblems and alternative app icons are part of the app and involve no personal data. If you save an image to Photos, your device handles that; EWS does not read your photo library.

Why we use information

• to review invitations and access requests and to provide and administer access;
• to sign you in, keep sessions secure and enforce device limits;
• to deliver the notifications you chose and remember your preferences;
• to show read status, recent content and your settings across devices;
• to understand how EWS is used and improve it (activity statistics, service usage statistics and usage data);
• to answer support and privacy requests and tell you about changes; and
• to protect the service, investigate misuse and meet legal obligations.

We process personal data in line with the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP). Where the EU or UK GDPR applies, our legal bases are: providing the service you asked for, including the steps before access is granted such as the security check (Art. 6(1)(b)); our legitimate interests in security, reliability and operating and improving EWS, for activity statistics, service usage statistics, technical information and, outside the EU, the EEA and the UK, pseudonymous usage data (Art. 6(1)(f)); legal obligations (Art. 6(1)(c)); and your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) for pseudonymous usage data in the EU, the EEA and the UK, where it stays off until you turn it on, and where we otherwise ask for it, for example for notifications on your device. You can withdraw your consent at any time by turning the setting off; this does not affect processing before that. Where we rely on legitimate interests, you can object at any time.

Recipients

Your information is available to:

• the EWS operator and the people who review access, administer, secure or support the service;
• service providers for hosting, network delivery and security, email and app operation, limited to what they need for their service;
• app-platform and notification delivery providers, to deliver the notifications you asked for; and
• authorities or other parties where the law requires it or it is needed to protect rights, safety or the service.

EWS uses AI services to process public source material. These services never receive your account data, preferences, security-check answers or usage data.

Transfers abroad

Some providers may process information outside Switzerland or your country, in particular in the European Union and the United States. Where a country does not offer adequate data protection as recognised by Switzerland, we rely on safeguards such as the standard contractual clauses recognised by the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner or the provider’s certification under the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. You can ask us for details at privacy@relaygarden.com.

Retention

• Account and access information: while access is being considered or provided. When access ends, the account is deactivated and its sign-in and acceptance records are kept as long as needed to prevent misuse and prove earlier acceptances.
• Security-check answers: for as long as your account exists, including while your request is being reviewed. They are deleted when your account is deleted or when you ask us to delete them. If your request is not approved, we keep them for 12 months (to handle a repeat request) and then delete them.
• Access requests: until your access is removed.
• App activity statistics: 90 days, and deleted at once when your access is removed.
• Service usage statistics: daily totals for 13 months.
• Pseudonymous usage data: individual events 90 days, aggregated statistics up to 25 months; the identifier changes every month.
• Sessions: a session ends when you sign out or after 30 days without use; one-time sign-in codes expire within minutes.
• Notification registrations: while notifications are on; turning them off or signing out deactivates the registration.
• Support correspondence: as long as needed to answer and document the request.
• Technical and security information: as long as needed to investigate incidents, prevent misuse and keep EWS reliable.

Data may be kept longer where the law requires it or where needed to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Information on your device

The app may store a local session, preferences, recent content, pending usage data and limited app state on your device so it can remember your choices and show information quickly. Pausing a region, quiet delivery and your app icon choice stay on your device. Signing out, clearing downloaded data in Settings or deleting the app removes this information; device backups follow your device settings.

Automated tools and tracking

Alerts, levels, status labels (such as “Officially denied” or “Reported as false”), map locations, scores, outlooks and briefings are produced with automated tools and can be delayed, incomplete or wrong. These tools work on public source material. EWS does not use automated decisions about you: access is always decided by a person.

EWS does not track you across apps or websites, does not sell personal data and does not share it for advertising.

Security

EWS uses encrypted connections, encryption of security-check answers, access controls, logging of access to sensitive data and other technical and organisational measures appropriate to the service. No system is perfectly secure. If you think your account or data has been compromised, email support@relaygarden.com promptly.

Your requests and rights

Under the Swiss FADP you can ask what personal data we process about you, receive a copy, and ask for it to be corrected or deleted, or for processing to stop. Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, you also have the rights to restriction, objection, data portability and withdrawal of consent. You can complain to the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) or, where the GDPR applies, to the supervisory authority in your country.

Email your request to privacy@relaygarden.com. We answer within 30 days. We may ask for information needed to confirm your identity and protect your account.

Changes to this notice

Each version of this notice has a version number, an effective date and a short summary of what changed. The app shows the summary and tells you whether a change is for information only, needs your acceptance by a given date (the app keeps working until then), or needs your acceptance before you continue. We may also announce a change in the app or with a notification.

Version history

• 2026-10-01 (effective October 1, 2026): this version. For information only; no new acceptance needed.
• 2026-09-29 (effective September 29, 2026).
• 2026-07-10 (effective July 10, 2026).