The short version
- Readybell works without an account. Your household, supplies, medicines and plan stay on your phone.
- We never ask for your exact location. Homes are saved as a postcode area: the outward code in the UK, a ZIP in the US, a código postal in Spain.
- What you put in the documents vault is locked on your phone with a key only your phone holds. We can't open it.
- We don't sell your data, show ads or use advertising trackers.
- You can delete your account and everything it shared from the app, at any time.
Who we are
Readybell is made by Metacortex Technologies S.L. (NIF B01769108), Calle Rodríguez Arias 17, 2º, 48011 Bilbao (Bizkaia), Spain. We decide how your data is used, so we are the "controller" under data protection law. Write to us at hello@readybell.app about anything on this page.
Without an account
On your phone only. The people in your home and their age groups, pets, what you have stored and for how long, medicines, your blackout setup, your plan, drills and checklists, and the vault. None of it is sent to us.
Your postcode area. When you set up your home, the app sends the postcode to our server to find its area and the area's centre. With that centre, our server fetches warnings, forecasts, elevation and satellite images for the map. We don't store these lookups. The forecast and map services are asked by our server, so they never see your phone.
Warning notifications. If you turn them on, we keep your phone's notification token, your postcode area and its centre, the language, when the phone last checked in with us, and which warnings we've already sent it. We keep a scrambled copy of a secret only your phone knows, so no one else can move or remove your notifications. Turn notifications off, or delete the app, and the token is removed the next time Apple or Google tells us it no longer works.
"I'm safe" without an account. The button opens a text message on your phone, written by the app and sent by you through your own phone. It doesn't go through us.
With an account
You only need an account for the family features: the shared status board, invites, daily check-ins and the family plan.
Signing in. With Sign in with Apple we get an email address (Apple may give us a private relay address instead of your real one) and an ID from Apple. With email sign-in we get your email address and send you a 6-digit code. We also keep when you signed in, and the network address you used, to keep accounts safe.
Your household. Its country and language, and for each person who signs in and joins: the name shown on the board, an age group and their role (organiser or member). When you invite someone, we keep the name you give them until they join. The people you add to your home in the app stay on your phone; only people with their own account appear on our server.
The status board. Each "I'm safe" or "I need help", with the time it was posted and the warning it was about, if any. Everyone in your household sees it.
Daily check-ins. The time you check in by, your time zone, how long we wait before telling your household, when you last checked in and whether a reminder or alert has gone out.
Invites. The invite codes you create and, to stop people guessing codes, a record of tries to join.
The family plan. Whether your household has the plan, which plan, whether it's in a free trial and when it ends. Apple handles the payment: we never see your card or bank details. RevenueCat, which checks purchases for us, gets your account ID and Apple's record of the purchase.
Your phone and your household. When you're signed in, we link your phone's notification token to your place in the household, so "I'm safe", "I need help" and missed check-ins reach the right people.
On the website
The home check on this website keeps your answers in your browser, not on our server. Your postcode is sent to our server only to find its area, and we don't store it. A shared score link carries only the score and the country. The website sets no cookies and runs no trackers.
What we don't collect
- Your exact location. The app doesn't use GPS.
- Your contacts, photos or files. The photos you add to the vault stay on your phone, locked.
- Health details. Medicines and other needs stay on your phone.
- Analytics or advertising trackers. If we ever add analytics, we will say so here first, use an EU service and never use it for ads.
Why we use your data (legal bases)
- To provide what you asked for (contract): the family features, the family plan, sign-in.
- With your permission (consent): warning notifications. Turn them off in the app or in your phone's settings at any time.
- To keep Readybell safe (legitimate interest): limits on sign-ups and invite tries, security logs.
- When the law requires it (legal obligation): for example, answering a lawful request from the authorities.
Who helps us run Readybell
These companies process data for us under contracts that limit them to our instructions:
- Supabase: the database and sign-in, hosted in Ireland (EU).
- Vercel: the website and our server, which runs in Dublin (EU). Vercel is a US company.
- Expo (650 Industries): delivers notifications to Apple and Google. A US company.
- Apple: Sign in with Apple, notifications on iPhone, and App Store payments.
- RevenueCat: checks family plan purchases. A US company.
- Our email provider: sends the 6-digit sign-in codes.
Where data goes to the US, it's protected by the EU–US Data Privacy Framework or the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.
How long we keep it
- Your account and household: until you delete your account. Leaving a household removes you from its board straight away.
- Notification tokens: until you turn warnings off or the token stops working.
- Security logs and invite tries: a few days to a few weeks.
- Backups: deleted data disappears from our database backups within 30 days.
To delete your account: Family → Account → Delete account. It removes your sign-in, your place on the board, your "I'm safe" history and your check-ins. If no one else in your household is signed in, the household's shared copy goes too. Your plan stays on your phone until you delete the app.
Your rights
You can ask to see your data, correct it, delete it, take a copy with you, limit how we use it, or object to how we use it. Write to hello@readybell.app. We reply within a month.
If you're not happy with our answer, you can complain to a data protection authority: in Spain the AEPD, in the UK the ICO, or the authority where you live in the EU.
In the US: we don't sell your personal information or share it for targeted advertising. California residents have the rights to know, delete and correct, and we won't treat you differently for using them.
Children
You need to be at least 14 to make an account. Children you add to your home in the app stay on your phone and are never sent to us.
Changes
If we change this page in a way that matters, we'll tell you in the app before it applies. The date at the top shows the last change.