Privacy Policy

Last Updated: October 2026

Overview

SafeHOWs is committed to protecting the privacy of houses of worship and their communities. This policy explains how we handle data in our threat intelligence screening service.

What Data We Process

  • Threat Intelligence Data: Information from government agencies, law enforcement, international organizations, and trusted industry threat-sharing communities about known threats. This includes publicly available data from official sources as well as indicators shared through collaborative security platforms.
  • Screening Requests: When a house of worship submits a name for screening, we check it against our threat intelligence database. Unless the request is made in no-store mode (see below), we record a visitor record for that person on behalf of the requesting organization — name, and any contact details supplied, together with the event and the date. This is what allows a returning, previously-cleared guest to be recognized on their next visit instead of being re-screened from scratch.

Threat Indicator Data Handling

SafeHOWs receives threat indicators — such as names, aliases, and identifying information associated with known or suspected threats — from multiple sources including government watchlists, international organizations, and industry threat-sharing platforms. We handle this data as follows:

  • Purpose limitation: Threat indicators are used exclusively to support security screening for houses of worship. They are never used for marketing, advertising, profiling unrelated to security, or any commercial purpose beyond our stated mission.
  • Access controls: Threat indicator data is accessible only to authorized systems and personnel required to operate the screening service. Access is governed by role-based permissions and logged for audit purposes.
  • No unauthorized redistribution: We do not redistribute, resell, sublicense, or publicly disclose raw threat indicator data received from partner platforms or sharing communities. Screening results provided to our customers contain only match/no-match determinations and relevant context, not bulk indicator data.
  • Retention and currency: Every threat record carries the date it was last updated, which is surfaced in the application, so the currency of a record is visible rather than assumed. Records identified as false positives, or whose removal is requested by the originating source, are deleted on review. We do not currently perform automated de-listing when an upstream source silently drops a record; closing that gap is on our roadmap.
  • Compliance with sharing agreements: Where threat indicator data is received under specific sharing agreements, data use terms, or visibility restrictions set by the originating party, we honor those restrictions in full. This includes respecting any limitations on further sharing, required handling classifications, or usage constraints.
  • Aggregation and anonymization: Any statistics, reports, or research derived from threat indicator data are presented only in aggregate or anonymized form that cannot be used to reconstruct the original indicators or identify their source.

Visitor Records and Retention

We want to be precise about this, because it is the part people most often assume works the other way round.

  • Screening a person creates a record. A live screening stores that person's name, any email or phone number supplied, the event, the location, and a running visit history, scoped to the organization that screened them. Repeat visits increment a visit count on that same record.
  • No-store screening is available. Screening can be run in a mode that returns the identical verdict while writing nothing at all. Organizations screening a membership roster or a guest list they do not intend to retain should use it.
  • Visitor personal data expires. Personal details on visitor records are held for a defined retention window — 90 days by default — after which an automated daily job strips the identifying fields. The retention window is configurable per deployment.
  • Visitor records are not threat intelligence. Screening someone does not add them to any watchlist, and visitor records are never redistributed, shared between organizations, or published.

What We Do NOT Do

  • We do not sell or share data with third parties for marketing
  • We do not use threat indicator data for purposes other than security screening
  • We do not track individuals outside the organization that screened them — visitor records are visible only to that organization
  • We do not build behavioral or location profiles, and we do not combine visitor records across customers

Mobile Numbers and Text Message Alerts

Security operators who enroll in SafeHOWs security alert text messages give us their mobile number with their signed consent. We use it only to send those alerts and the messages needed to run the program (enrollment confirmation, HELP and STOP replies).

  • We do not sell, rent, or share mobile numbers or text-messaging consent with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes.
  • Mobile numbers are shared only with the service providers that deliver the messages (our messaging provider and the mobile carriers), and only to deliver them.
  • Reply STOP to any alert to opt out; we stop sending immediately. Reply HELP for help, or email contact@nextaspects.net.
  • An operator's number is removed when they opt out or when their organization ends their enrollment.

Data Security

All data is hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) with:

  • Encryption at rest with AWS Key Management Service (AES-256) and in transit (TLS 1.2 or higher)
  • Federated single sign-on and role-based access controls
  • Audit logging of administrative and configuration activity across the platform, retained in an immutable trail
  • Application-level logging of screening and record access
  • Continuous threat detection and configuration monitoring on the underlying infrastructure
  • Logical separation between organizations: records created by one organization are not visible to another

Data Breach Notification

In the unlikely event of a data breach involving threat indicator data, we will notify affected data-sharing partners and relevant authorities in accordance with applicable laws and our contractual obligations, without undue delay.

Contact

For privacy-related questions, contact us at contact@nextaspects.net.