OpenAlarm sends a message to an emergency contact when an account holder's own alarm system is triggered. Those contacts are real people - usually family, friends, or neighbours - and they are not the person who signed up. This policy explains how their consent is obtained before we ever message them, how that consent is recorded, and how they can stop the messages at any time.

OpenAlarm is a messenger, not a monitoring service. We relay an alarm event to the people an account holder has chosen. We do not watch anyone's home, dispatch emergency responders, or provide professional or licensed alarm monitoring.

We send no marketing or promotional messages of any kind, on any channel, ever. Every message described on this page is transactional.

Who Receives Messages

Two kinds of people receive messages from OpenAlarm.

Account holders receive transactional messages about their own account - sign-in and verification codes, billing notices, and service notifications. Consent is given when they create the account.

Emergency contacts are people an account holder has added so they can be alerted when that account holder's alarm is triggered. They did not sign up themselves, so we require the account holder to obtain their consent first, in the manner described below. The rest of this page is about them.

Channels We Use

Consent covers contacting a person on the channels they have agreed to. A single consent conversation covers all of them, so an emergency contact is asked once rather than each time we add a capability.

• Text message (SMS). Available now. The primary way an emergency contact is alerted.
• Voice call. Planned, on paid plans. An automated call that states the same information as the text.
• Email. Planned. An alternative or additional channel where an emergency contact has provided an email address.
• Push notification. Planned, only for people who have installed an OpenAlarm app and signed in.

Consent is given once and covers the channels above, so a contact is asked a single time rather than again for each capability. Withdrawal is per channel: a contact who stops text messages is not thereby subscribed to calls, and stopping one channel never silently moves them to another.

How Consent Is Obtained

Consent is verbal, obtained directly by the account holder from the person they want to add, before that person is added to the account.

This reflects how the relationship actually works: an account holder asks someone they know - a partner, a parent, a neighbour - whether they are willing to be contacted if the alarm goes off. There is no list purchase, no data broker, no scraped number, and no way for anyone to be added other than by a person who knows them entering their number by hand.

The account holder must then record that consent in the OpenAlarm app before the contact can be saved. The app requires an explicit attestation:

I confirm this person agreed to be contacted by OpenAlarm on my behalf when my alarm is triggered.

The contact cannot be created without it. If the person did not agree, the account holder cannot add them.

The Consent Script

Account holders are asked to cover five things when requesting consent: who is sending, what the messages are, when they arrive, that standard rates apply, and how to stop. The suggested wording is:

"I use a service called OpenAlarm. If my alarm goes off, it texts the people I've listed so someone knows right away - and on some plans it can call as well. Can I add you as one of my emergency contacts? You'd only hear from it if my alarm actually goes off, standard message and data rates apply, and you can reply STOP any time to stop the messages for good."

The account holder proceeds only if the person says yes. If the person declines, hesitates, or wants to think about it, they are not added.

What the Conversation Sounds Like

A representative exchange, showing how the person is informed and how consent is given:

Account holder: "Hey Mom, quick thing. I've set up my home alarm so it texts a few people if it ever goes off. It's a service called OpenAlarm. Can I add you as one of my emergency contacts?"

Contact: "What would I actually get?"

Account holder: "Just a text, and only if the alarm actually goes off. It says it's from OpenAlarm, that it's my alarm, and there's a link to tap so I know you saw it. Standard message and data rates apply. If you ever want out, reply STOP and it stops for good."

Contact: "Yeah, that's fine."

Account holder: "Great. You'll get one text right away confirming it, then nothing unless something actually happens."

If the answer had been "no" or "not right now", the conversation ends there and the person is not added.

How Consent Is Recorded and Stored

Verbal consent is recorded in two independent ways, so it is documented rather than merely asserted.

The account holder's attestation. When the contact is saved, OpenAlarm stores the attestation together with a timestamp, the identity of the account holder who made it, and the exact phone number and email address it applies to. The attestation is tied to those specific details: if a phone number or email address is later changed or added, the previous consent does not carry over and the account holder is required to attest again before the contact can be saved.

The confirmation message. A confirmation is sent to the contact immediately, which creates a dated delivery record and, more importantly, puts the person in control from the first moment. If an account holder ever overstated someone's agreement, that person finds out within seconds and can stop it - not months later during an emergency.

Where a contact replies to confirm, that reply is stored as an additional, contact-initiated record of consent.

These records are retained for as long as the contact remains on the account, and afterwards as described in our Privacy Policy.

Confirmation of Enrolment

Every emergency contact receives one confirmation message as soon as they are added. It identifies OpenAlarm, names the account holder who added them, explains what will arrive and when, and gives them immediate control:

OpenAlarm: {name} added you as an emergency contact. If their alarm fires you'll get a text here. Reply YES to confirm, HELP for help, STOP to opt out. Msg&data rates may apply. Frequency varies. openalarm.io/terms/

Replying YES records a contact-initiated confirmation. A contact who does not reply remains reachable, because an emergency contact who silently fails to receive an alert defeats the purpose of the service. Replying STOP removes them immediately.

What We Send, and How Often

After the confirmation, an emergency contact hears from OpenAlarm only when that account holder's own alarm system is triggered. Message frequency varies with events and most contacts receive no messages at all in a typical month. Messages are transactional and one-to-one.

An alarm alert identifies the service, the account holder, which alarm was triggered and when, and provides a link to confirm receipt:

OpenAlarm: {name}'s alarm {alarm} triggered {time}. Confirm you got this: {link} Reply STOP to opt out

If nobody confirms, OpenAlarm may contact further people on the account holder's list in sequence, as configured by the account holder. Confirming receipt stops that sequence.

Standard message and data rates may apply. OpenAlarm does not charge emergency contacts anything; any charges come from their own mobile carrier under their own plan.

How to Stop Messages

An emergency contact can withdraw consent at any time, including after having given it verbally. No reason is required and nothing needs to be explained to the account holder.

• Reply STOP to any text message from OpenAlarm. This takes effect immediately and stops all text messages to that number.
• Reply HELP to any text message for help and support contact details.
• Reply START to resume, if messages were previously stopped and the contact later wants them back.
• Email contact@openalarm.io from any address, or ask the account holder to remove you, and we will act on it.

An opt-out cannot be reversed by the account holder. Once a person replies STOP, no account holder can re-add that number, re-trigger a consent request, or otherwise resume messages to it. Only the contact themselves can restart them by replying START. This is deliberate: consent belongs to the person receiving the messages, not to the person who wanted them sent.

Opting out of one channel does not opt a person into another, and an account holder is shown that a contact has opted out, so they can arrange another way to reach that person rather than assuming a silent chain still works.

If You Are an Account Holder

Adding someone as an emergency contact means asserting that you asked them and they agreed. That assertion is yours, and our Terms of Service require it.

• Ask the person first, in the terms set out above, and add them only if they agree.
• Add only people you personally know. Never add a number from a list, a directory, or a workplace roster.
• Keep your contacts current. Remove anyone who no longer wants to be reached, and re-confirm a number when it changes.
• Respect an opt-out. If someone stops messages, that decision is theirs and final unless they reverse it themselves.

Questions

If you received a message from OpenAlarm and are not sure why, or you want to be removed and would rather not reply to the message, contact us at contact@openalarm.io and we will remove you or put you in touch with the account holder, whichever you prefer.

OpenAlarm is a trade name of 2411753 Alberta, Inc., a corporation existing under the laws of Alberta, Canada.

See also our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.