Location tracking

The Superhero App tracks volunteers in near-real-time. Getting informed consent from them is very important. These are the guidelines we follow while asking for consent.

Prerequisites to track location even when the user is not using the app

1. An app that sends emergency or safety alerts as part of its core functionality and clearly communicates why access is needed to the user would have a strong case to request background location.

2. If geofencing is implemented, make sure that it is critical to the core functionality of the app, offers clear benefits to the user, and is done in a way that is obvious to them.

3. If your app needs to retain location access for a user-initiated ongoing task after the user navigates away from your app's user interface(UI), start a foreground service before your app goes into the background. You can do this in one of Android's lifecycle callbacks, such as onPause().

4. Do not initiate foreground services from the background. Instead, consider launching your app from a notification and then executing the location code when your app's UI becomes visible.

5. Make users aware that your app collects, uses, or shares sensitive data, and explain the rationale for this data usage.

6. For your app's data at rest, use Android's built-in credential encryption. For data in transit, you should use SSL for all data transmission regardless of sensitivity.

7. Files that contain sensitive data should be in your app-private directory within internal storage.

8. Always use secure network connections. Don't include sensitive data in logcat messages or your app's log files. Learn more about how to handle user data.

9. Do not access IMEI and device serial number, as these identifiers are persistent.

Our consent screen displays the following

1. To use this app, you need to enable location services at all times.

2. Background location access - The app will track and upload your location, even when you are not using the app.

3. How will the location information be used?

   1. It will be used to the track physical location of each volunteer.

   2. This information is used to choose the closest volunteer who can help.

   3. It will help to increase speed and efficiency of the volunteer network.