Protecting you means 
protecting your data

Our infrastructure was designed to securely store your data. In addition to being regularly tested and verified, we store as little personal data as needed for the shortest duration possible.

Citizen limits access to your data to a small subset of the Citizen engineering team. We have specific systems to control data access, and all access is logged and regularly audited. We perform a privacy review for all new features.

Citizen’s mission is to make your world a safer place. The same principle applies to your data. Our service depends on you sharing your location with us. By entrusting us with this information, we will not share, sell or otherwise use your data other than in the service of our mission.

Citizen uses your location data to route real-time safety alerts to you, like a fire in your building, an abducted child or a dangerous situation near you.

We do not sell your data to third-party service providers or government agencies. We are an independent private company and do not serve ads.

We share videos posted publicly on the Citizen platform to news outlets in select circumstances. We do not sell these videos, and our users retain the rights to redistribute videos they create.

Privacy at Citizen

Citizen’s mission is to keep you safe and informed.

Protecting your privacy is fundamental to the way sp0n, Inc., the company that does business as Citizen and operates the Citizen mobile app and www.citizen.com, including its subsidiaries and affiliated entities under common ownership and control, (“sp0n” or “Citizen”, “Company”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) conduct business and provide our services. This Privacy Policy describes our collection, use and disclosure of the information we may collect from you whenever you visit any of our digital properties, website(s) (hereinafter a “Site” and collectively the “Sites”), or otherwise interact with us or access any of our application, products, services, and content (hereinafter the “Platform”). The Sites and the Platform are together referred to in this Privacy Policy as the “Services”. 

This Privacy Policy applies to all visitors and customers accessing the Services. If you become an inactive customer, or if we close or suspend your account, we will continue to adhere to the Privacy Policy in place when we collect your personal information as long as we retain it in our databases. We may delete any or all of your information at any time without notice to you or for any reason or no reason unless we are otherwise required by law or retain it. You may have other privacy protections under state laws and we encourage you to refer to the Jurisdiction Specific Privacy Rights Statement to review these. Unless otherwise specifically noted, this Policy does not apply to your use of third-party sites linked to in the Services. 

Updates and Supplemental Notices to this Privacy Policy

We may provide additional or supplemental privacy notices for specific products or services that we offer at the time of collection. Unless otherwise noted, those supplemental notices should be read together with this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy may change from time to time. The “Effective Date” legend at the top of this page indicates when this Privacy Policy was last revised. Any changes will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy and your continued access to the Services is deemed to be your acceptance of those changes, so we encourage you to check back periodically for updates.

Privacy Policy

Information for Law Enforcement Authorities

sp0n, Inc (d/b/a Citizen) is a mobile phone application available through the Apple App Store and Google Play. The application provides a new way to monitor incidents that occur in real time. Users receive information from the app about an incident, then can take a video using their camera phone or send chat messages in real time. The purpose of this guide is to familiarize law enforcement agencies with the categories of information available from Citizen and the specific legal process necessary to compel that information.

When Citizen receives a legal request from a law enforcement agency, another government agency, a lawyer representing a criminal defendant, or a civil litigant, the first step is for our team to review the request to determine if it meets relevant legal requirements, including both statutory requirements and the Constitutional interests of Citizen and its users, specifically including freedom of speech, expression, assembly, and association as well as freedom of the press. If the request meets all relevant legal requirements, our team then checks that the information is still available and has not already been deleted, either as part of our regular data-retention practices or by the user. As part of its review for legal sufficiency, Citizen may ask the requester for additional information or context before making any responsive disclosure or may reject the request in its entirety due to legal insufficiency or defects [e.g. the request is overly broad, the request is technically deficient due to failure to provide required information, the request seeks content with insufficient legal process, or the request appears to impermissibly burden the Constitutional rights of Citizen or its users (this includes Charter rights for Canadian users)]. For valid and properly scoped requests to which Citizen does not object, our team will assemble the required records and produce them to the requester. Once the records have been produced, the case is considered completed and closed.

Citizen accepts service via email and mail:

Mailing Address: PO Box 55071 #92726 Boston, Massachusetts 02205-5071

We will be unable to process overly broad or vague requests. All requests must identify requested records with particularity, including the specific data categories requested and date limitations for the request, as well as include:

The name of the law enforcement agency and issuing agent, email address from a law-enforcement domain, and direct contact phone number.

