Safety Rules
You agree to these at sign-up, and they are part of the Terms. They are written for both people in an ask, because both are meeting a stranger.
The one rule behind all the others
Nothing in this app promises something it cannot do. If a control exists in the app, it works. If a safety capability does not exist yet, the app says so rather than showing a button. Read the rules below the same way: each one is either something you must do, or something the app actually does today.
1. Everyone is who they say
Both the person asking and the person helping verify their identity with a government photo ID and a live selfie before their first ask. The other person sees one word about you: verified. One ID, one account. Identity verification is not a criminal record check; we do not run those at this time, and we say so in the Terms.
2. Adults only
You must be 18 or older, on both sides. The date of birth on your ID is checked. If you think someone using the app is a minor, report it; it is treated as the most urgent kind of report.
3. Public places, always
Every ask starts at a meeting point chosen from an approved list for the zone: a station entrance, library steps, a park gate, the bench outside a pharmacy. Nobody types an address. Nobody's home is a meeting point. Stay in public view for the whole ask.
4. The four asks, and their limits
Wait with me: stand together outside until a delivery, a ride or a person arrives. Public place, stay together the whole time. Walk with me: meet, walk together, done at the entrance. Daylight hours and published meeting points only. This is the ask that carries the strictest requirements, because it is a personal-safety escort. Carry a box: one box, 10 kg at most, from the door to a lobby or common area. No entry past the lobby. No stairs into a private home. Translate: a short exchange at a shop or service counter. Retail and administrative only. No medical, legal or financial matters; Helpers are not professional interpreters. There is no "check my door", no driving, no cash, no errands inside a home. These were considered and refused.
5. Operating hours
Asks can be posted only during the hours shown in the app. Those are the hours a person on our team is on call, and the app refuses new asks outside them. A narrow promise we can keep beats a wide one we cannot.
6. Two words
When an ask is accepted, the app gives both people the same safety word. Ask the other person for it when you meet; if they do not know it, walk away and cancel. The Requester also receives a second, private word: a duress word, shown only to them. Typed into a check-in instead of the safety word, it shows the identical "checked in" screen to anyone watching, and opens a silent incident record on our side. Never say your duress word out loud and never show it to anyone.
7. Finding each other
You may add a profile photo and a short note on how to spot you. Both are optional and both are seen only by the other person in your ask. A photo is checked on our servers in Canada for a single human face before it is accepted; it is not compared with your ID and it does not make anyone "verified". The safety word, not the photo, is how you confirm you have met the right person. When you set off, tap On my way; when you arrive, tap I'm here. If you have arrived and fifteen minutes have passed since the accept without the other person arriving, you can report a no-show. That ends the ask and is recorded on their account. If you accept and then cannot come, cancel in the app so nobody is left waiting. A pattern of no-shows, or of no-show reports that turn out to be false, leads to review.
8. Check-ins
During an ask the app asks each person to check in at a set interval. The Requester checks in by typing their word. Every check-in is recorded on our servers with the server's time, not the phone's. Do them. A missed check-in is the signal the rest of the safety design is built around.
9. Stay in the app
Chat stays in the app until you meet, for both of you. Phone numbers, email addresses, links, social handles and "text me on WhatsApp" are blocked by a filter before they are delivered, and the attempt is recorded. The moment two people move off the platform, the check-ins, the words and the record stop protecting either of them. If someone pushes you to move off the app, that is your reason to cancel.
10. If something is wrong
Call 911 yourself. The app has a Safety button on every live screen that opens your dialer; it does not, and cannot, call for you. Emergency dispatch needs a street address, so tell them where you are. You can end an ask at any moment from the Safety sheet. You do not owe anyone an explanation. If you were made uncomfortable, threatened, or asked to break a rule, tell us. A credible safety report suspends the other account immediately while we review. We never tell the person you reported who reported them.
11. Trusted contact
You may name a trusted contact in your profile. Nothing is shared with them yet: the feature that would share with them, and their confirmation by text, both come first. When it launches it will be off by default, switched on by you per ask, and it will stop when the ask ends. The app says exactly this on the screen where you add them.
12. Location
While you browse, your approximate location places you in your zone and shows helpers as approximate dots. No one sees your position; the dots are placed inside a wide area and differently for every viewer. Precise location sharing during an ask is not yet part of the service; when it is, it will follow the same rule as the trusted contact: off by default, per ask, deleted after.
13. Respect
No harassment, no discrimination, no comments about someone's body, no dating, no follow-up contact the other person did not ask for. A Helper may decline any ask for any reason. A Requester may cancel any ask for any reason. Neither is penalised for choosing not to meet.
14. What we keep
Every ask, check-in, message, state change and incident is written to a record we keep for seven years. If a safety incident is opened, the accounts involved cannot be deleted until it is closed, so that a record cannot be destroyed by deleting the account attached to it. The Privacy Policy explains this in full.
15. Questions
Write to info@blacklayers.ca with "7-Minute Neighbor safety" in the subject line.
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