Privacy Policy

Guard U is an on-demand platform that connects customers with vetted, licensed private security companies and officers for guarding, distance escort and SOS response.

The platform is operated by Guard U (Pty) Ltd, a company incorporated in the Republic of South Africa under company registration number 2026/649320/07. Our contact details are listed on the Support page; a dedicated privacy contact email will be published once it is active.

Based on Guard U's actual data flows, we collect and process the following categories of personal information:

• Account information: your name, email address, mobile number, date of birth and account identifiers.
• Location (customers): precise location when you request a service or activate SOS, shared with the responding company and assigned officer during the active service.
• Live location (officers): during an active assignment your live position is shared with your control room and, where relevant, the customer, to enable dispatch, tracking and backup.
• Saved addresses, emergency contacts and favourite companies.
• Booking and service history: service type, location, times, status and assigned officers.
• SOS information and media: the emergency type, your location, notes, and any photos, video or audio you upload as evidence, shared with the responding company and authorised officers.
• Payments and wallet: transaction records, wallet balance and ledger entries. Card data is handled by our payment provider; Guard U does not store full card numbers.
• Communications: in-app chat messages between you, assigned officers and the responding company.
• Ratings and reviews you submit or receive.
• Company and officer information: PSIRA registration, grade, armed status, certifications and operational data, for vetted security companies and officers.
• Verification documents: documents you upload during onboarding — for example company CIPC registration documents, PSIRA certificates and officer identification — used to verify security companies and officers. These are stored privately and are not public.
• Device and session information: device name, approximate location and last-active time for login history and security monitoring.

We process your personal information to provide and operate the service: matching you with security providers, dispatching and tracking officers, processing payments and refunds, handling incidents and SOS requests, safety and fraud prevention, and meeting our legal obligations.

We rely on the following lawful grounds under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA), among others: to perform our contract with you (bookings, dispatch, SOS and payments); our legitimate interests in operating a safe and secure marketplace (safety monitoring and fraud prevention); compliance with legal obligations (record-keeping and audit); and your consent where you give it (for example, when you upload evidence media). This summary is a draft and has not been certified as POPIA-compliant by the Information Regulator or any other authority.

Personal information is processed in the Republic of South Africa. Where a third-party provider described in section 4 processes data outside South Africa, that processing is governed by the provider's own terms and the safeguards described there.

We share your personal information only as needed to operate the service:

• Assigned security companies and officers receive the information needed to perform the service (your location, service details, SOS media, and your name and contact details where necessary).
• Our payment provider (Paystack) processes card and wallet top-up payments. Stripe is retained as a secondary payment path. Card numbers are handled by the provider and are not stored by Guard U.
• Our mapping provider (Google) receives origin and destination coordinates for routing, ETA and address lookup.
• Officers do not receive platform commission, settlement or other customers' financial details.

We do not sell your personal information. We share information with authorities where required by law.

Personal information that is no longer required is deleted or anonymised. Booking, payment, refund, SOS, incident, audit-log, wallet and chat records are retained for the periods required by applicable South African law (including financial, tax and consumer-protection law) and our operational retention policy, and are then hard-deleted.

The exact retention period for each record category is being finalised as part of Guard U's retention policy and legal review. Until those periods are confirmed, no fixed period is stated on this page.

Under POPIA you may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information, and you may object to certain processing or withdraw consent where you have given it. You can start account deletion from in-app Settings → Account Management → Delete Account, or see the Account Deletion page. For other requests, use the in-app Help Centre.

Access to records is enforced by row-level security so each user can see only the records they are entitled to. Payment amounts are computed and confirmed server-side. Payment and webhook secrets remain server-side and are not exposed to the app. Administrator access is not publicly available. API keys for mapping and routing are used server-side where applicable.

You must be at least 18 years old to hold a Guard U account, whether as a customer, a security company representative or a security officer. We verify your age at registration using the date of birth you provide. Guard U does not currently perform third-party identity or age verification.

Children under 18 may receive security services only through an authorised adult account holder who holds a verified Guard U account. The adult account holder is responsible for the booking and for any minors covered by the service. Guard U does not knowingly collect personal information directly from minors.

The Guard U app stores a session token and your app preferences in your device's local storage so you stay signed in and your settings persist. We do not use third-party advertising cookies.

We will update this page when our practices change. Where a change is material we will highlight it on the Support page. Continuing to use Guard U after a change takes effect means you accept the updated policy.

For privacy questions or to exercise your rights, use the in-app Help Centre (sign in and submit a support ticket you can track). A dedicated privacy contact email will be published on the Support page once it is active.