The username of the account. If you are unable to locate a username, Citizen will make a reasonable attempt to locate the account with a phone number or email address.

We disclose user information solely in accordance with our terms of service and applicable law, including the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“ECPA”), 18 U.S.C. Sections 2701-2712. Under U.S. law:

A valid subpoena issued in connection with an official criminal investigation is required to compel the disclosure of basic subscriber records (defined in 18 U.S.C. Section 2703(c)(2)), which may include: username, email address(es), phone number(s), account creation date, and a recent login/logout IP address(es), if available.

A court order issued under 18 U.S.C. Section 2703(d) is required to compel the disclosure of certain records or other information pertaining to the account, not including contents of communications, which may include video and chat metadata and IP addresses associated with account activity, in addition to the basic subscriber records identified above.

A search warrant issued under the procedures described in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure or equivalent state warrant procedures upon a showing of probable cause is required to compel the disclosure of the stored contents of any account, which may include messages, photos, videos, chat messages, and location information.

We interpret the national security letter provision as applied to Citizen to require the production of only 2 categories of information: name and length of service.

International governmental and law enforcement agencies must use Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (“MLAT”) or letters rogatory processes to compel the disclosure of information. International law enforcement agencies may use this guide to help them understand how Citizen works, but the legal process and emergency disclosure provisions described in this guide apply only to U.S. agencies.

We will take steps to preserve account information in connection with official criminal investigations for 90 days pending our receipt of formal legal process in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 2703(f). We will extend the preservation for an additional 90 days upon receipt of a renewed request.

We will search for and disclose data that is specified with particularity in an appropriate form of legal process and which we are reasonably able to locate and retrieve. We do not retain data for law enforcement purposes unless we receive a valid preservation request before a user has deleted that content from our service.

The basic identity information entered by a user in creating an account is maintained as long as the user has not edited the data or removed the information from the account. Once the user makes a change, the previously existing information is overwritten. Upon receipt of a preservation request, however, Citizen can capture the user data available at that time, and future actions by the user will not affect the preserved data.

In responding to a matter involving imminent harm to a child or risk of death or serious physical injury to any person and requiring disclosure of information without delay in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Sections 2702(b)(8) and 2702(c)(4), a law enforcement official may submit a request to lawenforcement@citizen.com. Note: We will not review or respond to requests submitted by non-law enforcement officials. Users aware of an emergency situation should immediately and directly contact local law enforcement officials.

We report all apparent instances of child exploitation appearing on our site from anywhere in the world to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), including content drawn to our attention by government requests. NCMEC coordinates with the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children and law enforcement authorities from around the world. If a request relates to a child exploitation or safety matter, please specify those circumstances (and include relevant NCMEC report identifiers) in the request to ensure that we are able to address these matters expeditiously and effectively.

Citizen does not provide expert testimony support. In addition, Citizen records are self-authenticating pursuant to law and should not require the testimony of a records custodian. If a special form of certification is required, please attach it to your records request.

We may seek reimbursement for costs in responding to requests for information as provided by law. These fees apply on a per account basis. We may also charge additional fees for costs incurred in responding to unusual or burdensome requests.

We may waive these fees in matters investigating potential harm to children, Citizen, and our users, and emergency requests.

Citizen cannot provide legal advice to law enforcement officials. As such, should you seek further clarification about ECPA’s restrictions on providers like Citizen, we suggest you contact the Department of Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) at 202- 514-1026 and ask to speak to the Duty Attorney.

Law Enforcement Guide

Welcome to Citizen. Our goal is to help you stay safe by providing instant notifications, live broadcasts of reported crimes and incidents, and other value-added services to keep you informed. To that end, we constantly strive to provide users with tools that are aimed to enhance their safety and help them avoid unsafe situations. We do this by collecting content of real-time events from you, our users, individuals who may have relevant content, public sector and news outlet sources, and from content we otherwise have set up an infrastructure to collect. As a user of our App (as defined below), you are also helping us in our mission to make the world a safer place.

