Privacy Policy

Heed Communications and Technology Ltd (referred to as Heed, we, us, or our) respects your right to privacy. We are committed to the fair and transparent processing of your personal data in line with the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 (NDPA) and all applicable laws. This policy explains what we collect, how we use it, who can see it, and your rights in relation to it.

1. Who We Are

Heed Communications and Technology Ltd is the Data Controller responsible for your personal data. We operate the Heed platform at heed.com.ng, a citizen-powered urban safety intelligence platform for Nigerian cities.

Data Protection Contact: info@heed.com.ng

2. What We Collect

We only collect personal data that is adequate, relevant, and limited to what is necessary for the purposes described in this policy.

Account data

• Email address and optionally phone number for sign-in and one-time passwords.
• Display name and optionally a profile photo.
• Password hash. Never the password itself.
• Session metadata: device type, last IP address, and login timestamp.

Incident report data

• Category, sub-category, and free-text description up to 1,000 characters.
• GPS coordinates and reverse-geocoded address.
• Optional photos you choose to attach.

Emergency SOS data

• Names and phone numbers of trusted contacts you save.
• Live location pings during an active SOS alert and for 10 minutes after the alert ends.
• Delivery receipts for each SMS or email sent on your behalf.

3. How We Use Your Data

Account data is used for authentication, security, and abuse prevention. Incident reports power the public safety map and area risk profiles. SOS data is relayed to your trusted contacts and stored for 30 days for audit purposes, then permanently deleted.

4. Institutional Partners and B2B Data

To sustain the platform, Heed works with select institutional partners including logistics operators, insurance companies, and government agencies. Where we do so, we share only aggregated trend data derived from patterns across the platform as a whole. No report is ever linked back to you individually, and your personal account information is never shared.

5. Advertising

The free tier of Heed is supported by advertising. Ads you see are based on general context such as your city or the area of the map you are viewing. We do not build individual advertising profiles and we do not pass your personal data to advertisers.

6. User-Generated Content and Business Mentions

Heed is a user-generated content platform. Reports submitted by users are the words of those users, not statements by Heed. Heed does not author, endorse, or verify the specific factual accuracy of individual reports beyond the confidence scoring and moderation process described in our Terms of Use.

Users are required under our Terms of Use not to name private individuals or specific businesses by name in reports. Where a user includes a reference to a business or organisation in a free-text description, Heed is acting as a passive conduit and is not the publisher of that content under applicable Nigerian law.

If you represent a business and believe a report on the Heed platform is false or defamatory, you may submit a review request to info@heed.com.ng. We will acknowledge your request within 5 business days and complete our review within 14 business days. Reports under active review are flagged on the map until a decision is made.

7. Who Sees What

• Incident reports appear on the public map at approximately 100-metre precision. Your exact GPS coordinates are stored server-side only and are never displayed publicly.
• Anonymous reports remove the link to your account. Your identity is not visible on the public map under any circumstances.
• SOS alerts are sent only to the contacts you saved. Nobody else receives them.
• Your account details are never shown publicly on any report. Moderators may access this information solely to investigate abuse.
• Heed does not share your personal data with third parties except as required by Nigerian law or as described in this policy.

8. How Long We Keep Your Data

• Incident reports: kept indefinitely as the platform's long-term safety record.
• Account data: until you delete your account.
• SOS alert logs and recipient numbers: 30 days, then permanently deleted.
• OTP codes: discarded after use or 10 minutes, whichever is first.

9. Your Rights Under the NDPA 2023

• Access: email info@heed.com.ng and we will send a structured export of your data within 14 days.
• Correction: update your name, email, and phone number from your account settings. For other corrections, write to us.
• Deletion: go to Settings, then Account and Security, then Delete Account. Your reports are anonymised but the data remains on the map since other users have relied on it.
• Portability: bundled with the access export described above.
• Object: you can turn off any notification channel from your account settings at any time.

10. Security

• All connections are HTTPS-only with HSTS enforced.
• Passwords are hashed with bcrypt. The password itself is never stored.
• OTP codes are rate-limited and hashed in the database.
• Database traffic is TLS-pinned.

11. Children

Heed is intended for users aged 16 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone younger. If you believe a child under 16 has created an account, contact us at info@heed.com.ng and we will delete the account promptly.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated via email and flagged on the homepage.

13. Contact

Data Protection Contact: info@heed.com.ng
Heed Communications and Technology Ltd, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria.