Saculsan VenturesOn this page
- Who we are
- What we collect
- Why we collect it
- Children and minors
- Who else receives your data
- Selling, advertising, and what that promise means
- Where your data is stored
- How long we keep it
- How we protect it
- Your rights under the Data Privacy Act
- Safety features are best-effort
- Changes to this policy
- How to reach us
1. Who we are
FamilyBeacon is built and operated by Saculsan Ventures OPC, a One Person Corporation based in Muntinlupa City, Philippines, founded and owned by Alwin Saculsan. In the language of Republic Act No. 10173 (the Data Privacy Act of 2012), Saculsan Ventures OPC is the Personal Information Controller for FamilyBeacon.
To be confirmed: the Data Protection Officer for Saculsan Ventures OPC, and our registration with the National Privacy Commission, will be named here before public launch.
2. What we collect
FamilyBeacon is a family location-sharing app. Location is the point of the product, so we are direct about it.
| Category | What it is | When we collect it |
|---|---|---|
| Live location | Your device’s coordinates, shown as a pin to other members of your Circle, with a “last confirmed” timestamp | While location sharing is on |
| Location history | A record of past location points, viewable for a window that depends on your tier | While location sharing is on |
| Places | Addresses you type in to create a place such as Home, School, or Work, and the alert rules you set for them | When you create or edit a place |
| Movement state | Whether a device is moving or stationary, used to decide how often to check location and save battery | Continuously while sharing is on |
| Driving data | Trip records including distance, drive count and top speed | When movement consistent with driving is detected |
| Battery level and last-seen time | Used for low-battery and device-offline alerts | Periodically while the app is installed |
| Phone number | Used to create your account by one-time SMS code, to send SMS alerts if push notifications fail, and as the destination for referral payouts | At sign-up, and when you request a payout |
| Profile photo | Only if you choose to add one | Optional |
| Circle and role data | Who is in your Circle, who owns it, who is a Co-Owner | As your Circle is set up |
| Consent records | A timestamped record that a parent or guardian consented to a child joining a Circle | When a child is added |
| Referral records | Who referred whom, commissions earned, and payout status | If you take part in the referral programme |
| Safety alert state | That an SOS, duress, or “I’m Safe” signal was sent, and the location attached to it | When you trigger one |
| Crash and error reports | Technical diagnostics when the app misbehaves | Automatically |
| Usage analytics | Which screens and features get used, so we know what to improve | Automatically |
What we do not collect
- No audio or video. The duress signal sends location and alert state only. FamilyBeacon does not record sound or capture images from your device at any time.
- No contacts or address book. We do not read your contacts.
- No message content. We do not read your SMS, chats, or email.
- No payment card details. Subscriptions are billed by Apple and Google, not by us. We never see your card or bank details.
3. Why we collect it
- To run the service you asked for — showing family members on a map, sending place-arrival and departure alerts, delivering SOS and safety notifications.
- To keep the app working — diagnosing crashes, preventing abuse, and keeping one family’s data out of another family’s account.
- To handle payments and payouts — validating subscriptions and paying referral commissions.
- To comply with the law — keeping consent records where the Data Privacy Act requires them.
Our legal bases under RA 10173 are your consent, the performance of our contract with you, and our legitimate interests in operating and securing the service. For a child’s data, we rely on the consent of a parent or legal guardian.
4. Children and minors
FamilyBeacon is a family-safety app where a parent or guardian enrols a child. It is not a general-audience app for children, and children do not sign themselves up.
When a child is added to a Circle:
- The parent or guardian attests that they are the child’s parent or legal guardian.
- The child sees an age-appropriate, plain-language notice on their own device explaining that their location will be shared with their family — shown before any location data is collected.
- A timestamped consent record is stored against the child’s profile.
We also want to be straightforward about what is still being decided. To be confirmed with counsel and against National Privacy Commission guidance: whether teenagers aged 13–17 receive a separate acknowledgement step; whether age bands (roughly 0–5, 6–12, 13–17) are handled differently; whether a stronger form of parental verification than an in-app attestation is required; whether a cool-off period applies between consent and activation; the specific retention period for a minor’s location history; and whether a parent’s original consent extends automatically to a Co-Owner added later, particularly where parents disagree.
A parent or guardian may withdraw consent at any time by removing the child from the Circle, which stops collection of that child’s location.