These Terms of Use, along with any other supplemental terms that are incorporated by reference or may be presented to you for your review and acceptance (collectively, the “Terms”), are between you and sp0n, Inc., the company that does business as Citizen and operates the Citizen mobile App and www.citizen.com, including its subsidiaries and affiliated entities under common ownership and control, (“sp0n” or “Citizen”). These Terms govern your access to and use of sp0n’s “Citizen” Service(s) as may be offered from time to time and as defined in the list below, and as further described in the Product Descriptions linked for each Product type listed below, including:

sp0n’s “Citizen” mobile application (“App”)

Citizen Premium (formerly known as Citizen Protect) features included therein (the “Premium”)

Citizen Protect Operating System Agency (“POS:A”)

Any videos, radio and audio transmissions, information, incident alerts, text, graphics, photos, or other materials or content uploaded, downloaded, or appearing on the Services (collectively referred to as “Content”). 

POS:A and Premium are individually referred to as a “Premium Service” and collectively referred to as the “Premium Services”.

Your access to and use of the Services and Content is conditioned on your acceptance of and compliance with these Terms. By accessing or using the Services, you agree to be bound by these Terms.

THESE TERMS REQUIRE THE USE OF ARBITRATION ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS TO RESOLVE DISPUTES, RATHER THAN JURY TRIALS OR CLASS ACTIONS, AND ALSO LIMIT THE REMEDIES AVAILABLE TO YOU IN THE EVENT OF A DISPUTE. PLEASE CAREFULLY REVIEW SECTION 14 (GOVERNING LAW AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION) BELOW FOR MORE INFORMATION.

PLEASE BE AWARE THAT SECTION 1(D) (SP0N COMMUNICATIONS) OF THE TERMS CONTAINS YOUR OPT-IN CONSENT TO RECEIVE COMMUNICATIONS FROM US, INCLUDING, AS APPLICABLE, VIA EMAIL, TEXT MESSAGE, CALLS, AND PUSH NOTIFICATIONS. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ANY OPTIONS YOU MAY HAVE TO OPT-OUT OF SUCH COMMUNICATIONS, PLEASE REFER TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY. FOR JURISDICTIONS WHERE EXPRESS CONSENT IS REQUIRED, YOU MUST OPT-IN TO RECEIVE COMMUNICATIONS FROM US. YOU MAY OPT-OUT OF RECEIVING THESE COMMUNICATIONS AT ANY TIME BY FOLLOWING THE UNSUBSCRIBE INSTRUCTIONS PROVIDED IN THE COMMUNICATION OR BY CONTACTING US DIRECTLY. YOU MAY ALSO CHANGE YOUR COMMUNICATION PREFERENCES BY CLICKING HERE. 

WHEN USING THE PREMIUM SERVICES, ALL CALLS, VIDEO CALLS, AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS WITH A CITIZEN AGENT MAY BE RECORDED AND MONITORED BY SP0N FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE, ARCHIVAL PURPOSES, AND TRAINING. YOU HEREBY CONSENT TO SUCH RECORDING AND MONITORING.

THESE TERMS WILL APPLY TO YOUR USE OF AND ACCESS TO THE SERVICES AND CONTENT. IF YOU SUBSCRIBE TO THE PREMIUM SERVICES FOR A DEFINED TERM (THE “INITIAL TERM”), THE TERMS AND YOUR SUBSCRIPTION WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY RENEWED FOR RENEWAL PERIODS OF THE SAME DURATION AS THE INITIAL TERM UNLESS YOU OPT OUT OF THE AUTO RENEWAL IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 7(B) (AUTOMATIC RENEWAL FOR PREMIUM SERVICES) BELOW. ANY RENEWAL TERMS SHALL BE BILLED AT SP0N’S THEN-CURRENT RATES.

Privacy at Citizen

Citizen’s mission is to make your world a safer place. The same principle applies to your data. Our service depends on you sharing your location with us. By entrusting us with this information, we will not share, sell or otherwise use your data other than in the service of our mission.

Protecting you means
protecting your data

Your location only for your safety

What we do share

For more information:

Protect your world.

Privacy at Citizen

Citizen’s mission is to make your world a safer place. The same principle applies to your data. Our service depends on you sharing your location with us. By entrusting us with this information, we will not share, sell or otherwise use your data other than in the service of our mission.

Protecting you means protecting your data

Your location only for your safety

What we do share

For more information:

Protect your world.

Protecting you means
protecting your data