5. Who else receives your data
We use service providers to make FamilyBeacon work. They may only process data to provide their service to us. Every one of them is named here.
| Provider | What it does | What it receives |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase (and Rork Cloud, which hosts the same stack during development) | Our database, sign-in, storage and server functions | Everything described in section 2 |
| Google Maps Platform | Renders the map on Android; turns addresses you type into coordinates; estimates travel time between places | Location coordinates and the addresses you enter |
| Apple MapKit | Renders the map on iPhone | Location coordinates |
| Expo Push (using Apple APNs and Firebase Cloud Messaging) | Delivers push notifications | Device push token and notification contents |
| Semaphore | Sends SMS — sign-up codes, and safety alerts when push delivery fails | Your phone number and the message text |
| Apple and Google Play | Subscription billing | Purchase and receipt data (they hold your payment details, we do not) |
| Xendit | Pays out referral commissions to GCash or Maya | Your GCash/Maya phone number and the payout amount |
| Sentry | Crash and error monitoring | Technical diagnostic data |
| Firebase Analytics | Usage analytics | App usage events |
We also disclose personal data where we are legally required to — for example in response to a lawful order from a Philippine court or government authority — and where it is necessary to protect someone’s life or safety.
6. Selling, advertising, and what that promise means
We do not sell your personal data, and FamilyBeacon will never show advertisements — on any tier, including the free one. That is a commitment, not a current-pricing decision. FamilyBeacon is funded by subscriptions, which is precisely why paid tiers exist.
We want to be careful not to overclaim, because “we never share anything” would not be true of any app that renders a map. As section 5 sets out, some providers necessarily receive data to make features work — most significantly, Google receives location coordinates and typed addresses in order to draw the map on Android devices. Processing data to operate a feature is a different thing from selling it, and we disclose both rather than hiding the first behind the second.
7. Where your data is stored
FamilyBeacon’s database is hosted by Supabase in a specific cloud region. To be confirmed: the exact region will be named here before launch. Our current understanding is that the available regions do not include the Philippines, which means your data is likely to be stored outside the country.
Where that is the case, we will comply with RA 10173’s requirements on cross-border transfers, including putting appropriate contractual safeguards in place with our processors, and this section will state the destination country plainly before any real family’s data is stored.
8. How long we keep it
We keep personal data only as long as we need it, and no longer.
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Live location pins | Overwritten continuously; only the most recent position is shown |
| Location history | Retained for the window your tier provides and deleted afterwards. To be confirmed: the exact period, particularly for minors |
| Driving reports | Retained for the window your tier provides |
| Consent records | Kept for as long as the child is in a Circle, and for a period afterwards as proof that consent was properly obtained |
| Referral and payout records | Kept as long as required for tax and accounting purposes |
| Crash and analytics data | Kept per our providers’ standard retention |
| Backups | Rolling backups are retained for a short period and then cycled out |
If you delete your account, we delete your personal data, except records we are required to keep by law (such as transaction records for tax purposes) and anything already cycled into a backup, which is removed as those backups expire.
9. How we protect it
- Strict data separation between families. Every table is protected by database-level row security so that a query can only ever return rows belonging to a Circle you are actually a member of. This is enforced by the database itself, not just by the app, and we test it with separate real accounts to confirm no Circle can see another Circle’s data.
- Server-side secrets. Keys for our payment, SMS and mapping providers are held on the server and are never embedded in the app you download.
- Restricted API keys. Our mapping keys are locked to the specific services they need.
- Regular backups so your data survives a failure.
- Sign-in by one-time SMS code, so there is no reusable password to steal.
No system is perfectly secure, and we will not pretend otherwise. If a breach occurs that puts your rights at risk, we will notify you and the National Privacy Commission as RA 10173 requires.
10. Your rights under the Data Privacy Act
Under RA 10173 you have the right to be informed, to access your data, to correct it, to object to processing, to have it erased or blocked, to data portability, to damages for a violation, and to lodge a complaint with the National Privacy Commission.
To exercise any of these, email [email protected]. We will respond within a reasonable period. A parent or guardian may exercise these rights on behalf of their minor child.
You can also stop most collection directly in the app by turning off location sharing, or by deleting your account.
11. Safety features are best-effort
This belongs in a privacy policy because it shapes what you should rely on us for. FamilyBeacon’s emergency features, including SOS and crash detection, are provided on a best-effort basis and are not a replacement for calling emergency services directly. In an emergency, always call 911 or your local emergency number. Alerts may fail to send, arrive late, or not activate at all due to network conditions, device settings, location accuracy, or other factors outside our control. See our Terms of Service for the full statement.
12. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy in a way that materially affects you, we will tell you in the app and update the “last updated” date above. We will not quietly broaden what we collect.
13. How to reach us
Saculsan Ventures OPC
Muntinlupa City, Philippines
[email protected]
You also have the right to complain to the National Privacy Commission of the Philippines if you believe your rights under RA 10173 have been violated.